[ltp] Thinkpad T61 overheating issues

[Derek Dolney]

On Mon, 2009-08-31 at 11:02 -0400, anonymous sheep wrote:
> Hi.  Going straight into the problem, I've had heating issues when
> using linux distros.  I've switched back to windows for now but I
> still want to go back to linux when I have a solution to the problem.
> The laptop would overheat on the following distros: ubuntu 9.04,
> opensuse 11, and fedora 11.  I suspect other distros like debian and
> puppylinux have the same problem from google searches.  I have more
> insight with ubuntu 9.04 since I attempted to troubleshoot. The main
> problem is high cpu usage on idle, around 15-20%, and 40-50% usage on
> normal use (from firefox and openoffice).  Just scrolling with the
> wheel button causes a cpu spike.  Leaving the computer at idle,
> average temperatures is around 70 C.  At first I thought it was the
> video driver since I had similar issues with windows xp.  Temperatures
> remained the same after grabbing the latest nvidia video driver.  I
> had set cpu frequency scaling in gnome to ondemand without any
> results.  When tweaking the acpi thinkpad fan control to disabled, the
> higher rpms brought the cpu's idle temperature down to 60 C.  However
> I couldn't keep the settings on disabled with every restart.  Plus,
> keeping the fan running at a high rate is unsettling.  Note: I don't
> have overheating problems on windows 7 or xp.  This leads me to
> conclude it isn't a clogged heatsink issue.  I've given up on ubuntu.
> Right now I just want to find a distro that won't fry my cpu.  Anyone
> using a thinkpad T61 nvidia NVS 140M with suggestions?

I have a T61 running Gentoo, and my cpu at idle is under 40 C. From time
to time, I will "rebuild world", which means continuous compiling for 12
hours or more. I think I overheated once in almost 2 years, but my fan
outlet was blocked.

I am using the ondemand governor, which scales the cpu freq to 800 MHz
(from 2.2 GHz) when it is idle.

I do not have nvidia. I have the integrated Intel graphics.

It sounds like perhaps your cpu has separated from the heatsink. Has the
laptop ever been dropped? You might open it up and put new thermal
compound on the cpu/heatsink. I think 70 C at idle suggests something is
definitely wrong. What is the cpu idle temp in Windows?