Xps 9550 - Messed up Thermal Paste/ Pad

Guys, I somehow screwed up the thermal pasting of the GPU and CPU. My laptop now runs consistently at 90C when trying to play games, whereas before it would hit 90 and then go down. I have a very good feeling its because when I was trying to take apart the laptop, I accidently got a lot of dust on the thermal pads (the sticky adhesive ones in the laptop). I couldn't clean it off because I was afraid Id destroy them, so I was wondering does anyone know what thermal pad thickness is in the dell xps 15? And where can I buy them?

 

1mm thick pads, take your pick on quality, ebay sells pads you cut to size of 15mm squares close enough. some dust won't cause 90c temps all the time, it is living on the throttle so turn it off now and see what you did wrong.

It has to be a CPU/GPU paste issue, or lack of. Take pics, post them up!

To clean pads take them off and clean with isopropanol spray for now or even running water will do so long as you drip dry or dab with a lint free cloth. (with the pads off the heatsink and laptop)

 

Don't panic.

Study this thread for a good primer:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...rature-observations-undervolt-repaste.785963/

In that thread you will see there are 4 VRAM chips requiring pads about 14mm x 15mm each. One or two chips will require thicker pads and the others will require thinner pads.

Also given the very small scale of things in your laptop, you want to make sure things are as clean as possible.

**** Importantly, you should consult an electronic expert on this beforehand for his advice (for example, alcohol can destroy some rubbers, plastics, screen coatings, etc.)

- For example, I don't brush the dust away on a dry surface as that can damage surfaces. Compressed air or an anti-static vacuum cleaner are good to remove dust on the first instance.

- I then use very pure isopro alcohol (99.95%) dedicated to cleaning electronics and special non-lint rags where applicable. Lower purity alcohol can leave more impurities so don't use that.

- I find Q-tips or kitchen papertowels are bad because they scratch and leave lint that could be conductive. I use quality photo lens paper on delicate surfaces and never reuse a section to avoid contamination; I am sure there are better options.

- I also use extreme care on the CPU, GPU, and copper heatsink mating surfaces so I don't scratch them with dust or just rubbing. The purpose of the thermal paste is to fill in scratches and imperfections, but it is much better not to have scratches as the paste is not very thermally conductive.

Regardless make sure you disconnect the battery before starting.

I have spoken on the phone with two places to check for retail sale of thermal pads in the US (I recently purchased a bunch of accessories from frozencpu):

http://www.frozencpu.com
http://www.performance-pcs.com/

EDIT - GonZ0 is a professional laptop engineer - I am a mere novice enthusiast so keep that in mind when considering advices!

 

Take photos of your paste job/pads. It's also possible you bent your heatsink.