It's been a long time since I came here.

I've encounter same issue with some of you guys, which is GPU temperature issue. My Lenovo Y480 graphic card, GT 650M, reach maximum of 93C after only 1min stress test by Furmark.

Tested together with my friend Y480 (bought together with my laptop), reach and stay at 80C after 3 mins Furmark. But both laptop CPU temp are OK (around 64C). And the fan functions properly.

So, I assume I need to re-apply thermal paste / compound. I have some knowledge repairing / assembling laptop, and can re-apply the paste on my own, but afraid void the warranty I have left till Sept 2014 (I assume there's a few stickers block the screw inside the laptop).

Lurking around forum and found out about Lenovo Authorize Service Partner at Low Yat: (from this link)

Have someone went there before? Do you think I can go there and ask them to re-apply thermal paste on-the-spot? I need this laptop during weekdays for work, so I can't afford to send for warranty if they need to take the laptop to fix the heat issue (assume they need 1-2 weeks to repair). Or is there any other service center near KL area?

If not, I think I want to 'gamble' disassemble the laptop and reapply the thermal paste myself, while trying to not void the warranty.

This post has been edited by shadowzephyr: Nov 15 2013, 03:18 PM

Sorry for double post.

I tried call the service center yesterday evening, and they said need to take at least 7 days just for simple task which is to reapply the thermal paste (and I'm sure the person I called didn't even know what I'm talking about).

So I got fed-up, and decided to do this myself.

And after the first time disassemble this machine, I'm now happy with my current temp, maximum is 72C. That's 21C lower than before!

I replace the previous thermal paste with XIGMATEK Freezing Point G4718 (this is the only paste I can get yesterday evening near Bangi area ), but quite impressed with the performance.

Here's a few photos of my self-repair:



And here's the result, before and after (Furmark screenshot):


I'd say, the result is quite impressive.

This post has been edited by shadowzephyr: Nov 16 2013, 02:11 AM

Haha cannot la, I'm quite busy already

Yeah, every time I feel like that whenever need to repair new model of laptop for the first time. After that, I didn't scared anymore. No more worries when another laptop (that I've opened before) arrive.

You just need to break that 'barrier' first.

For this Y480, I'm using Hardware Maintenance Manual for primary guide, and another from this link.

The place that I'm a bit afraid when opening this laptop were keyboard, touchpad / main switch connector, keyboard bezel and motherboard. Other than that, no worries.

I believe my favorite is Arctic Cooling MX-4, but I'm actually using various brand (just because I can't get the same brand everytime I came to shop ). I remember using Cooler Master one a lot (forgot what model) and a few others.

Like I said before, the one that I used currently for my Y480 is XIGMATEK Freezing Point G4718. I'm quite happy with the result now. Difference around 20C is more than enough.

Again, sorry for double post. (I feel like want to create a new post whenever I want to tell another thing)

I tried running stress test longer than before, and found out the maximum temp is actually 76-77C. Sorry guys. I still think this is quite ok.


And friendly reminder: there's one LENOVO sticker inside the laptop (just like I predicted) that prevented us to take out the keyboard bezel. I don't know if you guys get the same one.


I tried to remove the sticker carefully, but failed. The sticker split in two, so when reassembling, I put it back together, hoping that technician didn't found out (if I need to send for warranty anyway).

If my case same with yours, please proceed with extra caution, only if your warranty is still valid. I hold no responsibility for voiding your warranty

Haha thanks Well I have experience repairing laptops before. That helps a lot when tearing up my Y480.
(and my field of work is IT, I'm working as software engineer)

For the first time, yup sure take longer than normal. I take around 3-4 hours to disassemble, cleaning, re-paste, and reassemble back. But after this, sure take half the time (around 1-2 hours at most), because I already knew the trick. Maybe for your case take even longer.

A few rule of thumbs (that I can think of now, it's currently 12am and I'm a bit sleepy ):
- make sure to find as much resource as you can (manuals, FAQ, guide step-by-step with picture, and/or video from YouTube)
- make sure to read everything
- prepare the tools
+ small screwdriver with both philips and standard one
+ small magnet that put together with screwdriver, to helps pull the screw easily
+ towel to prevent your laptop from scratch
+ small case to put all screws (if can, have a case that have many pockets to put screw with different size)
+ camera (capture everything / every phase, to help trace you back in case you forgot, especially screw placement)
+ notebook (optional, to write / remember anything / plotting the screw location)
+ vacuum cleaner and / or blower
+ small brush

For re-paste, you need thermal paste ofc, and cleaning kit (if you haven't, face tissue will do, just like me ). Some thermal paste doesn't provide something to flatten the paste, so maybe you need to find that. Unused card will do.

And the most important, guts! (have some courage / confidence!) But don't just do rashly, disassembling laptop is way delicate compare to PC. Some place in laptop you can use force a bit, and some you can't. This need experience, so good luck with that.

Wow, thats... hurt. Where you send the service? Maybe that helps a bit for another user to avoid the service center if possible.

This post has been edited by shadowzephyr: Nov 18 2013, 12:53 AM

-- double post --

This post has been edited by shadowzephyr: Nov 18 2013, 12:51 AM

No problem. Hope this helps.

Every computer shop can help you upgrade that. You can even do it yourself, because its easy. I mean, seriously. Just remove the battery and power cord, remove the screws at the back (9 total), and you good to go.

Haha sorry, I don't have much time nowadays. Too much work, even at home.

Yeah extra screws, happens a lot with me before. It just because we didn't take note of every phase of disassembling. Just take picture / follow the manual carefully to get rid of this problem.

Yeah, seriously. You can refer the before and after Furmark test. Before the repaste, my Y480 reach 93C easily in just 1-2 mins. Now, I can even ran Battlefield 4 (1920x1080, low setting) from 6pm - 12am yesterday and the maximum temp it reach was only 72C for whole 6 hours (average was 65C).

Well I kinda assume that result. Because for Y480, normally GPU temp should stay around 70-80C maximum. My friend Y480 (that bought together with mine) reach maximum of 80C, while using stock thermal paste.

Yes, just like you said, maybe the previous thermal paste used by Lenovo to my laptop is not a good one. They might even use the cheapest paste in the market. The thermal already dried up completely, and I can see they just 'taruk cincai' the paste to both CPU and GPU.

So I conclude my Y480 reach 93C before was abnormal case. Above 90C is definitely not normal. Normal case for Y480 will reach ~80C, so if we re-apply the paste, it should down to 72-75C (5-10C difference, just like you said). I prefer MX4 also, but I think both MX4 and Freezing Point should show identical result.

Edit: I forgot, I believe the fan (for my case) also affecting the temp. Although I ran the Fan Dust Extraction app regularly, I still can see there's some dust clogged between the tiny space of the fan blades, so I vacuum all.

This post has been edited by shadowzephyr: Nov 18 2013, 05:37 PM

Ah, I forgot about that. Sorry.

Well yeah, assume that there's warranty sticker that prevent you to opening the back case. So, you have to go to Lenovo centre, or else your warranty will be void.

It's just that I received my laptop that didn't have any sticker blocking my Y480 back case. So I can upgrade my RAM / HDD / mSATA myself easily without scared of voiding warranty. I assume everyone here same with me. If this is same with you, so you can upgrade at the nearest (and cheapest) shop available.

A single 4GB 1600MHz DDR3 RAM might cost you around RM120 - 140. Maybe more, maybe less. I'm referring the pricelist at Viewnet Low Yat here: http://viewnet.com.my/downloads/viewnet_diy_pricelist.pdf

Make sure to ask them for a 1600MHz DDR3, not 1333MHz. I'm pretty sure your current RAM is 1600MHz one, so you should take the same clock speed. Well it's not a problem to take the slower one, but your overall RAM speed will be reduced (of course performance also) because both will follow the lowest speed. I'm telling this because my Y480 seller also did the same mistake (and I forgot to check), so I need to went back to his shop to swap the RAM.

Agree with zuhaili87, assuming the reason because McAfee run file scanning in background that causing your apps and right-clicking runs slowly. Also, maybe there's a lot unnecessary start-up software running in background, but you can disable that easily using CCleaner. Also, maybe Windows 8.1 problem, for example here.

But yeah, maybe the HDD is the culprit (like Gregyong said). Try using chkdsk first (or any other harddisk health check program, eg TuneUp Disk Doctor) to prove it. It's unlucky for you if you receive the bad HDD.

Your laptop specs is so powerful, it should perform better than you expected, not the opposite.

This post has been edited by shadowzephyr: Nov 20 2013, 07:36 PM