Thermal paste for G73JH GPU

I cleaned only the GPU core.

Because I'm lazy and I never do what is recommended, I do only what is necessary.

Don't follow my example on this.

 

Nice pics for us the weak hearted ones...I guess its about time i repasted.....

 

I just repasted with ICD7. Some of you may remember my G73 as the $750 craigslist special that needed an RMA. After Asus fixed the computer, Furmark got me to 89-90c. I've repasted and am now at 83-84c, a fair difference. Ambient temp 21.66 C or 71 F for those of us who have no idea what C is (even after a year living in Europe I struggle with it). I think I may have put too much ICD7 on too, but I am ashamed to post the picture. Also a huge shout out to Chastity and Gorwell for all their helpful posts. Here are some good links for anyone who wants to repaste.

YouTube - Asus G73Jh & g73jw Disassembly Take Apart G73 Replace Video Card G73 g73jw service manual

Gorwell's excellent tips on how not to damage your speaker cable
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...11600-my-repaste-experience-pics-success.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...475907-asus-g73-series-disassembly-guide.html

Full Size Screen Shots

Stock Paste @ 89c
http://imgur.com/6az2q.jpg


After Repaste w/ICD7@ 83c
http://imgur.com/uSf6q.jpg


I'd post them here, but I can't figure out how to make the temps legible and not be max resolution.

 

my experience in portugues
YouTube - Como abrir G73JH

 

I dont do alot of benchmarking or what not but when I'm playing WOW, I noticed my GPU was temping up to 98C and I would hear the fan kick up to high speed. I havent tried Furmark...quite frankly I'm afraid to given that i'm almost at 100C with a game like WOW. I'm running bios 211 with the beta (oc enabled) vbios. So I decided to take the plunge and do a repaste like I've read on here so many times. My local Microcenter didnt have ICD7...so I made due with some Shin-etsu x23 which I've read is ok stuff too. Aside from the keyboard, the teardown wasnt too bad...but what I found inside was just wrong. They didnt even tighten down 2 of the screws on the GPU heat sink. When I popped it off, I found the stock thermal paste heavy on one side and almost non-existant on the other.

After repaste under load playing WOW, I peak at 81 C. Idle also dropped off a few degrees but the real difference is under load. Overall, I'm happy with the results.

So, if there's anyone considering thats still on the fence, what I found in my laptop could be in yours too

Here's what it looked like...dont know if my pictures do it justice.

 

Looks like the TIM migrated to the loose area where it wasn't bolted down properly. Glad to see you fixed it.

 

repasted my newly replaced laptop. furmark max at 79C after 5 min at stock clocks, 88C after 5 min at 820/1350. so far so good.

I fluxed up the speaker wiring but I shoved the wire back into the adapter and the speakers seem to be working fine. I never use them anyways so it shouldn't be a problem.

 

My G73 was shutdown in many games. I made a repast with a 3 old years thermal paste that a friend borrow me - Arctic Ceramique.

Before:
idlee 79~81 ºC
new games (L4d2-ME2-MoH): 108 ºC in 30 seconds and shutdown
old games (warcraft 3): 101 ºC

Now:
idlee: 57~59 ºC
Funmark 5 minutes Stability Test with Xtreme Burning mode: 103 ºC

I will buy a IC Diamond, aply again, and post the results.

Weird facts:
- Funmark show a pike of 127ºc five times... HWinfo dont registre this in "max" column
- After i repast and close de laptop, there are a 10 screws remaining... i think i miss something...

 

Uh oh! When I repasted I placed all the screws on a piece of paper, labeled the screw and drew a circle around them. I did this in order of disassembly per the BTO video on youtube. Then I just reversed it when putting it back together. This photo is poor quality but it gives you the idea. If you missed the fan screws your fans could theoretically get dislodged from the heatsink (only a piece of tape holds it on), and that would really affect your temps.

 

I put the screws in the table like it was the laptop:

 

I know Chastity will "chastise" me for using too much paste , but I thought if I posted this maybe it could show someone what is too much or maybe someone could confirm if this is just right.



Then I applied the heatsink, tightened it down, and removed it just to see how it applied.





Then I cleaned it again, and applied a tiny bit less, attached the heatsink and called it quits. Furmark is now 83 C vs 89 C on the stock paste.

 

I used about 1/4 the amount.

 

1/4? Wow, I am seriously considering doing it over again with a lot less, if for no other reason than to see what happens. I agree that my glob looks more like 2 (or 3) peas than 1! But if I'm at 83c, which is pretty good, can I really get much better? I think I am going to have to try it and find out.

 

If you want to be anal about where your screws go you can do it that way. Or you can put them all in one pile, the only different screws are the fan and the hinge ones.

 

Not trying to be anal, just trying to make sure I put them back where they go. I know almost all the screws are the same type, BUT if you don't remember where they go (like the gentleman who had 10 left over), then you'll wish you had labeled them. I didn't have any problems because I knew how many screws came out at each step, not because I remember, but because I wrote it down.

 

I had them organized like that, and it worked very well. After a few times, I didn't need to do it, but hey, why not?!

 

This is my G73J after idling overnight, any cause for concern?

 

Nice temps for idle. What is your ambient? Try to play some games and show us your max temps.

 

A hour of playing Battlefield Bad Company 2 online with settings maxed, HBAO off, 1920x1080

 

hello guys !

repasted my laptop, now its running much cooler !

but there is just one tiny problem.... keyboard lights don't work anymore... should i apply that fix that gary released? or buy a new keyboard..

 

Obrigado o meu amigo

 

So I FINALLY got some downtime to myself and decided to crack open my laptop and repaste last week.

I haven't had much time to post, but the last time I was here I was chatting with Chastity and did a furmark run. I kicked in the thermal protection @114c with a modest overclock; and at stock clocks I topped out at 99c back then, but it was in the heat of summer here.

So I put AS5 on a few days ago. My temps dropped to around 92c stock, but I didn't really test with an OC much, because I was looking at my local supplier and they finally got in some ICD. I ordered the 24 carat container because it was such a steal.

Tonight I'm posting about 20 mins into a furmark after pasting ICD on my cpu and gpu (second repaste in 7 days) and running at a pretty nice 805/1150 OC I'm topped out at 88c. I'm pretty sure it'll drop another degree or two cooler once the paste is settled in, it was pretty thick, so another hour or two should have it spread nicely.

Anyone wondering if the ICD is really worth it; it absolutely is. I didn't care much because as long as the thing burnt while under warranty, no skin off my teeth, but lately the laptop was getting warm watching video and the fan noise pissed me off.

The teardown wasn't too bad, but for someone without experience I could see it being a real hassle. About the only laptops I've torn down that were worse were macs. If you take it slow, watch the bit tech video on another nearby computer, and *take your time* with the keyboard you shouldn't have any problems.

Thanks Chastity and all other members of team ICD, you convinced me to try it and I don't regret it one bit.

 

Very good temps. My congrats to you. Enjoy your laptop.

 

Check backlit light connetion of keyboard again. Small cable. Try to connect it again. Good luck!

 

Make sure the gold leads face up, and I hope you didn't yank it out.

 

Is there any chance of repasting without voiding the warranty? I'm expecting my G73jw soon and I'd like to repaste, but i am very scared of disassembly (I don't want to it up) and possible warranty lose by the tearing of warranty stickers..

 

Only if you break something and can show you opened it.

 

So the warranty seals could be moved away without a tearing them?

 

there's no warranty seal on the gpu, only on the cpu.

 

TBH the GPU needs a repaste more often than the CPU

 

Well, I wanted to see if I could lower my temps even more. When I originally repasted with ICD7 I probably made a 7mm ball vs the 5mm Innovative Cooling recommends. I was curious to see how this would affect my temperatures. So I decided to repaste. My original paste looked like this only slightly less.



I knew that was too much but I wanted to be sure I used enough. Now today I just redid the whole thing. Here is what the GPU looked like after I removed the heatsink.



So I cleaned it off and applied as best I could a 5mm pea sized amount. I even made a template to guide me. It looks bigger than it is because it bows out at the bottom, still it is probably closer to 5.5mm



So then I put everything back together. I was hoping for at least a measurable change in temperature. Unfortunately I got the exact same results I got with the larger ball. Furmark got me 83C fluctuating up and down to 84c, with a once in awhile hit of 85C. This is identical to what I had before. I don't know my ambient but I'd guess it is around 74-75F.

So I guess the root of my finding is this. If you are contemplating a re-paste based upon applying too much ICD7 the first time, don't worry about it. You probably won't be able to measure the difference. Still there is no reason to use more than is necessary so you should still shoot for a 5mm ball if it is your first time pasting, but if you go over don't worry about it. At least that is what I have found.

 

The 5mm ball is recommended for a CPU sized area. The 5870M die size is about half that of an i7, which is why I used a smaller amount.

ICD7 still works well if you use too much, so I wouldn't go nuts over this.

 

Good to know.

 

Pleased to announce that I'm the latest member of the Repaste Club !! (though not the ICD7 club - it's not available where I live) I used Arctic Cooling MX-2 and applied it using the dot technique.

Earlier temps in Furmark were 105 C in less than 5 mins (22 C ambient).

After re-paste, Furmark holds steady at 88 C after 20mins (22 C ambient). I'm now Idling at 55 C. Happy with the results !

Used Bios 11, latest vBios from Gary, and Ati 10.8.

Was really sweating bullets during keyboard removal, but luckily everything went OK - well, almost.

I was using an ice-tray to store all the screws from the dis-assembly and meticulously labeling the compartments with post-it notes to keep track of the order, where the screws came from, number of screws, etc. Was really proud of myself until I knocked the ice-tray over and it fell to the floor - ended up loosing 1 screw in the process :-( Luckily the post-it notes I was using to label/seal the compartments managed to keep most of the screws secure/segregated.

I recommend using the convenient compartments of an ice-tray to manage the screws during dis-assembly, but make sure you don't knock it over

 

Got my G73JH-A1 back from the ASP for a second repaste. This time I gave them some IC-7

When I picked it up, the actual tech who did the job brought it out and wanted to test it together. He then handed me back my tube of IC-7 and it looked like he used the whole thing... (gulp)

We plugged it in and ran Furmark for 3 minutes and the temps never climbed past 55c. We were standing right next to the front door which was propped open on a day that was a little chilly and drizzling with rain, so I knew this was a fluke and might as well have had an A/C right next to the back vents going full blast.

But I was happy with that result. The tech was so impressed with the stuff he and the boss both asked for the name brand again, how much it cost, and wrote it all down. With a look in their eye like they were going to start using it.

I ran Furmark on 10.7a at stock for 15-20 minutes, and the temps never went past 85c. I was happy with those numbers, but I foolishly never ran Furmark before on stock clocks as a control because I always left them at 800/1100.

So, when I ran Furmark at those clocks, it GSOD' after about 5 minutes

Never getting a GSOD in games, I chose to ignore it, and downloaded 10.10beta and just played a lot of BCBF2 MP and never went past 77c in MP and 88c in SP with everything turned up.

If I prop the back of the notebook on to the Plasma TV stand on my desk where it normally runs, it gives about 2-3 inches of room underneath and all the temps drop an even 5-7 degrees more.

So, tonight, I just got home, installed 10.10whql and while leaving the notebook flat on the desk with no room underneath for airflow, but just the standard position.

I set my clocks to 800/1100 and ran Furmark stability at 1920x1080 with basic settings and I let the program run. And it ran for 20 minutes, stable with no crashes, which is awesome in itself.

And the temps? It shot up to 83c within the first 2 minutes (on the last repaste it hit 102 in less time. I'm convinced they didn't actually repaste it last time but rather just replaced the fans)

And then from that point until about 16mins. The temp slowly crawled up to 93c before staying at 93c for the remainder of the 20min.

I remember when before going into the first repaste I'd regularly hit 95c in games, especially BFBC2.

Now, because of IC-7 I'm peaking at 93c while running Furmark after 20min. on 800/1100 clocks?

Consider me extremely happy with those results and an IC-7 convert.

Now the laptop runs and feels puuurrrfect. The keyboard is a little squishier, but I have a spare one I may swap it out with if it gets too bothersome.

I gotta say, it's a really nice feeling to be able to enjoy this gaming beast worry free. I've had it since May, but I almost feel like I just got it today after those temps.

I had a really good experience with the ASP here in Los Angeles - California Computer Center in terms of customer service. When I brought it back the second time, they seemed genuinely sorry and determined to fix it right.

So anyone in the Los Angeles area that needs a repaste and doesn't want to deal with it themselves, these guys are cool. Just make sure you go in with your own tube of thermal for them to use just to make sure. They're pretty fast too. The first time I had it done it was ready for pickup in 48hrs. That's a lot better than others who've sent theirs away only to wait weeks on a return.

My ambient temps right now are 53c. when they used to be 61-64c.

IC-7 rocks.

 

Anyone know what that brownish/yellow tape surrounding the GPU is for??? The reason I ask is when I was repasting the GPU I noticed the tape was actually covering the GPU contact to the heatsink... I actually ripped it off trying to re-align it.... Does anyone know what it is used for & if its important enough to be concerned???

 

Hey guys, what would you recommend is the best place to buy the IC Diamond 7 compound? I need to repaste..my laptop's idles are hitting 70..

 

I bought mine from svc.com, $6.99 and free shipping in US. I now idle at 52 C and game in the mid to upper 70's with ambient temperatures usually in the mid 70's F.

 

Check the link in my signature. There are two stores listed on the first post. I heard one has free shipping. Frozencpu charges 3.99 shipping.

 

hmm that's weird that there's so much variability. mine basically stays at 80-81C at stock clocks in furmark, and 87-88C at 823/1375.

 

Hello, first time I repaste and it's a disaster: my laptop doesn't want to start. Clicking the power button does nothing.

I disassembled it a 2nd time to check if there was a cable not pluged correctly, and I noticed that one of the 3 wires that goes to the screen (the white one) was slightly stripped and some fibers were cut. I suppose I have to remove the damaged part and solder ?

I used Noctua NT-H1 to repaste, so it's probably not a short circuit. But I was told that after I remove the battery and unplug the power cable, I have to press the power button a few seconds before I open the beast, which I did not. Was it detrimental ?

Please help ;_;

EDIT: Fixed ! Removing the bios battery worked. I now enjoy a very cool and silent gaming laptop

 

I have no idea with the damaged cables but my notebook did not want to start up after the repaste too. Here's the thread, in addition to that I've rescrewed the heatsink. I am not sure which one was the problem. Hope that it ll solve your problem too..

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/532351-help-no-power-after-repaste.html

 

i'm going to repaste my notebook soon, too.
now i have one question:
how did you apply it on the gpu/cpu?
did you just put the heatsink over the 5mm ball on the gpu or did you spread it like this YouTube - How to spread thermal grease ?
i'm just want to make which method is the best/safest.

 

Don't be lazy and go to the manufacturer of your thermal paste's website and READ how to apply the thermal paste.

 

i've already read two different application methods, that's why i'm asking.
1. compression type spreading(from the manufacturers website)
2. applying a thin layer (from the site where i bought it. there is also mentioned that i have to wait 10 mins. after the application, because the solvent has to evaporate or sth)

 

Most of the people here used Innovative cooling diamond. For that you put a 5mm ball of paste in the center of your gpu (after cleaning the old paste off the gpu and heatsink) and them put it all back together. I don't know about your paste but I'm sure a 5mm ball will be fine.

 

Update
Recently I recieved Gelid GC Extreme syringe. I tried it on my GPU

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Application method is the same as ICD. Little ball in the center of GPU.
Results are the same as with ICD 24. Idle at 24C 52C-53C on hottest sensor. Managed to lower my MemIO temps. Actually it's now 1C lower that DispIO at idle.
Furmark at 24C is 81C max at all sensors. Hope this info will be useful for those who can't find ICD in his country.
Will post another update in a week. (Hope temps will be ;ower as paste will settle down)
Good luck.
Tim

 

ima getting idle temps arround 68C (31C room) and 106C on Furmark. Considering that im from brazil and temps here are higher than on other places should i repaste, get a cooler table (23cm) or both? (i have a tube of IC7 i bought when i was on SoCal for my desktop so thisis the paste i will use if needed)

 

Buying a cooler will not solve your issue permanently, besides I wouldnt want to carry my cooler with my notebook. I am using a Zalman NC2000 cooler and it makes a 2-3C difference, not much. So you can repaste it or try the air can solution :
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/532474-get-out-air-cans.html

 

my notebook is 1.5 month old only... and i clean it externally almost everyday...

im not sure where ill find this kind of can here... maybe i can use a motorized air compresser with pistol (little afraid of it being too strong for the coolers)