Question Laptop M.2 Boot SSD Overheating (70C+) at Idle

[SteveTheMiner]

I recently did a storage upgrade on my 2020 Lenovo Legion 5, replacing the existing HDD with a 970 Evo SSD, and cloned the contents to the new drive. Upon running CrystalDiskMark on my existing and new SSDs, I noticed that the existing boot SSD was instantly hitting 70C+ and not cooling down afterward. Even leaving the SSD completely idle after a restart, it would slowly climb up to 60-70C and remain there, while the new SSD would stay around 40-45C. During the upgrade process, I unplugged the battery connector and opened up a metal plate housing the existing boot SSD (was checking the brand), but I don't believe any of those actions could have resulted in the sudden overheating of the SSD. I've also tried installing a new thermal pad & heatsink on this SSD but to no avail.

Assuming I somehow damaged the SSD, I also tried replacing the boot SSD with another 970 Evo, but after running the laptop with the new boot SSD, the same high temps (65-70C+) were also observed on the 970 Evo. When I ran the SSD in an external enclosure, the temps on the new boot SSD returned back to normal (40C).

At this point, I'm not sure what's going on. I cloned the OS from the old drive to the new boot SSD, so could there be some issue with the OS, or did the M.2 slot on the laptop or something else suddenly become faulty after the drive upgrade?

 

[jojesa]

The "metal plate" is the heatshield on top of the M.2 NVMe SSD, which helps with heat dissipation.
The faster the NVMe, the hotter it gets.
If you did not installed the "metal plate" correctly or it bent, then it won't make contact with the SSD and it won't help with heat dissipation.
On a external enclosure the SSD operates at lower speeds and also there aren't any other components (CPU, GPU, etc.) emitting heat.
Try a thermal pad between the SSD and metal plate or you might need M.2 Heatsink that can fit in the laptop.