F3Jp overheating: Has anyone got any experience with replacing their thermal paste?

Hey all, hope you are well..

I've had my laptop for a while now, and until this weekend i never realised just how hot it was getting. In idle state, it sits somewhere around 60-65+ which is a bit warm for my liking. When playing games it can get above 80. It's even been upto 95 under the max performance option with NHC!!!

I'm starting to get a bit worried about the damage i must have done during my late night sessions on BF2 (i like my gaming). No wonder the graphics would slow to a halt after and hour or 2.


So what to do?

1) Get the air duster out and do some spring cleaning?

Done. I've only had it 3 months, there was almost no dust there.

2) Buy a notebook cooling pad?

On the case, but before that, i want to get stuck under the bonnet and see if i can improve the effectiveness of the heatsinks, so...

3) Replace the thermal paste between heatsink-CPU and -GPU (and anywhere else).

I've done this before on my desktop, but i have a feeling that this will be a more tricky operation mainly because of the cooling pipes being interlocked with the cooling block. I can't quite see how it all fits together. so basically, the aim of this post was to ask if anyone has any experience with replacing their thermal paste on this model (or similar)? anyone bothered to take it to pieces yet? pics? Is it even worthwhile doing? I read ages ago that most laptop manufactuers use standard thermal pads rather than high quality thermal paste. In which case it's definiely worth doing.

Yeah i know i'll void my warranty in doing this, but from what i've heard asus aren't great for customer service anyway. Plus i don't speak the native language here (czech rep) so i would even have to wait until i'm next back in england. The "warranty void if removed or broken" sticker has already peeled off a little from where the cpu's got so hot. So **** it!

On a side note: i think the design of this laptop, wrt cooling, is kinda shoddy. The laptop sits at an angle, with the air inlet very close to the desk (4-5mm i'd say). I see that the air is drawn mostly over the memory with the gpu and cpu on either side so it pretty much bypasses them. So i was thinking of drilling a few holes in the panel, just enough for air to flow over the c/gpu.

I love this laptop, but i think Asus really could have done a better job with sorting out the temperature problems.

 

Sorry to hear you've been having heat issues.

Actually Asus' support is really very good. They're known to honour warranty work up to 2 months after it has expired, but you have to go to a service centre in person for that.

This is the experience here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and many other places.

I would suggest applying thermal paste yourself, but if you have to send it in for warranty work just explain to them that the heat melted off the sticker.

That is of course if YOU didn't cause the problem if there is one in the future.

Applying thermal paste to a notebook isn't much different at all from a desktop and since you've done this before you should be just fine.

Only thing to remember is the way in which you took screws and parts out so you don't have problems putting it back together.

Just place the parts removed from the notebook from left to right or right to left in sequence so you know for sure which part goes in next and of course do NOT lose the screws!

Just like a desktop processor be sure not to put too much thermal paste on.

Goodluck!

Cheers,
Mike

 

Good to know asus can put on a good show with regards customer service.

After looking at the cleaning guide page on this forum, i went about dusting again but this time i was more thorough. previously i took out the fan but didn't look down towards the vent. this time i did. and with one decent blast of the gas, a massive clump of dust came flying out. i should have done it like that in the first place. anyway, it's running much cooler now (idle 50-55)...

but you can always go cooler, so i'm still thinking of reapplying some quality thermal paste, and would be interested to hear if anyone has had an worthwhile temperature reductions after doing so.

And cheers for the tips mikey, you notebook deity you!!