Comment # 4 on bug 902776 from Jean Delvare

If this never worked, odds are that the problem is something unsupported in the
ACPI tables of the laptop. That would be something for Thomas, or even for
upstream.

Note: do not trust the value of the /proc/acpi/ibm/fan file, it is entirely
possible that the thinkpad_acpi driver does not properly support your laptop
model and is not able to report the fan speed value. Actually you could try
blacklisting the thinkpad_acpi driver and cold booting, to see if it makes a
difference temperature-wise.

What driver and command do you use to get the temperature?

You should also check if cpufreq and cpuidle are working properly, if not that
could also explain the overheating.

As a comparison point, do you have another OS on this laptop where the fan
behaves properly and the temperature is lower?