Thinkpad T440P and heat

[Peter Linu]

Hiyall,
I have owned two Thinkpad T440Ps for about 2.5 years. They have always had a idle temp of ~58. This is ~20deg above what it should be. Last weekend I replaced the heatsink/fan in one of them and at the same time replaced the i5 - 2-core CPU with an i7 4-core CPU. The temp remains at 58deg!!!. I have been advised that using a 'liquid metal' substance holding the CPU in place however that is fraught with problems of leaking. Updating the BIOS was also suggested which is not for the faint-hearted.

I'm at my wit's end trying to figure out how to fix the heat problem. Since it was purchased 'reconditioned' could the issue be that the previous owner 'thrashed' it therefore needing a new motherboard?

Any experienced advice will be gratefully received.

[Larry78723]

I have two T550's. They both run at an idle temp of 37c. Have you opened your machines to ensure that all the dust bunnies are cleaned out, the fan(s) are actually running, and that all vents are clear?

[Peter Linu]

yes and yes and yes.

[Larry78723]

Peter, Look at the suggestions at https://itsfoss.com/reduce-overheating-laptops-linux/.

[Peter Linu]

Thanxalot Larry.
I'll look in the morning.

[kc1di]

Hi Peter,
Does this heating happen at all times or just when your doing specific tasks? On my T 450's my temp normally runs around 48C but if I'm doing anything with video it seem to jump to 70's C and it gets a bit hot. so with mine it's not the processor so much as the GPU that's over taxing the system.
Don't know of anything that can be done for that. Thermald was installed by default on my Mint 20.1 and has not made a difference.

[Peter Linu]

Hi kc1di,
I'm just reading about that now. It seems it needs something else configured to make it work.
http://www.webupd8.org/2014/04/prevent- ... ating.html

I'd appreciate your experienced help before I attempt the code and brick the laptop!

[senjoz]

Can we see what processor you have now? Please post the output of inxi -Fxxxrz!

Do you have any background programs running? What is processor usage in the idle state? What shows terminal command watch -n.1 "cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep \"^[c]pu MHz\"" in idle state? Is the temperature during laptop operation on the battery also high? Is the fan working when the temperature is 58 deg C? Are there any fan management settings in the bios/uefi, like quiet operation?

How does the CPU behave during heavy load? Does it throttle a lot? You can put heavy load on the CPu with a stress application, you can install it with Synaptic Package Manager. Run in one terminal stress -t 600 -c 8 (stress 8 CPU threads for 600 seconds), watch -n.1 "cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep \"^[c]pu MHz\"" in another terminal and watch sensors in the third terminal. What are the outputs of those commands? Is everything alright?

Regards, Jože

[kc1di]

Hi kc1di,
I'm just reading about that now. It seems it needs something else configured to make it work.
http://www.webupd8.org/2014/04/prevent- ... ating.html

I'd appreciate your experienced help before I attempt the code and brick the laptop!

I just used the default settings that came with it. But as I said I don't see that it's doing much for my i5 processor.

[Peter Linu]

You need to read this at the link: 'How to enable intel_pstate in Ubuntu 14.04 and newer'.

[kc1di]

Hi again Peter,
I have done that. But still don't see much difference on my machine it all seems to heatup when streaming videos or too many video popups while browsing web pages so I don't think it's the processor. But the GPU that's getting hot. Your system may differ and it may work for you.
Good luck.

[Peter Linu]

You could be correct. I will investigate on the weekend. However i am sceptical as most people's Thinkpads (I know several people who have 8 units between them) all idle at ~40deg.