If you own a Y510p, you should take a look under the cooling Vent. A large part of the cooling fans are shrouded by unnecessary plastic that can be removed (carefully) to increase their efficiency.

                                                                                                                                                                                                           

The air vent/filter is attached to the bottom cover with 16 little metal tabs that are bent over to hold it in place. Just unbend them and pop it out. Take note of where these tabs go through the plastic, you don't want to remove the filter mounting holes!

Now mark where you want to cut. Protect the bottom finish with tape and start grinding. I covered the ram vent with tape to prevent material from clogging it and marked the location of a couple mounting holes that I wanted to avoid.

The finished result is a beautifully unshrouded set of cooling fans.

 I usually leave the dust filter off because I am using it as a desktop with an external monitor. If it did start to fill with dust, this thing is easy to take apart and any place dust could accumulate is easily accessible for cleaning.

CAUTION! With the dust filter off, the unshrouded fans are susceptible to damage. Install the filter when transporting!

I normally take a very scientific approach to cooling experiments, but I was in a hurry to play a few new games I got and did not record any "Before Temps" but I remember hitting something like 91C cpu before this mod. Now the hottest it gets is 80C(with vent filter off)... Still too hot for my liking, So I wrote the following script to run the "Dust Removal" utility continuously. As far as I know, this is the first time this cooling method has been used on the Y510p. There is no other way that I am aware of (short of hacking into the fan wiring) to control the cooling fan speed. 

INSTRUCTIONS:

Nice mod!

What temperature decrease did you notice?

Cpu temps under full load can still spike into the 80's but on average it sits in the upper 60's - low 70's during gaming, which is acceptable considering its an SLi laptrop! gpu temps are usually in the mid-50's.

ssjmec, I had the same thought about running gpu fans full throttle when I built my first gaming rig quite a few years ago. I overclocked the [kittens] out of it and ran the fan @ 100% to take care of the heat.  Years later my brother has the rig and it's still working just fine at full fan speed. Good fans can outlive a computer, when they do fail, they just get noisy. I have never seen a pc fan just stop spinning.  The program I wrote doesn't actually control the fan, it literally runs the dust removal software Lenovo provides and waits for it to complete its cycle, then it clicks the ok button, then the start button to repeat the process... over and over until you exit the program. The dust removal program runs the fan for about 11sec then off for about 2sec. so its running @ about 85% duty cycle. most fans are rated between 30,000-45,000 hours of service before they become noisy and worn out. @85% duty cycle it would take about 4 years to reach the noisy point. And thats if we ran it 24/7. 

 Your gonna love your laptop! If it gets too hot, just start by removing the filter to let more air in. Like I said, its easy to take apart and clean out the dust.

@ halkun

Hello fellow Portland dweller...Yes, if you are referring to the fan program. As long as it is the Lenovo Energy Management software it should work.

If you mean the unshrouding of the intake fans, take a look at where the air goes into your laptop's cooling system and see if there is any room for improvement.

I see... But, are laptop fans comparable to the traditional larger PC fans in terms of lifespan? Just for the record, my brothers laptop fan just stopped working after a year (HP) but I dont really know why, not that he forces it to run beyond stock speed.

I understand that the script you made was just to enable the dust removal continuously. That's just what I was searching for knowing that you cant really control the fan speed. And I cant wait to try it!

Currently, I am using a Lenovo Flex 14 while waiting for my Y510P. Your script should also work on this machine, right? 

I cant really speak to the quality of fans that Lenovo has chosen for these laptops. If they are poor quality then they will fail like your brothers did. The manufacturer creates the cooling profile to provide adequate cooling for most situations with minimal noise. Noise is always a bigger concern than fan longevity.

My script should work on that machine, as long as the program is named Energy Management, and the dust removal start button uses the same hidden name "DustStart" and after the process completes, an "OK" button appears. Does it look like this?

I'm afraid not.. Its name is Enegy Manager

Link to picture

Well I can just install the same Energy Management you are using. Thanks!

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