Y580 GPU temps!! Calling all experts!!!

I appologize for the lengthy post, but i need to give some backstory to convey where i am now. Ill try not to rant too much and just give the facts. Please keep reading as i do need advice!

I bought my y580 last December as a manufacturer refurb. and it has been quite the amazing machine. I ordered a mushkin atlas 120gb msata on the same day i bought the computer and installed it almost instantly. Clean install onto the ssd went smoothly. I then loaded up some games and started playing like I havent played in years. Unfortunately, this is where the machine started to show its flaws. First off, the touchpad had some dead spots on the far right side when i recieved it. This wasnt a big deal. I usually use a mouse anyways as trackpads kind of annoy me. The real problem appeared when i started looking at my GPU temperatures.

It took me a couple of months to slowly realize the scale of the problem, but i began noticing that keyboard was becoming much hotter than i expected under extended gaming right away. After awhile I loaded msi afterburner to see if i should be worried, only to find my temps while playing diablo III and starcraft were in the mid 80'sC in a matter of minutes. Sill not alarmed, I continued to play away, then I got farcry 3. High 80'sC pushing 90C 91C at times. shortly after, bioshock brought it to its knees hitting 93C-94C. At this point I cant live in denial anymore. I downloaded furmark and ran a 15min 1080p burn in test, but decided to shut it down about 2/3 though because the GPU had reached 97C and had begun to level off but wasnt stopping. I should point out that through all of this i never had any artifacting, freezing, crashing or significant throttling.

Regrettably, it is at this point the end of April (I know, i know I shouldnt have let it go that long.... but life's been crazy). My wife is still in school and had finals comming up, so i had to sit and wait to send the computer in for repairs, but eventually i get it in at the begining of June, being extra careful in between. This is where the fun starts. Lenovo calls me a couple of days later insisting that the motherboard is shot and they will have to replace it. Furthermore, they say that my installing of the 3rd party msata is to blame, so it will not be covered by warranty and I am on the hook for $350 to repair it. Looong story short I argue my way on up the chain of command until I find someone who can make things happen, and they do. I will say that lenovo was actually great throughout this proccess (with the exception of the first service rep. I talked to who just kept trying to take my credit card info) and seemed to do everything they could to help me.

They eventually agreed that the card was compatible and wasnt the cause, saying they would contact me with more information. no information ever came, which was fine because what did come was my computer featuring a brand new motherboard, a new hdd ( they replace the 500gb that came with the system), top cover,and touchpad. Open the box, start it up, and noticed a few things immediately. For one, the ssd is still in the system, but its in lenovo's Rapiddrive configuration. Thats fine, but not optimal. I install furmark right off the bat, and run the same 15 min benchmark. 91C. Better... but not great. I knew I'd be calling lenovo in the morning, but because i cant leave anything be, I did another clean install on the ssd to see if it did in fact change the temperature. About 1/2 way though this proccess it dawns on me that the computer would have been set to "balanced" instead of lenovo "dynamic graphics". Ran furmark again after the install was done (making sure to set the power correctly) and low and behold.... it levels off at 94C!

I now have called lenovo again. They said they would try again, but they'd like me to talk to an engineer first. So i will olbige. He is supposed to call me on Wednesday. In the meantime I will run the computer on "balanced" and turn off Intel turbo boost to keep Temps below 90C. I guess i just need a sounding board to make sure I'm not crazy.

1) Are these temps within the acceptable range? I know i can be a perfectionist and a bit obsessive. If not, what is the acceptable range for this card in the y580? I have had trouble locking down hard figures on this. notebookcheck says they ran furmark and it peaked at 86C.

2) Is it actually possible that my msata did damage the motherboard? and if so, is it safer to use it in lenovo's rapid drive configuration?

3)I was surprised when they didnt immediately offer to repaste the heatsink. Could that be the issue? Is that something I could do myself, safely?

4) Does anyone know of problems like this? and how have they been solved?

5) I should also point out that the 660m will not run on battery. it begins at 450 mhz (or maybe 405, I dont remember), but after about 5 mins throttles down to idle speeds of 135mhz. Is that normal? or does all this point to a bad gtx 660m?

Thank you for reading my rambling. please advise me

 

1. No, ideally below 89c (are you running furmark in tandem with CPU stressing software?)
2. No, configs don't matter.
3. You should repaste the heatsink, and 99% of the time is caused by a faulty factory install or bad thermal paste. Contact lenovo if they allow you to repaste it yourself or not.
4. Yes, happened on my desktop. I installed the heatsink wrong and caused high temps.
5. It is designed to throttle on battery regardless. Use the AC adapter for game/demanding tasks.

 

Always clean your laptop, you would be surprised at how a little bit of dust does to raise temps. As for your case, provided that your laptop is clean, I do advise to repaste. Furmark is not a good representative of temps when gaming but you should definitely consider repasting yourself carefully. It goes a long way.

 

Spoke to Lenovo Tech and they seemed to think these temps are normal, but agreed to repaste the heatsink and take a look at the fans anyway. I really hope this will help. I will post results when the machine returns for people with a similar problem. Wish me luck!

 

As long as your system does not throttle and it functions up to specifications and they assure you it will work, then you will be fine. Hope the best for you mate!

 

Got my system back a couple of days ago, and I'm happy to report that my temperatures have dropped significantly. They seem to stay within the 60's when gaming and I have yet to see it get hotter than 74C despite consistent testing and benchmarking. Thanks for all the help and advice you guys gave me and to anyone seeing high temps on their own y580, make the call to lenovo if you're under warranty. They were very helpful despite the few hickups along the way. Even if you make it all the way to the SWAT Lab, as I did, it'll be worth it for the long term health of your components. Hell, I can even start to think about overclocking now if I really want to. If you're not under warranty, i suggest repasting your heatsink either yourself or at a local repair shop. Thanks for listening.

 

Thanks for coming back and following up with the results. Often times when things go well we never hear how things ended up. Glad they got you running better!