New Legion Y530 keyboard getting warm

Jojo334 · June 26, 2019

Hey I just got my laptop like 4 days ago. The temps weren't THAT bad but while gaming its around 85'c. The first 3 days I didnt notice any heating on the keyboard but now I can feel it when I'm using the numpad. And this isn't under a lot of gaming load just league of legends. Is this a problem with my unit or does every legion have this?

Can anyone with the laptop tell me?

Thanks

gtWyrd · July 10, 2019

Hi Jojo. You might've probably solved your problem by now, but I'll still give you some insight into it since I've asked myself the same question at some point, and judging by your post history you're pretty eager to get a concrete answer.

Before getting too scared about any high CPU temp related issue, just remember the fact that all CPUs have a built-in Temperature Throttle which activates long before you're about to reach any temperature that could potentially do any harm to your components. Temperature Throttling basically underclocks and undervolts the CPU so that it can passively cool itself whenever you pass a certain threshold (for the i7 8750H and i5 8300H is somewhere around 90-95C).

All you need to know so you can ease your sleep at night:

I also own a Y530, not with an i5 8300H though, an i7 8750H. The first time I've tried doing some gaming on it, I was more than verklempt by seeing the CPU Temp counter chilling at 90-95C. After some Googling, I've found out that the i7 8750H max temp is 100C and the normal heavy-load temp for it is around 80-90C. i5 8300H differs by usually being just about 5-10C cooler. There is absolutely no long-term damage risk by running an i5 8300H at 80-90C. The only damage that you can do is shorten the lifespan of the fans, hence they'll always run above 80%.
The Y530 thermal paste is not the greatest, that being the main culprit in these temps. I've repasted my laptop with Noctua NT-H1, my temps dropping by about 15C in general usage (gaming, idle, anything). If you plan on repasting yours, I'll save you the hustle by strongly recommending the Noctua NT-H1. I also did some research on warranty voidance by repasting the Y530 - as long as you're careful as to not damage anything you're mostly good.
You've probably already heard about undervolting the CPU to get overall lower temps. The downside of it is losing performance, but there is usually a sweet spot that can help you cool the overall temps by 2-5C without having a noticeable impact on performance. My recommendation, once again, is to get ThrottleStop and slowly decrease the Voltage Offset and stop right before you get a noticeable FPS difference in games (what you usually want here is to stop getting to the 90-95C throttling point). I'm undervolting mine by -70 mV ,some undervolt theirs by -200 mV. You can download XTU to have comprehensive monitoring over temp and throttling while gaming; you can also use XTU for undevolting, but XTU is generally more of a headache since it sometimes decides not to start-up with Windows or simply reset the values to default.
Using laptops with active cooling (fans) on your lap or soft surfaces is not recommended since you're basically making the CPU run at 5-20C higher -> clogging the fans with lint -> also simmering your balls. Overall not enjoyable, though I find it possible with this laptop to find certain positions that allow the air to flow freely through the fans.
Small tip: pressing Ctrl+Shift+1 on Legion laptops toggles a fan Turbo Mode (100%).

And to answer why your keyboard is getting hot: The CPU and GPU in this laptop are next to each other, both being right about in the middle of the keyboard (the section between the G and F10 keys)

Looking forward to a reply, good luck