Fujitsu T4220 heats up!

[sinnerman]

Hi all

I recently got a T4220 and I have enjoyed it thus far however I have noticed it really seems to heat up a lot after I have used it for about 30 minutes or so. To the point where it is almost too hot to hold it on my lap.

Should I be worried? Should I try and not use it as long when it gets that hot? I know some of the older laptops had heat problems but I wasn't sure about this one.

Anyone else have this, any advice?

Thanks.

[SimsHsia]

Hi sinnerman,

Do you have the AC cord attached the Tablet PC or are you running on battery power? Usually the system will heat up quickly if using AC power or charging the battery through AC power while using the tablet at the same time.

If it occurs during battery power, then some BIOS setting must have disabled Intel SpeedStep so that the processor itself does not limit the clock speed down from full clock speed to 1/2 clock speed.

[P8RSON]

I take it you have the vents clear.

[Alpha Technogoddess]

It gets hot for me only when it's working terribly hard. Like if you're seriously pushing your processor. It gets hot for me when I multitask alot with 1gb of ram. when I had 2.5 it was just about the same, but you know, the battery runs out quicker so it's about the same anyways. You're either working hard and working the processor, or using powerful ram and needing to plug it in after a shorter time. Either way it'll heat up. Just make sure not to block the vent. Because at least you know the fan is going it's job.

[ThreeTwo]

I have a two-week old T4220 that is hotter than I'd like, as well. In fact it is my only complaint about this machine, almost but not quite to the point of regret.

The CPU idle temperature is 60 degrees C (as reported both by NHC (pbus-167.com) and RMClock (rightmark.org)), even while on battery and with Vista on power-saver mode. I have been trying many things to get this to run a bit cooler, but have not figured anything out.

It is a 2.4GHz T7700, which I would expect to get hot during regular usage -- and it does, up to 75-80 degrees C. But I really did expect the idle temp to be lower, and I'd totally give up "speed" for "less hot" during light usage. This computer replaced my Dell Latitude D820 (2GHz Core Duo) which was around 50 C when idling and did not feel hot at all. The T4220 fan blows out the hot air just fine, and it is the back left underside of the machine that gets hot enough during light usage that I don't let it sit on my lap for long and am constantly & awkwardly changing its position.

Cautiously playing with underclocking in RMClock/NHC didn't lower the temperature, either, which suprised me. My other surprise was that there was no difference in idle temperature whether I used Vista's powersaving mode or its Maximum Performance mode, which makes me suspect something else could be the issue. (Assuming there IS something that can be tweaked, and that this isn't just the physical fact of life with the T4220/T7700.)

Vista Business, 4GB RAM, but I don't think those are the cause, although I'm desperate enough to try XP just to rule it out. I am hoping there's a BIOS tweak or upgrade that will fix this...?

[kautilya]

I got my T4220 yesterday... been loving it so far. I do notice the heat, especially when I was installing something off the net, while copying large data onto the HDD. Its a T7300 and the heat is not 'uncomfortable'.
Looking at other tablet configs, I could use the extra processing power and tolerate a little heat...in anycase I live in AZ!

[ThreeTwo]

Spent a few hours trying ever more desperate things. Belatedly occurred to me to turn off all of the wireless devices with the convenient switch on the left, right where the heat pours out. The temperature is 5-10 degrees less than before (even 20 degrees less for a period) and not uncomfortable. Too early for strong conclusions, but this might be the clue I've been needing. I have the Intel 4965AGN (driver 11.1.0.90) and Toshiba Bluetooth (5.0.3308.0) and have both G and N access points available and may need to compare them.

Here's the suspicious part, though, which is after enjoying the 40-degree computer for a while, I turned the wireless back on, and it is idling at 55 C instead of the 60 C it's been at since purchase. Not sure what to make of it all yet.

[kureshii]

I have a T4210, with CPU temps of 57-58 deg C idling on AC. While on AC it runs hot enough that I don't use it on my lap, I never had a problem with heat on battery mode - in fact, sometimes in cold lecture theatres I wish it could run a little warmer, LOL.

I'm thinking maybe ambient temperature might affect its cooling properties and hence, the idling temperature. Anyone care to test out this theory?

[ThreeTwo]

Zeroing in, the wireless card seems to be the real culprit. After changing the default Vista power settings for wireless to "Maximum Power Savings" -- see http://support.intel.com/support/wir.../CS-024509.htm -- I am seeing idle temperatures of 50C and under, with wireless on. What a relief, a 10C drop makes a significant difference! There is still some unclear behavior, where a couple of times it seemed to "get stuck" idling at 60C, but after rebooting I'm right back at 50C and under; this might have been due to me fiddling with the physical wireless switch on the left of the computer, somehow confusing the operating system. Right now I'm running on A/C with the default "Balanced Mode" for power savings with the only change as described on the Intel site (which incidentally was written for better battery savings, nothing about heat mentioned). Connected to an 80211N network, and I have disabled the Bluetooth from inside the BIOS (but I don't think that is heat-related).

Will be interested in hearing if anyone else sees a similar outcome, or can find a definitive solution to the extra heat!

[lolos]

Zeroing in, the wireless card seems to be the real culprit. After changing the default Vista power settings for wireless to "Maximum Power Savings" -- see http://support.intel.com/support/wir.../CS-024509.htm -- I am seeing idle temperatures of 50C and under, with wireless on. What a relief, a 10C drop makes a significant difference! There is still some unclear behavior, where a couple of times it seemed to "get stuck" idling at 60C, but after rebooting I'm right back at 50C and under; this might have been due to me fiddling with the physical wireless switch on the left of the computer, somehow confusing the operating system. Right now I'm running on A/C with the default "Balanced Mode" for power savings with the only change as described on the Intel site (which incidentally was written for better battery savings, nothing about heat mentioned). Connected to an 80211N network, and I have disabled the Bluetooth from inside the BIOS (but I don't think that is heat-related).

Will be interested in hearing if anyone else sees a similar outcome, or can find a definitive solution to the extra heat!

Could this affect the wi-fi signal strength?