M17 - How to reapply thermal paste to CPU and GPU's

Hello everyone, are you sitting comfortably? Then I will begin.

My M17 was running a little hot for my liking and I decided to reapply some thermal compounds to the CPU and GPU's and see if I could drop the temps by a few degrees. This is a guide detailing what I did. I do not encourage anyone to follow these steps as I was doing it all on a bit of a hope and a prayer. There are also some reason to believe it will void your warranty.

Note to anyone from Alienware who may read this: All this is just hypothetical and has not been done to my laptop. The images contained are simply very high quality computer generated images of what the inside of my laptop MAY look like. I would not potentially invalidate my warranty by doing what I describe.



http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=33101&stc=1&d=1240064003
I will be using Arctic Silver 5 to replace the stock Alienware paste and also using ArctiClean Thermal Material Remover and Surface Purifier solutions to clean and prepare the surfaces. I purchased all as a pack on Amazon for less than £5 (US$7.50)


First off make sure you have a clean, tidy and static free area to work on. Then remove your battery and press the power button down for 30 seconds to remove any excess current that may be knocking about. Now remove the nine screw located around the vented baseplate of the M17 using a very small philips head screw driver and remove the plate.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=33102&stc=1&d=1240064003
We will deal with the GPU's first which are located beneath the grey ribbon cable running horizontal across the laptop.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=33103&stc=1&d=1240064003
To remove the ribbon cable simply use the black plastic strip attached to each end and pull the cable directly upwards. One of these came out quite easily whereas the other needed a little bit more leverage to be applied.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=33104&stc=1&d=1240064003
Now you should see the 6 screws that hold the plate, that holds the heatsink in place above each GPU (see left hand side before removal of plate, right side afterwards). Unscrew all six screws from each GPU plus the addition screw attached to the right of the fan, and the the two attached to the lego like unit directly above the fan. Also disconnect cable running from the fan to the mobo. We are now ready to remove the heat sink assembly.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=33105&stc=1&d=1240064003
To remove the unit you will need to apply a little force as there are components other than the actual core of each processor attached to the heatsink with some thermal pads. Simply grip the copper rods (very sturdy) and tilt towards yourself until the thermal pads resist no more and remove from the laptop.

continued below.....

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=33106&stc=1&d=1240064636
Here is what your GPU will look like. Now to clean off the Alienware paste and reapply some new stuff using the products I mentioned before and a lint free cloth. Remember to clean the underside of the heatsink too!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=33107&stc=1&d=1240064636
One beautifully clean ATI 3870.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=33108&stc=1&d=1240064636
Next apply a small drop of thermal paste, and use a credit card to smooth out in a very thin and even layer over the GPU. Clean up any excess that you may have knocking about. Hey presto the GPU is, inthe words of Gordon Ramsay... DONE! Just work backwards and reassemble the unit carefully taking your time and not forcing anything. I left all the thermal pads in place that were conducting heat from other parts of the card.


Now onto the CPU.


http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=33109&stc=1&d=1240064636
The CPU is located to the bottom left of the laptop (as I have it shown), just above the fan unit and beneath the two copper conductor pipe jobbies, directly below the X made by the 4 screws.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=33110&stc=1&d=1240064636
Unscrew the 4 screws that make the X shape and also the two screw located to the right of those (one can be seen by my finger in the pic). Remember again to disconnect the cable leading from the fan to the mobo. Tilt the unit in the direction shown and remove from laptop.


Continued below...

 

Here is my QX9300 smeared in paste by Alienware.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=33482&d=1241000205

Remember again to clean any paste of the underside of the heatsink (the copper square has all ready been cleaned). Also, there is in the right of the pic a thermal pad that in y case looked in pretty bad shape. I removed all remnants... hope that will be fine!
http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=33484&d=1241000205

Here is the now pristine processor and the jobbie to the right of it that had the the dodgy looking pad on it. All that is left is to apply a small drop of AS5 to the CPU and the jobbie to the right, use a credit card to spread evenly and thinly (this time i cut teh credit card in half lengthways so i could apply the paste one at time to the 3 jobbies... i full size credit card is too big to get in there evenly and get a good result. Forgot to take pic after I applied the paste... dont hate me, i'm just trying to make friends!!!
http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=33483&d=1241000205


Finally reassemble all components in reverse order, double check everything and then check again. Fire her up and pray to god she still works!

The item that helped me most would probably be some tweezers. They were great for removing the cables from the fan assemblies, and also removing and relocating some of the smaller screws.... and also maybe possibly getting to the odd screw I may or may not have dropped into some tight space possibly maybe on more than one occasion.

Hope this will benefit someone, its my first attempt at writing a guide and my first attempt at the procedure detailed... any observations will be welcome... apologies for the multiple posts to make the guide... it wouldnt let me attach more that 5 pics in a post!

Cheers

 

You removed the thermal pad on the CPU cooler extension? Did you apply normal cooling paste on it? What are your temps ( CPU/Zthingy )?

 

if that is what the thermal pad was attached to then yes that is what i removed. I used AS5 to replace it.

My CPU temps after a few hours of COD4 were averaging around the 66-68c range and idling at around 55-56c. I played an hour on COD4 earlier and the max reached was 60c and is now idling at 49-51c across the 4 cores.

As for GPU, after a few hours of gaming i would be at 89-90c (i hit 94c once as the exchaust was partially blocked ), after an hour of COD4 they maxed out at 84-85c over the two GPU's

Overall I'm very pleased with the initial results

 

Nice guide, and very thorough! +Reps

 

Thankyou sir i'm glad you approve... you did have me worried for a minute when you asked if i removed the thermal pad from that jobbie. reading back over my post i didnt make it too clear but i did use thermal paste to replace the dodgy pad.

 

Hmm nice. Did your laptop come with the QX9300 or did you install that yourself? What bios are you using?

Whenever I install my qx9300 I get a very jittery M17

 

i ordered it with the QX9300 though i ditched the alienware bios when it arrived and use zfactors modded .28 ocz bios. runs a treat, no jitters, will void your warranty though... unless you can switch it back before you had to send it in in my mind not much point shelling out for an extreme chip and not being able to overclock it... not that i do much, its just nice to know i can!

 

zfactors bios also has some quadcore patch in it... though the chip has to be inplace when you flash the bios for it to work.

 

Hmm Inspired by this I have put the QX9300 back in my M17 reinstalled the OCZ bios and am trying the system out as we speak. Seems stable enough for now to leave it in for the lanparty I am going to next week

 

well i believe thats the first time i have ever inspired anyone on a msg board! i overclocked mine to just under 3ghz and it was stable using zfactors .28bios. did run pretty hot though so wouldnt recommend without a cooler to sit it on to aid with heat dissipation.

 

I'm not looking for overclocking possibilities.. I just want a stable gaming laptop with the QX9300 instead of a P8400..

 

After an 2hrs on Crysis Warhead and CPU overclocked to 3.06ghz the max temps reached for CPU was 71c and and GPU's 80c.

Vey impressed with the CPU temp as last time I played with the proc overclocked the temps where in the high 70's and low 80's!

time well spent replacing the paste imo

 

Is the screw on the socket in this picture used to unlock the processor when removing/replacing it?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=33483&d=1241000205

 

could you please supply the TZ00 temps from HWmonitor for before and after (that is using the PAD and then the AS5) if you have those.

Thanks.

 

I'm way ahead of you. I was just preparing before and after CPU-Z and HWMonitor screen grabs so I can make sure the thermal paste is applied correctly WHEN (keeping fingers crossed) I boot back up with the x9100 installed. I'm going to be using OCZ Freeze instead of AS5, however.

 

Good call. I was a long time user of AS5 but have made the switch to OCZ Freeze. I've found it cools just as well but unlike AS5, Freeze is not elec. conductive and there is no curing time.

 

my main concern is simply replacing that thermal pad with Freeze or AS5 and seeing the effect no NB temps (assuming TZ00 is NB)

 

This was my concern as well. The thermal pad is a tad thicker then I expected. I just installed the x9100, and I debated whether or not to replace the thermal pad as it was in good shape when I removed the Heat SinkFan, but I did opt to replace the thermal pad with OCZ Freeze. It seems our concerns may be valid regarding the TZ00 Temperature and OCZ Freeze in lieu of the thermal pad. I ran HWMonitor upon boot up to see Idle temps, then took a grab after a 3DMark06 run. The TZ00 Maxed out at 80Deg, and the fan was definitely spinning, but not for very long. The fan kicked in about 68-70 Degrees, because 72 was my max after just firing up Powerpoint etc to update my screen grabs, the fan kicked in and dropped it quickly back down into the high 50's range. This was before I ran 3DMark06.

So here are the Screen Grabs.

Screen Grab 1 is my CPU-Z with the Q9000.
Screen Grab 2 is my CPU-Z with the X9100 installed
Screen Grab 3 is my HWMonitor with the Q9000 at Idle
Screen Grab 4 is my HWMonitor with the X9100
Screen Grab 5 is my 3DMark06 at stock settings no OC with the Q9000
Screen Grab 6 is my 3DMark06 at stock settings no OC with the X9100
Screen Grab 7 is my HWMonitor with the X9100 after the 3DMark06 Run

When i ran 3DMark06 on both runs, I didn't shut off anything in MSConfig or do any tweaks to anything running on my system that wouldn't be running on a daily basis (i.e. Norton AV in the background, Fingerprint reader software on etc.) Only thing running was 3DMark06, HWMonitor, and CPU-Z.

 

Screen Grab 7. I don't recall my Q9000 ever making it this high on the TZ00 Temps, even after hours of gaming.

 

This is the temps I was mainly concerned with. I'll be keeping an eye on it over the next few days to see if I have to reapply more thermal paste, or put the Thermal Pad back in. Luckily it came off in one piece.

 

I used a bit more thermal paste each time I re-applied on the Northbridge chip AND I didn't follow AW's recommended tightening sequence. I tightened the 2 screws on the NB first.

I've never had TZ000 read higher than the CPU by more than 2-3 degrees. Usually it's a tad lower.

 

Some quick pics of my Install. Sorry, some are blurry, I couldn't get it to focus right on the close up shots.

http://s752.photobucket.com/albums/xx167/Marvie100/x9100 Install/

 

Hi guys,

Glad I book-marked this thread....nice guide chefchenko(hope your not a Chelsea fan btw)
I have ordered my X9100 and still feel a little nervous about installing the CPU.
In all the time I have had the notebook(6 months) I have never even taken off the bottom cover.
It makes sense for me whilst I am under the hood to also add thermal paste to the GPU as well. I definitely dont want to remove that thermal pad and think its not a good idea to remove something like this that was put there by Alienware so hope its not in as bad as shape as Chefchenkos was!
My question is; what paste should I use? I prefer the sound of AS5 and can find the one that chefchenko ordered from Amazon but not part of a package as he did.
in response to an earlier question from Marvie in this thread I believe that the screw near the processor is used to lock down the processor as this old OCZ whitebook guide shows;

http://www.ocztechnology.com/manuals/DIY_17_Intel.pdf

All Im really asking is what thermal paste would you guys suggest and should I buy the cleaner as well?

thanks guys!

 

OK guys,

Ive decided to try something different...if not the OCZ freeze then what about one of these newer ones like Zalman super thermal grease or even artic silver thermal epoxy all found on this page;

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=57&subid=27
....I always like to be different so what do you think?

 

How about a review of 80(?!) thermal pastes? Article at Benchmark Reviews

Seems like the AS5 is in the top range.

 

Oh thanks pal...will check it out.

Due to the way I pay for things online I may only be able to get the AS5...if I want to order it tonight...OCZ doesnt take Paypal.

cheers.

 

wow, Im a little dizzy after reading all that but it was very interesting. I never knew so many thermal pastes existed.
But it does make me beg the question...what type of surfaces do we have in the M17 where we have to spread the thermal paste...rough or smooth?

I think I will order the AS5 as it performed highly in those tests but as the author pointed out different viscosities of paste for different surfaces so I hope that AS5 suits the M17.

great article LaptopFTW, thanks.

 

Hi,

decided to by some thermal paste by thermaltake! I also bought the thermal paste remover and purifier!

thanks!

 

is it a good idea to remove the thermal pad from the southbridge and replace it with thermalpste ?

 

Anyone making a video about this would be very appreciated ! =)

 

definitely do not do this

 

There is a gap of 1 mm between the Heatsink and NB. The NB went to 105c and Core went to 95c when I installed an ES x9100. It might be due to the ES quality, so I returned it.

 

My thoughts and past experience...
If a thermal pad is removed it should be replaced with a new one. They crimp only so much. Also I've seen yellow pads on some. The yellow pads are not thermal pads! They are for lining up the pads locations with the chips. You put on the yellow ones first then put the cooler on. Then cinch it down a bit, I said a bit not a lot. DO NOT POWER UP THE MACHINE. Take the heat sink off again and look at the impressions on the yellow pads. The impressions are to help position the gray ones after you take off the the yellow ones. DO NOT PLACE ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER (Two thicknesses not allowed). Only one gray one allowed, at each chip location. I read this on laptop's site I believe.