Beginners guide to thermal compound replacement on the 5672wlmi

With all of the threads about cooling the Acer Aspire 5672wlmi, I figured that I should write a detailed guide of how to go about replacing the compound on the laptop, and successfully cooling it further. I do realize that K8Sniper had a preliminary guide as seen here - http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=74516 unfortunately there is no detailed pictures of the process as well as how to do this. This is my main reason for taking the time to document how to do this process for the rest of the community.

I will be the first say it, so please read it here first. **WARNING** any attempts to follow this guide may void your warranty and break your laptop "if" you do not follow the guide properly. This is not for the feint of heart, or the inexperienced computer user. Please do not come back to me if you botch this process and your computer melts into a crispy piece of plastic and silicone.

Ok with that disclaimer out of the way lets get started!

In order to replace the compound on any heat sink you need several pieces of equipment. Please go through your checklist and make sure you have the following.

Equipment needed
Phillips head screwdriver (medium size)
Artic Silver 5 or equivalent thermal compound
Razorblade
Isopropanol (at least 70% proof)
Q-Tips
A smooth, flat, clean, static free surface with lots of room to work (desk / table / etc.) <-- do not I repeat do not do this on carpet!


The first thing to make sure of is that the computer is turned off, unplugged and that the battery is removed.

The second step is to remove the large cover on the underside of the acer 5672. You will notice that there are several screws, so take your time unscrewing them. Once you take the cover off you will see the internals of the laptop as seen below.



The next step is to remove the 7 screws that hold the heat sink to the chassis. You will notice that there are 4 screws on the CPU, 2 on the GPU, and 1 on the Northbridge. Once those screws are removed, remove the power connecting the fan to the motherboard.

Once the heat sinks are removed you will see the exposed CPU/GPU/NB dies.



Below are 3 pictures showing the Northbridge, CPU, and GPU respectively. Please notice how "clean" they are once you removed the heat sink / heat pipe from the motherboard! Half of the reasons this laptop warms up so badly is the cheap thermal compound used in the heat pipe along with the "tinfoil" cover on top of that (but more on that later).



Take a quick peek at the bottom of the heat sink removed from the laptop. Notice the two tinfoil coverings that went over the CPU and GPU? This was designed to be a "plug and play" feature for when the factory built the laptop. While this is fine for most every day people you will also understand that the CPU die is not directly touching the heat sink so heat is not transferred as quickly / easily out of the laptop (causing it to warm up more).

You will also notice that the GPU had a better adherence than the CPU, notice the ATI symbol in the compound? Just a small thing to notice.



After taking a quick peek at the setup and the shape of the heat sink lets get that nasty stock compound off of the heat sink and put some fresh stuff on there.

Below are the tools needed to remove the compound, clean it, and apply some fresh compound to the laptop.



The first thing to do is to take the razorblade and slide it horizontally to the surface of the heat sink. The goal is not to "dig" into the copper surface but to take a single pass over the copper to remove as much compound as possible. Worry about cleaning the copper with the alcohol later, you could possible damage the heat sink by "pitting" it if you dig into the copper.



Now that the aluminum and default compound is off of the first 1/2 of the heat sink repeat the process with the GPU.

After the compound is off of the heat sink it's time to bust out the alcohol and some q-tips. Take the alcohol and pour some into the "cap" of the container. This is more than enough to clean the surfaces of the heat sink as well as the motherboard. Now dip the q-tip into the solution and apply it to the three areas of the heat sink that need cleaning (CPU / GPU / NB). This process can take some time, so have some patience. Also you will go though several q-tips so have plenty on hand.



After the heat sink has been cleaned, now it is time to turn your attention to the cpu / gpu / nb dies. To clean these grab a fresh q-tip and a touch of alcohol and rub in circles till these are "spotless". Notice in the pictures the reflection of how clean these are? The focus on the camera lens is above the picture it's like a mirror. *note* obvious thing here, but don't use the razorblade to clean it, just incase you thought about doing it.



Now that you have cleaned both parts of the computer it's time to apply the compound and reinstall the heat sink.

Take out your artic silver 5 or equivalent compound and use a tiny amount equivalent to 1/2 a piece of rice. Here we can see the compound applied to the center of the die's on the CPU and GPU. Remember to use the zen rule here less is more. If you apply to much compound you could cause more harm then good! Too much compound causes a buffer and traps heat instead of transferring it to the needed components (a.k.a. the heat pipe).




After the 2 die's have been prepped dap a tiny amount to the bottom of the heat sink as well. This allows both components to have a solid connection when it is applied finally.



Here are a few more pictures of the CPU / GPU to show you the amount applied.



If you want more directions on how to properly apply compound check out artic siver's site with a guide - http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm . I do mine a bit differently due to practice and what I’ve found best, just make sure it's fully covered and you'll be fine.

Now that both sides are applied with compound carefully place the heat sink back onto the motherboard in the correct location so that you do not bump / move / spread the compound to any other electrical components of the motherboard! This compound will conduct electricity so be careful so you don't short anything!

Here we can see that I simply placed the heat sink back onto the motherboard without screwing it down (don't just screw it down by the way, read the proper way of doing so below!)




I took the time to check my work and see if I had enough compound on the CPU and GPU. I got the proper amount on the CPU (I actually got it perfect) but I needed a bit more on the GPU. Feel free to dab a bit more if need be. You will notice in the picture below the "reflective" mirror like finish in the upper right hand corner, the cleaner you get that surface the better!



Once the heat sink is in place follow the number directions on the heat sink to properly fasten it back down. Notice the 1,2,3,4 on the CPU side? They are across from each other, this will insure a proper install so you don't bend / warp something. So when reinstalling the heat sink go in reverse order. No matter what you do just please reinstall them correctly please! (snug tight is fine) Also don't forget to re-attach the fan!



With everything sung and secure you are all set! Please remember that new compound takes 1-2 weeks of normal use to "settle" and work to its maximum potential. With that go get yourself a beer if you are over 21, if not go get something else



Now simply re-attach the back plate, reinstall the battery and call it a day!




I hope you enjoyed the guide and found it helpful / useful incase you do decide to do this! I would suggest it if you want lower temps, but if you are an average every day Joe I would advise you to do it with caution or find someone with some experience who has done this before. Overall I've found lower temps which is great, if I went the next step and added heat sinks to the Southbridge chipset it would be one more line of defense in cooling this sucker.

The final and most likely best step is to develop an APCI control program for this laptop so I have control over the fan speed as well as how much it runs at certain temps.

Until next time

--ssx--

 

Great guide for newbies to this stuff Couple notes:

This is not for the faint of heart or people who are not delicate! You need to be very careful doing all this. It is easy to chip CPU cores, bang things around, and generally break things, so be careful, and always think before you move or do anything. It could be a very expensive mistake you make.

Isopropanol may also be sold as Isopropyl Alcohol. Do get a high concentration. You want to use Alcohol so it evaporates completely from the surfaces you clean. Water will not, and oil-based cleaners will DEFINITELY be bad. Make sure that the parts you clean are also completely dry before you apply the Artic Silver. It won't take much time, but you don't want to trap moisture or alcohol with the paste.

Like he said, REMEMBER TO REATTACH THE FAN. I have seen more people bitten by forgetting this as they're excited about getting it back together. Myself included

It's not so important that you reattach the screws in opposite order as you make sure you tighten down opposite corners first. That allows it to be attached perfectly straight. You can also go in-order 1-2-3-4, or 4-3-2-1. It mostly just needs the pressure distributed across the screws, rather than all on one side of the chip.

Great pix, btw.

 

excellent guide i was hoping someone would do this as i am runnning into heat issues and i am going to do this, and add some heat sinks to the southbridge and the other chip under the touchpad. thanks for a great guide.

 

I think it would be useful if someone were to follow the guide to post before and after temps. This would in my mind determine if it is worth doing.

 

The real benifit is not the overall temps you will have in doing this. This is due to one main reason.

#1. The ACPI control system built into this motherboard will only turn the fan on AFTER it reaches 55C and turns off only after it reaches 50C. If I was able to control the fanspeed I would achieve lower temps than the stock compound.

I have noticed cooler temps on the rest of the motherboard and parts of the laptop. The reason being is that the CPU/GPU/NB now have better connections and heat transfer. This means the heat leaves the case and now goes out of the laptop instead of into the other areas getting it warmer (which people complain about when it comes to the touchpad, etc. etc)

Overall I say it is worth doing on any system you own. I build all of my own desktops from scratch and never use OEM or stock parts in the builds (especially when it comes to the heatsink). I tend to use 3rd party parts to achieve proper cooling and lower overall idle / load temps on my systems.

Real world benifits I have seen are that the laptop does not get as "warm" as often, and that I have lower load temps when gaming. Again this is due to better heat transfer and cooling by the compound on the heatsink.

--ssx--

 

i will be doing this i have just ordered the arctic silver5 from newegg and should be here in a few days. i will post before and after temps for those who would like them. i will also be adding heatsinks to the southbridge chip and the other one that gets hot.

 

Thanks, that will be a big help to people who are thinking about doing this.

 

yeah anytime

right now my idle temp is 48-55C and at load i cant get it to go over 60C
the fan for me turns on when it hits 55 and shuts off when it goes back down to 48C and it keeps repeating this cycle.

 

Out of interest to the poster, how much did your temperatures drop by after the AS5?

 

did you mean me or someone else. if you meant me i havent added the AS5 yet im posting before temps.

 

As mentioned previously, you will not notice any dramtic drops in temps UNTIL someone writes an APCI control program for the fan. This computer runs PASSIVE on the heatsink and fan until it reaches 55C then it runs till it hits around 50C. If you can control the fanspeed to run whenever you will see DRAMATIC drop in temps.

With the AS5 I notice the same basic temps, the one difference being I have better heat transfer out of the PC. The fan does not spin up as much as a result.

--ssx--

 

I meant to the original poster of the thread.

I put some AS on my CPU a while back but didn't notice any difference in temps. Obviously I'm running a different CPU but the cooling system looks very similar, only difference is my graphics card does not have a heatpipe going to the main heatsink, it has a block of fins that is by the ventilation port.

 

I was wondering if you noticed your CPU has T2300E etched on it...hope you got the right chip!

 

I did not noticed this, however my pc still runs @ 1.6ghz which is stock for the 5672. I did not take the time to peek @ this but thanks for the heads up! ^_^

 

"The T2300E was later introduced as a replacement for the T2300. It has dropped support for Virtualization Technology."

If you did get the E chip with your 5672, I'm wondering where ya got it from. If you got it from newegg...they owe you 50 bux.

edit: AYE! I have the T2300E too! What's going on here?!

 

T2300e and T2300 is basically similar in performance. and if you're not a business, doesn't matter. Acer bios doesn't let you adjust VT anyway.

 

sorry to bump old threads.. just a question..

what about the NB? do we just leave it?

 

I left the NB intact as it was, the reason for this was that there was a "pad" on it and if I removed it I would not have been able to fully cover the die on the NB with the heatsink. Hope this clears it up

--ssx--

 

hello, i am doing the instructions for this because i have problems gaming [cs 1.6]. whenever i am gaming, the laptop will just shut off, im assuming because it overheats, because if i put the cpu speed on slow or medium it wont shut off, only when i put it on high or max it does...

anyways, i have the exact laptop model as the thread starter, with the exact thermal paste, and i followed the instructions exactly, then 15 minutes later i try to game, and 5 minutes into the game it shuts off, twice... i dont think it helped =[

 

i may have spoke too soon though, because im sure it takes time to sink in, after it restarted twice it hasnt restarted again and feels relatively cool, stay tuned!

 

hi there fellow 5670series !

While I was looking to replace the RAM by a stronger version, I looked around underneath the chest of my aspire. I noticed some black sticker kind of thingie sticking in front of my fan. My fan couldn't suck any cold fresh air and it really overheated sometimes. I removed the black foliage and my laptop hasn't ever run as smooth as it is now. I wonder if anyone else has noticed this kind of fawlty behaviour? A loud fan for example, or extreme heath blowing on your mouse hand. All this is diminished by pulling of the sticker. It could result in more dust getting inside the fan, but if you've onced opened it, you'll do it again I guess so cleaning the fan when you open the laptop again is but a small deal.

Anyone comments on this? or anyone else that has noticed it?

 

Thanks for the guide!!!, just installed new T2600, at first temps were around 100 oC, but after i applied thermal paste, they dropped about 20 - 30oC!!! thanks!!!

 

yeah.. this didnt work for me.. laptop til shuts off

 

Okay I give up. =[. I'm running out of ideas... nothing seems to be working, even a manual to applying thermal paste to fix my exact problem on my exact laptop model. I even had someone help me lower the voltage of my processor or whatever yesterday, to see if that will lower the temp, but to no avail. No matter what I do, when I open up CS.. the temp gradually makes its way up from 60-70 C to 95-100C and proceeds to shut off the laptop at the worst possible time.

I'm thinking about buying parts and building my own desktop... someone told me that it'll just be 255$ + monitor if I do it at newegg, although I'm not sure because I don't know anything about hardware, especially how to put it together.

 

Okay, I think I improved the heat. It is too early to tell, but maybe I lowered the heat enough to solve the problem altogether. What I did was remove a plastic film that was on the inside part of the cover on the bottom of the laptop. It had a large square black plastic film cover that was covering the ventilation where the hottest part of the laptop was. I just took it completely off, and now my laptop is at least 15-20 C cooler.

The problem was that my laptop would make its way from 60 to 95C and then shut off without warning. Now it stays around 70-80, it hasn't gone above 85. I've had CS on for a couple hours and it hasn't shut off, it usually shuts off every 15-20 minutes. It's still too early to tell though, but I know I've improved it for sure, I'm just hoping it stays that way.

 

I have an aCER Aspire AS5002WLMI , The fan runs all the time, Speed fan says the cpu temp is 60C.

Will this proceedure work on the 5002?

 

I just recently used this guide to replace my broken fan with a new one I bought online (thanks! It was very helpful).
That was about a month ago, but now my computer has a new problem. It was running fine (the fan running better than ever) when I left it alone for about an hour, came back and it was frozen. I restarted, came back to it a few minutes after restart and it was frozen with a ton of error messages (one from the ED power loader or whatever it's called). Now I can't restart normally, only in safe mode or with the majority of my startup programs/windows services disabled. For a while I could access the internet in safe mode, but now I can't.
Here's the weird part though: When my computer starts up, it begins to load Windows, but freezes slowly. First the mouse skips, then freezes, then the keyboard won't work and by that time holding down the power button might not even work - I've had to remove the battery just to turn it off.

I did a ram test and everything seemed to be working, virus test came up clean. I'm afraid it might be my cpu or motherboard. I've run Core Temp since I installed the fan and it never once went above 81 degrees that I saw - usually it was 65-75. Could I have installed it improperly and damaged my cpu? I'm almost certain now that this is a hardware problem and not a software problem.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Just waned to say that I recently did the artic 5 compound, added 5 heat sinks and cut out a small piece of the fan unit in my 5672 laptop and what a difference it's made... i went from 190F temps down to 140F while playing WoW with graphics turned up on the x1400 card..
now thinking of upgrading the processor to the T7200 core 2 duo 2.0ghz

takk

 

I'm glad you enjoyed my review, I'm still using my 5672 after 2+ years.

I just had to replace the fan though, it just went after being on nearly every day for 6+ hours (i use it for work)

 

Never mind, got the whole cooling module. Followed instruction on the ac5 replecement. Also did ksniper tut on modding the case, but I think I will close the cut in the fan casing and bottom intake, as the laptop gets quite hot in the place I mounted the heatsinks.

 

Hey SSX4life, awesome tutorial on the application of AS5. However I'm running into a slight problem. I cannot get the back cover off LOL. I'm not sure what I should do as to remove it. I removed the 6 screws on the back cover, but It just wont come off, it's able to slightly lift off at the point with the opening to use your nail to remove the cover. I have tried a bit of force to remove this, but I'm afraid that it will damage the cover.

Is there a trick to removing the cover? or does it just require alot of force. It was coming to the point where the plastic was bending a bit. I do not believe i have missed a screw. Thanks alot.

Oh btw, my version has the x1400 video card rather than the x1600, but all other specifications are similar. I believe they look exactly the same.

 

Yeah, awsome tut indeed. about the cover; just lift it up. Do not worry, it quite robust and should not brake. If you look at the bottom cover you should find there a small cut in, about right size to put nail in there. Pray it in and then up. There are to "hooks'' keeping the cover firm in place even with the screws removed. One is on the outer side (left, if the front of the laptop is facing you), second one is in the center on the right side. Think about it as you would need to bend the middle part of the cover up, in the banana shape so the both sides can slip out.
Hope it helps.

ab

 

I'm glad you guys are still enjoying my guide(s). Man this guide takes me back....A lot has happened since I posted this almost 2 years ago.

Got married
Bought a house
Had a kid
etc. ^_^

To answer your question you will notice towards the front of the laptop on the underside has a small "dip" in the plastic. You are going to want to put a flathead screwdriver in that spot and gently pop the plastic up (don't torque it to the side or you might damage the plastic)

Also make sure the battery and AC power are both removed prior to doing so. Just remember that yes, the bottom cover will come off... it just takes a bit of coercement

 

Hey dude, do you still use your 5672?
Mine is working perfectly now (after recent heat sink module replacement and addition of T7400).

Small question here: Did you finally remove the plastic cover from the fan intake? After removing mine (and doing small incision in the fan casing forcing it to blow inside the laptop) I was idling at around 47C, and 61~63C at full load, (HDD 47C and very hot touch pad and chip under it). With the plastic back on and the cut covered: idle= 53C, load= 74C!!!, HDD= 36C, cool touch pad and the chip.

Despite hot touch pad I decided to uncover the intake as it seems to bring the overall temperature down. Any suggestions on this issue?

 

no doubt about it, the laptop runs warm.... especially considering the equipment stuffed inside of it.

I never did do a hard mod to my laptop (cutting plastic / etc.) and it's been just fine.

48-52C idle (this is what the acpi is set for in the bios and is hard coded) I'm not worried about my temps, I stay below 68C on full load for gaming and with proper ventilation it's just fine.

As mentioned previously I did have to buy a new cooling unit for the laptop recently, but considering the fact that it's almost 3 yrs old and I've used it every day for 6+ hours at work and home it's long past due.

I did however notice that my cpu temps SLOWLY increased as my unit started to fail or not cool properly. Your higher temps might also be attributed to the T7400 you have installed. /shrug

Either way yea it's going strong still after almost 3 yrs. I have no plans on upgrading to a different unit any time soon, and I know that Windows 7 runs like a champ on it.

--ssx--

 

I think I found golden middle. I covered the half of the fan intake (I used anti-electrostatic bag and electric isolation tape). That way I managed to keep chip under the touch pad cool as there is some air going over it before it is sucked into the fan and there is enough cold air taken directly into fan to keep CPU and ATI Chip in decent temp. threshold during the load.



HDD 38C
CPU idle=48C 100%load=69C

This forum is great. Internet is great. I like

 

Did you test it? How about the drivers, can you use Vista ones?

 

Hey guys, thanks alot, I was able to get the cover off and I am now in the process of applying some AS5, I was wondering if it is necessary or better to apply AS5 to the Northbridge and the gray box aswell? This would require of course to remove the pink thermal pads.

 

keep the north bridge in tact, as well as the small pad to the left of the CPU. Just the CPU and GPU get replaced.

As far as Windows 7 I've been running it in VMware and it's solid. I know it'll run great.

 

Good to hear that it is capable, I hope not branded drivers will work...

 

Left the pink pads on, and everything works great stays around 50 on idle due to the bios fan configuration. I've just recently bought this laptop used and looking forward to prep this laptop up. gonna try the thing's done in k98sniper's thread.

Was wondering, what is everyone using as their Video Driver? I'm currently using 6-11, and I've tried higher ones such at 8-10 --> 9-2 yet they cause major graphical problems such as discolouration and forced 4 bit colour (oh the uglyness). Can anyone suggest the best video driver to maximize game frame rates and performance? Thanks everyone

 

Get the answer from the horses mouth on this one ^_^.

I've been running the Omega drivers and they are great. Get them here - http://rapidshare.com/files/203871379/rad_w2kxp_omega_38252-_Guru3D.com_.exe.html

Total of 10 downloads available, after that it gets axed. Guru3d no longer hosts this file btw.

 

Another bumpy lol.

I was wondering if you removed that tinfoil you were talking about in the guide. My 5672 (AWLMI model with T2250) is suffering major heat problems during games so i'll apply some good thermal paste (probably the new MX-3) too soon and un-dust the heatsink.

Any more tips to cool it are welcome too .

 

I removed it partialy, check few posts below for the screenshot. First try opening it up, blowing the dust away, get diecent laptop cooler. You can also consider playing with the bottom cover taken off - mine was runing coolest ever when I took mine off. Or get some AC5 and hard mod it for better air circulation - you will find good tutorials on this forum.

 

I already have a laptop cooler for a few years now lol.. But the reason I was asking is that in the other thread (the one with hardmodding stuff) people do stuff and later undo it so its a bit confusing *what is good*. I've also seen the ramsinks on the southbridge and the other chip. Sounds like a good idea but couldn't find the chips on the net (I live in Europe btw).

EDIT: oh and i've been running windows 7 natively since the beta, it runs great!

 

Check post #36 for the picture of what I did with the fan intake. I also installed copper heat sinks on the southbridge and AS5 on the CPU and GPU. You need to experiment a bit but most mods are simple and can be reversed. Good luck.

 

On a side note... if you replaced your thermal compound and the temps are still creeping up or the system is running "warmer" you might want to look into getting the fan replaced.

I replaced mine this spring and it helped RIGHT away and the change was night and day.

I'm glad to see people are still getting use out of this by the way.

 

Im glad you still react to such an old thread of yours . But yeah i'm gonna put some AS5 on my laptop with your guide this evening and I think that the fan/heatsink will also need to be cleaned from dust and stuff...

Will post temps afterwards, they currently are 50-60 degrees celsius IDLE. When playing battlefield 2 PC shuts down after like 10 minutes. 30 minutes when using the high cpu speed in the ePower app.

 

While you have the cooling assembly out manually spin the fan. If it feels even a little bit heavy or sluggish (doesn't spin freely) it is time to replace the unit.

This model laptop should idle at 48-52C and cap out at 70c while playing games (granted with proper ventilation)

Best of luck

 

OK, I finished applying the AS5. First results are very good its 45-50 idle and in battlefield 2 (just 15 minutes) it almost reaches 60 but haven't heard the fan spin up yet! Also I didnt put my notebook cooler on. Tomorrow I have a lan-party so we will see how it holds up .

Many thanks for your tutorial, even after all these years.

PS. Temps were measured with Core Temp 0.99.4

EDIT/UPDATE: The lan party is over and my laptop passed the test! No shutdowns, while gaming temps stayed in between high 50's and high 60's degrees celsius and I hardly used my notebook cooler (the fans). Touchpad did get VERY hot but for me thats not that much of a problem.

Thanks again for all the great tips