Acer 6920g thermal paste

Long time lurker here!
Quick question, looked at some other familiar threads but couldnt get the exact answer i was looking for...

I have a 6920g purchased in 2008 and thanks to Throttlestop I could play many fun games. However, when playing more intensive or newer games, like Mass Effect 2, while performance would be good due to Throttlestop, eventually the laptop would overheat and shut down in about 20minutes. I purchased a cooling pad and the laptop could then run for more than an hour before overheating.

I'd like to try and replace the thermal paste on the CPU with some AS5, which I think is long overdue. To anyone familiar with the 6920g, my question is, can I also apply some AS5 to the GPU as well? Is it the same thing as applying it to the CPU? I understand with the CPU, you can simply take off the heatsink, clean and apply some new paste on top of the CPU, and put the heatsink back on. I've read that the GPU might have a thermal pad or other things to watch out for.

Are there any other spots where I can apply the stuff? Is there anything else I could be doing while I have my laptop opened up?

Apologize for the nooby questions, I simply despise opening laptops. While I love opening up a desktop, laptops seems so fragile and finicky to me!

 

Not sure about AS5 ... some say it's conductive (due to the silver) and might introduce short circuits ... no idea, never tried it.

Thermal pads have better heat transfer, but paste should do, too. I used Zalmans ZM-STG1 and found it to be good, esp. because of the little brush it comes with. This works for both GPU and CPU.

Clean out dust from the fan and vents and grill would be a good idea.

Here's a service manual, scroll far down where shows how to dis/reassemble -> [REMOVED BY MODERATOR]
Good luck!

 

Welcome to the forums, funkdmonkey!
And yes, the 6920G + ThrottleStop is an awesome combination.

As for Arctic Silver 5, that's what I used to replace the stock thermal paste when I upgraded my CPU from a T5550 to a T8300. I used it on the CPU and the GPU core, but don't remove the heatpad that covers the nortbridge! (the northbridge is the chip just above or below the CPU; easy to tell because it's soldered on)

Method is about the same - clean the core with some rubbing alcohol, apply a small dollop of paste, optionally use a plastic card (that you won't need again) to smear it around, then stick the heatsink back on. It's actually bad to have too much thermal paste, so the goal is to have a layer about as thin as a sheet of paper. I didn't remove the MXM card (what the GPU sits on), but it's certainly doable. Might even make application easier.

The CPU and GPU heatsinks are actually combined - both lead into a copper heatpipe which gets blown on by the fan. That means you'll be taking both the heatsinks off at once. My GPU didn't have a thermal pad on the core, just paste. The memory chips DO have pads, but those are under a metal plate and thus won't be moved by your operation.