Re: 2.6.26: thinkpad x60 is cooled passively

[Jeremy Fitzhardinge <jeremy@goop.org>]

Henrique de Moraes Holschuh wrote:
> ThinkPad fans have a overdesign range of about 2x, they almost never stop
> because they're too old.  Clogged in dirt, on the other hand... a clogged
> fan often spins FASTER and cools less.
>
> Want to see how much your fan has as far as a safety margin goes? use
> thinkpad-acpi to measure RPMs in level 7 and also when you switch PWM off
> (i.e. set it to 100% duty cycle).  Mine gets faster by 1500RPM or so that
> reflects the extra torque the EC can apply to get the fan to run at the
> speed it wants it to.
>
> But the thermal sink interface to the CPU and GPU are sometimes crap [when
> compared with the quality of the rest of the machine].  Open it, remove the
> crap, and replace it with a very high quality compound.  Dependin on
> ThinkPad model, you also need to repair thermal sink design defects to make
> it fit properly (read: press really tightly) on all chips.

Yes, this seems like a widespread and chronic problem with these little 
Thinkpads.  I've had both an X31 and X60 go bad this way, and a friend 
has had his X60 fail twice.  A pity given how nice the rest of the 
machine is.

    J