# i7-7700HQ performance and temeprature issues.



## MemeDaddyXI (Sep 8, 2021)

Hi all, I hope this post finds you in the best of your health. I'm a complete noob when it comes to undervolting despite being considerably very knowledgable about PCs and laptops and such. I want to know, what would be the optimal settings for an i7-7700HQ laptop? It's a Lenovo Legion Y520, the issues I'm facing are random lagspikes for no reason and I can't seem to figure why it's happening. The FPS drops from 100+ to 30-ish before going back and it does the same thing all the time. I did undervolt it by -123mV and it worked for a while before it started giving me a Windows BSOD with the error WHEA UNCORRECTABLE ERROR or something as such. So I'd like to get some proper undervolting tips and what number will be the best to start playing around with. Thanks! 



Graphics card is a GTX 1050 Ti. 16GB of RAM.


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## elghinnarisa (Sep 8, 2021)

If its a Y520, chances are its a few years old. In which case, have you cleaned it recently? I have a Y520 myself and i have no issues at all with thermals, as long as I let the fan do its job and it may get a bit noisy after prolonged heavy use. But you really should not have any thermal issues as long as its clean.


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## MemeDaddyXI (Sep 8, 2021)

elghinnarisa said:


> If its a Y520, chances are its a few years old. In which case, have you cleaned it recently? I have a Y520 myself and i have no issues at all with thermals, as long as I let the fan do its job and it may get a bit noisy after prolonged heavy use. But you really should not have any thermal issues as long as its clean.


Yeah, I did clean it recently. I have actually reset it as well, it's running stock Windows 10 and doesn't have any Lenovo bloatware such as Lenovo Nerve Center, Lenovo Vantage etc. I'm very confused as to why this is happening. Undervolting used to work OKish on Windows 10 and Windows 11 earlier versions, it would still have lagspikes but after 1-2 hours which was bearable and they weren't often. Once in every 20 mins or so.  However, a recent update might have broken it or something I guess. It's very confusing.


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## elghinnarisa (Sep 8, 2021)

Well the first thing you wanna do is try and find out if the issue is caused by thermal problems or not, because if they are not well, down to pretty much anything then.
But there should be no need to undervolt anything, since a Y520 should not have any problems handling the heat it generates.

If it is something that occurs regularly, or at least close to regularly, chances are its something else. A service, a program, something doing something in the background at a set interval. 

Does it occur in all games or just some? I know plenty of games that suffer from weird spikes no matter what I do and no matter on what machine I run them.


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## MemeDaddyXI (Sep 8, 2021)

elghinnarisa said:


> Well the first thing you wanna do is try and find out if the issue is caused by thermal problems or not, because if they are not well, down to pretty much anything then.
> But there should be no need to undervolt anything, since a Y520 should not have any problems handling the heat it generates.
> 
> If it is something that occurs regularly, or at least close to regularly, chances are its something else. A service, a program, something doing something in the background at a set interval.
> ...


It's pretty much any game, GTA V, RS6 etc. And it happens everytime. Same pattern, without undervolting, it's constant lagspikes here and there. With undervolting which used to work before, it would have lagspikes in 1-2 hours every 20 or so minutes.


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## elghinnarisa (Sep 8, 2021)

Doesn't really sound like a heat related problem in general, since it would not be particularly regular in that sense. Either way if you had the nervecenter or install it, just turn on the... whatever it now is called, the setting that sets the fans to max speed. Should be impossible to be related to thermals then. EIther way just monitor it with hwinfo or the like. Turn on logging before the next session and see what actually happens when the spike occurs.


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## MemeDaddyXI (Sep 8, 2021)

elghinnarisa said:


> Doesn't really sound like a heat related problem in general, since it would not be particularly regular in that sense. Either way if you had the nervecenter or install it, just turn on the... whatever it now is called, the setting that sets the fans to max speed. Should be impossible to be related to thermals then. EIther way just monitor it with hwinfo or the like. Turn on logging before the next session and see what actually happens when the spike occurs.


Well, with Throttlestop, I noticed my CPU was hitting 100 degrees when it would lagspike. I checked Task Manager and I feel like basically, the CPU was just slowing down when it hit 100 and that's why the lagspikes would come in.


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## Ferd (Sep 8, 2021)

MemeDaddyXI said:


> Well, with Throttlestop, I noticed my CPU was hitting 100 degrees when it would lagspike. I checked Task Manager and I feel like basically, the CPU was just slowing down when it hit 100 and that's why the lagspikes would come in.


Yeah ouch  100c it definitely a problem, the cpu can handle that just fine, but I am pretty sure your laptop manufacturer decided to start throttling at something in the low 90s .
Please share screenshots of TS main interface and FIVR settings, 
If possible a screenshot of when that lag spike happens with msi overlay showing cpu and gpu frequencies and temps


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## MemeDaddyXI (Sep 8, 2021)

I don't have any of that downloaded yet since it's a fresh new Windows install. Will download whatever's needed and get it done.


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## elghinnarisa (Sep 8, 2021)

It shouldn't get that hot, so either its clogged up or if you disassembled it at any point, it didnt go well when put back together. Because the Y520 with the 7700HQ should not have any issues with thermals, neither CPU or GPU. Not even in heavy synthetic stress tests is it a problem. Mine reaches at most 85c with prime95, for gaming, at most 70c after a few hours.

So the issue you have is not one you should look at solving with throttlestop, this is something thats wrong with your Y520.


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## MemeDaddyXI (Sep 9, 2021)

elghinnarisa said:


> It shouldn't get that hot, so either its clogged up or if you disassembled it at any point, it didnt go well when put back together. Because the Y520 with the 7700HQ should not have any issues with thermals, neither CPU or GPU. Not even in heavy synthetic stress tests is it a problem. Mine reaches at most 85c with prime95, for gaming, at most 70c after a few hours.
> 
> So the issue you have is not one you should look at solving with throttlestop, this is something thats wrong with your Y520.


I showed it to this one technician, he suggested a very weird logic that makes literally no sense to me but apparently the GPU is running hotter and since the CPU and GPU share the heatsink, GPU's dissipated heat is causing the CPU to get hotter too.

The simple logic here is that the CPU for some reason is running hotter than it should and now why is that is beyond me. Because it only lags when it hits 100 degrees as that's the limit Intel puts on their CPUs. It dials down the speed which results in a lagspike and thus the temps fall and settle for a bit before climbing back up again.


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## unclewebb (Sep 9, 2021)

Post some pictures of how you have ThrottleStop setup. Include a log file that covers about 15 minutes of gaming. Attach a log to your next post.


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## MemeDaddyXI (Sep 9, 2021)

unclewebb said:


> Post some pictures of how you have ThrottleStop setup. Include a log file that covers about 15 minutes of gaming. Attach a log to your next post.


Can you recommend some optimal settings for an i7-7700HQ laptop? I had it on -123 or something mV.


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## unclewebb (Sep 9, 2021)

MemeDaddyXI said:


> optimal settings


CPUs are unique. If you are going to adjust the voltage, you need to run a wide variety of tests to make sure your settings are 100% stable. 

Where are some ThrottleStop screenshots and a log file? Hard to make recommendations without any data to look at.


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## MemeDaddyXI (Sep 10, 2021)

unclewebb said:


> CPUs are unique. If you are going to adjust the voltage, you need to run a wide variety of tests to make sure your settings are 100% stable.
> 
> Where are some ThrottleStop screenshots and a log file? Hard to make recommendations without any data to look at.











unclewebb said:


> CPUs are unique. If you are going to adjust the voltage, you need to run a wide variety of tests to make sure your settings are 100% stable.
> 
> Where are some ThrottleStop screenshots and a log file? Hard to make recommendations without any data to look at.


Here's a log file, I got a BSOD with WHEA UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR BSOD after approximately 6-7 minutes.


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## unclewebb (Sep 10, 2021)

MemeDaddyXI said:


> I got a BSOD


That tells me that your undervolt is too much. You have a Nvidia GPU that is used when gaming. I would leave the Intel GPU voltage at +0.0000. There is very little to be gained by undervolting the Intel GPU and it can cause overall instability / BSOD.

For the CPU, back up to -100 mV for the core and the cache. Do some testing at this voltage. Not 5 minutes but a few days. Find a voltage where your computer is 100% stable. When you find a stable voltage, then you can bump this 5 mV or 10 mV to -105 mV or -110 mV. At -100 mV, you are probably very close to where the voltage should be.

I would enable Speed Shift in the TPL window. After you do this, you can adjust the Speed Shift - EPP value on the main screen. Setting EPP to 0 will get you maximum CPU speed regardless of load. If you want your CPU to slow down when it is lightly loaded, set EPP to 80.

You have a CPU with a 45W TDP rating. A properly designed laptop should be able to run indefinitely at 45W without the CPU overheating and thermal throttling. Your log file shows that when power consumption is at 25W, the CPU is already up to 90°C. That screams inadequate cooling. Not sure about the thermal performance of your laptop when it was brand new. It is definitely not great now. Have you ever replaced the thermal paste?


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## MemeDaddyXI (Sep 10, 2021)

unclewebb said:


> That tells me that your undervolt is too much. You have a Nvidia GPU that is used when gaming. I would leave the Intel GPU voltage at +0.0000. There is very little to be gained by undervolting the Intel GPU and it can cause overall instability / BSOD.
> 
> For the CPU, back up to -100 mV for the core and the cache. Do some testing at this voltage. Not 5 minutes but a few days. Find a voltage where your computer is 100% stable. When you find a stable voltage, then you can bump this 5 mV or 10 mV to -105 mV or -110 mV. At -100 mV, you are probably very close to where the voltage should be.
> 
> ...


You were right, the undervolt was too much. I have set it to -100mV. Played GTA V for about 40-ish minutes. Mostly smooth with a few lagspikes when the CPU hit 100. Didn't enable Speed Shift but I'll do that too. I believe the thermal paste should be replaced unless the technician scammed me and didn't. I'll get it replaced again.


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## unclewebb (Sep 10, 2021)

I would not trust any technician to replace the thermal paste. If you want something done right, do it yourself. YouTube is full of videos that will show how to disassemble your laptop model. Most repair shops are not using top quality pastes. They usually buy a tub of something at the local hardware store.

Some people get better temps by using Speed Shift. I recommend setting EPP to 80 but you can set this to 128 or higher. If you go too far, this will reduce performance but it is an easy way to reduce temperatures.


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## MemeDaddyXI (Sep 10, 2021)

unclewebb said:


> I would not trust any technician to replace the thermal paste. If you want something done right, do it yourself. YouTube is full of videos that will show how to disassemble your laptop model. Most repair shops are not using top quality pastes. They usually buy a tub of something at the local hardware store.
> 
> Some people get better temps by using Speed Shift. I recommend setting EPP to 80 but you can set this to 128 or higher. If you go too far, this will reduce performance but it is an easy way to reduce temperatures.


I do agree but I'm very scared of breaking my stuff and I don't trust myself around heatsinks due to the certain star-like pattern you need to follow while unscrewing it. Another thing I could do is buy some Arctic Silver thermal paste from Amazon or something and get it replaced by the technician right in front of me.

Roger that, setting the EPP to 80.


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## MemeDaddyXI (Sep 12, 2021)

unclewebb said:


> I would not trust any technician to replace the thermal paste. If you want something done right, do it yourself. YouTube is full of videos that will show how to disassemble your laptop model. Most repair shops are not using top quality pastes. They usually buy a tub of something at the local hardware store.
> 
> Some people get better temps by using Speed Shift. I recommend setting EPP to 80 but you can set this to 128 or higher. If you go too far, this will reduce performance but it is an easy way to reduce temperatures.


GTA V and RS6, 100% stable but lagspikes in between left a lot to be desired considering how smooth and silky it can get. -100mV does the trick with EPP at 80, temps still hitting 100 though.


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## unclewebb (Sep 12, 2021)

@MemeDaddyXI  - The log file shows BD PROCHOT throttling. Why do you still have BD PROCHOT checked? That causes the CPU to momentarily drop down to 800 MHz. That is a good way to create lag spikes.

BD PROCHOT and PROCHOT (processor hot) have nothing to do with each other. If you clear the BD PROCHOT check box, your CPU will still be able to thermal throttle and slow down if the CPU ever gets too hot.

Look at the huge drop in the CPU multiplier when BD PROCHOT throttling happens. This kills performance.
The CPU going from 3400 MHz to 900 MHz is definitely going to be noticed when you are in game. 
The engineer that designed this gets the bone headed award. 


```
DATE       TIME    MULTI   C0%   CKMOD  BAT_mW  TEMP    VID   POWER
2021-09-12  01:48:53  34.00   70.7  100.0       0   96   1.1012   34.3
2021-09-12  01:48:54  34.00   69.4  100.0       0   94   1.0841   33.8
2021-09-12  01:48:55   8.99   94.0  100.0       0   78   0.6320    8.3   BDPRO
2021-09-12  01:48:56  32.09   72.6  100.0       0   96   1.1141   32.2
2021-09-12  01:48:57  34.00   73.8  100.0       0   98   1.0847   35.1
```


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## MemeDaddyXI (Sep 13, 2021)

Turned BD PROCHOT off, played for approximately 20-30 minutes and my laptop just shut down. No BSOD, nothing.


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## unclewebb (Sep 13, 2021)

Were you getting any lag spikes before your computer shut down? I do not see any MHz dropouts in the log file like you were getting before.

Fix the cooling and maybe your laptop will be useable again.

Have a look in the Options window. If you do not see a lock icon on the right side near PROCHOT Offset, try setting that to 5 and press OK. This tells the CPU to start thermal throttling at 95°C instead of the Intel default which is 100°C. Maybe that will help keep your CPU from shutting down. 

The official shut down temperature is not until approximately 125°C. Some CPUs are not comfortable running at high temperatures so they simply shut down.


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## MemeDaddyXI (Sep 14, 2021)

unclewebb said:


> Were you getting any lag spikes before your computer shut down? I do not see any MHz dropouts in the log file like you were getting before.
> 
> Fix the cooling and maybe your laptop will be useable again.
> 
> ...


It crashed again today after 20-30 mins, trying the PROCHOT setting now.


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## MemeDaddyXI (Sep 18, 2021)

This has somehow worked, lovely stuff. Thank you!


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