How to change the thermal paste on the Dell XPS M1530 and possibly the M1330 in ten steps.

This guide shows you how to replace the thermal paste on your M1530 and possibly the M1330.

http://www.robertbromfield.com/Tutorials/Changing the thermal paste on the M1530.pdf

I know that some people will be nay sayers but lets face it -- it works.

 

m1330 has a pad on the gpu not paste.

Also should you unscrew the screws from #1 to #7 AND screw them #1 to #7 at the end... that doesn't seem right.

 

I have a M1530 not M1330 so I said possibley in the guide. Also you can screw them back in the opposite order.

 

thanks

nice guide

 

I got that, I was just stating ways that the m1330 is different in thermal cooling design.

 

Cool guide but why in the world would he goto that trouble and NOT use arctic silver? Do laptop people just not know as much about thermal compound as desktopers lol?

Also, if anyone does this, use a credit card to spread the compound, gets it perfectly even

 

I used Tuniq TX-2. There are other thermal paste that are good outside of Artic Silver 5.

 

all i know is that ive used that dynex stuff in your picture twice and both times i had aweful results. But if it works for you, im glad =]

thanks again for the guide, ill be using it soon

 

its funny how ppl are talking about changing the thermal paste for their cpu/gpu but there are no actual temps... can i get some temps pls? pre and post temps..... it would be nice to actually see how much it helps....

 

I did not use dynex I used it first to test it versus something better.

 

Thanks a lot for the guide bro.

Maybe i'm blind, but how did you apply the thermal paste? drop of rice or spread it out? becuause in one picture it looks like you spread it out and another it looks like you did the grain of rice.

AND - Which is better?

 

Experienced user here... use the credit card to spread it out... not too thick either, too thick is counter-productive...

Grain of rice method is dangerous, since you can get uneven spread and not all parts of the CPU will be cooled....

 

The way you apply the thermal paste depends on the recommendation of the manufacturer.

 

so a grain of rice amount spreaded with credit card, or how much? i have also heard a bb sized, this seems to me to be a little more than grain of rice sized.

 

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.p...ask=view&id=138&Itemid=1&limit=1&limitstart=2

If you're interested in knowing how well other thermal pastes perform.

Arctic Silver 5 is good, but there's better out there. AS5 is just well known by computer enthusiasts.

 

True, it would be nice to see eviedence that this actually makes any sort of difference at all to the 1530 temps.

 

Grain of rice is perfect if you have a heatspreader on your chip but the mobile chips don't so I HIGHLY recommend the spreading method. I've just replaced the processor and RAM on my m1330. It's running the RAM diagnostic tests so I'll let you know how it's gone once that's finished.

 

You can always do a test run and then see what kinda coverage you get. Just done it with AC MX-2 after being used to AS5 and that way of doing things. Just take the cooler back off and just make sure you are getting good coverage. Then clean it all up and do it again.

 

I used AS5 on my T9300 spread using a toothpick. I get 33C idle and 56C full load on a m1330 when running at 1.0v.

 

Are there any seals broken, or paint covered screws that would signal to dell that i did this? And above that, is it allowed by the warranty?

Its just it would be pretty stupid to do all this, have something else on the laptop fail, and be on the hook for the replacement if in fact the failure was because of dell(or you had completecare)

 

There are no seals or warranty stickers broken.

 

Rep if you find this useful and what are your results.

 

For those of you bashing this guide... the POLITE thing to do is to say NICE GUIDE, then whatever "complaints" or "advice" afterwards as that took some work to do the PDF guide.

NICE guide and THANKS for taking the time to do it.
I'm repping ya Jamaicanyouth

 

I wasn't bashing, and if I'm honest the dell instructions + the thermal paste's particular instructions are just as good as this guide and a lot more accurate but I didn't want to be harsh.

I get 33C idle, 56C full load on an uncured AS5 applicated m1330 and a T9300 CPU running at 1.0v using the proper thermal paste application method. The 1330's definitely run hotter than the 1530's but I'm not sure by how much.

 

Nice guide, thanks for going to the trouble.

Another way to remove old compound is to use this, I've found it the best method possible out of all the ones I tried:

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arcticlean.htm

Isopropyl does work too but takes longer and I'm not 100% sure that nothing gets left behind.

Actually the 2nd part of the arcticlean set may me isopropyl, it's the first bottle that smells like orange that dissolves the old paste instantly.

For others that may have missed it, there was some more discussion and info on compounds in this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3199794#post3199794

 

Yup - Articlean 1 is citrus based and used to dissolve and emulsify the old thermal compound. Articlean 2 is mainly Isopropyl Alcohol.

 

Do you have a guide for applying thermal paste on the M1330? I've never done it before.

To the thread started, thanks for the guide, it'd be a nice reference.

 

Its pretty much the same thing.

 

Thanks for the guide, I will have to try this and see what the results are since I have some Arctic silver laying around... I will post some results maybe tomorrow if I can apply/test tonight...

 

It's similar but you should really just follow dells own guide for doing it and then use the spreading method for the thermal paste. It's a very very easy process and took me literally 5 minutes to replace my processor. Dells guide tells you step by step with photos how which screws to remove and how to properly dismantle the m1330.

Also you only put thermal paste on the CPU in the m1330. That's a critical part that needs to be mentioned in the opening post.

I tested the method of applying thermal paste shown in the opening post vs the spreading method with AC MX-2 paste and the spreading method (spread with a toothpick to give a fine film on the processor) gave 2.5 degrees better temps at full load and 1.5 degrees better temps at idle.

 

My mind is boggled

so only for the CPU? Then what does this post imply?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=3217027&postcount=226

 

It looks like you left the thermal pad on the northbridge? Is it a bad idea to use a thermal paste on it?

And what kind of results are people seeing from this upgrade under load?

 

checked with dell this will definitly void your warranty

 

It will void your warranty only if you screw up when doing it. Perfect example, the tech came to do some work. He took off the heatsink did what he needed to do and then he left. I still have my warranty.

 

I did it and found that it does run cooler with AS5, (have no hard numbers because I didnt write them down but generally the CPU and GPU run a few degrees cooler). It was fairly easy to do except that the alchohol doesnt really disolve much of the old stuff, the old thermal compound on mine was hard so I scraped it off gently with a piece of plastic and that worked...

 

That is different than sending it in if you have to go that route, especially if you need to replace it.

This is a hard choice. I want it to run cooler, but I don't want to RISK voiding my warranty as I have too much money sunk into it. It seems that it will run fine at the current temps 52-68C. Maybe I'll wait unitil the warranty expires then do it?

 

I gotta do this, I swapped my cpu and figured I'd leave the old stuff on. It runs a bit warm but I still wanna do this. I hear AS Ceramique is really good. Can anyone confirm?

 

So it is OKAY for the laptop to take off the pads and add paste instead?

I have no warranty so I need not worry about that.

 

I wouldn't suggest it. Leave the pads, they provide adequate cooling.