Re-Pasting GPUs in M17xR2 - Teardown Question

Hey guys.

I apolgise in advance for the seemingly nooby question - I've never played around much with hardware before!

I need to get at my 5870M's in my M17xR2 in order to reapply the thermal paste (temps are hitting 115oC, causing down-clocks and ruining gaming!)

I've gone ahead and watched the teardown video linked in the owner's lounge thread. I wanted to ask whether I needed to follow every step, or whether it would suffice just to remove battery, bottom door, indicator cover and keyboard (and card shields)- ? Is it OK to leave everything else, HDDs, memory etc in place?

Would I actually need to remove the cards from the enclosure to work on them or could I just sort the paste out with them still sat inside?

THANKS for any and all help - it's GREATLY appreciated!

 

Hello, wonderpookie, I would advise you to go ahead and remove the cards from the MXM slots for removing the paste especially if you are going to use some liquid thermal paste remover (acetone etc.), also you'll will avoid damaging something.
You can put the cards back after you removed the old thermal compound to apply new one and install the heatsinks afterwards.

It is ok to leave everything else inside as long as you reached the cards.

 

TY Katalin!

You've helped put my mind at ease!

I shall get back to you if I don't screw it all up! WISH ME LUCK! /excited

 

Definitely come back and share your result.
Remember, take your time with the disassembly.

Good luck.

 

Back! All systems GO! But that was SCARY! At one point I thought I snapped my card in half! My heart jumped into my mouth - phew!

OK - so my idle GPU temps went from ~60oC to ~40oC

My gaming temps went from 100-115oC!!! to ~75oC!

I guess re-pasting worked! No more horrible down-clocking and stutter in games! The one thing I've noticed is how QUICKLY the gfx cards now return to their idle temps after gaming - previously the fans would whir loudly for an age after I finished gaming - now within a few secs of quitting the fans seem to go quiet - wonderful! <3 that diamond paste!

A few fruther things I wanted to ask - I found masking tape inside my lappy, holding the crossfire wire in place. It was taped partly over the copper of one of the gfx card's copper heatsink pipes - is that "normal"?

ALSO - CPU! I didn't re-paste that - now I'm wondering whether I should have. It idles at just less than 60oC and hits about 75oC when gaming - is that acceptable? I would have re-pasted the CPU also perhaps but the teardown video didn't seem to clearly show how to get to the CPU - it kinda just left it at the CPU cover, and well a noob like me needs his hand held all the way!



ANYWAY!.. thx to all the users here in the forums for the awesome threads, info, advice and encouragement - I couldn't have done it without all that! And thx Katalin!

 

If you reached the card, you can reach the cpu easly as well.
go to
M17x Teardown Video1 of 2 **READ SAFETY PRECAUTIONS PRIOR TO REPLACING PARTS** (Official Video) - YouTube
and jump to 8:05min
after you remove the upper magnesium cover, you are free to remove 4 screws from cpu heatpipe. Change paste (ic diamond 7 is very nice) and maybe thermal pad on cpu power circuits.....but this is not a must, thermal pad is just fine for me

temps of my 920xm idle @36-43"C
gaming 75 max (25fidx4cores)

 

Aw yes - I see now! Gosh, I feel so dumb

OK, when the wife and baby next leave me alone I'll have another go at taking things apart! Hopefully if I can drop the CPU temps some, I can eliminate the slightly annoying fan rev-up and rev-down that keeps on happening during "normal" use, when the CPU temps pop up just a little. Noticing that noise now since the GPU fans are all quiet!

Thanks brother!

 

Hey guys.

Well I just re-pasted the CPU.

Booted up and the new temps have gone; IDLE ~60oC>>>45oC and whilst gaming 80oC to 65oC.

I would be happy, except just 5 mins ago, the system, JUST-SHUT-DOWN.

I've been using HWiNFO64 to keep an eye on the temps and all has been just dandy, sitting at around 55oC.

Anyone know why the system may have just shut down like that? Have I screwed something up here??? :S

Any and all thoughts would be hugely appreciated!

BTW, if it matters, I used Diamond IC 24 carat thermal paste. And I didn't touch the thermal pad. I don't recall patting it down after I was done resitting the CPU heatsink though? ... am I just being paranoid?! Thanks!