[Alienware 17R4 / 15R3] - Disassembly + Repaste Guide + Results

@Vasudev Hi, Happy Diwali to you and your family.
I am going for a repaste and repad again. I've already asked dell to send someone over for disassembly and reassembly. Since I've already done this once successfully, I'm sure I'll do the actual process just fine, But I do need advice and I promise I'll follow it this time.
I won't use fujipoly again, even though I have pads left over from last time, I had gotten a few extra just in case.
I am going to use whatever u suggest.
Arctic or Gelid..??
I always use my laptop in an Air Conditioned room so ambient temps and humidity are not a factor.
I do travel but that hasn't caused me any trouble so far.
I always use my laptop on a specially made foldable table which has a lot of high speed fans.
If you can suggest something for the PCH mod, I'll be really grateful as I wasn't able to do it last time.
Can you please help me??
Thanks.

P.S. @iunlock If u can reply, I'd really appreciate that. I've thanked you multiple times for your amazing tutorial and work on this. I thank you again. I really need some help here.


Edit 1 - I also found something called a Graphite Thermal Pad https://www.amazon.com/Innovation-C...ad/dp/B07CK9SHZG/ref=sr_1_7?crid=8EMTLOGBFET3
Is this any good..??

Edit 2 - I found this https://www.amazon.com/Coollaboratory-Liquid-Thermal-Compound-Syringe/dp/B001PE5XAC?ref_=ast_bbp_dp
Is it better than Conductonaut..??

 

Thanks for Diwali wishes!
Gelid or Arctic should be fine. You can try standard paste because Dell can void warranty if LM destroys Mobo!
Even @custom90gt can share his LM vs Traditional paste on non-OC laptop where he found LM just performed 4-5C cooler than traditional paste.
For PCH mods ask @c69k or @rinneh or @Rei Fukai

 

Hey guys, i have this laptop for about an year and when i bought it i knew that sooner or later i will need to repaste it. I dont remember what temperatures i was getting in the beginning but while gaming it never went lower than 90s on CPU then i decided to go with thermal grizzly liquid metal and it helped a little bit (temps went down but while gaming they always stayed at higher 80s) but couple of months later ive started seeing 90s again with thermal throttling. I thought maybe i made a mistake applying liquid metal and reapplied it (even couple of times) but it never helped. At first i thought to change thermal pads too but ordered only one fujipoly extreme 120x15x0.5 but it wasnt enough ( i didnt know at that time how many pads i would need).
Not sure if it will help but ive decided to replace all thermal pads and looking at my specs will i need to put them exactly like in first post for 17 R4 gtx 1070 configuration?

Can someone please suggest what im possibly doing wrong?

Laptop Specs:
Alienware 17 R5
17.3" QHD (2560 x 1440) 120Hz
nVIDIA GTX 1070
8th generation Core i7-8750H 6 Core - 12 Thread processor - 32GB DDR4

 

Hi, I believe that your dies are not making good contact with heat-sink, aka the thermal pads are too thick or too hard to compress.

My advice is buy Gelid pads (my favourite) or Arctic pads and make sure that after you put the pads ON, the dies make 100% contact. Then LM will take care of the rest.

Every laptop is different so measure/fit pad thickness manually.

Good luck.

 

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. Yes i was thinking same thing but im not sure if stock pads are going to show me correct thickness because they probably dried out. How do i make sure that dies make 100% contact?
Ive bought Gelid extreme pad 40x80x1 (only thing that i found available at this moment) and ordered thermal grizzly minus pad 8 15x120x0.5 (are those bad?).

 

You are welcome!!

You bought good pads. As for the thickness...pads come with protective plastic films. Put a pad on a MB component, place heat-sink above and see. Do it pad by pad.

After all pads are 'fitted', screw heat-sink on, and see if you can move any pads with tweezers.

Press (visual check) or tap (sound check) with finger on HS directly above each die, to see how good contact you have.

If bad contact, try manually pressure-flatten problematic pads, or use a thinner pad where applicable.

Remove heat-sink, look for pressure marks, remove protective films from pads, put LM and enjoy.

Try bending HS arms my 2-3 mm upwards for better pressure.

After a few hours of gaming pads should settle/flatten by HS pressure and heat leading to progressively better die contact with HS.

Make sure the pads around processor are fit precisely. Failing to do so you risk

1. core temp. differences = pad(s) are thick. Usually cores 0, 2 (4 core CPU) , + maybe core 4 (with a 6 core CPU) get hotter than the rest of cores IF PAD ABOVE PROCESSSOR IS TOO THICK .

2. insufficient mosfet (black chips) cooling leading to down clocks to 800 Mhz = pads make no contact.

Let me know

 

Hello,
So i did repaste job on my laptop with Liquid metal and changed all thermal pads and temps droped about 10C (idle was about 60 now 50 and while gaming CPU was throttling at 95-98C but now its still throttling at 90-92C) so what you normally expect after repasting with liquid metal? Should thermal throttling stop completely?
Can you guys open the pictures and see maybe im still doing something wrong?

 

your cpu thermal pads are too thick. for the gelid pads to work you need at least a copper shim, dont mess with liqui dmetal if you arent experienced in repasting.

 

How do you know that they are too thick? Those pads are 1mm thick and i chose them because stock pads were 1mm as well.

Update:
Just did 5 minute CPU stress test with Intel Tuning utility and CPU stayed at 75-78C with no thermal throttling. Does this mean that my repaste job was successful?

 

75C during the intel stress test is not good if you use liquid metal metal because the GPU itself isnt stressed. You have to test it in a demanding game.

I know it is too thick because based on your photos the imprint is fairly deep on the cpu pads (and use gelid or arctic pads only. YOu seem to have mixed them with fujipolys? THose are fairly hard. BUt the 17R5 has not enough pressure from the top CPU arm to press 1mm pads down. But 0.5mm pads are slightly too thin so a 0.3mm copper shim between those (And dont use LM in that situation) should yield you better results than this.

 

There is no imprint in photo because i did that before applying heatsink. Grey ones are Gelid extreme and others thermal grizzly minus pads (1 and 0.5 mm). So you suggest to just get regular thermal paste and use it?

 

ah okay, on the third photo it looks like there is a solid imprint in the middle of the mosfet pads so I thought you re-used those pads and replaced the rest with the Kryonaut pads (which are rebranded fujipoly's btw).

But yeah for just the CPU only stress test with LM you should sit below the 70c at least HOw are the differences between the indivdual cores?

 

I will try to disassemble laptop later and see if there any imprints and any pads are too thick. I replaced all stock thermal pads as most of those were dried out.

Difference not really noticeable i can see about 3 degrees sometimes but most of the time 1-2C.


I will probably try to lift upper arm on CPU heatsink to see if i can get a bit more pressure.

I would love to give laptop to someone to do this job for me but in my area i highly doubt that i will find professional who can do this job correctly. So im stuck with myselft here.

Thanks a lot.

 

Hmmm that complicates it, so no real core differences which would suggest the contact is like it should. But on the other hand the temps are quite high for only a CPU load with liquid metal.

 

Im not sure about that. See attached picture of IETU while stress test. Maybe it can give you more information.

 

Could you use a proper gaming benchmark isntead? Because XTU isnt the heaviest of benchmarks and it doesnt add the geforce heat to the heatsink.

 

I ran stress test on 3dmark and here is temp graphs image.

 

Cant see a lot here, also the combined test is the only moment where both are really active but it is short. It needs to run for at least 5minutes for both the CPU and GPU.

 

Yeah i know but its called stress test and i tried couple of other benchmark tools and they only test CPU and GPU simultaneously for only short period of time. I will try to find something else and see if i can run it i bit longer.
Thanks .

 

So here is stress test with both CPU and GPU utilization 100% for 5 minutes.
CPU temps stayed at 80-84C and GPU at about 78-82C. There was no thermal throttling but power limit throttling activated within first 20 seconds lowering CPU frequency from 3.8 to 2.8 GHz.

 

Hmm i see indeed, teh temps itself are okay, I dont know what you ambient temperatures are. They arent great for the clockspeeds, but I guess that the 6core CPU's in laptops at work these days. Try a less undervolt on the CPU to check how it affects the power limit. MIght be that the voltage is too low for your CPU to boost.

I would expect a bigger drop from Liquid Metal, but if your room is a solid 25c or higher it might be okay. The AW17R5 is a notorious hot laptop.

 

Yeah my room temperature should be about 23-25 i guess. Temps might be ok but the only thing i wanted to know if i did repaste job right. After that i can start playing with voltage.
Would be interesting to see other users temps after liquid metal repaste with this laptop. I have Alienware 17 R5 with i7 8750H and GTX1070i.

Thanks a lot for assisting ive got a lot of knowledge from that.

 

Anytime, the big test is how long it lasts, if the temps stay stable than you can know for sure it will be good. If they start to go bad quite rapidly after a couple of weeks then it is probably the liquid metal paste drying out because there is an airgap. But the overall temperature difference between cores is pretty good.

 

i did liquid metal on my 17R4 (1080/7820hk) a while ago, temps are in the 80° (was up to 100° before), core differential is 4-5° max, but i suffer huge stuttering and i suppose this is due to my thermal pad. Do i need to repaste with LM if i am opening the beast to change pad ? thanks !

 

I would clean up old LM, leave the stain on copper heat-sink and just smoothen it, then I would fit the pad good, make sure dies have good contact. Putting new LM is always a good idea as a part of its chemical formula merged with copper heat-sink and also there is dust and also it is less risky to fit a pad good when no LM is present during the prcess of fitting.

 

Ok, thanks, i'll do that

 

Is there anyone who uses their re-pasted liquid metal laptop in a on-the-move kinda way?
I'm always bringing my laptop to work and setting it up there, then shutting it down and bringing it back home in my (very bumpy) car (due to high spring rate Coilovers and lowering) and then setting it up there again, repeating the process every workday.
I'm just concerned about the LM leaking off the CPU/GPU chip and short circuiting something, so I'm considering whether to do up the dams or not. =/
So i'm just wondering whether anyone else who very frequently carries their laptop around has any experience with LM.

 

I just opened my LM 17R4, it rarely moves from my desk, but i had few drops that was on the scotch around cpu and gpu. I beleive serious bumps would have spread it everywhere. I would not recommend in your case.

Envoyé de mon ONEPLUS A6000 en utilisant Tapatalk

 

Definitely no LM if the world shakes !!! I use LM but I never take laptop out. See, the dam would 99% protect components around dies, BUT not that LM will stay on dies, resulting in sudden core temperature differences and/or high GPU temps.

One day I learned my LM lesson good. I was moving laptop from one room to another room (high_AF__\|/_) and the laptop decided to hit the door frame lightly. WIthin one day I noticed having CPU 5C core differences and rising and I had to open. There was a 1 cm LM liquid happy line shooting off CPU core, luckily it stayed on the green part of CPU. If I waited any longer, any movement (even turning laptop sideways) would make my laptop short.

Here is a taste of LM doom:

 

Thanks guys. Decided it'd be safer to use Kryonaut when I do my repaste. =D

Would rather do without any short-circuit issues.

 

Regarding your concerns about the safety of liquid metal thermal interface material, yes applying anything metal conductive to a piece of electronic equipment has its risks, but we have a proprietary means of application to prevent leakage. Also, you can rest assured that any upgrades that we perform will be covered under warranty. Regarding its long-term effects, we have been offering liquid metal thermal compound for years with no ill effects or reports of issues from users. On the contrary, we found liquid metal thermal material to be more effective than traditional thermal interface material over the long term. When done correctly, it will last for years, unlike non-conductive pastes.

 

Like Donald wrote, LM is great given a proper treatment. My only concern with LM is copper heatsinks, as it will diffuse into them over time creating a Cu Ga alloy. Now the alloy and discoloration in itself isn't a problem, the LM drying up is. From my experience you need to treat copper heatsinks until they are fully saturated by LM. And even this can take a few applications in order to reap the full benefits.

Ideally you would have nickel-plated copper heatsinks paired with the nickel-plated copper IHS. This is probably the best combination when it comes to longevity of the LM application.

 

Hey Donald

I asked because I'll be doing the re-paste myself. Nobody in Singapore does this kind of re-pasting service well for laptops. I have no doubt on your skills, but I do doubt my own. Hahaha.

 

I actually had better luck with IC Diamond then I did with Conductonaut or Kryonaut. I assume my heatsink is just bent and the IC Diamond is nice and thick. IC runs cooler on mine then either of the Grizzly options.

 

Guys im having trouble with getting temps lower. Might be bad heatsink contact just wondering what could happen if i just remove all thermal pads then install heatsink without them and launch the laptop? Just want to see what temps to expect with good contact and to make sure that my trouble comes from bad heatsink contact.

 

People tend to forget that Kryonaut is only rated for up to 80c to halt the drying out process, over 80c it will dry out fairly quickly. It always works nicely the first month in my experience in laptops and after gradually just becomes worse than paste such as ICD7

 

My temps have been far better on ICD then they ever were on Kryonaut for my system, not to mention the core differentials are much MUCH better. I am not saying that Kryonaut is bad for everyone, but in my particular case it wasn't for me. I reapplied Kryo at least 3 times before trying ICD again and have not had to reapply since and temps are right where they were from the get go. I also wasn't able to OC at all with Kryo as the temps just wouldn't allow it, whereas I can actually OC now and temps are still in check. It's more then likely poor mounting pressure, but for my use case it was the clear winner.

 

Even in my systems with good even mounting pressure it was an issue. Once they go over 80c it will degrade in my case. I even tried different batches because so many recommended it to me.

 

How long does LM last with 2-3 hours of gaming per week with temps on CPU and GPU usually hovering in the 65-70 range? In other words, if I just pasted this past summer, when should I expect to repaste? Other than 1-2 gaming sessions per week, probably 4 hours or less of use in windows with temps in the 40ish range...

TIA

 

Hello, after few repaste and a motherboard replacement, my heatsink screws are starting be quite damaged. Anyone can point me out to a usable replacement ? thanks.

 

I feel you man . What i did is got them replaced with new ones from SSD screw wifi screw and there is a lot holding metal frame or keyboard. Just make sure they are identical before using them.

 

+1 to Mog for this. I've used the thermal grizzly options and none of them worked as well as ICD for my 17r4. I'm assuming i also have a warped heatsink.

 

Repaste #1234587522, i beleive i can do it eyes closed...
using LM and artic thermal pad I managed to keep CPU in the 70°, but GPU is going into 90°+ after less than 5mns of 3dmark
Dell replaced my motherboard and i do not suffer anymore from stutter but 90° for GPU and the whole machine is pure madness.
I'm currently using afterburner to reduce GPU mghz, but i would like very much to get a normal behavior !

Any direction ?

 

You most probably have bad die/heatsink contact. Ive had same problem and did repaste probably 10-15 times. My CPU is 8750h and GPU 1070 and i can share what helped me. IMHO First of all you should disregard all guides you find online about pad thicknesses because your heatsink still might be different then you need to check your die/heatsink contact (iunlock used pressure paper but they say its pretty expensive) i did that with thinnest possible layer of cheap thermal paste on both CPU and GPU with all thermal pads removed ( you just screw the heatsink in place and after removing it see if contact was good). If contact good without thermal pads it means that after applying all thermal pads some of those pushing heatsink back preventing good contact. You can "measure" gaps for thermal pads visually while heatsink in place without thermal pads. Now you can put thermal pads in place and check die/heatsink contact again with same method and if contact is bad then you know that pads thickness somewhere is wrong.

Or you can use Iunlock guide for thermal pads thicknesses for your model and check contact and work from there.
For my model i used LM for CPU and kryonaut on GPU. At aida CPU/GPU full load my CPU goes to 75-80C at constant 3.9 Ghz max boost without thermal or power throttling and GPU never goes higher than 70.

P.S.
But remember if you want to use LM you need to make sure contact is very good so you need to use very thin barely visible layer of thermal paste when checking contact. Because with LM you need better contact because thermal paste can fill small gaps but LM cant. That is probably the reason why previous posters had better results with IC diamond because its just filling the gap.

 

ic diamond thermal compound will solve your problem.. Just put a rice grain on CPU and x on GPU.. let the heatsink spread it and that should solve your temp problem.. ^_^ give it a go..

 

Thank you guys, i have ordered now the IC diamond compound, will see...

 

what is the best heat sink part number or version for the 15r3 with 1070, is the 1080 heat sink different?
i currently have AT1JM005ZC0 85w-nv-e1-g2

Ive gone through 3 mainboard replacements plus repad and different paste and can never get the temps to be decent or within a close range with each other.

please let me know if there is a better version that I should search for. I just want to stop overheating while i wait for the new ryzen laptops to come.

Thanks in advance!!

 

so, here i am, back again... i tried to match as much as possible pads with different highs, but i'm sorry to say IC diamond did nothing but worsen the situation

so what i did today was to remove completely all the pads and give it a try with LM only.

Results are the same, so issue is not coming from pads.

CPU stays in 70-75° if i'm doing only OCCT, no matter the duration.
if i'm starting to bench/game my gpu reach very quickly 90° (under 5mns) and stays there until after a while it contaminate i suppose also the CPU

what do you think ? would that be heatsink issues ? would you recommend for a new one ?

thanks for helping again...

 

You need to check if die/heatsink contact is good or bad. If you remove all thermal pads and contact is bad then you probably have messed up heatsink if contact is good then there is something wrong with pads. There is a thread by iunlock where he suggests to bend upper arm of the heatsink at CPU side to make contact better you might want to go through that thread.

 

So, i have finally found the reason of the issue, question now is how to fix... let me explain...

here is a gap between support and motherboard. When screwing them back it was slightly bending the motherboard



I did not screw anymore the motherboard and by magic GPU temps are now in between 75/80°... seems my whole keyboard part is bent