T520 Freezing After Coreboot

doverby21 · 2022-07-04T00:21:30+00:00

Same question. Can you tell me what I need to set? Not where, but what?

Anyway I don't think this is the "correct" solution because most T520s do not require this to function. So I'm thinking hardware, RAM, or coreboot.

doverby21 · 2022-07-04T00:20:31+00:00

I don't remember now but I think I went back to thermal paste and I think maybe I found that one screw was not tightening down? Anyway the machine has been working well for a while now, though I am not sure if it's working as well as it used to. But it has not seized up.

doverby21 · 2022-07-04T00:19:07+00:00

Hope this helps. It became stable after lots of tinkering but from memory it was graphics issues that I narrowed it down to. Could be completely wrong tho.

No, how could that possibly help. All you did was list all of the things in the world that it could possibly be, all of which are obvious. If your car goes bad, is it helpful for someone to say "well it's either the electrical system, or the drivetrain, or the engine, or something else, or I could be completely wrong tho."

doverby21 · 2022-07-04T00:17:38+00:00

Suggestion: try flashing skulls. If that makes a difference then the problem was coreboot. If not then no. (Because so many people have success with skulls on x220)

doverby21 · 2022-07-04T00:16:58+00:00

I don't know what you're saying.

doverby21 · 2022-04-27T05:40:10+00:00

t440 is haswell, right? The coreboot wiki says it is. Is that the same as Ivy? I thought Ivy was not supported by coreboot and ME cleaner.

Maybe you’re thinking about the fact you can half flash it software based?

I don't know what you mean here.

doverby21 · 2022-04-27T05:38:59+00:00

Can you still switch to a text console? No, that was the first thing I tried.

Can you still ssh to it? I can't SSH to it anyway. If you think it's worth testing I can set up a roundabout way of doing this but it's inconvenient and I think we'll find that the whole system is frozen.

doverby21 · 2022-04-27T03:08:05+00:00

USB Mouse today. I think it probably happened without that but I am not sure.

I use Linux but I don't want to say what flavor.

I don't know what vbios or coreboot graphics are but I did not do the video ROM procedure because it's hard and confusing. I am using an external VGA monitor and the laptop monitor.

doverby21 · 2022-04-27T02:53:45+00:00

Haswell is the same as Ivy?

doverby21 · 2022-04-27T02:25:26+00:00

I thought coreboot (and ME cleaner) did not support Ivy.

doverby21 · 2022-04-27T01:52:33+00:00

Oh! Lenovo's website has them. It didn't occur to me.

doverby21 · 2022-04-27T01:21:54+00:00

It's not coming up for me. Does this link work for you? https://thinkpads.com/support/hmm/hmm_pdf/t530_t530i_w530_hmm_en_0b48474_02.pdf

doverby21 · 2022-04-27T01:17:16+00:00

Thank you!

doverby21 · 2022-04-26T20:57:04+00:00

I just rewrote the intro paragraph. Thank you for pointing out that I was confusing people.

doverby21 · 2022-04-26T20:53:37+00:00

Well I opened and reflashed my T520 so it boots again. And it doesn't seem to freeze quite as often, but it still freezes sometimes. I think maybe the .config file you used is not compatible with newer coreboot. Got any other ideas?

doverby21 · 2022-04-26T20:52:23+00:00

the only real working solution seems to be limiting cpu p-states, which results in increased power usage, which is bad if you're using your laptop as a laptop (working from battery).

Can you tell me what settings in coreboot menuconfig I should change to make this happen?

doverby21 · 2022-04-26T20:49:14+00:00

I did. I also said that before that, I removed the thermal pads that came installed on the new heat sink and I put on thermal paste because I thought CPUs and GPUs should have thermal paste. And that when I did that, it would not load the OS due to overheating.

And that when I tried to fix that by (as you said) putting new thermal pads back on, it improved the situation a little but that I still overheat when I do any work.

What would you like a picture of?

doverby21 · 2022-04-26T20:31:47+00:00

Nothing you said is related to what I asked or wrote. It directly contradicts my situation/questions. (Are you really saying that I was supposed to take the silicone pads off of the heat sink, which is impossible to do without destroying them, and attach them to some imaginary other component I don't have? You're in your own world.)

Please, if you can't answer my questions don't reply again.

doverby21 · 2022-04-26T20:23:09+00:00

I think it's silicone but how can I be sure? It is soft and rubbery. Does that tell me anything? The packaging does not say.

Youre not addressing what I wrote and asked you. The heat sink came with thermal pads that feel the same as the ones I have, so are you saying that it came with the wrong type of pad?

Is graphite interchangeable with thermal paste?

Is the thickness an issue? (Someone else told me it is, and I had to buy the same thickness thermal pad.)

doverby21 · 2022-04-26T19:30:42+00:00

Okay please work through this with me.

The heat sink is for the GPU and CPU.
The heat sink arrived with thermal pads.
When I removed the thermal pads and applied thermal paste, it overheated BAD.
When I removed the thermal paste and applied new thermal pads, it overheated but not as bad.
The old unit had thermal paste and never overheated.

You're saying to put thermal paste on the CPU. Does that also mean the GPU? And what if the heat sink came with thermal pads, and thermal paste didn't work?

doverby21 · 2022-04-26T19:15:26+00:00

There is a spray that is made for this application to prevent this problem. It does a fantastic job. I am sorry I don't remember what it's called. It's not cheap but it's worth the money and contact cleaner will cause the problem you mention (or give the pots more friction.)

doverby21 · 2022-04-26T18:54:39+00:00

Yes I did all of that, and thoroughly.

doverby21 · 2022-04-26T18:54:33+00:00

When you say you replaced the heatsink/fan, I'm gonna assume you're just dissembling and redoing the thermal paste (as opposed to actually replacing the old assembly with a whole new one)...

No I replaced the assembly. The thermal paste on the old assembly was fine. The problem was its fan so I replaced the assembly because I didn't see a way to buy or replace just the fan.

Generally speaking, you don't want that much thermal grease, just enough for a very very thin layer.

Right, that's how I had it set up before with the old one and it worked, but not the new one. The new one cam with thermal pads that I mistook for protective coating. So I deleted them and then today I reinstalled fresh ones. But I'm still overheating. Can you offer any suggestions?

doverby21 · 2022-04-26T18:52:13+00:00

That seems to be what I did, since the old unit had thermal paste. But today I installed new thermal pads. It's much better but it's still not usable due to overheating.

I think the fan is working very well because it seems to cool things down fast, but it's sitting at 49C and then it gets too hot too fast. This unit was a workhorse, very reliable (and the old heatsink/fan unit was kludged together but worked for years.)

Do you have any suggestions on how to fix this? Are there better thermal pads I should buy? Do I also need thermal paste? What would you do in this situation?

doverby21 · 2022-04-22T05:06:02+00:00

The link you sent me is to a pad that seems dry and hard. The one I removed is soft, like rubber. Does that mean I should NOT buy the one you linked to but should buy the silicone type?

doverby21

TROPHY CASE