[ltp] Thinkpad T61 overheating issues

[John Jason Jordan]

On Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:02:46 -0400
anonymous sheep <anonymous.sheep@gmail.com> dijo:

> 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 cannot offer any solutions, but I can tell you that I have a T61 with
nVidia Quadro 140M running Ubuntu 9.04 and I have no heat isssues. My
CPU runs 45-50C all the time. We recently had a heat wave with outdoor
temperatures hitting 40C almost every day for a week, yet the T61 never
overheated in spite of being left running 24/7.

I have done nothing with respect to power management. All settings are
as they were when I first installed Ubuntu. I do have problems with
restoring from suspend, and Ubuntu does not shut down completely
either, but never a problem with heat or anything else.