Lenovo laptop overheating in games

Hi there,

I have a laptop Lenovo y500, and every time I start a 3d something it overheads. CPU and GPU 90 dergees C. It doesn't matter if I turn de settings down or not. Only if use three layers v sync it is kinda playable. But drops frames. All the logical things I've tried: drivers, cooling paste, dust etc. I was really hoping you guys have an idea..

Which CPU is it?

i7 3630QM

Damn, I was thinking you might be able to undervolt a little with the intel tuning utility but that only works on the HQ. You might check out your fan is still moving air like it used to. Take apart the blower and make sure that its housing doesnt have obstructions in its design. I had to do this on an i7 msi laptop I have. It had a lip that I trimmed out because it only served to obstruct air flow.

the exhaust is blowing a lot of hot air. not that hot as it used to tho.. Speccy is the tool i use to measure the temp. a bit of google says it have something to do with some kind of boost technology. if i'm working in chrome and word it works like a champ tho. could it be that the aftermarket power adapter i recently bought has something to do wit it?

This is normal operation. Nothing you can realistically do anything about.

It shouldnt, so long as the power brick is rated for roughly the same wattage/amperage that the computer had before. Even if it was a little smaller the battery should make up the difference. You just wont get a solid charge while under load.

give HWMonitor a try just to verify that its reading the same thing.

Cpu Is idle at 50~ gpu is idle at 39~

May the devil wear my panties..........
As is start to test out of the sudden i have no drops....
i've had this issue for weeks now... how is this possible?..

anyways..

i would come back when i have a test scenario..

damn... i'm a sysadmin myself.. feel like a user...

Is the system under the same exact load? Meaning maybe there was something else running besides your tests that was putting some kind of weird load on the system?

Maybe the system became self aware and realized you were probably only minutes away from smashing it, thus it decided to stop being a POS. The world may never know.

2 Likes

probably this

Define unplayable ? It stops working ? It starts to downclock to prevent overheating ? Used to work or new laptop you bought ?

Possible problems:
- Laptop not designed for this thermal dissipation. (in which case it's kind of a defect-by-design-return-shit.)
- Standard BIOS fan curves to low.
- Problem with your cooling: broken heatpipe, dust, paste problems,fan no properly spinning.
- Environmental problems: hot room temperatures, blocked air-intake/exhaust.

constant solid 60 frames but out if the sudden every 10 seconds dropping to 3 frames.

about 6 mounts ago i didn't even have to think about this problem. (same games)

unfortunately my bios does not have more than 6 options :joy:

could be, but i checked the dust paste and fan.

also could be.... yesterday i did turn on the AC.
but it is a minor difference. (3-4 degrees Celsius)

So problem wasn't present, but now is ? Sound like a defect for warranty ?

My HP has the same CPU and a worse cooling for sure and I've never opened it up in 4 years to dust it off or to change thermal paste. I can manage around 40°C during idle so your temps are a bit far off but not too much in my opinion.
I think your problem lies into the power brick. If it's not from a reputable brand and certified might be the source of the problem.

Have you already reapplied thermal paste?

A store did this for me a few weeks ago.

If this is the case I really wonder what process it could be.
I recently reinstalled windows just to make sure, so things like a virus is not the case i think.
Also yesterday I had the same problem, it was a different game but also one i was able to play without any problems a few mounts back.

If it helps anyone to get the misunderstanding away.

The laptop is my second system, I use it mainly for school and if i have some friends over the play on the laptop.
I have a self made desktop as my main machine.

Did you install the drivers through the Lenovo System Update? And did you have it installed before, while everything was OK?

Also, take a listen to the power brick. It should be humming uniformly. Like a coil whine or something. If you hear non-uniform screeching, crackling or whatever, your power brick is not reliable. Also, you do keep the battery attached while you're using it plugged in, right? Just asking, I know some people who like "saving their batteries" when they're at home...

Apart from that, I've had that power management issue or something where the CPU was making high pitched noises like squealing, because the lenovo power management was throttling it or something. I can't remember how I solved it, I think it was through the power manager software from lenovo.

If its windows 10 it is probably downloading / installing something.
I'll have my poor core m3 just idling on a web page and suddenly it turns into Fukushima reactor no. 4 due to some background process.

I had one of these on my MSI Stealth Pro and got a good 10C off my gpu so I could overclock a little more.

Luke did a review on it a while ago and he liked it.