Lenovo Legion 5/5 Pro/7 2021 Discussion

Had the same issue but on the 7i 11980, and it was my left speaker that sounded muffled.. I tried opening the laptop and re-seating it but nothing. I tried different drivers, disabling/enabling Nahimic, and a bunch of other things.. what ended up "solving" it for me was this:

- Removed Nahimic software, and removed Nahimic drivers. - reboot
- Installed Equalizer APO (look up how to install and use)
- optional: install PEACE Equalizer for a nicer GUI for the APO app
- Reboot
- Open Peace (or regular APO equalizer), and adjust the levels..

My speakers are both working perfectly, louder and crisper than was ever possible with the Lenovo/Nahimic setup.


TLDR: Think it's a software/driver issue

 

Thanks a lot for posting this. I’ll try this too and report back!

 

Wonder when we may see alderlake cpus make there way to laptops .. maybe intel are focused on manufacturing alder lake over tiger lake hence the stock issues. I know both CPU’s are on 10 nanometer but makes me wonder if it’s worth waiting for alderlake

 

If trend follows previous generation then you will see the U series chip first, maybe launched close to the desktop series, then H series mobile chips later in Q1-Q2 2022.

Worth the wait? Maybe, but it will take a lot of application optimization before the benefits of these processors will be realized.

 

Exact same model and same issue. I’m getting the speakers replaced tomo. I’ll let you know how it goes.

 

Simple optimization guide (AMD Ryzen)

A Disable CPU Turbo
When Turbo-mode is disabled all CPU cores run @ 3.2GHZ which will reduce power consumption & drop the temperatures up to 10C (in performance mode).
On the plus side of things the power savings on the CPU will be utilized (more) by the Nvidia GPU.
The RTX3070 mobile chip for example will almost constantly draw 140W while gaming.
When the CPU turbo is enabled the wattage on the GPU will occasionally drop to the stock 125W and will only boost to 140W under certain conditions.
So the CPU performance loss will vary per application, in GPU heavy loads for example there will be almost no (noticeable) performance loss because your GPU can draw more wattage.

Turbo mode on your Ryzen CPU can be disabled through modifying the Power settings in the Windows registry.
Before we start messing with the Registry create a back-up first just in case something goes wrong.

Now Open Registry Editor -> Go to: File -> Export -> SAVE



Next go to the registry key to enable Turbo control in your Windows power plan -> Copy below registry key -> paste in search bar and hit ENTER:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00\be337238-0d82-4146-a960-4f3749d470c7



Double click on Attributes -> set value data to 2

Close Registry editor

Now go to Power Options -> pick a powerplan to modify -> click on change plan settings -> change advanced power settings

In Power Options -> Expand Processor power management tab -> Processor performance boost mode -> Set to disabled when plugged in (or whatever you like to change)



Hit Apply and confirm in a system monitor app of your choice whether the clockspeed runs at 3.2GHZ.

B GPU Undervolting
In a nutshell what we try to achieve here is a better balance between performance, temperatures and fan noise on both the GPU & CPU.
From here it’s highly recommended to follow this guide from Bob off all Trades:

YouTube: GPU Undervolting Guide for Laptops!

This video basically covers all information you need to know about GPU undervolting with the Voltage curve editor.

Download and install MSI Afterburner and Heaven benchmark.
In Afterburner press Ctr + F to open the Voltage curve editor.

Below an example on how I’ve setup my profiles.
What I like to do is having multiple profiles so I can pick one which suits the workload best.

1 Flat 0.700V
Up to 20C drop


For Photoshop and non-demanding games I like to use the 0.700V profile because I don’t need the full performance of the GPU.
This will keep the temperatures on the GPU & CPU nice and low and also reduces fannoise.

2 Cap 0.750V & 0.800V
Up to 15C drop




Profile 2 is what I call the sweetspot of my machine in more demanding titles the GPU voltage will be around 0.800-0.835V.
If you look closely to profile 2 (0.750V) & 3 (0.800V) the Core clock on my device is only 30mhz slower but the voltage is 0.050V lower.
For only a slightly slower core clock I will get much better temperatures and less fan noise while having an almost unnoticeable performance loss.

4 Cap 0.850V
Default temperatures




Profiles 4-5 are more or less OC profiles where the GPU will boost in short burst to higher voltages.
Pushing the GPU to these maximum’s will result in higher temperatures and more fan noise.
Still you could cap things at some point to keep some control over the acoustics.

C Fancontrol
Use at own risk this community software allows users to lock the fan speed:

https://www.legionfancontrol.com/

When you’ve disabled the CPU Turbo mode and undervolted your GPU you could use, if you have enough thermal headroom, slower fanspeeds.
My suggested target temperature on CPU/GPU would be around 80C for both.

D Additional power saving settings

Lenovo Vantage -> Thermal mode -> Quiet

Fn Hotkey -> Set display to 60hz -> Fn + R

AMD Radeon Software -> Settings -> Display and disable:
• AMD Freesync
• Vari-Bright

 

They replaced the speakers and now it works fine. They left the old speakers for me to keep as spares lol. First time I’ve had an old part not being returned after a repair. The repair process was smooth. I raised the ticket on Tuesday and they fixed it within 2 days.

 

A --> Run as Administrator:
powercfg -attributes sub_processor perfboostmode -attrib_hide

No need to mess with registry.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

 

That's great to hear! I raised my ticket well over a week ago and it tells me the replacement part is on order, and that it won't be ready until December this year. Are you US based (I am)?

 

The repair date for my Legion 5 Pro's trackpad changed practically daily so I wouldn't rely too much on what the status website says. In all, it took a bit less than a month for the part to arrive and the work to be completed.

 

If anyone needs stock paste that came on the 2021 Legions (not sure about previous models) this is it.

Paste - Honeywell PTM7950SP phase change silicone grease
The thing about the paste though is you have to let it cure for 15 hours after applying before you put the sink back on.

That why I bought Honeywell PTM7950 phase change thermal conductive sheet.
Its the paste in a sheet you can cut to size and put on the die or the heat sink. If you ever had to buy a new thermal module it comes already applied on the heat sinks.


At first I thought it was stuck to the inside of the bag but it has plastic on both sides you can peel off. Sheets are .2mm thick and that one is 40x80mm.

It brought my temps down a lot, from this on Wolfenstein 2


to this


The temps were much better when I first bought it but I had the bright idea of repasting to make them even better .. no. This stock paste seems to be the best unless you want to use liquid metal. It is also not easy getting this thermal module screwed down so the heat sink makes perfect contact.


You can see the screws aren't in the greatest locations. My temps would be lower if I could get that process down. The good thing about this phase change paste, it gets hard after you apply it and let it cure, or is already hard if you use the sheet. When it gets hot it melts and helps even out the mounting or heat sink imperfections. When it cools it gets hard again.

 

No, I’m not US based. I hope you get your replacement part sooner.

 

Thank you for testing this. Did you happen to use it on the GPU as well? If so, any improvement there?

 

Yes I put it on the gpu too. I can't really remember what it was before but its always been good. If I go by afterburner its usually in the high 60's under load. HWInfo maxes about 72.

 

Good to know, I am not sure if it is the same with the non Legion 7 laptops as that appeared to be normal (very hard) paste on my teardown. I did notice a substantial difference with the Legion 7 paste as noted in my comparison.
Interestingly the thermal conductivity is the same as MX-4, slightly less than Arctic Silver 5, but from my experience thermal conductivity numbers do not tell the entire story.

I agree, for the Legion 7's leave the paste alone.

 

Hi alll. I am having a issue. Couldn't find any solutions on web. So here it is. Got my legion 5(5600h-3060) couple of weeks ago. I always used in dGPu mode. Recently I had to use it in iGpu mode. But I realised some strange stutters. These stutters occur at random times. Like after a playing session right clicking the desktop makes a stutter or randomly clicking the speaker button from tray makes a stutter or clicking shut down makes it. My laptop came with freeDos. I only installed drivers from windows update and vantage. Couple of my friends had this issue too. I also tried to install w11 drivers but didn't help. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!

 

I've seen people with the same problem posts everywhere with different model legion 5's. There is a 41 page thread about it on Lenovo's forum. I haven't seen a real solution though. Some seem to think it is a dgpu driver issue conflicting with hybrid mode.

 

This seems to be an issue with Optimus laptops in general as people who use other brands are reporting similar behavior. Someone on the Eluktronics subreddit has a possible solution that's certainly worth a try:

Max-15 has a weird OS level stutter... do Driver updates for hardware come through the windows update process? : eluktronics (reddit.com)

 

Thanks both @saturnotaku and @Atma . As you mentioned its worth to try. I will keep you posted if it works. I am planning to install w11 on release date. I will do the mentioned way.

Also I've read the entire thread at lenovo's forum but there is no solution.
Thanks for quick replys.

 

For XMP on the AMD units, Lenovo representatives suggest registering interest on their forums. I created a thread for that here : https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Gaming...-RTX-3070-XMP-support-coming-soon/m-p/5101324

 

https://www.3dmark.com/spy/23152780



https://www.3dmark.com/pr/1240587

 

Great scores! Can you wring anymore out of that thing?

 

I’m not sure.. “I’m giving it all she’s got captain”

lol

 

Here's my best attempt on a 5800h / 3080

https://www.3dmark.com/spy/23171921

Some way behind your Intel system though !

 

Legion 5 5800H + 6600M benchmarks:

https://www.3dmark.com/spy/23225050

Sadly its 30% slower than the 140W RTX 3070 and 12% slower than the 130W RTX 3060. Yet the pricing at Lenovo is not great as there are usually better deals to be had for the RTX cards in the Legion 5 or Legion 5 Pro. They also have their only quick-ship model configured with 32GB of ram, 2TB of storage and Windows 10 Pro which makes it quite a bit more expensive than other models even with discounts.

The good news is this model does have a MUX and also still supports S3 standby instead of Modern Standby. The combined CPU+GPU load is limited to 54W + 100W. It would have been great if they made a 135W 6700M variant if AMD had enough supply. The Legion 5 has a more desirable style and feature set than either the MSI Delta or Asus Strix.

 

Didn't help. Stutters persist. Both DDU'ed amd and nvidia. And then I let the windows update to install drivers.

 

Can you remove the fans of the Lenovo 5 without also removing the heatsink?

And i wonder if the 5800h version have a larger power brick than 5600h?

 

Guys, can you help me out, I am wondering if I have the slow stock RAM (2x8GB) on my Lenovo Legion 5 Pro? Here are some useful shots:

 

Yes. It is high density 1rx16 as opposed to 1rx8.
But I wouldn't worry too much cuz your timings are decent with a trfc of 560.

Sent from my SM-G970W using Tapatalk

 

Hello. I am new to Lenovo. Couple of questions:

does the ryzen model with 3080 support egpu?

does it has ips screen?

What is the wattage for the 3080?


And lastly, how thin and heavy is this?

 

No Ryzen laptops support eGPUs because they don't have Thunderbolt connectivity.

Yes.

Full specs are available in this PDF straight from Lenovo: https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sy...on_7_16ACHg6/Lenovo_Legion_7_16ACHg6_Spec.pdf

 

Darn, so it has to be intel CPU, yeah for egpu?

 

FYI, the prebuilt 7i with i7 11800H and 3080 is live again, ships by Oct 8. Placed my order. Hopefully this time I'll get a non-defective screen.

 

Are the defective screen common?

 

I don’t think so. I received one that had a cluster of dust specks in the center of the screen that combined were size of 4-5 pixels.

The order I placed earlier today shipped already and will arrive on Friday, got tracking number. That was lightning fast, these prebuilt models are the way to go, IMO.

 

Has anyone owned/purchase Muskin Essential? What is the manufacturer? Mine show Avant Technology but I though it suppose to be Micron? And mine doesn't want to go 1600mhz only 1574mhz.
Installed it on Legion 5 Pro 5800h




edit: wrong ram speed

 

Here are a lot of Legion 5 Pro and 7 topics. It's in German, but most of it can be understood with the Google translator.

- HardwareLuxx-Forum: Legion 5 Pro & Legion 7 - Optimization, RAM, Overclocking, Undervolting, Repaste, Mods (translated via Google)

 

I have the HyperX Fury CL20 and it actually down clocked to 1463MHz (2933MHz) but CL19 which results in a better trfc of 514 vice the 560 when running at the higher 3200MHz at CL20. Yours might be doing the same thing as it could be providing better real world results.

Sent from my SM-G970W using Tapatalk

 

From what I have seen on the Legion 5 the bus clock tends to hover around 99mhz, so memory clock will never reach 1600mhz at a 16x multiplier. I would not worry about it, as the timings and frequency that is being used appear to be correct.

Mushkin Essentials is a good brand, it was tested by a bunch of reddit users last year when the Ryzen 4000 mobile series laptops initially hit the market and the same results carry over to the Ryzen 5000 mobile series. From what I understand, Avant gets memory IC's from Micron, then manufacturers the memory module, and labels it is as Mushkin brand.

 

I've used Mushkin Essentials RAM with my former Legion 5 Pro and the Eluktronics Mech-15 that I'm going to be returning, and it's performed flawlessly.

 

Why are you returning the Mech-15? I have the equivalent to the MAX-15, while it's great there are little issues. The major one is that the laptop 9 times out of 10 will not sleep when I want it to, I'll need to fully shut down. Happened with my old Asus G14 as well, likely an AMD issue. I'm Intel all the way again for the time being, for a variety of reasons. Eagerly await delivery of the 7i tomorrow.

 

Anyone else installed Windows 11 yet? I have and I like it.

The only issue I have is that the Alt mode for the F keys isn’t working. I need to reinstall some software maybe.

 

I got it 2 or 3 weeks ago when I joined windows insiders for the beta. I like it. Only problem is with Bitdefender. If I leave the firewall on sometimes I get 'can't connect to server' on random webpages. Bitdefender support told me it was fixed now. Not.

 

The sleep issue is likely a bad driver causing modern standby to fail. Luckily all of the legion laptops use S3 instead, so they generally work ok, AMD included.

 

The sleep issue is one of them. The screen on mine has horrible backlight bleed and a stuck green pixel right in the middle; the fans have a high-pitched whine even under moderate load; and the laptop lacks USB-C charging. The latter point I knew going in, but not having it made me realize how much I actually used it with my Legion 5 Pro. I'm probably going to grab one of the non-Pro L5 models that's on sale for $1,299 from MicroCenter. I can't justify having a $2,000+ laptop when I've been using my M1 MacBook Air so much.

 

Sorry to hear, you likely got a lemon. The fans on mine are fine and low pitched, and screen is actually good. Total lottery. I went through two L5s from Microcenter both had dead pixels. Not to mention the difference in build quality between the 5 non Pro and 7, it was drastic I felt. Never tried the L5 Pro but it looks nice.

 

Thanks, I just check it and yeah it is on 99mhz and not 100mhz. Originally I plan on using Oloy but the TRFC number change my mind (and Mushkin is cheaper too)


Some additional observation, using F@H with 230watt adapters the system actually use the battery power so the 300watt is kinda a must if all of the component is used together. Finding the 300watt adapter is kinda hard though in my place.

 

It's not my first poor experience with a Tongfang chassis. I had one of the older Maingear Vector 2 laptops that also suffered from stuck pixels and the wonkiest fan curve I've ever heard. I could kind of, sort of understand the problems with the Vector considering it was only $900 brand new. However, these lapses are unacceptable in a product costing nearly three times as much. I was hoping newer generation models would have better quality control, but that clearly hasn't been the case.

As I said previously, I can't justify having a high-end gaming laptop any more. For the less than $1,500 MicroCenter is charging, the standard Legion 5 pretty much ticks all the boxes for how I would be using it. I just feel like an idiot for having sold my 5 Pro.

 

Agree on defects like these being 100% unacceptable. You can't go wrong with the L5 at Microcenter, it's the best $1299 deal out there. You can always get the L5 and wait for a black friday sale on the L5 Pro and sell the regular L5.

 

Received my 2nd Legion 7i and sure enough, dead pixel toward the right-middle of screen. Why is it so difficult to simply get a laptop with a defect free screen. It is a minor thing in the grand scheme of life, but it is also so infuriating. On phone with Lenovo now to schedule a replacement. Hopefully 3rd time will be a charm, otherwise 3 strikes and I'll be out / done.