Thinkpad T60 overheats on LinuxMint 11 LXDE?

[Thomcat]

Hi All,

Most of the time it runs fine, but I can consistently get my Thinkpad T60 laptop (2ghz T2500, Intel 3945ABG wireless NIC, Ati X1400 graphics) to crash due to heat. If I multi-task and download a file in the background and then run a Java program, it will eventually overheat and crash (kernel panic?) in about 15-20 minutes.

The area where the Intel wireless card is beneath the armrest gets very hot and CPU area gets very hot. If I do the exact same tasks in WindowsXP, it gets warm but will chug along no problem.

Is there a kernel update or downgrade I can do or a new driver update I can install to fix this in LinuxMint? Is this common in other Linuxes as well?

Thanks,
Thomas

[antikythera]

It is common to all distributions using that particular kernel. there was a power/cpu management fault in the original kernel build. If you use synaptic package manager you can update the kernel to the latest upstream release from ubuntu. some users have found it resolves the issue. alternatively, you could try backporting kernel 3.0.0.XX from oneiric.

I still use Mint 9 (with the latest patched 10.04 LTS kernels from ubuntu via synaptic package manager) on my core 2 duo notebook with the same 3945ABG adapter. It doesn't get any warmer than with Vista or W7.

[Thomcat]

" If you use synaptic package manager you can update the kernel to the latest upstream release from ubuntu."

Sorry for being dense, what is the recommended safe way to do this and which kernel version should I use that is confirmed to not have this bug? I have googled the topic and there are a large number of write-ups, but none with enough detail or are specific enough to my situation to make me feel comfortable doing it.

Thanks,
Thomas

[AlbertP]

If you need a kernel with ASPM fix, you can install this one: http://zinc.canonical.com/~cking/powerm ... x/oneiric/

Here's a how-to on installing kernels: viewtopic.php?f=42&t=40185

[Thomcat]

Thank you both. I have upgraded to the recommended kernel and the T60 runs significantly cooler now.

[vjacob]

Sorry to re-open this, but I think this may be related if not the same problem occurring. I am also curious if all the original posters problems have gone away (...in any case, let me know if you want me to post this elsewhere.)

Hello again ThinkPad (T60) users and Linux Mint troubleshooters!

I have attempted to use both the kernels from http://zinc.canonical.com/~cking/powermanagement/mjgaspmfix/oneiric/ (PAE). I have also attempted to use instead the latest 3.0.0-15-generic kernel from the Linux Mint repositories.

Both kernels give me kernel panics (or kernel oops, see more below). Anyway. I did a fresh install 1.5 week ago of the latest Linux Mint and have installed all security upgrades as well as done a full dist-upgrade. My objective - a stable, fast and easy install. I have found on at least two different occasions (so far) that Linux Mint is not the most stable operating system on the block...running on this machine, which otherwise has worked fine (Windows, Linux.

> Hardware: ThinkPad T60 (1952), 2048 Mb RAM, Intel 945MG video, 3945ABG adapter

> System: Linux Mint 12 "Lisa" (as new as can be downloaded stable from the official website), all security updates, dist-upgrade upgraded earlier today

> Kernel boot options: quiet splash maxcpus=2 hpet=force usbcore.autosuspend=1 i915.i915_enable_rc6=1 i915.915_enable_fbc=1 i915.lvds_downclock=1 vga=791 pcie_aspm=force (mind you I only added all other GRUB options than 'quiet' and 'splash' after the first error

> Applications: Running a bit of X, Google Chrome, an SFTP copy (>500Mb), a Java app, a terminal window, Dropbox, Guake, Gnome Do, Docky, default menu, etc.

Please see the following two links for screenshots of the kernel crashes, if you are interested in narrowing down the potential cause of this problem or helping me to trouble shoot this.

[1] http://cl.ly/E34F (taken a week ago)
[2] http://cl.ly/151u0o1J302u3a1Q0j1U (taken today)


Thanks in advance for _any_ assistance on this. I really want to keep Linux Mint installed on this computer if possible...

[Thomcat]

Does your laptop get hot after the kernel upgrade? Is it cooler now? Trying to figure out if it is heat induced or not. Have you tried a search of your kernel version and the Intel video chipset to see if there are driver compatibility issues with x?

[vjacob]

Not yet, but those are good suggestions. I will give that a shot next. I guess I could also try to compile a kernel.

> If it compiles, there is probably nothing wrong with the laptop (or it's hardware) itself.
> If it does not compile, then it is probably a question of bad hardware or hardware going bad. If it only happens during X, perhaps it is then an X incompatibility...

Thanks ThomCat!

I opened a new thread under Hardware support, referring back to this thread, so we could close this thread if you are no longer seeing any problems?