Question What should i do to my laptop to cool it down?

[Ady97]

Hi there. I own a lenovo legion 5 i7 10750h rtx 2060 17'' variant. I changed the thermal paste 3 times in not even a year and the temps are still really bad(89c on cpu while on quiet mode) so i cannot even switch to balance mode, not even thinking about performance mode. The first time i changed my paste it was made in an it service and they applied grizzly kryonaut, but after a day or two the temps were rising again. So i decided to buy myself a noctua nt-h2 and change it at home as ''i'm not gonna go back to a dude that did absolutely nothing''. So i changed the paste for the second time, applied slightly more paste than they advertise for this kind of cpu/gpu and as i expected temps were as bad as they were before.. I kept it like that for a time, playing on quiet mode only with maximum fans on and temps were around 80C but i paid for the whole laptop, i wanna use the whole laptop so one day i changed the paste again and applied the exact amount of it just like they say in their videos, one small dot on cpu, one small dot on gpu and tested it. It was the same again.. I don't know what to do at this moment honestly, consider the fact that i also undervolted my mighty cpu and did some underclock to get these ''nice temps''. What do you guys recommend? Is my laptop faulty?(btw, my warranty is 99% void because of how many times i opened it) Should i try to apply thermal pads instead of thermal paste? Anything that helps i'll appreciate it.
Thanks a lot!

 

[rgd1101]

80c is cooler for a laptop cpu. they usually go up to 100c

 

[Ady97]

80c is cooler for a laptop cpu. they usually go up to 100c

when talking about 88c on QUIET MODE, nope it's not cool. 1h ago i switched to performance mode and tried to enter csgo, it crashed instantly due to high temperatures. so trust me, my temps are high, i limit it a lot to keep it in the 80's.

 

[Nighthawk117]

Hi there. I own a lenovo legion 5 i7 10750h rtx 2060 17'' variant. I changed the thermal paste 3 times in not even a year and the temps are still really bad(89c on cpu while on quiet mode) so i cannot even switch to balance mode, not even thinking about performance mode. The first time i changed my paste it was made in an it service and they applied grizzly kryonaut, but after a day or two the temps were rising again. So i decided to buy myself a noctua nt-h2 and change it at home as ''i'm not gonna go back to a dude that did absolutely nothing''. So i changed the paste for the second time, applied slightly more paste than they advertise for this kind of cpu/gpu and as i expected temps were as bad as they were before.. I kept it like that for a time, playing on quiet mode only with maximum fans on and temps were around 80C but i paid for the whole laptop, i wanna use the whole laptop so one day i changed the paste again and applied the exact amount of it just like they say in their videos, one small dot on cpu, one small dot on gpu and tested it. It was the same again.. I don't know what to do at this moment honestly, consider the fact that i also undervolted my mighty cpu and did some underclock to get these ''nice temps''. What do you guys recommend? Is my laptop faulty?(btw, my warranty is 99% void because of how many times i opened it) Should i try to apply thermal pads instead of thermal paste? Anything that helps i'll appreciate it.
Thanks a lot!

Your temp's aren't out of the ordinary for a gaming laptop. Do you use a cooling pad? If not I would recommend this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cooler-Mas...locphy=9046212&hvtargid=pla-564227132288&th=1

Difficult to say how much difference it would make as I don't own a Legion 5, but I always use a cooling pad for sustained heavy workloads myself.

 

[Ady97]

Your temp's aren't out of the ordinary for a gaming laptop. Do you use a cooling pad? If not I would recommend this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cooler-Mas...locphy=9046212&hvtargid=pla-564227132288&th=1

Difficult to say how much difference it would make as I don't own a Legion 5, but I always use a cooling pad for sustained heavy workloads myself.

i already have a cooling pad.. trust gxt 278 yozu. But my temps are indeed out of the ordinary, and i cannot say this louder.. When i first got it i could actually play on performance mode now it throttles and restarts when i turn that mode on. I'm waiting only on thermal paste/pads advices as i know for sure there's the problem but i can't seem to fix it

 

[Nighthawk117]

i already have a cooling pad.. trust gxt 278 yozu. But my temps are indeed out of the ordinary, and i cannot say this louder.. When i first got it i could actually play on performance mode now it throttles and restarts when i turn that mode on. I'm waiting only on thermal paste/pads advices as i know for sure there's the problem but i can't seem to fix it

Fair enough, if it wasn't like this before. Instability does suggest a serious problem, it shouldn't be doing that. What are your fans like, are they nice and clean? When you applied new thermal paste, did you clean the surface with IPA alcohol? Dumb question, but you did apply the paste on both the CPU and GPU?

I'd be surprised if you've screwed up the thermal paste application, as long as there is reasonable coverage you should be fine and both of those pastes are good quality. Even if you had a little too much, once you tighten the heatsink down it will evenly spread it anyway.

For reference I use Noctua NT-H1 on my laptop.

 

[Ady97]

Fair enough, if it wasn't like this before. Instability does suggest a serious problem, it shouldn't be doing that. What are your fans like, are they nice and clean? When you applied new thermal paste, did you clean the surface with IPA alcohol? Dumb question, but you did apply the paste on both the CPU and GPU?

I'd be surprised if you've screwed up the thermal paste application, as long as there is reasonable coverage you should be fine and both of those pastes are good quality. Even if you had a little too much, once you tighten the heatsink down it will evenly spread it anyway.

For reference I use Noctua NT-H1 on my laptop.

I cleaned the fans when i last changed the paste(2-3 weeks ago). I cleaned the surface with the tissue noctua gave me. I put paste on both cpu and gpu.. First time put 3-4 dots on them but now i only added 1 small dot on each.

 

[rgd1101]

overheat usually mean throttling, not crash, sound like something else is the issue.
are you getting bsod? or just shut down? check the battery health?

 

[Nighthawk117]

I cleaned the fans when i last changed the paste(2-3 weeks ago). I cleaned the surface with the tissue noctua gave me. I put paste on both cpu and gpu.. First time put 3-4 dots on them but now i only added 1 small dot on each.

Both of those should have been fine. You say you used to play on performance mode successfully, is this under the same game and same circumstances as today?

To me it suggests something else is wrong.

 

[Ady97]

Both of those should have been fine. You say you used to play on performance mode successfully, is this under the same game and same circumstances as today?

To me it suggests something else is wrong.

yes, same circumstances. there was literally no problem playing AAA games on performance mode, now i can't even play csgo on performance mode.

 

[Ady97]

overheat usually mean throttling, not crash, sound like something else is the issue.
are you getting bsod? or just shut down? check the battery health?

it wasn't a crash as in an error appearing and the game closing. it just loaded the map, i got to make a step and the game froze. it wasn't a bsod either. my battery health is 100% as it's a new laptop under 1 year and i always use conservation mode.

 

[Ady97]

Both of those should have been fine. You say you used to play on performance mode successfully, is this under the same game and same circumstances as today?

To me it suggests something else is wrong.

Is it normal when i open it to see on the cooling pipes something like a rainbow color? like it was really hot for prolonged time? when i got the laptop i boosted my gpu to 115w from 85w with a flash, could that excess of power do irremediable damage to the pipes or something?

 

[Nighthawk117]

Is it normal when i open it to see on the cooling pipes something like a rainbow color? like it was really hot for prolonged time? when i got the laptop i boosted my gpu to 115w from 85w with a flash, could that excess of power do irremediable damage to the pipes or something?

I'm not quite sure what you mean by a rainbow colour, it should look something like this:
https://preview.redd.it/1hqa1ei83od...bp&s=d0b10115fcf7e3550d00ea3f629cf1de062d9295
Sometimes they are bare copper though rather than painted black.

As for boosting the W of the GPU, this is generally not a good idea particularly if you exceed the TDP the cooling solution was intended for, though the same cooling config is probably used for higher end parts as well. I wouldn't have thought the additional heat would have damaged heat pipes, I would have thought it more likely to damage something else in the laptop if anything.

I know you say it worked better before. Is it possible the load on the CPU has increased without you knowing, some games get progressively more demanding with updates?

If possible I would restore the GPU to it's original state. Also opening a laptop doesn't normally void the warranty, but changing the bios or anything like that does. You've mentioned CPU temps, do you know what your typical load temp for the GPU is?

 

[Ady97]

I'm not quite sure what you mean by a rainbow colour, it should look something like this:
https://preview.redd.it/1hqa1ei83od...bp&s=d0b10115fcf7e3550d00ea3f629cf1de062d9295
Sometimes they are bare copper though rather than painted black.

As for boosting the W of the GPU, this is generally not a good idea particularly if you exceed the TDP the cooling solution was intended for, though the same cooling config is probably used for higher end parts as well. I wouldn't have thought the additional heat would have damaged heat pipes, I would have thought it more likely to damage something else in the laptop if anything.

I know you say it worked better before. Is it possible the load on the CPU has increased without you knowing, some games get progressively more demanding with updates?

If possible I would restore the GPU to it's original state. Also opening a laptop doesn't normally void the warranty, but changing the bios or anything like that does. You've mentioned CPU temps, do you know what your typical load temp for the GPU is?

Well, it has that rainbow color on the other side of the pipes, where it's copper colored. And regarding the W boosting for my GPU, i turned it off months ago when i saw that the temps aren't fine. What else could've been damaged due to the increased heat? But still, that heat was kinda normal, 95-97c CPU and 86-87 C on gpu, it's not like a laptop cannot reach those temps at any W.
And about the load on CPU being increased.. i sometimes let my laptop say with no tasks on it on quiet mode and temps are rising to 70`s.. so nothing is using the cpu but temps are still high.
In my country(europe) i gotta send my laptop to their authorised service and pay a fee to add more storage/ram or do anything as i'm not allowed to open it myself.
And for my GPU temps, i don't check them too often, but recently i saw them going as high as 79C on quiet mode with maximum fans mode on. And i've heard that my GPU will start throttling at around 86-87C so.. quite high for 85W on quiet mode.

 

[Nighthawk117]

Well, it has that rainbow color on the other side of the pipes, where it's copper colored. And regarding the W boosting for my GPU, i turned it off months ago when i saw that the temps aren't fine. What else could've been damaged due to the increased heat? But still, that heat was kinda normal, 95-97c CPU and 86-87 C on gpu, it's not like a laptop cannot reach those temps at any W.
And about the load on CPU being increased.. i sometimes let my laptop say with no tasks on it on quiet mode and temps are rising to 70`s.. so nothing is using the cpu but temps are still high.
In my country(europe) i gotta send my laptop to their authorised service and pay a fee to add more storage/ram or do anything as i'm not allowed to open it myself.
And for my GPU temps, i don't check them too often, but recently i saw them going as high as 79C on quiet mode with maximum fans mode on. And i've heard that my GPU will start throttling at around 86-87C so.. quite high for 85W on quiet mode.

It's difficult for me to say, it sounds like it's just the way light is reflecting off the bare copper, if it's corrosion then that's more of a concern. If the CPU temps are reaching the 70's idling then something is definitely not right, high 90's is also nearly at the thermal cut off point which I think is 100C for a 10750H. Assuming the CPU voltage isn't too high, it does sound like there might be something wrong with your cooling solution, like it's lost the liquid or something. There's no sign of physical damage to it or any greenish corrosion?

Unfortunately I'm not really sure what to suggest. You could try getting a new cooling system for your laptop, Lenovo sometimes has spares you can buy but there is no guarantee that would fix it. I know you say your not allowed to go inside it. I live in the UK and I've installed RAM and new SSD's and then had a laptop motherboard replaced under warranty because it was faulty.

 

[Ady97]

It's difficult for me to say, it sounds like it's just the way light is reflecting off the bare copper, if it's corrosion then that's more of a concern. If the CPU temps are reaching the 70's idling then something is definitely not right, high 90's is also nearly at the thermal cut off point which I think is 100C for a 10750H. Assuming the CPU voltage isn't too high, it does sound like there might be something wrong with your cooling solution, like it's lost the liquid or something. There's no sign of physical damage to it or any greenish corrosion?

Unfortunately I'm not really sure what to suggest. You could try getting a new cooling system for your laptop, Lenovo sometimes has spares you can buy but there is no guarantee that would fix it. I know you say your not allowed to go inside it. I live in the UK and I've installed RAM and new SSD's and then had a laptop motherboard replaced under warranty because it was faulty.

Some other person told me that the cooling copper mechanism (idk how to call it yet) might`ve been bent when opened in the first service and now it doesn't apply enough pressure on the cpu/gpu. I think about sending it to warranty as it is and if they somehow refuse to change the paste, that's it.. at least i tried, but it takes 7-15 working days to complete and that's A LOT.

 

[Nighthawk117]

Some other person told me that the cooling copper mechanism (idk how to call it yet) might`ve been bent when opened in the first service and now it doesn't apply enough pressure on the cpu/gpu. I think about sending it to warranty as it is and if they somehow refuse to change the paste, that's it.. at least i tried, but it takes 7-15 working days to complete and that's A LOT.

I suspect it's something wrong with either one of the copper heat pipes or the heatsink assembly itself, but unless it was faulty in the beginning as far as I'm aware it's typically mechanical damage that breaks them. I've never heard of one simply just going bad. Replacing the thermal paste isn't going to fix the issue, you've tried that already and I'm very sceptical you have done that incorrectly, you don't have to be an artist with it. I would emphasise the PC is running too hot, it's unreliable and restarting ect.. My experience with these laptop service people is that the first attempt they don't find anything wrong. The second attempt they look harder and solve it. Hope you get it fixed, been there before, it's super frustrating.

 

[Ady97]

I suspect it's something wrong with either one of the copper heat pipes or the heatsink assembly itself, but unless it was faulty in the beginning as far as I'm aware it's typically mechanical damage that breaks them. I've never heard of one simply just going bad. Replacing the thermal paste isn't going to fix the issue, you've tried that already and I'm very sceptical you have done that incorrectly, you don't have to be an artist with it. I would emphasise the PC is running too hot, it's unreliable and restarting ect.. My experience with these laptop service people is that the first attempt they don't find anything wrong. The second attempt they look harder and solve it. Hope you get it fixed, been there before, it's super frustrating.

Thanks a lot, man. I'll send it to warranty then when i'm not gonna need it as much as i do right now..

 

[Ady97]

I suspect it's something wrong with either one of the copper heat pipes or the heatsink assembly itself, but unless it was faulty in the beginning as far as I'm aware it's typically mechanical damage that breaks them. I've never heard of one simply just going bad. Replacing the thermal paste isn't going to fix the issue, you've tried that already and I'm very sceptical you have done that incorrectly, you don't have to be an artist with it. I would emphasise the PC is running too hot, it's unreliable and restarting ect.. My experience with these laptop service people is that the first attempt they don't find anything wrong. The second attempt they look harder and solve it. Hope you get it fixed, been there before, it's super frustrating.

Now it came to my mind that once i changed the thermal paste i added another m2 ssd, a 1 tb one. could that one small ssd get too hot and make it hot overall to affect the components? it doesn't really makes sense but i felt i should've told you about it.

 

[Nighthawk117]

Now it came to my mind that once i changed the thermal paste i added another m2 ssd, a 1 tb one. could that one small ssd get too hot and make it hot overall to affect the components? it doesn't really makes sense but i felt i should've told you about it.

While they do get hot themselves, NVME's don't produce enough heat to affect the rest of the PC like that. They at most use about 8W under heavy load.

 

[Ady97]

While they do get hot themselves, NVME's don't produce enough heat to affect the rest of the PC like that. They at most use about 8W under heavy load.

I see..
I did a test on PUBG today with the processor having -200mv on core, -75mv on cache and underclocked to 4.2ghz on every core. And, on performance mode, the CPU got 98C and 97C on 2 cores, while the others kept it around 90-94C, and the gpu got as high as 87C(which i learned is a throttling point to reach) that appeared both in task manager and HWinfo at maximum(but HWinfo Hot Spot was showing a 99.1C as being maximum).
On balanced mode, the temps were almost the same but i lost some performance, which i don't know why happened.
And then i switched to the mighty quiet mode and i got 77-80C on cpu, 81-82C on GPU and lost a lot of performance, the game was actually stuttering from time to time and it was set to very low..
All of these test were made while having the fans set at maximum speed, and the laptop on a cooling stand.
I keep seeing that Core #2 on CPU gets hoter with 7-10C more than any other cores, and that my gpu gets hot while under load no matter what profile i choose(it used to stay in the 60-70`s while on quiet mode in the good old days). Is there any chance that the paste wasn't fully spread or touching all the spots? As i said before, i applied a 2-3mm small dot on the center of the cpu, and one just like the first on the gpu.

 

[Nighthawk117]

I see..
I did a test on PUBG today with the processor having -200mv on core, -75mv on cache and underclocked to 4.2ghz on every core. And, on performance mode, the CPU got 98C and 97C on 2 cores, while the others kept it around 90-94C, and the gpu got as high as 87C(which i learned is a throttling point to reach) that appeared both in task manager and HWinfo at maximum(but HWinfo Hot Spot was showing a 99.1C as being maximum).
On balanced mode, the temps were almost the same but i lost some performance, which i don't know why happened.
And then i switched to the mighty quiet mode and i got 77-80C on cpu, 81-82C on GPU and lost a lot of performance, the game was actually stuttering from time to time and it was set to very low..
All of these test were made while having the fans set at maximum speed, and the laptop on a cooling stand.
I keep seeing that Core #2 on CPU gets hoter with 7-10C more than any other cores, and that my gpu gets hot while under load no matter what profile i choose(it used to stay in the 60-70`s while on quiet mode in the good old days). Is there any chance that the paste wasn't fully spread or touching all the spots? As i said before, i applied a 2-3mm small dot on the center of the cpu, and one just like the first on the gpu.

Yes it is certainly possible that the thermal paste wasn't properly spread but you would only be able to tell by unscrewing the heatsink again and checking. It sounds more likely to me though that something else is wrong, like the heatsink assembly is warped slightly and not making proper contact with the CPU for example. Or there is something wrong with the heat pipes themselves, haven't encountered this myself but it does happen.

How are you monitoring temps, is this with HWMonitor? Do you know what your vcore is?

 

[Ady97]

Yes it is certainly possible that the thermal paste wasn't properly spread but you would only be able to tell by unscrewing the heatsink again and checking. It sounds more likely to me though that something else is wrong, like the heatsink assembly is warped slightly and not making proper contact with the CPU for example. Or there is something wrong with the heat pipes themselves, haven't encountered this myself but it does happen.

How are you monitoring temps, is this with HWMonitor? Do you know what your vcore is?

I use Core Temp for CPU Temps, and HwInfo for GPU temps and power output. Vcore as in how high my cpu goes under load? if that's what you meant it was going to 4.2(the maximum that i set in throttlestop).