Hard drive heats up on Y580.

Then buy a new hdd. If in three years the hdd fails, spend a little money and get a new one. Good reason to upgrade to an ssd. Prices will have dropped even further by then.

Have you ever had a laptop hdd actually fail? I've owned half a dozen laptops and pretty much eveything has failed except the hard drives. In fact I still use a few old drives from previous laptops with sata to USB cables. They still work perfectly.

I can't believe this thread is still going. these kinds of threads are the worst because they make potential buyers freak out about issues that don't exist.

Yes, I realize I'm adding to it

 

I have two issues feeling comfortable applying the google study to the y580 HDD temps:

1) Temperature variance isn't discussed. From the google pdf:

"As is common in server-class deployments, the disks
were powered on, spinning, and generally in service for
essentially all of their recorded life. They were deployed
in rack-mounted servers and housed in professionally-
managed datacenter facilities."​

The temperature variations a google HDD drive would go through during a typical day (at some of their datacenters which are environmentally cooled) would be less drastic and slower then a HDD sitting between a CPU and a CPU which is generally daily getting getting turned off, put to sleep, etc.

and
2) as 000111 mentions failures would likely be after warranty is out.

"What stands out are the 3 and 4-
year old drives, where the trend for higher failures with
higher temperature is much more constant and also more
pronounced."
​

The annualized failure rate (AFR) for HDDs with average temperatures 45+ degrees shoots up to 15% in their 3rd year.


That being said the y580 is a fantastic value for the money. Depending on what you are doing I wouldn't let the HDD temps necessarily deter you from purchasing but I would keep it on a laptop cooler, consider repasting the GPU/CPU, and keep vigilant backups of anything you don't want to lose (but we all do that anyway, right?)

 

Over the years I've had two laptop HDDs die of natural causes but that is out of 12+ laptops many of which were either running continuously for years (file/media servers) or were subject to a lot more movement then your average sit-on-a-desk and game notebook.

 

Syed and Seranis, you are right. I certainly don't want people to not buy the Y580 after reading this thread.

The laptop seriously kicks butt, and I wholeheartedly recommend it. You can't expect a gaming laptop to not warm up a bit, and from what I've heard, the Y580 is actually pretty good against its competitors heat wise.

So buyers, don't let this thread freak you out, I would certainly buy a Y580 again. It is a great laptop.

 

What's an affordable reliable SSD for the Y580?
I don't need allot of room I am fine with 100GB.

 

Newegg.com - ADATA XPG SX300 ASX300S3-128GM-C mSATA 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Any mSATA SSD would work with Y580. You are looking at around $1 per GB.

Good luck.

 

Oh thanks! What a good save!
Thanks again!

 

500 MB/s max seq. write?! Man, that's godly! Then I saw its controller as SandForce . Don't know it if is using the problematic SF-2000, or if it did that it has the latest firmware that fixes the BSOD issue. I'm already happy with my Samsung 830.

 

guys, try this. I am basing this suggestion on airflow design of my current asus laptop.
I experimented to see what the effect would be to open a hole directly beneath the cpu fan. While cpu temps are much lower, everything else in the case is much hotter because there is no air flow.

refer to pic below for this experiment.
First, is there a gap between the fan housing and the bottom case; enough for air to get through?
if so, tape up the cpu fan vent completely. (yes, your cpu and gpu temps will go up a little more)

This will force air to be sucked in through the front vents, cooling the hard drive.

Right now, since the air is being completely sucked in from below the fan and then exhausted right out the side, hot air is being trapped in the case.

If this helps lower your hard drive temps, then you can open up the cpu fan vent a little at a time to try to achieve a balance of airflow in the case.

 

I can't believe this issue is still alive. By the time the hardisk fails, people would have bought a new laptop. My sister's macbook 13" is even hotter than my Y580 and that's the whole chassis, not on any part of the macbook. But it's already close to 2 years and the hardisk is still the original.

 

Bah, it's a bad design that lenovo should fix in future models.

I bought two y580s and I consider the hdd issue to be the biggest issue with the laptop. It should be something people consider in their purchasing decision. Also don't forget that different people have different ideas about how long a laptop should last and given that so few people actually back stuff up a hdd failure causes some people more grief then others.

 

that ideapad.it168.com website suggests that the ?northbridge? chip above the hard drive contributes to the hard drive heat.

look at the mobo. The chip is where the barcode sticker is on that plastic sheet.

if you tape a layer of foil over the plastic, maybe it can shield against the heat generated by the bridge chip.

I will try putting a sheet of foil in the hard drive cavity when i get my y580 tomorrow.

It looks like the hard drive cavity is pretty well isolated from the cpu and gpu. I'm curious how much heat is actually generated.
If you stress test, then immediately shut down and take the hard drive out, you should feel heat on the plastic, if it indeed generates enough to affect the hard drive.

Notebookcheck's review is interesting. the topside of the laptop where the controller chip is located runs almost 10C hotter than the bottom side where the hard drive is.

 

You're lucky that you didn't experience the IDE hardisk era. Backing up files in CDs and DVDs is a common practice in those days. I experience more hard drive failures in that time than today. If people today don't learn to backup their files, then they should learn it the hard way. Even an external hard drive breaks down for no reason whether you use it regularly or don't use it for years. There is also no guarantee that your hardisk will last longer even at 48 degrees.

 

Agree, much ado about nothing.

 

Yeah, I guess that user wasn't using computers all that much during the IBM DeathStar era.

 

There's just no way to keep the hard drive cool.

i played Sleeping Dogs for an hour, and the gpu and cpu were running a cool 72c, but the hard drive shot up to 62c and stayed there.

nothing i do works. i tried taping up the holes inside the hard drive cavity. still heated up to 62.
foil doesn't work either. I can't block the heat coming from the pch chip.
That PCH chip is capable of sustaining over 100C. If it is ever allowed that high, it would cook the hdd.

there's a google study that says there's a huge likelihood our hdd will die within 2-3 years with all this heat.

do other brand laptops have their hdd smack in the middle of everything?

 

I can't believe people are still going on about the hdd.

Here are two perfectly valid options for those who can't seem to move past it.

1. Get rid of your 580 if it bothers you that much. No sense in losing your mind, but we might be past that point for some people.
2. Keep backups of your data so IF the hdd does die YEARS from now, you can simply pop in a new one. IF there is actually a problem and IF the hdd dies after 2-3 years and spending a little money for a new hdd seems crazy to you, then maybe this particular laptop or any laptop was a poor choice.

Or you can just keep beating this horse. It's really up to you.

 

Or how about placing the HDD in the ODD bay? Better yet, place the HDD in the ODD bay and purchase an SSD for the HDD bay.

 

Good call. Forgot about that completely. Definetly a good option for anyone who is willing to give up the disc drive.

 

nope. not gonna give up the bluray burner.

when bd discs drop in price and increase in reliability, that will be my primary backup solution.

it's almost like lenovo threw in the bd burner for free, knowing that the hard drive would likely be toast in short time, and that we'd need a backup solution.


fortunately, i don't game much, and my hdd usually stays under 55c, within mfgr specs.
Occasional 4 hour gaming stints hopefully won't damage the hdd much.

If i'm going to spend money, I'll get a msata ssd and set the hdd to power off during idle.
powered off, the hdd can sustain 65c.

 

Who said anything about giving up the BD burner? You can get BYTECC's usb 3.0 ODD enclosure from newegg for about the same price as a pack of BD-Rs. It burns BD-Rs just fine for me. To be frank, I seldom use an ODD on my laptop, so having it as a portable USB 3.0 powered ODD is perfect for me.

 

Agreed, I think the whole overheating thing is being blown out of proportion. I have one and all I did was replace the HD with an SSD and my temps in real life usage are normal. I typically use a cooler, but in the times when I decided not to use one while vice editing and gaming, my temps were still reasonable. The room that my Y580 is in also gets pretty toasty during the summer with no fan or AC...

Sent from my GT-P3113 using Tapatalk 2

 

@Sachiel There are plenty of free apps/programs/widgets that measure Mac hard drive temps, so have your sister download a free temp app from the Mac App Store and see what kind of temps it's running instead of having feelings of what you think it might be or do. You might be surprised! You can find some free Windows apps to test yours too, if you want.

Also, I have a MacBook Pro and even though it does get fairly hot to the touch, the hard drive temps are very nice, much lower than the Lenovo y580. It's usually 40C and I did my own basic hard drive temp stress test today and it peaked at 46-47C but my room was 80F, which is a lot higher than I normally keep it. It's not a gaming machine but I just wanted to address your comment regarding Macbooks.

I've read a lot of laptop reviews that measure the keyboard, trackpad and case bottom temps but they don't measure the hard drive temp!? That makes no sense to me, since it's the hard drive's temperature and temperature cycling that drastically affects hard drive failure rates, and risks your data! The case might be hot, but there might be ample airflow around the hard drive to keep it at a very good temperature.

Also, my sister and I have had the worst experiences with HP laptops(mine was a dv7t) and I personally will never buy another HP product if I can help it. I get tempted by their low prices but so far I have resisted. The reason I was having problems with my HP was because it was overheating(less than a year old too)!

Another thing. No one should have to buy a laptop cooler for a new laptop! It's ridiculous that the manufacturers make laptops that can't keep themselves operating in an acceptable range. If they can't, then they should include a laptop cooler! or say "Laptop cooler required for intense gaming or it may shorten lifespan of this laptop."

For the record, I was considering buying a Lenovo y580 due to it's very nice specs, price and even looks. I really was impressed by it. But after having a very nice HP fail from overheating I will not buy another temperature challenged laptop.

My question is, what are the temperature ratings on the y580's factory supplied hard drives? My personal opinion is, that if it's exceeding them, then I would not buy it. For me personally, I want a laptop that can consistently keep the hard drive temp below 50C. But hey, that's just me.

Happy shopping and happy computing.

 

^^ hard drives are rated for 55C during operation.

 

60C actually

 

Thanks for the responses. I know most drives are 55-60C range. I just wanted to know what was in the y580, maybe you two have different drives. Also, by asking that question I was giving Lenovo the benefit of the doubt and hoping they had some special drive that had a higher temp rating. ^^

I wish everyone would do a temperature test of these drives under load and then we could email Lenovo in mass if most people were hitting 55/60C+. I would love to talk to their engineering team to see what they were thinking, or if they even tested it under load.

From what I have seen, Lenovo has a great reputation for building quality long lasting machines, and I'd hate to see them lower their their standards and/or quality control. I do think consumer feedback would highlight this situation and let them know lower hard drive temps are important to their customers.

I'm not singling out Lenovo(other than I wanted this laptop and was put off by the higher reported temps) because I think a lot of laptops get too hot for good hard drive health.

 

probably not a big deal.

5400rpm hdd's are usually rated 55c, and 7200rpm rated 60c.

hard drive makers seem to accept that as universal standard.

I already did a stress test of worst case scenario-

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/4189/toastyhot1920.jpg

 

Thanks Link626. I'm not a hard drive expert but 64C is more than I would like. I will email Lenovo at some point and ask them their opinion on this. To be honest I really wanted the y580, as it seems the best bang for the buck of all the notebooks I looked at.

How are you liking it, link626?

 

that 64c is with gpu and cpu both at 100% load.

normally, you won't be running it like that.

when playing games, or using cpu alone, it gets up to 55c.

it's probably ok because you don't run the cpu or gpu 24/7.

 

I found this youtube where this guy took his y570 apart and found no thermal paste had been applied, I bet that was a shocker! Lenovo Y570 No thermal paste from factory - YouTube

I thought, if I bought one I might reapply the thermal paste like this guy did, but it looks fairly complicated:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ide...580-arctic-mx4-much-better-cpu-hdd-temps.html
The pictures on the link he provides are cool. The copper heatsink is impressive. He states that they applied too much thermal paste, and after viewing his photos I'd have to agree with him.

@link626 Thanks for explaining the temps on your stress test.

 

I am debating on getting this laptop and am worried the heat under 3-5 hours of gaming at medium - high settings will kill the laptop as a whole. I dont mind replacing the HDD with an SDD a year or 2 after getting the laptop, but I am worried the gaming will kill the laptop aftr 2-3 year. I plan on using this for 5 years before getting a replacement.

 

Hi, a newb question. Does replacing the HDD into the ODD slot have any downside to the HDD performance?

 

It shouldnt, in fact it should help since it isnt sandviched between the GPU and CPU. I myself use an SSD and have the HDD in storage somewhere. Should probably backup my stuff soon.