Thinkpads Forum

Yes I know it's old. It is a back-up computer in the advent my primary computer goes down. The Lenovo cost me nothing.
The computer is a 2007 Lenovo M55 8808 running Unbuntu.
For some reasons the fans turn on at boot,but do not ever speed up even though the graphics chip and heat sink get so hot the system reboots itself unless I use an outside fan to blow air into the case and over the heat sink. When I do that,it never overheats and the computer stays on. It is not convenient.
Just for giggles I moved the fan/case sensor from the front of the computer to the heat sink of the graphics chip. Nothing has changed.The fans never speed up.
Is there a way to check the sensor to see if it is working?
Can the pins for the sensor's cable plug be tricked into thinking the case is really hot and turn the fans on high? If so,which pins are used? I'd hate to short out and blow up the board.
The thermal compound has been cleaned off and replaced with a quality compound for the graphics chip. It did not help.
The CPU never overheats.
Any helpful ideas are appreciated.

Check the BIOS settings first. Perhaps there's a setting that allows manually setting the fans speed.

I set BIOS fan setting is set to "High".

I remembered that I have an electronics heat testing device that pin point heats components to test for failure/operation.
The "air temp" sensor dose in fact work. Why it is in front of the CPU on a stalk is beyond me as it serves no function on the GPU heat sensing.
I could move it to the heat sink of the GPU to see if that helps with keeping the heat down?
I did notice that if I plug in the PCI Trinidad Riser Card and a WI-FI card into the motherboard the GPU gets so hot in a few minutes that the computer shuts down reboots.
I tried a diff WI-FI card and it did not help. Instant "too hot" as in you cannot touch the GPU heat-sink cooler.
Could the Trinidad Riser Card with is caps be the bad?
There is no troubleshooting this computer on the web that I can find.
Any of you Techs have an idea what to check next?

When the computer is up and running the GPU is reading 151F / 66C. The cooling fans are turning a few hundred RPM. If I stress test the computer the unit will reboot several times.
I installed a 2" square 12 VDC fan on top of the GPU heat sink and the temp dropped to 94F / 34.8C. A lot better.
I still need help on the Riser Board and WI-FI. It now,when plugged in, won't allow the computer to boot properly,failing right after Post.
Please help if you have any ideas?

No useful answers so far,
My BIOS is 2J37A 7/12/07
Microcode 4/22/05
Fans set to high.
I'm running Linux lite and downloaded Psensor and found that the CPU Core Duo is running 165 degrees F under load and shutting down.( new heat sink compound and both fans will run up to 3,600 RPM +/-
There are several updates at the website to update the BIOS but not for Linux.
I'm not sure which version I need to down load ( BIOS and Microcode) nor how to do it.
Any help would be appreciated.

Rapidrob wrote: ↑

Tue May 07, 2019 9:56 am

No useful answers so far,
./.
Any help would be appreciated.

Keep in mind that we are a ThinkPads (= laptops) forum, not really a desktop forum...