2.5 years later - Vostro

Thanks again everyone for the responses. I can't believe I didn't put the model number (I swore I did last night). Haha, it is indeed a Vostro 1500. I guess I still have a year to learn, right?

I know that they recalled most of those cards due to a bad solder somewhere on the board. I have heard that it is indeed the temp fluctuations that causes the problems. However, I talked to a Dell technician that confirmed that the Vostro did not have the same problem as the others. I wondered why until you mentioned this. The Vostro's heat sink design is just as you described Weegie. The metal "fan grill" on the side of Vostro is actually the GPU heatsink/radiator itself.

 

John,

I am not positive what you are trying to get at. The way that CPU heatsinks work is that whether you put a lot or little, the design of the heatsink should squeeze any EXCESS heatsink solution off to the side.

However, the point I was trying to point out was that either through a failure of the compound (running or application) or the design of the heatsink itself, there was a major flaw. I can post pictures of the old CPU which I just removed showing where there are parts of the cpu core which have NO thermal compound on the top of the core.

 

I agree that putting on the thermal compound correctly shouldn't be difficult but there have been too many reports of poor application of the compound during manufacture (and not just Dell).

John