Puzzled about a semi-working IBM T21

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

I had a similar problem with my Dell. I found a fan utility on Google
made just for my model. Possibly they make one for yours to.

-Jake

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"Willow Griffiths-Scott" <willowstorm@willowstorm.karoo.co.uk> wrote in
message news:YNudnaZ-XfBNLKXfSa8jmA@karoo.co.uk...
> We have an IBM T21 Thinkpad running Windows XP Professional which seems to
> be overheating.
>
> On startup, the CPU fan runs for a few seconds and then stops. This means
> that the Thinkpad will run for about 15 - 20 minutes before the processor
> overheats and shuts down, causing the Thinkpad to lock up.

Have you actually monitored the temperature to confirm that it is
overheating? Does it behave OK when on battery but not on AC (i.e. crashes
at higher clock speed)? The reason I ask is that my T22 exhibited similar
behaviour but eventually would not even boot and required a new MB.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

In "Puzzled about a semi-working IBM T21", "Willow Griffiths-Scott"
<willowstorm@willowstorm.karoo.co.uk> wrote:

>We have an IBM T21 Thinkpad running Windows XP Professional which seems to
>be overheating.
>
>On startup, the CPU fan runs for a few seconds and then stops. This means
>that the Thinkpad will run for about 15 - 20 minutes before the processor
>overheats and shuts down, causing the Thinkpad to lock up.
>
>The fan is o.k. because if you take it out and drive it from an external
>power supply it will run quite happily.
>
>In an attempt to cure this we have updated the Bios, installed the correct
>configuration utility, installed the battery maximiser, the ACPI driver, the
>updated power drivers for XP and the support files for XP. The fan still
>doesn't run.
>
>We are now out of ideas, apart from the fact that it may be a problem with
>the system board. Before we go through the time and expense of installing a
>new board we were wondering if there was anything else that we missed
>because we can't see the wood for the trees at the moment
>

Sounds very similar to what I have with my A21, only much worse.

If the thermal coupling between CPU and heatsink/heatpipe has become poor, doing
something highly CPU intensive, even if only transiently, can cause a cutout
even with a working fan because the CPU temp can apparently rise so very quickly
that the fan never actually gets a chance to get going. (You seem to have got
your system open already, so you may be able to check this out without too much
additional effort.)

A (very, very) long shot: you didn't perchance install any Windows hotfixes just
before your trouble started...? (I ask because my machine never fails DOS-based
tests such as the Prime95 torture test, so I sometimes wonder if some change in
Windows might somehow be the culprit instead...)