# Thinkpad X61 problems



## ly41k (Nov 28, 2009)

I start using freebsd on lenovo thinkpad X61 almost one year ago with 7 release at very novice level) With every new system upgrade at stable branch (cvs method) no serious troubles happened, until one upgrade to 7.2 current in middle of summer. Cant say that laptop was cool all the time before this, but for now there are big problems this compile/"overload". Next upgrades didn't anything this that, but besides overheating, 8.0-RC2 upgrade bring some horrible noises: from disk operations, and some nasty "mosquito" sound (dont know from that). Now, with 8.0-stable, all these problems presence(( So, does anyone has problems like these?
I just dont know there to look for.. and almost sure that all these troubles came exactly in upgrades.

PS: in live session of kubuntu 9.10 nothing of these happened, even overheating (played some heavy games with wine)


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## honk (Nov 28, 2009)

I also own a Thinkpad X61 and I also have problems with overheating. I used this machine since 7.0-RELEASE and hoped with every release that the problems disappear.

My Thinkpad is equipped with an "Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7300 @ 2.00GHz (1995.02-MHz 686-class CPU)". I use powerd to reduce the frequency during normal operation. But I can't let the machine run at full speed (2000MHz) for more than 5 minutes otherwise it overheats:


```
WARNING: system temperature too high, shutting down soon!
acpi_tz0: WARNING - current temperature (128.0C) exceeds safe limits
```

To avoid this I have to kill powerd and force the frequency to 1050MHz with "sysctl dev.cpu.0.freq=1050" when I build ports or compile the kernel for example. The worst things are gnash and co which used to increase the clock to the maximum during normal work (if you don't recognize this, your notebook shuts down unattended). Unfortunately there is currently no way to restrict powerd to a maximum frequency. I saw a post from vermaden long time ago and it worked but unfortunately it was not committed so far. But this doesn't solve the original problem, it's just a rather poor workaround 

I guess there are some acpi related problems, at least the passive cooling feature of acpi_thermal seems to not work properly. It doesn't reduce clock speed automatically if hw.acpi.thermal.tz1._PSV is reached.


```
sysctl -a | grep therm
hw.acpi.thermal.min_runtime: 0
hw.acpi.thermal.polling_rate: 10
hw.acpi.thermal.user_override: 0
hw.acpi.thermal.tz0.temperature: 42,0C
hw.acpi.thermal.tz0.active: -1
hw.acpi.thermal.tz0.passive_cooling: 0
hw.acpi.thermal.tz0.thermal_flags: 0
hw.acpi.thermal.tz0._PSV: -1
hw.acpi.thermal.tz0._HOT: -1
hw.acpi.thermal.tz0._CRT: 127,0C
hw.acpi.thermal.tz0._ACx: -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1
hw.acpi.thermal.tz0._TC1: -1
hw.acpi.thermal.tz0._TC2: -1
hw.acpi.thermal.tz0._TSP: -1
hw.acpi.thermal.tz1.temperature: 43,0C
hw.acpi.thermal.tz1.active: -1
hw.acpi.thermal.tz1.passive_cooling: 1
hw.acpi.thermal.tz1.thermal_flags: 0
hw.acpi.thermal.tz1._PSV: 95,5C
hw.acpi.thermal.tz1._HOT: -1
hw.acpi.thermal.tz1._CRT: 100,0C
hw.acpi.thermal.tz1._ACx: -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1
hw.acpi.thermal.tz1._TC1: 5
hw.acpi.thermal.tz1._TC2: 4
hw.acpi.thermal.tz1._TSP: 600
dev.acpi_ibm.0.thermal: 42 45 45 39 36 -1 34 -1
```

If I boot Windows on the X61 I have no problems and I figured out that they handle these overheating problems by periodically stepping the frequency down and up very fast when I high temperature is reached. This doesn't made the system unusable slow for long period of time _and_ reduce the temperature effectively.


But I don't have audio related problems. Do you hear hard disk activity in your speakers?

cheers,
honk


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## ly41k (Nov 28, 2009)

Hi honk, many thanks for your response!


> But I don't have audio related problems. Do you hear hard disk activity in your speakers?


No, maybe its because my bad english, all noise is "only" mechanical and starts with mounting root while loading. All of disk rw operations


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## honk (Nov 29, 2009)

Have you tested your hard disk? I believe you can do it within the Thinkpad BIOS (saw a menu entry there). Or use sysutils/smartmontools

Yesterday I removed the keyboard (only four screws) and cleaned the fan with a hoover. Now the Thinkpad stays a lot cooler!

cheers,
honk


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## Carpetsmoker (Dec 3, 2009)

> Have you tested your hard disk? I believe you can do it within the Thinkpad BIOS (saw a menu entry there). Or use sysutils/smartmontools



This is not a proper hard disk testing tool. SMART *may* give warning when a drive is failing, but more often not.
You should use a tool such as MHDD to check our hard drive (Scan, F4 key). You can also view SMART data with it (F8).

One problem that very frequently occurs especially with smaller notebooks is that the fan output gets full of dust/dirt, preventing the fan from blowing out the hot air.
You usually can't see the dust from the outside, you will to open up your notebook and check the outlet, *Also remove the fan itself* (usually 2-3 screws) to be sure, a notebook may look clean at first sight until you actually remove the fan and only then you will see the ton of dust is stuck in the grill.

There are probably guides in the interwebz for opening your X61 -- If you are unsure/aifraid to open it, ask a friend or bring your PC to a repair shop. More than 50% of all notebooks with overheating problems have this problem so it's worth checking!


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## ly41k (Dec 3, 2009)

Thanks for your help, guys!


> The worst things are gnash and co which used to increase the clock to the maximum during normal work (if you don't recognize this, your notebook shuts down unattended)


same problems with flash too, using plugin from linux compat with firefox

I have ran some long self-test with smartmontools. I should say that have never tested hdd with this tool, and even in some other way at all. So, results (if this is it)

```
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%      3979         -
# 2  Extended offline    Aborted by host               90%       223         -
# 3  Short offline       Completed without error       00%       223         -
```
Also, here is output from smartctl -a View attachment disk.txt
Unfortunately, now dont have a lot of time for testing disk, and besides disk goes in ussual (silent) way with any linux, which has slices support in kernel. Hm, just remember, that is only ro mount.. but it doesnt such matter, I think, couse all noise came exactly in single reboot to safe mode while upgrading to 8.0-RC2
Whatever, I will certainly check disk later, maybe closer to NY or Christmas) Also will try to cleanup cooler and machine


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## Carpetsmoker (Dec 3, 2009)

Your SMART data looks fine, but as I've said before, this by no means a guarantee your drive is OK.


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