Throttlestopping CPU may damage WIFI adapter in Y500

[jarblatter]

Hey everyone and thanks for reading my first thread on Tech Inferno!

A while back I downloaded Throttlestop in hopes that I could at least get my CPU to maintain its turbo clock of 3.2GHz, which is a whopping 800 MHz boost from the 2.4GHz stock clock.

Anyway, I noticed that after running some benchmarks to test stability (it was stable) that I was downloading things a lot slower. I didn't correlate the two until after a while of trying to figure out what the heck happened and ruled out everything except for hardware damage, then I decided to test it.

After benchmarking my download speed (which was originally 7.4MB/s peak) and seeing that I was getting 5.9MB/s peak, I decided to open Throttlestop again and disable BD PROCHOT again. Then I played Skyrim for about an hour. Finally I benchmarked my download speed over wifi again and I was only getting 2.9MB/s peak at this point.

So, I have essentially confirmed that because of the location of the wifi adapter, it takes a lot of the heat from the CPU. If the CPU goes above the operating temperature of your wifi adapter (not the CPU itself), you risk damaging your wifi adapter. So be sure not to disable BD PROCHOT on your Lenovo Y500.

To be specific, the operating temperature of the Centrino 2230 is 80 Celsius, and the Core i7 is 105 Celsius. So, even though your CPU can get hotter without shutting itself down, your wifi adapter cannot take the added heat and will very likely be damaged in a way that inhibits its performance. It isn't just download speed either, it's upload, ping, and connection stability too.

My system specs when I did this: Lenovo Y500; Intel Core i7 3630QM, Intel Centrino 2230, Nvidia Geforce GT 750M, 8GB 1600MHz DDR3, 1TB HDD, 60GB Mushkin Atlas Value, DVD R/W

[octiceps]

I've never noticed this even though I push my system really hard. BD PROCHOT doesn't do anything on this laptop, you can test it both in ThrottleStop and in unlocked BIOS. Weird.

[jarblatter]

octiceps, when you say, "BD PROCHOT doesn't do anything on this laptop" do you mean that it doesn't stop the CPU from throttling due to heat?

And how do you push your system really hard? Do you have the CPU and/or GPU overclocked? I just want to know because it might help me get to the root cause of my damaged WIFI NIC.

In case it matters, at the time I believe I caused the damage I had my GT 750m OC'd by 135 Core/650 Memory and the CPU would stay at 3.2GHz when BD PROCHOT was disabled (Throttlestop 6.00) as reported by Task Manager, Open HWMonitor, and Throttlestop. The GPU was staying around the 85C range and the CPU was at about the 95C range.

Edit: unfortunately, at the time I had not discovered IdeaFan, for which I thank the creators!!!!!!!!!!

[octiceps]

Exactly, this laptop does not throttle the CPU using BD PROCHOT. The EC is set to disable Turbo Boost, causing the CPU to drop to 2.4 GHz, whenever the GPU exceeds 65C. You can override this behavior by checking 'set multiplier' in ThrottleStop, ensuring that the CPU is always running at 3.2-3.4 GHz under load regardless of temps as long as it doesn't hit its power limits--56W short duration, 45W long duration, and 28s (actually 56s) time limit by default. You'll also notice that checking/unchecking the BD PROCHOT option in ThrottleStop or in the unlocked BIOS menu has no effect.

I am using ThrottleStop to set the 34T (Turbo) multiplier and the CPU power limit is unlocked in the BIOS so it sustains >45W in burn tests while running at full 3.2 GHz. Both my GPU's are also overclocked and overvolted per the settings in my sig.

IdeaFan only reduces temps by a few degrees, sounds like you need to improve cooling beyond that. I've done a few tweaks on my system--dremeling bottom cover to increase intakes, washers on heatsink springs to increase die pressure, repaste using Prolimatech PK-3, cooling pad, and IdeaFan--and now it almost never breaks 75C on CPU & GPU while gaming with 20-25C ambient temps. Some of my mods aren't for the faint of heart, but I would at least repaste if you haven't already done so and get a cooling pad.

[jarblatter]

OK, I must have gotten my settings mixed up, sorry about that.

Nice thermals though, did you add any extra metal to the heatsinks?

I haven't done any mods to improve my thermals, except for removing the dust filter and using ideafan, but, I was thinking of getting some Coollaboratory liquid pro, even though I would have to spread it PERFECTLY in order to preserve the aluminum parts of the heatsink. Do you think it's worth the risk?

Either way, I think it still goes to say that it was the heat that damaged my WIFI NIC, I'm still kind of upset over it.

[octiceps]

Nope, no extra metal. But I added a small thermal pad to one of the VRAM chips on the second card since it was missing it.

Oh yeah, that reminds me. I also removed the cloth mesh but kept the dust cover itself intact. The mesh is just glued around the edges, I ripped the entire thing off for a clean, uniform look.

I think CLP/CLU is too risky, especially on the GPU with all the little resistors/capacitors around the die. And if you have little to no heatsink contact/pressure, a common problem, it'll be useless anyway.