Chastity's Thoughts on Repasting (Read Here First)

Yup, I've got a long thread in my sig with lots of links of other people who have repasted and get those temps. I just had a 2 hour crysis 2 session, and it sits around where you're at.

 

ok I ran futuremark 11 and got 96 on the second reading with HWINFO32 and 96 on GpU-Z also

 

Thought I would update after making 4 attempts at repasting with Arctic Silver 5 and not getting the results I wanted I went for IC7 and my results were:

Arctic Silver 5 was cured past 200 hours and these were the results I got from the best repaste. IC7 ran in for 2 hours.

GPU

AS5 IDLE: 51oC
IC7 IDLE: 47oC

Furmark 1.9.0 Extreme Burn in + Post + 8x MSAA for 15 mins

AS5:
DIODE: 92oC
DISP: 85oC
MEM: 94oC
SHADER: 88oC

IC7:
DIODE: 86oC
DISP: 81oC
MEM: 85oC
SHADER: 83oC

CPU

AS5 IDLE: 1:51oC 2:53oC 3:52oC 4:55oC
IC7 IDLE: 1:44oC 2:47oC 3:45oC 4:48oC

Prime95 Max temp test 15 minutes

AS5: 1:71oC 2:70oC 3:72oC 4:73oC
IC7: 1:62oC 2:60oC 3:61oC 4:64oC

All the rumours about IC7 are very much true. For 4.95 on ebay.

 

Graz on te temps. Looking good now Did you replace the pads aswell on the heatsink ?

Im starting to think of swaping them out for better ones

 

No I didnt bother as the pads on the heatsink were definetely thinner, it may just be that they are compressed but didnt see the point.

Very happy!! The idle temps are evening out but the max temps have dropped massively! My Fans do not reach full load at all now

 

@Dallers: what you've shown is that the thin AS5 paste isn't optimal for our heatsinks. Congrats on your new operating temps. Do me a favor and do a weekly log of your operating temps. Andrew @ ICD is trying to generate longevity statistics. (Basically how does the paste do after time has past)

 

Jep. Same here with the idle temps. Was 46c without the cooling pad on a desk. Now i need the cooling pad to get 46c. But idle temps are just under 50c.


Your fans went up to full speed? Before IC 7 the fans just speeded up a little on my JH but after IC 7 they are at the slowest speed

 

Wil do I noticed also that even after curing AS5 just does not have the thickness factor going on for it and although it evens out when pasted thick or thin but its not dense enough. I needed an hour of weightlifting to get IC7 out of the tube even after boiling its guts out in a rubber glove good stuff.

My ambient temp here at the moment is very high though its like an oven today so 50oC is very good compared to how AS5 idled. I also noticed the way in which the temperature drops is rapid and it climbs 5 times slower to it max temp when burning in.

Going on HWINFO clocks on my fans before my max temp would reach 94oC during Furmark for 15 minutes and although stable the fans kicks up a fuss to 4600RPM now they idle at 1900 and do not go above 3600.

 

So much for "all the good pastes work +/- 1C of each other" argument. Besides, longevity of the paste quality and it's ability to work with your possibly-less-than-optimal heatsink surface is also an important factor when choosing a TIM.

I'm sure an AS5 fan is going to chime in with "You should have lapped the heatsink first, using 3 different sandpaper grits to get the best result!!! Then your AS5 would have been ghodly!!" Feh to that!

 

Well I am an Arctic Silver 5 fa....sorry was I have always been pleased with AS5 upto now but IC7 is just in a different league and its obvious why when you apply it the stuff is like concrete and instead of letting the paste do its own thing it practically seals the heatsink to the chipset.

I tried 5 different ways of pasting with Arctic Silver 5 and double sided application was one of them I found it ran the 2nd hottest. I just planted a pea of the IC7 and slammed the heatsink on and the results speak for themselves.

Its been 4 hours since the repaste and this is what im getting now since the results I posted above.

Dropped by a further couple of degree's and bouncing 83 84 for a good minute so all in all ive lost 10oC on my max temp Room ambient temperature has gone up 1oC.

Not to mention im running 800/1100 clocks think its time to push them up a bit.

 

You'll find your OC'ing will be voltage limited.

 

Yup but it appears my stable max is 845/1140 now most likely because I was creeping 100's before repasting but I will stick with what I got no need to be greedy. Much!

 

I think I have a repasting addiction. But decided to go again with IC7 as i was not happy still. I also changed all the tacky VRAM pads with nice clean white double sided 0.5mm expensive ones instead of the stock crappy 1mm and the heatsink seated so much better it has no tilt now and locked right in I believe it was the pad thickness causing the gap.

Here are my idle temps. Going to let it cure for 2 hours then I will repost with my stress test results. Looking like it could be the last time I tear apart the block.

 

Furmark 1.9.0 results below. AS5 max tem 94oC vs IC7 + 0.5mm pads max temp 82oC.

Settings as displayed running my clocks 825/1100

40 minute run with CPU at full stress all cores max temp. The dip at the end was my fault the screen turned off. Max temps are all that matter though.

IC7 + 0.5 mm thermal pads A++ Highly recommended.

 

So I bought my ASUS G73JH back in late September and about 20 days in, the machines just shutdown while playing LoL (League of Legends). The machine was beening played with for about 1-2 days with it idleing at night, I didn't turn off the laptop. The battery was hot and the machine refused to turn back on. After about an hour it would turn back on and I could play for another hour and then it would just turn off. I left it overnight off and then it works fine again. I have been turning it off each night now and it has been mostly stable. I say mostly because it would turn off occasionally after a period of playing but only about 1-2 times a month. I don't have any tool to read my temperature of the CPU or GPU so I don't know if its a heating issue or not. Sometime it turns off and I don't feel any intense heat on the back of the laptop most of the time and unpluging the battery and putting it back and some blowing in the vents tends to get it back up and going. I just read some post about good temp monitoring apps so I will get those to see my temps but for the sign is this a bad thermal paste or am I just playing to long on the machine. The shutdown usually occurs after 6+ hours of playing but not always. I have played 10+ hours (same game) and had no issues as well.

 

Download THIS once its installed tick the box for sensors only. Leave it running and do your normal thing that causes it to shut down but ALT TAB out of the game before it gets to this point and take a recording of your max temps and post them here.

It sounds as though its the classic G73JH problem regarding overheating on the GPU if its blasting its way over 100oC you have a couple of choices. A. Make sure you have the latest BIOS/VBIOS helps a lot B. Blow compressed air into the air ducts and vents to clean out any dust C. The one and only repaste which although tricky always reaps the best results.

 

I max out at 78C now after blowing out the vents. Even if you dont have an aircan, it works a treat.

Im considering updating my vbios from my stable stock bvios just so i can enjoy an even lower idle temp, but at the moment 300/1000 @.95 seems to fine (54C). Something like 300/500 @.95 would be ideal though.

 

I will do that, but one question how do I tab out when my system just shutdown, or do you mean when I can start up again get you the reading. So when I say my system shutdown, its not giving any warning or anything, it just turns off. I can also just get reading once in a while when the game is running, like after X hours of playing or something. Thanks for the help, will do this tonight.

 

When the GPU hits the thermal warning point (110C or 114C) the system will just power down, and stay off a fixed amount of time to allow for a cooling. This is a safety feature of the unit, and is considered normal. (Basically you are overheating)

You need to blow out your vents because excess dust/lint can cause this. Also the thermal paste on the GPU is known to deteriorate over time, and can be causing this as well. I would blow out the vents and have the paste redone. If you are not tech savvy to do it yourself, get a tech to do it. If you are up to it, google "BTOTech Disassembly Guide for G73JH" and watch the video.

 

Ok, so even though i repasted 2 weeks ago, i'm in a taking things apart mood. Seeing all the different results here, both average and awesome, i'd like to do some testing as well so i was thinking of changing the thermal pads as well as repasting with ICD7 instead of MX-2 (i'll also be able to check the paste job i did back then ). I only found those thermal pads yet but there isn't much info on them: http://ncix.com/products/?sku=54176&vpn=HSFPHASECM&manufacture=Startech.com Ltd. If any of you know of alternatives, they can be from some US reseller as long as shipping to Canada isn't ridiculously priced compared to the part price. A physical store near Montreal would do as well.

 

So I downloaded the tool there is tons of temp reading. Which one should I be looking at, the highest? I have 4 CPU reading, 2 S.AM.A.R.T. reading and 4 GPU reading. When I boot up my CPU temp is idle at 48 to 50, my GPU is 51-64 depending.

To be exact, CPU Core 0 is 50 Core 1 is 49, Core 2 is 48, Core 3 is 50. This is at boot up. GPU Thermal Diode is 64, TS0 51, TS1 64, TS2 61.

This is looking like I need a repaste. I am not Hardware tech savy so am not comfortable of doing this myself. I still have 7 month on my warrenty will ASUS do this for me? I prefer not to send the machine out since I have read it takes up to 1 month so the other option is can I find a local repair person to do it and not void the warranty?

 

Your CPU is ok ignore that one and your IDLE temps actually look pretty normal for the GPU to be honest for stock paste at an average ambient temp they dont look too bad. Fire up a graphic intensive game for 5-10 mins and then check the max temp fella thats the important ones we want to see if it goes over 100oC.

Do it haha my baby is occasionally in parts and after 11 times of being left in bits she still looks and runs perfectly but after my recent attempt I wont be taking her apart again until I lose my bottle and get a 920XM

Its upto you regarding the thermal pads the ones on the VRAM and memory controllers looks like 1mm I chose 0.5mm because it fits perfectly but can be a bit tricky applying it as its so thin and stretches very easily. If you are not confident go for some 1mm I bought two strips of 10cmx2cmx0.5mm and that cost me 5GBP

Edit button on above post being grumpy. Apologies.

 

I might just get a 920xm as well (if i feel like spending cash) and a new PSU which i'll have to find in Canada as well. I'd rather put a 6970m in there but we don't know if it'll work. I might be willing to try it if i knew the AW or clevo 5870 worked without problems in a Jh (i'm thinking of the fan problem with the MSI 5870). Then i'd go on a limb and get a 6970m or 6950m (if one can be found) for either a clevo or AW and see if the world would fail if i can get it working as Chastity predicted or do it just before then end of 2012 and try to end the world .

My problem is not with the type of pads, it's to find a reseller in Canada aside from NCIX. I couldn't find if the pads i linked on NCIX were 0.5 or 1mm either.

 

The bloke I used on Ebay UK would post worldwide and you wouldnt pay any tax on that just an idea.

I will be going for the 920xm for sure but as you say anxiously awaiting the testing a 6970m because it will be a double upgrade for me. The G73 has excellent cooling it would easily handle it with a few tweaks its just a risky ordeal to find someone willing to put their 6970 on the line to test it. Look forward to seeing the results mind.

 

Alright, so after lots of research i finally found out the pads at NCIX are 0.5mm pads thanks to frozencpu and the model #. Geez, sometimes info can be hard to find, still haven't found info on thermal conductivity but i don't expect it to be worse than what asus used. I'll keep you updated when i get my paste and pads and i repaste again. After that i'll still have to figure out whether to get a 920/940xm.

 

I went for high performance ones and they were 6.0W/mK but it will surely be better than the stock ones whatever you get.

 

So after about 12 hours of playing Starcraft II and League of Legend my machine did not shutdown, but after I stop I went to check the temp reading and 3 of the 4 GPU were max at 106 and one was at 96 max. The current temp as I quit SC2 was around 90 and it was slowly dropping. So what does that mean for my ASUS?

 

It means breakfast to be frank you could quite easily play starcraft for 20 minutes and then fry an egg on it.

Upto 100oC is ok 105's+ in my eyes over for a period of time your running a risk and its wearing your GPU and will eventually go pop.

1. Do you have the latest BIOS and VBIOS?
2. Consider blowing the vents with compressed air to shift any dust
3. Repaste Repaste Repaste.

Depending on if its within warranty you can RMA it to be repasted etc or you can follow the guides to repaste yourself although it requires a total dissassembly but is quite straight forward if you take your time.

Movie is HERE

 

I've got a list of other people who have high temps in my sig. There are lots. Though I would recommend a repaste in your case, I'm not sure you'll see any problems in the next 3 years with those temps.

 

Okay, so after procrastinating for far too long with my 9 month old G73, I decided to strip it down for a r-epaste. Im not going to RMA it and was never going to anyway. I am a qualified Electronic Tech/Eng anyway so I trust my own work, besides its my machine and Ill repair it if anything is faulty (other than a serious HW defect).

Disassemble was a piece of cake and I enjoyed taking the beast to bits!

Was idling in the 60's/70's (Celcius) and loading in the 90's, even 100. Furmark runs close to 100 these days. Did a previous clean out and checked fans etc after Starcraft 2 shutdown the machine during the summer here in NZ about 4 months back. Never had a shutdown since, bought a stand and that has helped (a little).

I must say though, stands and notebook coolers don't really put a dent in temps at least not on my machine.

Picked up a no name paste one day while out with the Mrs and probably need to paste again as I am still getting more or less the same temps. Have ordered Prolimatech PK-1 compound.

Will post temps once done, good luck to all those who have still to do a repaste, its not that hard to do just take it slow and follow the instructions around the web.

Found this blog, not sure if its up already on these forums (too lazy to read 500 pages!):

http://laptopexps.blogspot.com/2011/03/newb-guide-to-repasting-your-g73.html

 

Results vary but the GPU does run hot if you want to lower the temps even slightly you have to spend out money and go for a high quality TIM. I went all out stripped the fans and they are spotless, IC7 Diamond, 0.5mm Thermal pads all round and a NC3000 cooler. My results have been very impressive. CPU not much change 3 or 4 oC but my GPU has dropped from maxing at 104oC and now maxs out at 82oC. But again results vary each card is different. Dont be afraid to try again it took me 8 attempts to get my lowest temp

Arctic Silver 5 and MX3 gave me good results hanging around the 90's as well but I found AS5 is more about good application IC7 is just warm it up splat and oh....quickkkkk heatsink!

 

At the same time, it took me 3 repastes. First dropped my temps. Second was poorly done. Third got me back to what the first did, and a few degrees lower.

 

Trial and error indeed. You know that 4th attempt is crying out to you DCx an afternoon of dissassembling thermal padding and pasting. Sounds bliss to me!

 

I just watch that video and everything looks easy until he peels off the keyboard and said, we will need to fix the keyboard and it gets much scarier.

 

Yeah considering he claims to have done that 1000's of times its not very professional if you take your time and lever the keyboard as you pull it up towards you after you have released the 5 clips it does not bend or break like he does.

I have removed it 8 times and mine is in mint condition, there are a couple of pieces of double sided tape that are there to keep the keyboard flat but they are a bugger to pull up, just be gentle hands at the top left and right hand corner and gently lift one side at a time until it comes loose.

(Make sure you have hold of the foil as well and lift the entire keyboard dont tear the foil and dont pull it right off 2 cables are attached underneith)

The only other point is the speaker cable its tiny and very flimsy use a tiny thin flat head and just pinch between the socket and plug and it will pop out.

Apart from that its a breeze just take your time and do it bit by bit and make sure its fully discharged and your grounded.

If your not confident pay a tech to do it. Or send it to me ill do it for free if you pay postage

 

whats the critical temp for the CPU? my CPU cores frequently get to 100C along with GPU. does this indicate a problem with the vents instead of thermal paste? or is asus just as bad at pasting the CPU? is re-pasting the CPU as easy as GPU?

 

Thats not a normal case unless your ambient temperature is quite high, do you live on the Equator? The Core I7 do run hot but not normally that hot unless you are overclocking.

Might be an idea to do a repaste as you could be an unlucky one and the poor stock paste has degraded on both chips. Have you tried shifting any blockages using compressed air? and are the fans definetely working?

 

i dont overclock anything and the fans definitely run at 77C

is repasting the CPU the same procedure as GPU?

idle CPU is 75

 

Apart from the dissassembly the procedure is very straight forward 4 screws and a simple pea shape at the centre or short line across the chip and reseat the heatsink.

Be warned if its within warranty you will break the CPU seal and void the warranty.

 

shouldnt you use the X pattern on this CPU since its quadcore?

watched some youtube videos on repasting, seems to be a common sentinent that 100% coverage of the CPU is less important since the heat is concentrated on the cores.

but i ordered IC Diamond and i dont think that stuff is conductive so it shouldnt matter if it spills out should it?

 

Any method will do everyone has a different way however with IC7 Diamond the norm is to just plonk it in the middle and get the heatsink on before it sets because it sets very quickly after it hits the CPU. I plonked a horizonal pea amount in the centre and slammed it on and im idling at 45oC and maxing at 69oC now.

 

Interesting one, I reckon Ill be tweaking this and looking at the thermal pads also.

The disassemble does get much easier with turn, as for the keyboard, slowly slowly from the bottom with your hand flat underneath. It is pretty horrible the first time.

I highly recommend labeling the screws on paper as you go as it serves as a nice 'guide' on the way back assembling.

At load (Lord of the rings online - full settings) Im now at 88 but Furmark still runs blazing hot!

 

88oC is fine fella although replacing the pads and changing TIM might drop it a few its not guaranteed I would stay put with 88 unless you really want to stop the fans reaching full load.

Gaming at High Full HD im at an embarrassingly low 74oC max im so glad I did it personally.

 

It's been about a month since I repasted with ICD and wow, it's been damn good. I've tried playing in the hottest rooms I can and my temps are always consistently the same. In fact the only that seemingly raises my temps is keeping it on a table as opposed to not having it raised and giving it airflow underneath, but only by a few degrees. Idling at 48C right now in a relatively hot room with it on my lap. I played Bad Company earlier for about 2 hours straight and my temps never exceeded 71 in my living room which is also super hot. But yeah, repasting is awesome.

 

Its the ongoing argument with TIM's but I, like you im sure will not go back now ive used IC7 and I bet im not the first person to say that, im ashamed how many years I lived with high temps when I could have been idling quietly

 

well I ordered ICD and have to wait but today I took out the bottom panel and used compressed air on the vents and heres the results:

before:
CPU temps = 72 idle - 99 load
GPU temps = 76 idle - 105 load

after:
CPU temps = 45 idle - 61 load
GPU temps = 53 idle - 78 load

so dont even think i will have to use the paste

*load is after running the 1080 default benchmark on furmark 2 times in a row
1920x1080 fullscreen no AA, dynamic background

but i noticed in chastity's screen that the test gives 18 FPS with 8x AA but I get only 10 FPS with 8x AA. is that because of my CCC settings?


and if I decide to overclock, is temperature the only risk factor? so it is safe to overclock if it keeps temps within the safe range? how big of a performance boost is overclocking from the normal 700 up to 800?

 

FPS will depend on what resolution you are using. Amazing difference in your temps it must have been clogged to hell in there lol.

Your GPU should easily handle 800/1100 although every card is different but test it with CCC and make sure there are no artifacts and that its stable. Recommended upgrading to 11.3/11.4 also before doing it. It will make a difference but in terms of frames only 3-5 in most cases.

 

I would seriously consider doing a vent cleaning, as that's probably your issue.

 

Ok what I should say is that I cant bear to know that someone else out there has a lower temp than me .

However I actually still want to see it run lower as it hits the mid to hi 90's still depending on game/settings (SC2 is still bad).

Also......I have a sorry case of having to take things apart and fiddle with them as well.

After 5 mins on Furmark stability I usually hit 100~103.

Removed back panel and maxed at 96.....I reckon they should really put a whole heap of vents in that plate section as it will help.

 

i already did clean the vents, thats why my temps are 25 cooler. but i get much worse performance on 8x AA in furmark than yours did, even though I now have same temps and no overclock. i am thinking its my CCC settings

but its not like any games need the rendering of furmark, i dont get bad FPS in any games