T410s Gaming Issue

[sungchiy]

Hi, I have a T410s 2901-CTO with 8GB RAM, 128 SSD, and i5 M560 @ 2.67GHz with switchable graphics.

About three months ago, I found that this laptop was no longer capable of playing games like counter-strike or running TV emulator. What happened was that while I am in the game, at first 2-3 minutes it seems smooth and works fine. Then the fan area starts to heat up very badly which causes the game to freeze or very hard to move. When it was worse, it just auto shuts down. I have my switchable graphics turned off (only running discrete).

Recently, I brought my laptop into lenovo's service, and they did clean my fan and says the problem is now fixed after their 3D benchmark application; however when I got it back and started testing. It probably lasted about 10 mins then same behavior happens. Has anyone had the same issue and how did it get fixed?

Thanks in advance.

[PeterTWJ]

Hi sungchiy

From what I know, most of the time, when they change the fan, they never clean and reapply the thermal paste, therefore it could possibly causes overheat. Without a proper thermal pasting, the heat from the CPU would not be able to properly transfer to the heatsink.

I encountered it with my refunded W510, overheating issues even after Lenovo Engineers changes the fan thrice.

1. I would suggest that you ask Lenovo Service to clear away the old paste and replace it with the fresh thermal paste on both Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU chip. If not, they would most likely change another fan and the problem may keep going on and on.

2. To have a cooler machine while gaming, get TPFanControl and set it to Manual Mode - 64. End the program from the taskbar after finishing your gaming / heavy task as prolong maximum speed of fan may causes earlier wear and tear of the fan.

Cheers 

Peter
(Current: W520 4284-A99) (Refunded: W510 4876-A11)

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[andyP Community SuperMod]

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PeterTWJ wrote:

From what I know, most of the time, when they change the fan, they never clean and reapply the thermal paste, therefore it could possibly causes overheat. Without a proper thermal pasting, the heat from the CPU would not be able to properly transfer to the heatsink.

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When the fan and heat sink assembly is changed the old grease is cleaned away, they don't apply thermal grease because the correct amount required is already applied to the heat sinks before it's packaged as a spare part.

I have never applied thermal paste to a fan, rather only heat sinks

[PeterTWJ]

Hi andyP

I am not sure then, as I could remember the surface and CPU is perfectly clean even after uses, installing and removing. Maybe W510 are using invisible / transparent thermal paste?

I can see very clearly for W520 for both the CPU, GPU and heatsink surface, they are using grey thermal paste.

Cheers 

Peter
(Current: W520 4284-A99) (Refunded: W510 4876-A11)

=============================================
Does someone’s post help you? Give them kudos as a reward, as they will do better to improve 

Mark it as solved if the solution works for you, so it could be reference for others in the future 

Dolby Home Theater v4 (ThinkMix V2)!

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/W-Series-ThinkPad-Lapt​ops/W520-Sound-Enhancement-Thread/m-p/451401#M155...