X201s is overheating! [ Edited ]

[Click-This]

I've noticed for the past month my X201s(5143-28U) has been rather hot. I've opened it up and looked inside, not much dust as far as I can see.

I ended up installing CoreTemp today to see my CPU is idling at 90-95C with Firefox!! What exactly can I do here?

Thanks.

EDIT: After closing Firefox, idle temps drop down to ~60C. Firefox was using 25% load, which had the CPU at ~92C.

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

download TPFancontrol and check the fan speed. Also, you may want to give the heatsink a new layer of thermal paste (obviously clean off the old one).

If you got warranty, then send it in and the warranty depot will do it for you.

[Serge_9972]

This often is caused by a dirty fan or dried / separated thermal paste between the heat sinks and the CPU / GPU.

Some reasons you may want to replace or clean your fan:

• Fan is very loud when the CPU load increases. Possible causes could be dried lubrication in the fan, worn bearings, or just a dust buildup.
• CPU is running very hot. Applications like tpfancontrol can tell you the temperature of the CPU and GPU temps above 80C under load are high, and above 90C suggest that the fan or heatsink could be clogged. Ambient temperature should be taken into consideration.
• PC will shut down during increased loads on the CPU or GPU. This happens when the CPU or GPU overheats - typically above 95C. Its a protective measure taken as to not fry your CPU.

For steps on how to clean your fan, visit: http://www5.nohold.net/Lenovo/Loginr.aspx?pid=3&login=1

[BigBossMan]

---

lead_org wrote:
download TPFancontrol and check the fan speed. Also, you may want to give the heatsink a new layer of thermal paste (obviously clean off the old one).

If you got warranty, then send it in and the warranty depot will do it for you.

---

Wow, I watch the training videos on the process. Does not look like there are any shortcuts, you have to take the system board out before you can even get to the spot where the heatsink and fan are. Lots and lots of screws and parts.

http://lenovoservicetraining.com/ion/X200/index.html

I guess my question is pretty simple. It there a limit to the degradation of the factory thermal compound. Assuming the unit has not been serviced at all, how short of a time could there be before complete failure of the thermal compound?

Say maybe no shorter than 8 years. What do you think?

Thank You

[Hiro Support Specialist]

Hey BigBossman,

The failure rate of thermal compound is tied to many variables to say with a fact on how long it will last. With that said most people say that if your the type that can or even want to you should change out your thermal compound every 3-5 years. Most paste starts to thin at 3+years and most people replace a computer long before any thermal compound dry's completely.  The best rule of thumb is that if it's not broken don't fix it.

Best Regards,

Hiro

[BigBossMan]

---

Hiro wrote:

Hey BigBossman,

The failure rate of thermal compound is tied to many variables to say with a fact on how long it will last. With that said most people say that if your the type that can or even want to you should change out your thermal compound every 3-5 years. Most paste starts to thin at 3+years and most people replace a computer long before any thermal compound dry's completely.  The best rule of thumb is that if it's not broken don't fix it.

Best Regards,

Hiro

---

Hiro,

I think that I understand now. The thermal compound actually disintegrates from the location where it was originally applied. I thought that the actually properties alone of the thermal compound changed over time leading to failure. I have put a lot of time and money into my laptop, five years seems a quick to part with the laptop. The machine is stable under heavy load, but I have to control the fan speed manually during those stressful periods.

Without taking the computer apart, is there someway that I can measure the effectiveness of the thermal solution to see how far off it is from the original specifications?

Thank You

[Hiro Support Specialist]

Hey BigBossMan,

If only we could! I would love to find out if anyone has a way to check thermal compound without having to open up the computer and take it apart. Yet sadly I have not heard of anyone coming up with a way to do this. What I can suggest is that you get a CPU temp monitoring tool like Speedfan or such (which I think you use a version of) and watch your CPU temps. If they increase forcing you to increase fan speeds over a period of time I would recommend changing your thermal compound.

Best Regards,

Hiro

[BigBossMan]

All,

I have good news and bad news. Since I really did not feel like sending my laptop in for warranty service, I decided to check and replace the thermal compound myself. I did this because I use my laptop all the time.

Good News: (FYI: You will probably void your warranty if you do it yourself)

Following the videos available at the site below was awsome, I was able to take apart my laptop swap the thermal compound and put the laptop back together again pretty easily given about 3 hours and a lot of patience. I used Artic Silver 5 as a replacement for the factory cooling compound. Some of the factory compound was still on the processor, so it was not completely gone. A lot of the factory compound was in the various pits around the top of the processor.

http://lenovoservicetraining.com/ion/X200/index.html

My Quick Review Of Hardware: (Note: I did not take apart the LCD panel as it was not neccessary)

The Thinkpad x201 is pretty well designed inside. Most of the screws are the same size for each group of screws, which makes it easier to keep track of when it comes time to put things back to gather again. If you take pictures say with your smart phone at various stages you can review them when you need to put the laptop back together again. The system board is protected quite a bit from all kinds of problems as far as I can tell. To an extent the processor is also protected around the surface where the themal paste goes.

Trainging Video Differencies Between the x200 and x201:

It looks like the x200 did not have stereo speakers in the training video. My x201 does have stereo speakers, so the instructions where a little off when the speakers are concerned. In addition, the x201 had at least one more screw, which has a fat head holding the system board in place where the expresscard slot was.

Now The Bad News: (Intel Anti Theft LoJack Hell)

I would suggest that if you use LoJack and Intel Anti Theft Protection, you may want to disable all of the that stuff temporarly before you servicing your laptop. My laptop was setup to phone home to LoJack on a regular basis, which it cannot do until the operatiing system is running. I suspect that when I disconnected the BIOS battery that automatically put my computer into theft mode or misplacement mode. Basically, the Intel Anti Theft Protection assumes that I am trying to exploit the system security timer to use the computer. It is Saturday, and I am locked out of my laptop until at least Monday, when LoJack's hotline is opens for business. I do not know my recovery password, and I cannot get a hold of LoJack support until Monday.

Current Status:

The system seems stable, but I am locked out due to Intel Anti Theft Protection & LoJack. Once I unlock my computer, I will report back with some thermal sensor data.

[Thumper88]

I've replaced the thermal paste on my T400 a couple times already--runs like new every time I do it though.

[BigBossMan]

---

BigBossMan wrote:

All,

I have good news and bad news. Since I really did not feel like sending my laptop in for warranty service, I decided to check and replace the thermal compound myself. I did this because I use my laptop all the time.

Good News: (FYI: You will probably void your warranty if you do it yourself)

Following the videos available at the site below was awsome, I was able to take apart my laptop swap the thermal compound and put the laptop back together again pretty easily given about 3 hours and a lot of patience. I used Artic Silver 5 as a replacement for the factory cooling compound. Some of the factory compound was still on the processor, so it was not completely gone. A lot of the factory compound was in the various pits around the top of the processor.

http://lenovoservicetraining.com/ion/X200/index.html

My Quick Review Of Hardware: (Note: I did not take apart the LCD panel as it was not neccessary)

The Thinkpad x201 is pretty well designed inside. Most of the screws are the same size for each group of screws, which makes it easier to keep track of when it comes time to put things back to gather again. If you take pictures say with your smart phone at various stages you can review them when you need to put the laptop back together again. The system board is protected quite a bit from all kinds of problems as far as I can tell. To an extent the processor is also protected around the surface where the themal paste goes.

Trainging Video Differencies Between the x200 and x201:

It looks like the x200 did not have stereo speakers in the training video. My x201 does have stereo speakers, so the instructions where a little off when the speakers are concerned. In addition, the x201 had at least one more screw, which has a fat head holding the system board in place where the expresscard slot was.

Now The Bad News: (Intel Anti Theft LoJack Hell)

I would suggest that if you use LoJack and Intel Anti Theft Protection, you may want to disable all of the that stuff temporarly before you servicing your laptop. My laptop was setup to phone home to LoJack on a regular basis, which it cannot do until the operatiing system is running. I suspect that when I disconnected the BIOS battery that automatically put my computer into theft mode or misplacement mode. Basically, the Intel Anti Theft Protection assumes that I am trying to exploit the system security timer to use the computer. It is Saturday, and I am locked out of my laptop until at least Monday, when LoJack's hotline is opens for business. I do not know my recovery password, and I cannot get a hold of LoJack support until Monday.

Current Status:

The system seems stable, but I am locked out due to Intel Anti Theft Protection & LoJack. Once I unlock my computer, I will report back with some thermal sensor data.

---

I called the Australia lojack support phone number via Skype, and I have access to my laptop again. No problems so far. Although it is Sunday where I am at, it is Monday in Australia.