Where do I apply thermal compound to an Aspire 3000?

I posted a previous thread about my notebook getting very hot on the underside where the graphics chip was. I opened it up today to spray some air around to get rid of any dust, but it still gets hot under there. I was thinking about getting some thermal paste put on, but I am not sure where to put it. The actual bit that gets hot is made of a pale grey and thick metal; it looks like it's a few mm off the circuit board, and has empty sections inside it. On the piece of plastic in the chassis above it there is a sticky white pad which covers most of the metal object.

And then to the right of that there is the copper heatsink.

Where about should I apply thermal paste? Is it on the actual heatsink or on this metal plate near the graphics chip? And if the latter, do I need to take off this pad?

Thanks

 

Pics.

I doubt thermal paste will help. From your description it seems to be designed to let gpu heat out thru the case?

 

the spot you're looking at is the aluminium heatsink underneath where the ram is situated, however i would not recommend changing the thermal pad for thermal paste as the chip located under the heatsink is nowhere near being flat (it has a recessed circle in the chip so the edges are raised). Although you say the area is hot it means that the heatsink is doing its job and that the ram cover is doing its job as a heatspreader.

 

It's not actually the RAM though, someone else previously suggested that, but that's elsewhere. Here are some pictures.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/willcross61/DSC00741.jpg
The bump with a sticker on it is where it gets hot.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/willcross61/DSC00742.jpg
That's what it looks like underneath.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/willcross61/DSC00743.jpg
Close-up, you can see it says SiS to the left of it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/willcross61/DSC00746.jpg
Same thing again from the side

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/willcross61/DSC00747.jpg
And that shows the cover and the white thing is the squidgy sticky pad, but it only covers some of the metal thing.

 

Thats exactly where i mean

Its the aluminium block thats getting hot; underneath there is where your graphics chip is located, its nothing to worry about; all aspire 3000/5000's get hot in this location.