My Repaste Experience with Pics - SUCCESS!

Ok, so I was getting your usual: My laptop runs hot, my computer shuts down b/c of high temperatures (No GSODs) thing.

Generally, I would idle @ 75-80c for TS1 (Ambient ~20-30, depending on time of day).

My main game is TF2 which really hates using the GPU (annoys me), so my temps while running it wouldn't normally go over 95c, probably average 85-90c.

But, if I ran L4D2, or any intense game, I generally get 5-10 minutes of gametime before my laptop decided to shutdown. If I ran furmark, it would literally spike to 100c once I started it and generally last 30 seconds to a minute.

(aside, I grabbed the thermaltake Massive23 cooler which dropped temps 1-2c, and made my laptop feel cool underneath. Happy with purchase for 19bucks).

So, I decided to do something about these temps, I work from home so not really an option for me to send it in, and there are no shops around to repair it (I live in Sacramento, CA).

I bought IC7 Diamond and also the Intel 6200 Wireless upgrade and finished a couple hours ago.

Before:
idle: ~81C
TF2 5 Min: 85C
L4D2 5 Min: 98c
Furmark 30 seconds: 105C
Ambient: 24c

After:
IDLE: 53c
TF2 5 Min: 59c
L4D2: 65C
Furmark 80c, 1.5 mins
Ambient: 20C (lower ambient temps never really affected idle/game temps unless it was hotter)

Sorry, I wasn't exactly being "scientific" about this process. All are TS1 readings.

Also, my fan would run @ 30% 24/7, since I did the repaste, my laptop has been silent. I actually thought something was wrong when I booted it up and started using it.

I followed BTOTechs instructions: YouTube - Asus G73Jh Disassembly Take Apart G73 Replace Video Card G73 service manual

which are great in some areas, and his hand in the way in others

While I thank them for putting up the video, I'd like to mention what a d-bag they are for the comment under the video:

@K186 absolutely not. if you said 1-2 degrees then i would say your testing was correct. if you are saying that you reduced the temps by 20 degrees then your testing was flawed / incomplete. ICD is a poinless mod. it does nothing
​

What a d-bag they are for saying that. Apparently they are unaware of the problems a lot of us are having, or being told to say it to do damage control for the shooty development.


So to the actual repaste experience, A VERY BIG SUCCESS as far as temperatures are concerned. But, I did kill my speakers (I really should say my GF did as she pulled the connector off the motherboard ), and when I almost had everything back together, I heard a few screws loose, so I had to take everything apart again. Not too shaken up over the speakers, I use headphones and also have a monitor (asus 23inch) and the HDMI still carries it over just fine. Will take it in someday.

Next Post for Pics

 

I will skip the easy parts and go straight into it:



Keyboard removed. Not as problematic as I thought. Just be gentle and slowly pull it out. [comments?].



Removing LED Cable for backlight keyboard. There are blackish locks on it that need to be pushed out on each side. Then you can remove the cable


Removing Keyboard cable. Basically same deal as LED cable, except it is bigger. Just push out the locks on each side and pull out the cable.


Keyboard Removed. I point out to you my arch nemesis the keyboard cable. Notice some Crumbs from the keyboard have fallen on the laptop. Also you'll notice some discoloration on the backing, I spilt some juice a couple weeks after I bought it I def. did not soak up all of it so I was wondering where it went (I spilt on the speaker too and both worked just fine after)


Removing Switchboard cable. A tiny guy, but not that bad. Just pull up the lock that lays on top, and pull out with tweezers, grabbing the loose flap on top. The other cable in this area is the same, not the speaker cable Close UP!


The deadly speaker cable. I blame myself for not stopping the lady. But, I also blame the craftsmanship, I mean why use such a puny connector? She literally touched a side and it was already coming off the motherboard. Possibly the heat loosened it up? Close up on what not to do.


Now I removed the top cover and I am at a new cable. The one on the right is easy. The one on the left, you need to pull up the tape with tweezers, then push on the two sides of the cable with the tweezers to get it loose. Then you can pull it out. There is a cable below that is similar. CLOSE UP!


Ok So I got the cables out and removed the screws. Now I've flipped it over. Here you will see the CPU, GPU, and the two fans. I recommend you peek into where the fan meets the heatsink to remove dust.


So here is the motherboard without the heatsink. I losened the four bolts ( they stay on the heatsink), and I pulled it off (needs a little force). Get your favorite cleaner and rub that goo off (i used nail polish remover and Q-tips) CLOSE UP. Nice and Cleaned.


My heatsink. You see the great pad job they did. Clean it up and make it sparkle. When I was younger, I would of taken the time to lap it and make it shiny. But I dont have the dedication anymore. ALL Cleaned, Not really sparkling.


This is what we came here for: Ooze that paste on there in a pea sized amount. I actually did this twice, I put the heatsink on and removed it to see if I did it right... It was not right, only about 1/2 of the GPU was covered. So I cleaned it up and put more on there and didn't think about it. If you are using IC7 like me, here is a l ink to how to properly apply it.

All done. Put it back together and hope you did not forgot anything.

 

So it was more of a partial success... Sorry about the speakers but congrats on the temps.

 

Great job bro!
It looks like it's a PITA, but well worth it to get the temps lowered.

 

Nice work & Congratulations!
i'm also suprised when read the juice things

 

Nice job and thanks for taking the time and effort to take pics and add useful comments. I vote for a sticky

 

im going to do the repaste, to.. but i have a question..
what did you put in the memory's? because, without dissembling my notebook i can see that heatskin has termal pads in the memory's... did you put termal paste in the in the memory's? or leave them without anything?

 

Very nicely done, it goes a long way towards pointing out to people (who have never opened up a laptop in their lives) like me, all the finer details of disassembling this beast. +1 rep.

 

I havent had any "real" issues with my g73 when it comes to GPU heat issues. Sure i wasnt able to run Furmark long before it had reached 110 and it shut of (some would argue that this is a issue, some says its not. Anyways, i got inspired by Gorewells successfull atempt and decided, what the hell, cooler is good Bought my self some Artic Cooling MX-2 and did the job, i took little more than an hour. Payback is good tho since i went from 64 idling to 54. It just feels better

Just finished a 12 minute run of furmark. Extreme burning mode, postfx, 1920x1080. It peaked at 92 degrees and wouldnt go any higher. Before i did this i would have reached 110 within 5 minutes.

 

Thanks for sharing the pics. I may eventually get around to repasting (these photos will be extremely helpful), but right now my idle temps fluctuate between 59-62 so I'm not exactly eager to rip apart my 3 week old machine.

Has anyone tried using T-C Grease 0098?

 

omg, I have to remove the entire motherboard to get to the GPU? damm

 

Hi, I did not touch the memory thermal pads, mine where in excellent shape. A Pic of them:

 

The speaker cable is very fragile and fairly tight. I removed it with a jeweler's screwdriver. I put it against on side and twisted so that the blade catches the shoulder and raises it a little. Then I did the same thing on the opposite side. I probably went back and forth to each side doing this two or three times. Then I gently lifted it with tweezers and it came right out.

The only part that confused me was whether there were prongs sticking up from the motherboard and the whole white thing was the plug or whether the socket was white and the smaller white part was the plug. After looking at it for a bit, I decided that the small part was the plug and the socket on the board was also white. That turned out to be correct. I'm glad I didn't pry up on the bottom of the socket. That would have made me a sad panda if I had broken it off the mobo.

 

so mind posting before and after temps?

 

Nice, glad I helped someone out and gave you a little push to get it done.

I've been Idling in the high 50's all day, and an hour of TF2, I didn't go over 70c. And I am OC'ed @ 725/1125. I am now gaming @ a lower temp then I was idling.

Idle now:
ASIC Temperature via internal TSS 0 [0] (C) = 56.500,
ASIC Temperature via internal TSS 1 [0] (C) = 59.500,
ASIC Temperature via internal TSS 2 [0] (C) = 56.500,
MCLK(MHz)[0] = 1125.00, SCLK(MHz)[0] = 724.99

Gaming now (~hour TF2):
ASIC Temperature via internal TSS 0 [0] (C) = 65.000,
ASIC Temperature via internal TSS 1 [0] (C) = 70.000,
ASIC Temperature via internal TSS 2 [0] (C) = 66.000,
MCLK(MHz)[0] = 1125.00, SCLK(MHz)[0] = 724.99

Pre Paste Idle:
ASIC Temperature via internal TSS 0 [0] (C) = 73.500,
ASIC Temperature via internal TSS 1 [0] (C) = 81.500,
ASIC Temperature via internal TSS 2 [0] (C) = 75.500,
MCLK(MHz)[0] = 1000.00, SCLK(MHz)[0] = 699.99

Pre Paste Gaming (only 5 min on tf2):
ASIC Temperature via internal TSS 0 [0] (C) = 77.000,
ASIC Temperature via internal TSS 1 [0] (C) = 85.000,
ASIC Temperature via internal TSS 2 [0] (C) = 80.000,
MCLK(MHz)[0] = 1000.00, SCLK(MHz)[0] = 699.99

(I would have more samplings but I literally reformatted a day prior to opening my laptop up and i didn't save my previous log files. )

 

Here are some more.

I had a picture of a test I was going to complain with to asus, a couple weeks before I repasted:



I was idling ~80c that NIGHT, and once I ran Furmak it would spike to over 100 and keep climbing until it shutdown

New Tests:

IDLING:



FURMARKING:


POST FURMARKING:



right now I am back to idling @59c. Pretty sure this also helped lower my CPU temps, although I didn't really pay much attention to them.

 

tks..

does anyone here tried the arctic cooling mx-3 thermal paste on this laptop?

 

Yep. I have it on my GPU only. Good results. No Break-in period. Furmark 1 hr max Ts at 87^C. COD MW2 games in low 70's

 

thanks man. I am just a little scared opening this laptop. I opened up my old inspiron 9300 and replaced the gpu...tried new thermal paste whatever...but the gpu died...so I replaced it with cheaper ati one. I just am a bit worried about that speaker cable and perhaps messing up by not properly fiting it back together. My idle is at 67C currently but maxes to like 97 or 98 after an hr or 2 hrs of gaming GTA4 or almost any other game. With AA it goes to almost 103.

 

I'm pretty much torn between repasting and just letting it be and this quote doesn't help much. At around 28C, I idle around 59-60C on stock paste and on stock clocks.

Drop it down to Quiet Office 200/500 and I idle at 45-46C. Even less when I'm in an air conditioned room.

So I'll guess I let the months pass, let the stock paste degrade a little before I do a repaste.

Although I have to give a massive thanks, applause and song and dance for the abundance of info in regard to re-pasting experiences and guides. Props to the NBR community.

 

I've never heard of it, but I would not bother opening it up with those idle temperatures. You say it's only 3 weeks old, maybe it's working properly for you. I believe I was one of the first persons to receive the laptop from XoticPC, got mine March 3rd. Just consider it when it starts shutting down on you when it shouldn't.

 

Would leave it as is and not risk opening it up. You're basically at the same temps as I am but without repasting. If it degrades and starts crashing, then make the decision. But you have great temps right now and it probably would not help you.

 

Thanks for the advice gorwell! I think I will put the repasting on hold for the time being. However, I am excited for the vBIOS update and new Catalyst drivers. Hopefully, something will be posted this week...

 

I second this!

 

@gorwell: congrats on your repasting Tho, I only used about half of what you glopped on there. Apparently, it didn't affect your results, as long as our GPUs have the hot parts coated, all is well.

 

I'm in the exact same situation... I idle around 62 - 64 but most of the time i'm at 100/300 so my temps are around 44 - 46 90% of the time. Part of me wants to do the re-paste just because it can be done. The other part of me is telling me "don't be stupid... Its not necessary". So i guess i'll also hold it off till its time to start cleaning the fans. The keyboard part still scares me. Its the only part i can see going seriously wrong.

 

Sadly I also did this ( http://go.notebookreview.com/?id=52...11600-my-repaste-experience-pics-success.html)

Pulled one of the solder pads off too which made me want to kill myself, got it all squared away luckily I have soldered quit a few Wii mods and Xbox mods in my day...

 

Mr Gorwell,

I owe you big. Your post of your pictures probably saved my speaker cable! Also your post gave me the confidence to do it myself. I've booted up and everything works perfectly so far. You've done a lot of G73 owners a great service. Furmark was 89-90c for me, now repasted I am at 83-84c.

Thanks a bunch!

 

Thanks, this guide was hugely helpful. Successful repaste here, took care of the speaker cable ("infamous speaker cable" in my notes, since i couldn't exactly check the forum while poking around inside my G73 ^_^ ) and they still work. Didn't take pics as i didn't encounter anything out of the ordinary. scary moments were the kb, and taking out the final few ribbon cables / flipping the mobo over.

Used ICD7, arctic-clean 2-part stuff, and then took a cloth wheel on my dremel + some grit, and polished my heatsink for the 10 mins you're supposed to let the ICD7 sit. Too lazy to lap, but got a shiny finish out of it =D ,
and compressed air to clean out the fins (they pick stuff up fast )

dropped me to 83C max in furmark, ( from 101C ) with a block under my battery tilting it towards me more (Ergonomics + airflow )

also quieter, of course, as the fan hardly kicks in to an audible level.

 

I just finished repasting my G73Jh's GPU, thanks in part to this guide. My GPU now is rocking a 50-60 degrees C idle temp down from 70-80 degrees C.
Battlefield Bad Company 2 no longer overheats my computer! awesome!

It is really not as difficult as I thought it would be, it took a while, but overall was not an epicly difficult task. Even the speaker cable gave me little trouble, though I must agree with the original poster in saying that it is of poor design.

The worst part was removing the keyboard! damn double sided tape.
The cleaning solution recommended (Nail Polish Remover and Q-Tips) is pure brilliance. Thanks.

 

I wasn't planing on replying to this but i have to precise NOT to use nail polish. Most of them use acetone, i don't know if there is anything that can dissolve in acetone in the G73 but it's best to be careful. Isopropyl alcohol is the safest solvent to use and can be found easily too. I had access to a lot of solvents at my work, chemistry lab, but i still went and bought alcohol pads for a reason. No way i was gonna use pure acetone or another stronger solvent which would have gotten through the paste in mere seconds for the sake of the laptop's safety.

 

oh. Thanks for those Pics. they will be very helpful, when I am going to repaste my one.

 

This is what i used: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...um/527654-newbs-guide-repasting-your-g73.html. With those extra instructions/pics you'll be good to go. Don't forget to watch the video on youtube too. I highly recommend a magnetized tip screwdriver not to loose the screws.

 

Do you guys have any idea if it's possible to fix the Speakers Cable that went loose?
I had the same problem and only one speaker is working.
Do you think a computer shop would be able to weld the cable back on the MOBO?

thx!

 

Hi Jeffy.
It is a complicated task for a computer shop to re-attach the speaker cable socket onto the motherboard, and this comes down to the size of the solder joints. Also when the socket is removed it can tear off the copper tracks that connect it to the rest of the motherboard, leaving nothing to solder the socket to.
I've worked with re-soldering small things such as this, and the fixes available (short of replacing the mobo) are dodgy at best.
You may get lucky and find someone capable of such works, but I'm reasonably sure most computer shops won't have such expertise on hand.

Asus would most likely choose to replace the motherboard, as would most other repair places.

If this post is in relation to what I posted, I have to say I agree, but luckily I had the foresight to use an alcohol based nail polish removed, and buffed it right off with a lint free cloth. Came up very nicely and is working brilliantly

Heed this man's warning!

I don't know how Asus can let pasting jobs like this slip through the cracks
http://i53.tinypic.com/2cnhw09.jpg

 

OK thanks a lot Coretex!!

 

Another thank you from me. I was wondering what repasting even was, what it was good for and what it entailed. All questions answered!

Except, maybe, where did you get the paste?

 

If you're in the US: FrozenCPU for ICD7, in Canada: NCIX. You can get paste from practically every online computer parts reseller but i had trouble finding ICD7 in Canada, nothing on newegg, tigerdirect etc...

EDIT: Just saw you're in munich, if you can't find ICD7, you can go for something like arctic cooling MX-4/MX-3.

 

Oh god. My Asus G73J A1 is running at 85C in a 23C room just with one web browser open.

5 minutes of World of Warcraft with lots of water makes it shut right down. With all graphics turned to low on the game, it regularly runs at 100C and I have to alt tab out when I'm waiting for raid to keep the temp down.

I have a feeling I'm going to have to bite the bullet and do this. Microcenter, here I come...


eta: AND I have a cooling pad under it...

 

85oC when idling is... well... drastic and you need to take action quickly. Firstly blow out the vents you might just have completely clogged heatsinks, if no difference your paste has degraded quite badly by the sounds of it. Get to work before you burn out that lovely GPU.