T61p CPU at 170-190F, while mostly idle

[David A. Desrosiers-2]

I think I have an overheating laptop problem.

I have to constantly keep the fan at "full-speed", because if I don't,
I'll melt the pattern of the bottom of my T61p into the top of my thighs
when I use it.

Right now, the CPU is at "Automatic" scaling, 800Mhz, and the CPU is at
154F. It was at 178F with the fan set to "Auto" a few minutes ago, but I
had to turn the speed up so it would cool down even more.

I've unloaded every module I can think of except those required for wifi
(ath_pci), sound (snd_hda_intel and friends), and the block encryption
of my drive (dm_crypt, aes_x86_64 and friends) and a few others.

What else can I do to keep the CPU temperature down to a tolerable
level? The load on the machine is currently:

top - 12:56:07 up 1 day,  1:41,  6 users,  load average: 0.25, 0.84, 1.10
Tasks: 162 total,   1 running, 161 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s): 16.5%us,  1.3%sy,  0.1%ni, 81.4%id,  0.1%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.5%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   3985496k total,  2984960k used,  1000536k free,      396k buffers
Swap:  5119992k total,       16k used,  5119976k free,  1823628k cached

I'm lost as to why this runs so darn hot *ALL* the time.

I hate having the fan on full-speed, because it is SOOOOO loud, and
causes me to grit my teeth as I work because of the noise.

Thanks.





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[Michael Karcher-2]

Am Freitag, den 20.06.2008, 12:59 -0400 schrieb David A. Desrosiers:
> What else can I do to keep the CPU temperature down to a tolerable
> level? The load on the machine is currently:
>
> top - 12:56:07 up 1 day,  1:41,  6 users,  load average: 0.25, 0.84, 1.10
> Tasks: 162 total,   1 running, 161 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
> Cpu(s): 16.5%us,  1.3%sy,  0.1%ni, 81.4%id,  0.1%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.5%si,  0 .0%st
> Mem:   3985496k total,  2984960k used,  1000536k free,      396k buffers
> Swap:  5119992k total,       16k used,  5119976k free,  1823628k cached

Having 16.5% user is quite much for an unloaded computer, but it might
be related to starting top or something like that. But you will get much
more powerful and insightful numbers using powertop, including a C-state
overview.

> I hate having the fan on full-speed, because it is SOOOOO loud, and
> causes me to grit my teeth as I work because of the noise.

There were a couple of reports of dusted fans in T61 laptop on this
list. Maybe you could check the air path in your laptop and clean it?

Regards,
  Michael Karcher

[David Bremner-4]

Did you try running powertop? That is usuall the place to start
with these mysteries.

d


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[Daniel Pittman]

"David A. Desrosiers" <desrod@...> writes:

> I think I have an overheating laptop problem.

I think you do, yes.

> I have to constantly keep the fan at "full-speed", because if I don't,
> I'll melt the pattern of the bottom of my T61p into the top of my
> thighs when I use it.
>
> Right now, the CPU is at "Automatic" scaling, 800Mhz, and the CPU is
> at 154F.

Something is seriously wrong three: that is 85°C, while my equivalent
idle laptop is running at 44°C, about half the temperature.

[...]

> I've unloaded every module I can think of except those required for
> wifi (ath_pci), sound (snd_hda_intel and friends), and the block
> encryption of my drive (dm_crypt, aes_x86_64 and friends) and a few
> others.

I use dm_crypt encryption, same hardware, and did absolutely *zero* to
change the way that temperature is managed, so...

[...]

> I'm lost as to why this runs so darn hot *ALL* the time.

 ...I think you have a serious firmware or hardware problem.  Try
upgrading to the latest BIOS and, if that doesn't immediately fix this,
call IBM ^W Lenovo and ask them for support.

Regards,
        Daniel

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[Jose Celestino]

Words by Daniel Pittman [Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 12:24:16AM +1000]:

> "David A. Desrosiers" <desrod@...> writes:
>
> > I think I have an overheating laptop problem.
>
> I think you do, yes.
>
> > I have to constantly keep the fan at "full-speed", because if I don't,
> > I'll melt the pattern of the bottom of my T61p into the top of my
> > thighs when I use it.
> >
> > Right now, the CPU is at "Automatic" scaling, 800Mhz, and the CPU is
> > at 154F.
>
> Something is seriously wrong three: that is 85°C, while my equivalent
> idle laptop is running at 44°C, about half the temperature.
>

Yeah. Same here.

44°C with a lot of gnome-terminals, deluge, pidgin and firefox with a
little over 20 tabs open. Load is 0.20 and both cores are at 800Mhz.
Model is 6458-5KG. Even when firefox starts choking on flash sites, or
when recoding mp3 or video, and the load and temperature really start to
go up I never go close to 85°C, it hardly passes 70°C.

You must have some hardware/firmware problem. Try the latest upgrades
and if it doesn't fix anything contact support.

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Jose Celestino | http://japc.uncovering.org/files/japc-pgpkey.asc
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