Thinkpad T500 overheating?

[Spacey]

Hi there,

First time poster here so please excuse me should I have done something wrong.

I have a Lenovo Thinkpad T500 with the Intel T9600 and AMD HD 3650. However I'm afraid it might be overheating. Without doing anything, anything at all CPU temps are around 60 degrees Celcius and the GPU temps are almost at 70. I started a GPU stresstest and had to abort it about 1/3rd in because I was afraid the high temperature (almost at 100 degrees) could cause serious damage.

Are these temperatures indeed too high or am I just worrying to much?

And if things are wrong, is this a warranty issue?

Thanks in advance.

[TuuS]

If your unit is under warranty, send it in asap. You need this fixed. 

If it's not in warranty, then I'd remove your heatsink and clean and replace the thermal paste using Artic Silver #5 (not too much though). Then install TPfancontrol (tpfancontrol.com) and confirm your fan is functioning properly.

ps. This will probably be moved to the T500 section soon.

[orion9727]

thats a hot and heavy gpu plus a 35 watt cpu it gonna run hot.

dont stress that.

very bad.

also dont use artic silver thats a big no no.

people should think before they give advise.

artic silver is for big desktop cpu.

use that on a tiny mobile cpu and u get it all over the transistors and i promise you most will.

it will short out the cpu and gpu and probley the mobo too.

alot of people think they can do what works in a desktop or that laptop makers did it wrong.

do you really think laptop makers want to spend huge money on labour pulling apart laptops because it needs some paste.

i dont think so.

commen sence here people.

laptops are small they are going to run hot.

want to cool it down just make sure it can breath and mayby undervolt it.

take apart a laptop that been running hot and it never seat the way it did before.

again laptops are not desktops.

desktops cpu are big.

have no transiststors on top unless they amd and are easy to work on.

have huge heat sink.

use artic silver on a mobile device and your asking for trouble.

thermal paste dont dry out.

thats a misconcepton.

people dont grasp how it works.

it to fill tiny micro holes.

it not to coat the cpu because then it becomes thermal resistance.

nothing is going to be better then metal on metal contract.

not even pure diamound.

so most people use more then a pin drop and thats bad thinking the paste dose something majic.

it to fill a void from when the heatsink was machine.

more people ruin laptops messing around then they fixing them.

the best way to cool a laptop is to let it breath and limit it tdp with a power scheme and proper settings.

it going to run hot if it a high watt gpu.

that a 30 watt gpu it gonna make alot of heat.

again use commen sence here.

no snake oil is gonna change 75 watts in a small space.

thats alot of heat so just tune it down.

i am 100% certin most people dont know how to remount a laptop cpu/gpu heat sink the proper way.

they will use the wrong paste plus use to much of it and may break a screw,short the cpu or something out and forget how it went back together or miss 1 screw and break something.

fixing latops is nothing like building a home pc.

most people dont know how to post a desktop then wanna take apart a laptop.

your going to be real sorry when something gose wrong.

i want this to be real clear here so it sinks in well and you dont end up with a 1000 dollers of worthless junk.

most pc repair shops wont touch a laptop because there very expensive and it not worth it.

there a reason why they tell you send it back to who made it.

you need special tools and knollage to work on laptops plus a proper table and mat.

you also need a very good light with a large glass in it so you can see what your doing.

most people dont have these and they can short out the mobo.

you also need access to  laptop makers training training site.

they never post that link.

ever!

the link you get wont be the same as what a repair center has.

again this post is made to save people from turning something that is working into something that is not working and i can promise you that no laptop maker will warrenty  anyone who took it apart for show and tell.

the reason they say this is because they dont want to fix a laptop that wont go back together right and give there repair center a bad name.

most of the screws are locktight and when you remove them they will fall out over time.

very commen and very commen they strip out.

last note: laptop repair is a learning curve.

that means you learn as you do and that means you will learn from your mistakes.

even pros learn this way.

do you really want to learn on a your 1000 doller laptop what you did wrong and why so it wont happen next time.

at the expensive of YOUR LAPTOP.

if you still want to do this then buy a junk one and do 10 teardowns.

i promise you really get my grift then.

again this post is to save you from a big why did i do that sorta feeling.

[andyP Retired SuperMod]

@ orion9727,

imho some of your advice could be worthy of knowledgeable, some of it worthy of further discussion and some of it as incorrect or unqualified especially in respect to peoples' abilities. 

The unfortunate fact that your post is written as a semi understandable disjointed diatribe of a rant makes it difficult to discern between the different categories and therefore it offers the OP very little as they have possibly no knowledge of what you are referring to, it also makes it difficult to offer contrary arguments or discussion points on the subject. There's no doubt in my mind that your intentions are of the best kind, but you make yourself very difficult to understand.

Replacing a fan or cleaning and renewing the thermal grease on an T500 is not a difficult undertaking for most people with average intelligence and motoric abilities, it's for someone confronted with the situation to decide for themselves if they feel adequate and up to the job. If they are unsure they will obviously seek further advice in these boards and probably elsewhere. There is no need to slam them down before the issue has been properly discussed.

---

orion9727 wrote:

you also need access to  laptop makers training training site.

they never post that link.

ever!

the link you get wont be the same as what a repair center has.

---

This is one point where I will say you are mistaken. The Lenovo Warranty Service And Support Training Site is open to all comers, the link to his has been posted in the boards on numerous occasions and can also be found in the forum's FAQs. This site is the site, in conjunction with the Hardware Maintenance Manuals, that Lenovo insists all servicers are aware of and their training is based on.

edit; found a typo

[TuuS]

You're wrong about Artic Silver #5, even Lenovo recommends it and although I haven't run any conclusive tests, it looks to be what they used in manufacturing.

Thermal paste does dry out, I could show you some that crumbles into power after a few years of heavy use. Ideally, if a heatsink is firmly seated on the cpu and gpu, you may never have to worry about it, but in reality, the heatsink never remains static. Laptops are moved a lot and the flexing causes the heatsink to move on the chip, and dried out paste can fail to do it's job.

There is also no risk of shorting out your computer if you properly apply the paste. You want only a small bit, about the size of a grain of rice that is spread across the surface of the chip. 

Lastly, I've seen in before and after testing that a cpu/gpu will often run several degrees cooler after applying Artic Silver. That is all the proof I need.

[Engineer10388]

I would tackle the overheating by doing the easy, obvious things first...

1.  Open Task Manager, click on the Performance tab, and see what the CPU is doing.   Without any applications running it should be at just a few percent.  Of course an automatic background process like on-line backup or defrag can shoot it up for a bit but it sounds like you have a chronic overheating issue.  If the CPU is not at high utilization the problem is most likely related to air cooling or a heat sink issue.

FYI, I used to have a Dell XPS-1530 with Vista Ultimate and with no apps running the CPU would often be at 50% or more, eventually pegging the needle at 100% and locking up.  It was basically a high tech hotplate and would blister your leg in a heartbeat.  Disabling Indexing and unnecessary Vista bloat did not noticeably help.  By clicking the Task Manager's "Processes" tab, then "Show all processes" (or some such) button I found it was one of several "Networking" services.  Ending the process from within Task Manager got things back to normal and the laptop worked just fine without it, so I routinely ended that process as soon as I booted up the laptop.  End of overheating.

2.  As advised, clean dust out of the air passages and off the heat sink.   Then verify the fan is working properly.  If overheating persists...

3.  Clean off the old heat sink paste and carefully apply whatever Lenovo recommends.   If the laptop has been seriously hot on frequent occasions it could have negatively impacted components.

4.  Invest in a quality laptop cooler (they are typically USB powered), especially if you run the laptop primarily on AC power.  That can make a huge difference in how hot your laptop runs.  Of course it will reduce the endurance on battery.

Good luck!

[erik SuperMod]

---

TuuS wrote:

You're wrong about Artic Silver #5, even Lenovo recommends it and although I haven't run any conclusive tests, it looks to be what they used in manufacturing.

---

just for the record, the thermal compound used by lenovo in manufacturing is made by shin-etsu.   most OEMs use their compound both in manufacturing and as replacement compounds given to servicers.

[ColonelONeill]

I used MX-3 in my T400; I couldn't source AS5 and didn't feel like risking it.

You should really check to see if your fan is clogged. That's generally the first thing to check.

[sixrivers]

My overheating problems with my T500 were so bad, that the computer became almost unusable - shutting down under very minor processor loads.  I sucked it up and took it to a local repair shop.  There were two problems that they fixed:

1)  The original thermal paste had turned to a dry hard cake.  They cleaned the surfaces and added new thermal paste.

2)  The cooling fan was showing signs of problems.  As the cost would have been high to replace the assembly, he took it apart and lubricated the fan bearings.

Almost 5 months later, the laptop has no problems with overheating. Cost: about $100.   But broken USB ports due to poor material in construction...don't get me started on that.  The quality of the T60 I had prompted me to buy a T500.  My experience with this T500 and my wifes T400 will have me looking to purchase a different  brand next time.  Ashame.

[PeterTWJ]

Hi Spacey

From what I know, different grades of thermal could vary temperature results (Idling at ~5C, if under stress, the variation would be higher)

For my W520:
With proper thermal greasing (+ TPFanControl - Fan 64)
Idling CPU and GPU temperature: 28C / 30C

Max CPU and GPU temperature: 84C / 86C

Without proper thermal greasing (+ TPFanControl - Fan 64)

Idling CPU and GPU temperature: 40+C / 50+C 
Max CPU and GPU temperature: Either Power Off or Software Crashes

Up till now, the commonly high end enthusiast are still using metal-based thermal compound, carbon / diamond-based compound could even produce better results, but it's rare. Shin-Etsu is considered one of the top in this benchmark list.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=150&Itemid=62&limit=1&limitsta...

Hopefully, 2012 would be a better year for all of you! 

Peter
ThinkPad: W520 (4284-A99)

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