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Thoughts on how to fix an insanely hot laptop (75C idle, 100+C load)


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As the title suggests my laptop gets absurdly hot.

I have a Fujitsu T901 (see sig), and have disassembled and cleaned it out with some canned air (but this did nothing, it was clean)

I have CoreTemp sitting in my notification tray to monitor these insane temperatures. I'm on a fresh install too.

My computer idles in the mid-70 range (77/78). When it is at load (music conversion [using all threads at 100%], gaming, or p95) it stays in the high 90 range. 98-103 C

No shutdown from high temps (somehow).

I deem 60s and below cold.

My fan does not (barely) ramps up, and I have not found a single application that can control this, there is just no fans detected on my system. I do get an error on boot if there is no fan plugged in though. Even having the fan ramp up would help a ton.

I found this:

TheRandomLab: Laptop cooling mod

I was thinking about doing this, thoughts? Or suggestions on other things to do that would help?

(if you look on eBay for a Fujitsu T5010 heatsink, mine is similar but the pipe length going to the CPU is longer, and the fins are smaller)

I used to put a box fan pointed upward on high, remove the panels, and that kept me at the high-50 to mid-60 range at load. Of course, bringing a box fan with me is silly.

I do have a 2nd heatsink from a T901 without the dedicated graphics, I could almost stack them, but I don't know how much that would help. I can cut the fins on the 2nd one and put it where the spacer goes (between the fan and the heatsink) and solder it to the current heatsink maybe, thoughts?

I'll also note my CPU does not turbo at all, even though SpeedStep is enabled in BIOS. ThrottleStop does nothing. I would guess this may be due to the high temps and the CPU trying to stay cool. I would love to put a quad-core in here (2760QM or 2920XM [anyone have one lying around they don't mind 'losing']) but I figure the heat issue should be resolved first.

I'm pretty much just scraping for ideas here in a very unorganized manner.

Thanks,

atn

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Did you already apply fresh thermal paste on the CPU and GPU? If yes, make sure the contact between die and heatsink is good, i.e. there's enough pressure being applied from the heatsink to the die. If not, a little modification might help to improve the temps significantly.

In case this doesn't help I'd say your heatsink might be damaged. You say you have a spare one, so you could to use it instead of the current one.

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I have used fresh thermal paste (Arctic Silver) and even tried using a shim, temps dropped a little (to what they are now). The spare heatsink is from a different configuration (without dGPU, mine has the dGPU) so I cannot put it in this laptop.

It is not just my laptop either, this is my 2nd T901 (sent first one in due to same issue), a few of my friends also have the T901 (with or without dGPU) and it also has high heat issue.

Thus something new has to be done to cool this lappy.

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If you're sure that the heatpipes are ok, then I'd recommend a mod to increase the pressure on the die, e.g. by grinding down the retention "posts" for the screws of the backplate.

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How much.... hard to say, depends on the current situation. On the GPU in my M15x it made more than 10°C difference. I only grinded it down a couple of milimeters, see the M15x 6970m thread for some pics.

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Oh wow, that is quite a huge difference, I'll give it a whirl.

Here is a picture of the bottom of my laptop, I plan to cut a hole for the fan intake. That should help dramatically (hopefully). I'll take a picture of it's innards and upload it when I get home.

post-6146-1449499506849_thumb.png

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NoteBookCheck tested a Fujitsu T901 and they found some throttling problems when fully loaded.

Review Fujitsu Lifebook T901 Convertible/Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

However, as soon as processing with multiple cores comes into play, the Fujitsu Lifebook T901 falls behind. In Cinebench R11 (multi-core 64 bit) and Cinebench R11 (64 bit), the notebook lies far behind other laptops with the Intel's Core i7 2620M processor. In our tests the CPU clock frequency ranged from 3.2 GHz to throttling with a frequency of 2.2 GHz, which explains the poor multi-core benchmark results.
angerthosenear: When it is at load (music conversion [using all threads at 100%], gaming, or p95) it stays in the high 90 range. 98-103 C

No shutdown from high temps (somehow).

The maximum safe operating temperature for a Core i7-2620M is 100C according to Intel. Intel typically sets the shut down temperature to 25C beyond the thermal throttling temperature. Your CPU is running hot but there is no need for it to shut down at 100C. It should throttle and slow down at this temperature which is usually enough to prevent it from reaching the thermal shut down temperature. Software should not be showing you any core temperatures beyond 100C. Intel's 2nd Generation mobile Core i sensors stop increasing when the CPU reaches the thermal throttling temperature at 100C.

Can you post a screen shot of how you have ThrottleStop setup? Post a picture of ThrottleStop while you are in the middle of a simple benchmark like a single thread of the TS Bench. This will show if Turbo Boost is working correctly. It is normal for Turbo Boost to get disabled if the CPU starts running too hot but it is also possible that Fujitsu permanently disabled Turbo Boost because the cooling solution they are using is inadequate.

If the Fujitsu chassis is struggling to cool a Dual Core then forget about ever installing a Quad core. Some manufacturers design their laptops to use a very slow CPU fan speed to reduce noise. The result is sky high temperatures and you may not be able to run your CPU at its rated speed. Deceptive marketing but there is not much you can do other than thoroughly test whatever you buy and send it back immediately if it can not live up to its specs.

You can also try running RealTemp. Look in the Thermal Status area. If it says OK then that means your CPU has not reached the thermal throttling temperature since you turned it on. If it says LOG, that means it throttled at least once and this was logged within the CPU. If RealTemp says HOT, that means thermal throttling is in progress. Intel thermal throttling works very quickly so you usually need some major problems before you see HOT.

RealTemp T|I Edition

Downloads

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I have cut a hole in the panel and replaced with a steel mesh where the fan intake should have been.

I also shaved some off the supports of the heatsink (they are on the heatsink itself so this made it easy).

Pics:

post-6146-14494995069935_thumb.jpg

As for ThrottleStop, It did turbo to 3.2GHz (dual-core max throttle correct?) (I did see a spike to 3.3 though). I did notice is throttling every so often due to heat. Also, my fan did whirl to life and actually move air due to the new intake.

The low temp you see is due to my computer being on for ~5 minutes. It is sitting idle at around 65.

Mid test-ish:

post-6146-14494995070101_thumb.jpg

After test:

post-6146-14494995070333_thumb.jpg

Thanks your your help so far svl7 and unclewebb,

atn

post-6146-14494995069166_thumb.jpg

post-6146-14494995069386_thumb.jpg

post-6146-14494995069614_thumb.jpg

post-6146-14494995069773_thumb.jpg

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Oh wow there is a HUGE gap between your fan and the radiator. Hardly any of the air from the fan is even going through the radiator. Wrap some aluminum foil or tape or something else around the end of the fan and radiator to make sure that all air from the fan flows through the radiator.

Your die contact looks fine. If it was a problem you would have good idle temps but poor load temps. Since your idle temps are also poor it means that heat is getting from the CPU to the heatsink, but it can't leave the heatsink due to lack of air flow.

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The LOG word in the RealTemp - Thermal Status area confirms that your CPU is reaching the maximum safe operating temperature and is thermal throttling (slowing down) to protect itself from damage. Intel designs this safety feature into all of their CPUs. There is not any software available that I know of that can disable this protection and that's a good thing.

Turbo Boost is definitely working correctly. When 1 core is active, the maximum turbo multiplier is 34 and when 2 cores are active the maximum turbo multiplier is 32. In your Mid-Test screen shot, that is exactly what you are getting. You will never see the full 34 multiplier in ThrottleStop because there are always hundreds of Windows background threads running that randomly wake up both cores which reduces the multiplier.

The ThrottleStop TS Bench is not as demanding as running Prime95. I am sure that your CPU would be doing a lot more throttling when running Prime95 so you would be seeing a lot less than the 32 multiplier. That's normal. It's protecting your CPU from going KA-BOOM!!!

I agree with Khenglish. Building some sort of shroud between your fan and the heatsink fins should help get more heat out of your laptop case and away from the CPU. I have also seen some users attach little RAM heatsinks to the CPU heatsink to try and improve the cooling if you have space for this.

If you have installed the heatsink correctly then it is looking like this laptop heatsink is inadequate. It might be good enough for many applications but when fully loaded and both cores are pushed hard, it can not keep your CPU from thermal throttling. Fujitsu is not the only manufacturer that uses thermal throttling to control temperatures at the expense of performance. Most casual users have no idea that they are not getting the performance that they paid for so manufacturers have been able to get away with this again and again.

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Oh wow there is a HUGE gap between your fan and the radiator. Hardly any of the air from the fan is even going through the radiator. Wrap some aluminum foil or tape or something else around the end of the fan and radiator to make sure that all air from the fan flows through the radiator.

Your die contact looks fine. If it was a problem you would have good idle temps but poor load temps. Since your idle temps are also poor it means that heat is getting from the CPU to the heatsink, but it can't leave the heatsink due to lack of air flow.

Yup that is a massive gap, how could they miss that during the design?! Like @Khenglish said, mask it with some tape and you will see instant results.

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To all commenting on the gap:

No, no, no. There is a spacer on the bottom cover that fills the gap, you can remove it to blow dirt through the heatsink. It is that little rectangle I labeled in the annotated picture of the bottom of my laptop.

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To all commenting on the gap:

No, no, no. There is a spacer on the bottom cover that fills the gap, you can remove it to blow dirt through the heatsink. It is that little rectangle I labeled in the annotated picture of the bottom of my laptop.

That spacer needs to completely block all air flow around the ran and radiator. Top, bottom, and both sides. I do not see how a solid piece of plastic can do that. You should wrap aluminum foil or tape around the entire radiator and the end of the fan to ensure that 100% of the fan's air flows through the radiator.

I guarantee you that if you do this properly that you will have a dramatic temperature reduction.

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Something I did for my Gz7-2100 I took some thermal appoxie and some small vram heat sinks to the cpu plate and heat pipes. It lowered temps by about 2 C I know its not that much for you but every little helps.I did not modify my case but I would think with the modified case and more air flow would mean probably lower temps

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Something I did for my Gz7-2100 I took some thermal appoxie and some small vram heat sinks to the cpu plate and heat pipes. It lowered temps by about 2 C I know its not that much for you but every little helps.I did not modify my case but I would think with the modified case and more air flow would mean probably lower temps

Sadly I do not have room to do that, best I can do is put another copper heatpipe on top of my current one, that will be a fun weekend project... I would solder it though. Can this be done the same way like copper pipes in home plumbing? Use a propane or MAPP gas torch, heat the pipe, put solder on the joint, remove heat?

Hmm... Maybe if I got a heatsink from another laptop and just put it on the current mount, I can desolder the puny one that is on here now and put on a much larger one. Thoughts?

@Khenglish I will give it a whirl and report back. Maybe if I find a suitable heatsink I wont need any form of spacer, that would be superb. (I might even be able to suitably support a quad-core!)

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Sadly I do not have room to do that, best I can do is put another copper heatpipe on top of my current one, that will be a fun weekend project... I would solder it though. Can this be done the same way like copper pipes in home plumbing? Use a propane or MAPP gas torch, heat the pipe, put solder on the joint, remove heat?

Hmm... Maybe if I got a heatsink from another laptop and just put it on the current mount, I can desolder the puny one that is on here now and put on a much larger one. Thoughts?

@Khenglish I will give it a whirl and report back. Maybe if I find a suitable heatsink I wont need any form of spacer, that would be superb. (I might even be able to suitably support a quad-core!)

It looks like you have an 8mm heatpipe from the CPU, which will only start to get bogged down with an overclocked quad. If you really wanted to add more though, heat pipes will expand and rupture not very far over solder's melting point, which should be 183C assuming they used 63/37 solder. I added a heatpipe once and used a toaster oven to melt the solder, then I applied solder paste and the heatpipe and retoasted it. The heatpipe addition did very little so now I'm going to 1 up the mod by adding an extra radiator :) Keep in mind that I'm trying to get rid of 80W+ of heat while you only need to get rid of 35W, so your heatsink doesn't need to be as ridiculous. I added a heatpipe when I had 2 6mm's and over double your power draw and got nothing, so you will most certainly get nothing if you try the same.

After filling in gaps I would say your next weak link is the radiator, but radiators are a lot of work to replace. Easier would be increasing pressure and polishing the heatsink where it contacts the CPU. Instead of grinding down the posts you can usually put washers or some other shim between the heatsink and the screw heads so that the screws tighten before reaching their depth limit. With proper die contact and air flow I see no reason why your CPU should ever be above 80C.

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If the heatpipe is adequate then, I would guess it is either the fan that doesn't ramp up too much to push air through, or (and this is probably the main reason), the fins on the radiator are kind of 'loose', it is quite easy to slide them around. So the fins are probably making very poor contact with the heatpipe, and I have no idea how to fix this; apart from swapping the heatpipe+fins and replacing it with one from a different laptop (if I can find one similar). I work at a small computer repair shop so we have a ton of these in a box.

I try to add some washers too.

I saw on on comments in another thread you used the Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra, would you suggest this? (I'm using Arctic Silver 5 atm). Although it appears something more serious than the thermal paste is the issue here.

One pretty obvious issue (I think) is the edge of where the CPU makes contact with the heatsink is right on the edge of the copper and steel of the heatsink. I can see a little mark where the CPU sits. There is at most a 1mm space from the edge of CPU to the edge of the steel/copper of the heatsink. I would take a picture, but it wouldn't show up.

I try some more modifications tomorrow.

Thanks again,

atn

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Have you tried just searching for a different fan? Maybe possibly even though the motors spinning up it just doesn't have enough pressure to get the air out on its way. I'd look for a fan replacement or an after market fan. You could also just pull out the temp wire from the fan and see what speed it runs when the computer is on. If you pull that temp pin from the fan's connector, plug the fan back in, and that fan isn't spinning like crazy you could have a bad fan motor...or at least going bad. That's if you have 3 wires to the fan at least. Another thing that's making me think it's an F'd up fan is because you said the PC wasn't recognizing the fan anymore. I'd at least take that fan out and hook it up to a power supply with a resistor and see if it spins up for half a crap or not. Might not need to do all this plastic surgery, lol no pun intended.

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I have replaced the fan already, the fan speed is the yellow wire correct? (yes it is a 3-pin), and was actually thinking of doing just that with a resister. Thoughts on what ohm resister I should use?

Windows never recognized the fan, so that is nothing new. I would like for it to do so, but haven't found a way.

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So you advise against powering the fan with a low ohm resister inline with the PWM signal wire?

(I would only power the fan while it is plugged into the computer, I have killed a computer fan before by just giving it power on the pos/neg terminals)

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So you advise against powering the fan with a low ohm resister inline with the PWM signal wire?

(I would only power the fan while it is plugged into the computer, I have killed a computer fan before by just giving it power on the pos/neg terminals)

Oh the resistor is inline with it. I'm not sure why you would want to do that but it shouldn't do any harm.

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The resister would be for the fan to report a lower fan speed than it actually is (would decrease the power on the signal wire). I'm guessing this is how the signal wire works. Not sure if it is PWM signal to fan to regulate, or the wire the fan reports its speed on for the fan controller to determine more voltage or not.

Maybe @iamtuck3r can elaborate.

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