Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon overheating fix

This video applies to most X1 Carbon's.
Tools needed
- Small phillips screwdriver
- Thermal Paste (I use Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut Extreme)
- 99% (or close to) Isopropyl Alcohol
- 2 Cotton Balls (or whatever you can use to wipe the old paste off)
- Toothbrush or Compressed Air

[@RemoteSynergy]

Hey just letting you know that you should NOT put any thermal paste on the PCH die. You can see an indent in the heatsink that makes space for the PCH but not for the CPU

[@tylern6420]

PCH?

[@nickhlushpenko6330]

@@tylern6420 I have such a laptop and its PCH was not covered with thermal paste from the factory. Later, I googled what it was and it turned out that it should not be smeared with thermal paste so that the processor does not heat it up. The PCH itself does not heat up, so it is without additional cooling.

[@tylern6420]

@@nickhlushpenko6330 then what is it empty weight?

[@manosprotonotarios5187]

I found something similar mentioned online. Mine was without paste from the factory. Are you sure? do you have a proper source stating that the PCH die should not be thermal pasted? Thank you.

[@SalemTechsperts]

Pinning this so people don't make the same mistake. Laptop still runs perfectly fine but I did end up removing the paste from the PCH

[@madsdrastrup]

X1 carbon was so much easier to maintain than my older t450s. New thermal paste and undervolting the CPU made it so much better in actual use

[@John-ln5vw]

What did you use to undervolt?

[@kar1kam1]

@@John-ln5vw throttlestop

[@FVBmovies]

@@John-ln5vwProbably an Intel tool. Look up Intel undervolting tool.

[@Tredok]

Just one note, it would be nice if you mentioned need to remove the heatsink in a X pattern since uneven pressure may just break the dye, mainly while putting it back together. Other than that, thanks for all the computer, sometimes when you search for a teardown or repair guide people just repair one thing and don't show the entire machine open, it's just useful to see where things are and know how to get at them. I commented a video of one guy doing a repair, asked about a different part of the computer and just got "what you see in the video" and well you could not see what i asked in their 480p video, he got quite mad when i told him that i could not see what was not even recorded... Anyway thanks!

[@d00dEEE]

Always use a Joker to isolate the battery from the chassis, as that's only proper.

[@SalemTechsperts]

I’m glad you noticed that, hah!

[@nickfirst7249]

To remove power from the board

[@catbroke1797]

Is this.... THE GREATEST TECHNICIAN THAT'S EVER LIVED?????

[@Slugbunny]

Solid advice, the style and camera work have come a long way in just a year! 👏🏻 👏🏻

[@johnkishaba1462]

this helped alot! thank you for the guidance! brought my x1 carbon gen 6 cpu temp down to 61c from 95c.

[@horiyusuke3527]

I really appreciate to this video, from Japan.❤

[@kitzuru]

The most wholesome technician that's ever lived

[@Batemabeau]

Awesome dude. And funny af. Thanks for the video and the pinned comment admitting the mistake. Computer running much cooler

[@rickballard1715]

You may also notice your laptop gets worse with age, as the thermal paste gradually turns into flakey powder. Eventually, the laptop will not stay on for long during demanding workloads. My X1 Yoga Gen 7 has a TV/external monitor which goes dark for a second, just after boot or login, and again about 10 minutes later. Then it goes dark randomly after that, but nearly always when playing 4k 120Hz video. Lenovo and Intel have tried very hard to reduce the overheating issues, but the exhaust heat still sucks into the fans, and the fans are still too tiny (and loud). Your options to fix overheating issues are: much higher-performance thermal paste, more liberal paste application, after proper surface cleaning (use alcohol), larger radiator-fins on the heat sink, and you could also change out the case's base-plate. Fan curve tweaking, and other bios setting alterations, may prove far less helpful than addressing the root causes, which are very basic, Engineering-101, physical design constraints. A radiant case base-plate would conduct away heat better than carbon, especially it it was pasted to the heat sink, but it would also heat up the air being pulled in from under the laptop. So larger feet would also be recommended. There are also emerging fan/sink technologies, which lenovo could explore, but so far they are mostly in denial about these overheating issues, and have been for multiple generations of this device. The X1 Yoga Gen 8 is almost a downgrade from the X1 Yoga Gen 7, as it uses a mobile CPU to help reduce overheating. I suspect the future X1 Yoga Gen 9, with upgraded airflow, will be released very, very early -- due to Lenovo's overheating issues becoming so infamous.

[@valkyrie9553]

Thanks for that! A quick question:what program do you use to check for heat temperature?

[@snjert8406]

He uses HWinfo and so do I, really cool program and shows you many temp sensors :)

[@woolfy02]

Just ordered a x1 6th gen and hope to atleast give it a clean. Not sure how often to change the thermal paste on them. Thinkpads do seem to be easily repairable, though!

[@woolfy02]

@@AdrianMorales1324xdeee Hello. I'd definitely say get it but, make sure to get the max ram and the configuration you want. (Mine has 16gb max and the ram is soldered in). Everything runs good with my Gen 6 and haven't had any issues with it. Really an amazing well-built laptop. I may move to a different older thinkpad model where you can max the ram out, at around 64GB. Just make sure to do the research on what you need.

[@ekeretteekpo3004]

If you go to an older laptop, won't you be compromisimg CPU efficiency?

[@hamzaaroud8077]

Quick question I dont have thermal paste at the momment and i need to use the laptop so is it ok to use the laptop?

[@amiralidida162]

What do you think about lenovo products in general what do you really recommend

[@Ghazanfierce]

which software do you use to check the thermals of you machines...

[@nhandt64]

One thing to notice that this laptop here appears to be the same one as my old thinkpad, which is a X1 Carbon Gen 6. There are two versions of the fan, one is made in China with holes aligning with the vents on the D side (bottom plate) of the laptop (which is the one shown in the video) while the other one is made in Japan, it doesn't have those holes to suck in the air from the vents on the bottom plate (which I unfortunately owned); it's of course very hot and there's no way to fix that than finding the China made one to replace it. For me I just rather to sell the whole laptop, which I did.

[@alishihade4751]

I bought a thinkpad p16 (core i9 12gen ,128gb ram ,rtx A5500, 2 TB ssd ). IT have only one problem which is cpu over heating so do you have a solution or I have to change it with another modle

[@mirzafawaid]

Thankyou

[@SalemTechsperts]

You’re welcome 😊

[@vx8952]

I don't have an X1 Carbon, yet I'm watching the video, Lets go!🤣

[@huh5950]

I would seperate the battery if not for the fact that theres a single screw I cabt remove abd its too small to grab it with tweezers 👍🏾

[@dethangelishere394]

i dont even own an X1, but im watching this video.

[@skkaaarrrr]

my X1 Carbon isnt overheating but i still watched

[@b_unniies]

holy fuck i thought someone was in my house at 4:45 😭

[@SalemTechsperts]

Back before we had a wall between me and Subway

[@dedar1112]

Great and helpful. I have the (x1 carbon ) i think the 2018 model it gets 50 celsius while idle and gets to hot do you think i need to change the thermal paste or it’s normal for that laptop cuz you already know that the laptop is thin and thin laptops gets hot to quickly. Thx for the video❤

[@SalemTechsperts]

50c Idle is normal, if you stress test the CPU what is the max temp it gets to?

[@gilanggilang9859]

hey I plan to buy that thinkpad gen 6 i7 16gb 256gb ssd 2018 find a price at 435$ is it wroth it?

[@dedar1112]

@@SalemTechsperts actually I didn’t do any heavy things on it but in idle 50c is a little bit too hot

[@dedar1112]

@@gilanggilang9859 mine specs is i7 8th / 256gb storage / 16 gb ram and I bought it for 390$ And it depends on your country/state but yours doesn’t worth it

[@zalii3306]

@@gilanggilang9859 did you end up getting it?

[@malamhari_]

I have this laptop but with the i5 one, never thought it was that easy to repaste the processor since I never try to open it before This really helpful, thanks

[@ksenofobov]

There is a hole in heatsink at the place where chipset is next to the cpu core. There where no thermal paste. If you want to cool that, u should use thermal pad. 0.5mm of paste does not cool.

[@inumitai5345]

wait, how old was this laptop when it was cleaned?

[@trisha5355]

Hey, i just came across your channel and had a reflection, How often should we deep clean our laptops?!💀cause that's some pretty scary stuff right there😂.

[@rahuljohn1475]

+1 Trishaa

[@kevinlatina2165]

Crazy! Don't repaste the PCH!!

[@thedave1771]

Why?

[@escapetherace1943]

Honestly I'm surprised you'd use Kyronaut on a laptop. It dries out way quick, which is fine for desktop users that replace their paste yearly, but a lot less people open their laptops for maintenance. I'd suggest going with mx-6 man, it is close to kryonaut's performance but it KEEPS that performance over time, instead of drying out and losing most performance like Kryonaut does in 6-12 months... That said the tried and true mx-4 is also good and probably has the best proven longevity, in lower wattage laptops that don't really get hot to begin with it's a good paste to stick in and forget about for 5-10 years

[@SalemTechsperts]

I use PTM7950 now

[@escapetherace1943]

@@SalemTechsperts that stuff is cracked. Way better than Kryonaut hahaha

[@nathankim9329]

@@SalemTechspertsPTM7950 supremacy

[@momosbreath9713]

2:06 Why the iGPU don't have thermal paste? Did the factory forgot to put it?

[@SalemTechsperts]

This is a good question. It certainly seems that way. I have another X1 Carbon here that I will take apart and answer you.

[@micaiahweaver1346]

​@@SalemTechsperts Did you figure this out?

[@SalemTechsperts]

​@@micaiahweaver1346 I checked 2 more and none of them have thermal paste on the iGPU. There is a recess in the heatsink where the iGPU is, but it doesn't make contact with it. Very odd design.

[@SalemTechsperts]

I checked 2 more and none of them have thermal paste on the iGPU. There is a recess in the heatsink where the iGPU is, but it doesn't make contact with it. Very odd design.

[@nickhlushpenko6330]

it`s not an iGPU! it`s PCH and it should not be under the thermal paste in this laptop

[@matteparent2468]

this feels back to 2011 lol

[@Dormiyusaur]

just another tip - you're reading HWINFO64 incorrectly. You were reading the "maximum" column when you should ideally be reading the average current, since that's the average temperature your CPU *currently* is.

[@ianboard3555]

Nice, but that seems like a lot of thermal paste.

[@SalemTechsperts]

I even told you it was too much

[@ohmsford94]

dot put thermal paste on the chipset side, it will be just heat more from the cpu

[@myonlylovejesus887]

wont using liquid metal thermal paste be better? they come from thermal grizzly too

[@SalemTechsperts]

Yes, liquid metal would offer lower temperatures. The preparation is completely different though, and requires steady hands and experience or you risk frying your laptop. IMO it's completely unnecessary in this laptop, and it's easier and safer to just replace it with normal paste.

[@tylern6420]

using liquid metal tho is just chasing for a few degrees less

[@abdalazeemal-mashaqba6600]

Liquid metal on laptop that doesn't have dedicated gpu is over kill

[@andysaw9443]

how many hours of battery life after the fix?

[@SalemTechsperts]

Never ran a battery test and very rarely use it for more than 3 hours unplugged. Will definitely help battery life though as the fan won’t need to kick on as high and often

[@andysaw9443]

Thanks 😊

[@filenotfound__3871]

Why does that fan have 6 wires? Another poprietery lenovo bs?

[@louiebaca12]

1:23 Jesus, what the...😂

[@SalemTechsperts]

Guy was screaming lmao

[@felixhofer8217]

Never used a toothbrush in my life 😬

[@inexkecible]

6:18 Coincidentally, my wallet is also usually empty :(

[@johnm.515]

10th gen T15 gets insanely hot

[@SalemTechsperts]

Nearly identical cooling system and procedure. Might be worth it to replace the thermal paste.

[@KhaledTheSaudiHawkII]

@@SalemTechsperts have you gotten around to doing it on a X1C10?

[@johnm.515]

Update: replaced thermal paste on cpu and gpu. All is good soo far. GPU had nearly zero paste.

[@BOSSY_BG]

i didnt use thermal paste in my laptop for 7 years till this day im typing this comment i use a fan i bought with 8$ my pc stay at a good condition :D 49 degree without a fan 98 degree