G73JH CPU Oveheating Issue: At my wits end.

Hello NBR forum, it's been a hot second since the last time I posted on these forums. For awhile I had stopped PC gaming because of my personal life and recently I have been trying to get back into it. So, about a couple months ago I started using my old G73JH again. I don't play any modern games so I haven't quite felt the need to upgrade and it was going well. However, I noticed over the last few months that my CPU temperatures were steadily increasing. My first thought is of course the usual, dust or thermal paste. This isn't my first rodeo and the last time I repasted was literally 5 years ago or something. However, they had not reached the point where I felt the need to disassemble my laptop. I have disassembled the thing like 10 times but it is a time consuming process so I don't enjoy doing it. However, that changed like 2-3 weeks ago.

My CPU temperatures started hovering in the 80s and 90s, during idle. This was concerning, but then finally it reached its breaking point and now my laptop just gets to 100C and shuts down if left to its own devices. On idle.

Since the last time I disassembled my laptop was years ago and it had been used for hundreds of hours since until recently, I eliminated the possibility of me not correctly attaching the heatsink, even so I'll get back to that. First, I'll go through the list of things that I HAVE done:

1. Repasting and cleaning the heatsink fans/fins.
Of course the first thing I did is repasting. I bought some trusty ICD7, sat down and disassembled this old fella. Cleaned both my GPU/CPU heatsinks, applied some ICD7 and put it all back together. I cleaned my fins very thoroughly, they had some dust in them but not so much that it should pin my CPU. Made them spotless. Cleaned the fans as best I could, tested my temps. Interestingly, my GPU temperatures went down significantly. I used to idle at about 60C, now I'm idling at 45C. Amazing. However, my CPU is still overheating. I was incredibly concerned at this point.

2. Repasting again and changing the fans.
Okay so I repasted my CPU about 3 times before I came to the conclusion that the application of the paste was not the problem, nor was it improperly putting on the heatsink. I was very careful every time and the paste was perfectly covering the CPU every single time. So my next logical step was that maybe the fan was not working properly. I didn't believe this was the culprit at all because I always test if everything is working before I fully reassemble the laptop. I could see the fan spinning just fine, and very aggressively on top of that. Even so, I porked up the $7 to get a new fan off ebay and I replaced it. Nothing, still overheating. Maybe the fan was faulty too? I tested both fans with my GPU, worked just fine. Maybe the fans weren't attached to the heatsink properly? I did everything short of supergluing those suckers, this was not the problem.

3. A software problem?
To avoid buying more stuff, I turned to software. I run Windows 7 on my G73JH, always have, probably always will. I figured maybe I got some sort of bitcoin miner or something by accident running on my system. I knew in my heart that this wasn't the case, I'm paranoid as can be browsing and my CPU was barely being used. Nonetheless I tried several things.

A. I ran 3 different Linux distros. Still overheating.
B. Changed the power profiles around on Windows 7. No go.
C. Changed drives, installed Windows 7/8/10. Nope.

Finally, I gave up on the idea of it being software when I was overheating in the BIOS menu. I'm pretty sure this is a hardware problem but I had to make sure.

I'm at a loss. However, I noticed something unusual with my CPU fan. It was not hot. I mean it was kind of warm, but not as warm as I'm used to, almost cool honestly. This thing was blowing at full speed and it was not unbearable. I remember it used to be quite hot at full steam. So I took apart my laptop one more time and I just felt around the heatsink for awhile while it was running. Immediately that seems like a problem. I shouldn't be able to just feel it, right? I never just touched my heatsink prior to this because common sense tells you it would be very hot but it was barely warm. Is it possible the heatsink is just busted, somehow? Any tips, advice, or anything appreciated.

 

Get new CPU heatsink, your heatpipe died.

problem solved.

 

The heatsink was my last resort because I wasn't sure if a heatsink could even go bad.

Anyway I replaced the heatsink with a new one, it didn't work. Still overheating, I have no idea what it could possibly be anymore.

EDIT: Okay, even though the new heatsink did not work, I still suspect it might be heatsink related. Even though my CPU is practically on fire, its still blowing cool air out of the exhaust. I'm thinking maybe its an issue with the heatsink and the CPU not making good contact. However the copper tubes on this one are actually hot so it seems like it is making contact.

Even so, I'm going to buy a couple copper shims to see if it'll help things out.

Worst case scenario I buy a new 720QM and discover it still doesn't work but I'd probably buy a new laptop sooner than I do that.

 

Could be a malfunctioning sensor if you aren't getting hot air blowing out of your vents and you have already repasted etc.

 

It's pretty easy to tell if a heatsink is making good contact with the core.

Do you still have that translucent electrical insulation tape on the CPU? Make sure it's not on the die at all or it could cause bad contact.

Here's an example of fairly good contact. The paste has mostly been pressed out of the contact area. The heatsink appears to be slightly convex so the center of the die has best contact here.

 

Hey guys. I pretty much gave up. I tried everything short of replacing the entire motherboard, but it looks like the motherboard is the issue. I replaced the CPU and I messed with the heatsinks a bunch to try and get the heat manageable. I even tried a funky setup where I had an AC blowing cold air straight at it, it didn't phase it.

One day I'll replace the motherboard and see if I can get my poor laptop up and running but it looks it's dead for now. It lasted a good 8 years.

RIP G73. Thanks for all the suggestions.