Studio 1557 copper shim dimensions/thickness

I just finally did this mod, machine seems to work ok. But now that I'm rereading parts of the thread-was I supposed to leave the thermal pad on the GPU?

I put two new shims on the motherboard - one on the CPU and one on the GPU. I use a thermal paste - Antec Formula 5 - on both sides of the copper shims.

 

There is no need to copper shim the CPU, however replacing the original dell stock thermal paste with a better quality paste will improve the CPU temps.

 

After months of having a laptop which would, in hot weather, shut down - or in general use, be hot enough to fry an egg on, I finally took the time out to carry out Techifan's mod last night (I bought the shims from Ebay (metaloffcuts.co.uk) a while back.

'Arctic Silver 5' thermal paste was used.

As an engineer, and someone who used to be a computer hardware engineer, I have to advise that the 1557 is probably not the easiest laptop to dismantle. Patience really pays off when taking it apart - as well as diligent following of the manual. Some of the smaller connectors are made from brittle plastic and can get broken - be patient and wiggle them left / right, taking your time.

So, whereas before if would get ridiculously hot, it now gets 'slightly warm'. I haven't been able to get it to turn the fans on to the point of anywhere near like it used to. Whereas before I would avoid opening more than one page with Flash on it, now I can browse with several pages open and no overheating is observed.

The temperature difference to the outside temperature of the case is staggering...

Dell's behaviour over this has been appalling, to put it mildly. Overall, I do not think the design is too bad (I think the cooling system probably is a little under-specced for that implementation of i7 processor). Where it falls down is in the cheapest, silliest way possible, i.e. they simply didn't take any care over their choice or implementation of thermal transfer between chipsets and heatsinks... An incredibly petty oversight, in the grand scheme of things... I'm just glad I had the ability (and tools) to fix it.

Whereas I had a laptop I used occasionally, when I had to, living in fear of it overheating (the fan was on full even when idling), I now have a serviceable computer! It's amazing.

Techifan - I am extremely grateful to you. I cannot thank you enough!

I reiterate - read TF's instructions and be patient. If you do so, you will transform the 1557.

 

Hi,
I also have a 1557 and I want to do the mod as discissed in tho thread; I was wondering what would you recommend as the best thermal paste to use for that mod? (performance + ease of applying); have to say I'm a bit nervous about doing that mod myself, but since I'm close to shooting in the computer anyway, I guess the worst that can happen is for me to burn the cpu and/or the gnu, right ? !

 

Hi,
I followed this thread and decided to mod my 1557. If I decide to replace the thermal pads with new ones should I use some with 0.5mm thickness or 1mm thickness?

Thanks!

 

As this thread appears to be dead I checked it myself. The original thermal pads on the VRAM are 1mm thick (before being squished by the heat sink)
hope that might help anyone coming here in the future

 

Thanks Grand Spector for confirming the original 1mm thickness for the VRAM thermal pads. :thumbsup:

Unfortunately I misinterpreted my original notes in which I stated that the thickness was 0.5mm but I should have stated that this is the approximate thickness of the thermal pad when fully compressed by the heat sink.

Also, I remember that the original VRAM thermal pads are very soft and pliable and are therefore easily squeezable as opposed to some types of thermal pad that are fairly solid and require more pressure to compress.

Therefore, ideally I would replace like for like and purchase a more pliable thermal pad to avoid any possible problems.

 

First I would also like to thank techifan1 for all his help and dedication to this thread. I will also be attempting to fix my 1557's heat issue. I live in Japan though so ebay was really my only choice. (You would thing getting copper shims here would be easy!)

I purchased and paid metaloffcuts on ebay two days ago and it still says 'item not shipped' on the status. I have never had to message someone on ebay before for not shipping promptly and I don't really want to start now. Anybody else have a slight delay from metalcutoffs?

 

I carried out this mod a few days ago, but haven't noticed much change in the temperatures. My laptop still crashes if left on without a cooling pad. Is this likely to improve with time, or should it be cooler straight away? I used IC Diamond thermal paste, and shims of the correct dimensions.

A couple of things I wasn't 100% about when installing the shims.

1) The thermal pads for the video ram were stuck to the heat sink. I peeled them off, and sat them on the ram directly, put the shim on top, then thermal paste, and then heat sink. Is this correct?

2) I put a load of thermal paste on the CPU. I don't remember it in the directions, but there was some there already, so I cleaned it and reapplied.

The thermal paste was really thick, and I don't know if I put on too much. I also tried to spread it with a credit card.

Do I just need some patience, or do I need to open it up again and re-do?

 

This is a great thread and good info on the shim mod, I just wish is wasn't necessary. Dell? I'm sure they've moved on by now, I just inherited a barely used Studio 1558.

One question, on the Studio 1558 I used some automotive feeler gauges to check the gap between the GPU and the heatsink (with no paste - just bare metal-to-metal). When I tightened down the heatsink, I was able to use a .203mm (.008 in) gauge and was very snug but not completely tight. I then tried a .254mm (.010 in) gauge and it was "very" snug. The feeler gauge acts as the copper shim would for checking the gap which also showed that the thermal pads on the vram were contacting and compressing well.

My question is, why not use only one copper shim on the GPU, around .203mm - .254mm in thickness and then omit the other shim on the vram heatsink altogether? It seems like by using the 0.9mm shim on the GPU is actually raising the height of the entire HS, which then requires another shim on the vram part of the HS. Is that making sense? I haven't bought the shims yet but I would prefer using a thinner one on the GPU and none at all on the vram.

 

I used feeler gauges to measure the gap between the GPU and heatsink on my 1557 and as you can see in my previous post 22 the gap was found to be approximately 0.6mm.
My measurements were taken from my 1557 with a HD 4570 GPU but there may slight differences with a 1558 as I understand this uses a HD 5470 GPU and this may stand away from the motherboard slightly more than a HD 4570.

If as you say you are measuring a gap of only 0.254mm then I agree you could possibly get away with a thinner shim. Although, factor in your calculations the thickness of the thermal paste applied on both sides of the shim. Also note the reasoning behind using a slightly thicker rather than thinner shim in my previous post 28.

I know there are other 1558 users in this thread that have successfully carried out this mod so I hope it works for you.

 

Will I need to re-do the mod?

 

Thanks Techifan1. I think based on your information, I'll try a single shim somewhere around 0.3mm on the GPU since the feeler gauge of the same size was "very" snug which I believe is a similar amount of pressure when compared with factory installed heat sinks. I'm also getting some new 1.0mm thick silicone thermal pads for the vram just in case the original ones have become dried out or overly compressed.

Again, thanks for posting a great mod. Glad it wasn't me who originally bought this 1558, would have been pretty disappointing.

 

Jt8361 - to answer your questions:

1) Yes, that is the correct sequence although I might have put the shim and heat sink together first to ensure good contact/bond between the two. But if there's sufficient down force from the heat sink screws, that method should be ok.

2) Not sure how much "a load of thermal paste" is, but it needs to be the amount that IC Diamond recommends. With the Artic brand, the size is usually less than a grain of rice, but it depends on the size of the chip (GPU or CPU) that you have. Also, you have to treat the application process like a surgeon, observing very clean handling. Oils from fingers or hair or supposedly even dead skin cells can degrade the thermal coupling performance.

Lastly, most thermal pastes have to go through multiple thermal cycles (heating up and cooling down) before there's any difference in temps. Some take 100s of cycles. But it will also depend on what your original temps were. If they weren't severely hot in the first place, there wouldn't be a noticeable difference. Savvy?

 

Thanks Mojambo.

My temps were hot enough to crash windows before, and they still are. I'll have a bit of patience and see if it improves with use this week. I have a cooling pad, but will stop using it to see if the critical errors still remain.

 

Yeah, the thermal shut-down is what sent me here. I also tested the CPU fan while I had it out and it was bad, but since I sort of "inherited" this 1558 laptop, I'm not sure what the fan was doing before I got it. It's a 4 wire fan and you have to apply 12 VDC to the correct two wires. I'm noticing that having two different chips (CPU and GPU), plus the VRAM chips, all on the same heat sink is probably not that great, especially using a thin paste like I'm going to try with Artic Silver 5 or Ceramique. The heat sink is not remotely made with precision which is probably why Dell and others use the thick heatsink pad/paste (allows for more imperfections maybe). Good luck. Down with the Studio!

 

Hmm, I now have a white screen (of death).

I was testing what temps I got with light use, and the CPU settled at 100c, and the GPU at 72c, and then everything went white, and stays white after cooling and restarting.

Could the high temperature have cooked something, or is there an obvious loose wire that I just need to find and reattach?

 

Jt, not sure why it didn't shut down by itself since 100°C seems pretty hot, but maybe there was still a little more to go. You'll have to do some searches on your model and white screen but most likely, you may at the very least, have to open it back up and recheck your connections. I don't know enough about IC Diamond and whether it's electrically conductive but check that out. If it is, make sure it didn't run off the GPU & CPU onto the motherboard. Not a problem if it's not conductive. Still, no reason to be running at 100°C at idle. Something is preventing proper cooling. Fan/pasted/heat sink/etc. Sorry.

 

Thanks Mojambo.

I don't think it is electrically conductive based on what I've read in this thread. The fan probably hasn't done it's job properly for a while, and I've been using a cooling pad for a couple of years which has helped, but not been perfect. I did try and reseat the screen connectors, but nothing changed.

I'll take it to a repair shop and see if they can help with the screen, and cooling.

 

I've been told it's the graphics card that isn't working, and it will be £150 to fix.

Everything seemed fine after I added the copper shims. Is there anything in particular that could have broken it?

 

Hard to say. I looked around and found that you can buy the graphic "chip" (there's no graphic card in a Dell laptop). Even the good ATI graphic chips can be bought for $50 (US) but then you have to have it soldered onto the motherboard. Another $50 perhaps. Or just get another MB, however I noticed they're hard to find for my model, but yours could be available still. Around $90 (US).

 

Can you please tell me how much Thermal Paste do I need for the whole mod (CPU,GPU,RGPU)?

I bought 3.5g of Arctic Silver AS5, will that be enough?

Thank you.

 

Yes, should be enough, I used one such two years ago, and half of it was left unused. Last year (I open, clean and change the thermal paste of the laptop and shims every year, 5 years already, never had a thermal shut down) however I decided not to use the AS5 again, it was not performing as good as ICD7 so I got my hands on some Shin-Etsu paste - it is the sh#t highly recomended.

So guys, how does your 1557 (8) hold up? After all the care and upgrades mine is so good I haven't even thought about replacements, even the 9cell batery still holds up pretty well. I am thinking about a hdd update to a Samsung SSD, has anybody done that?

 

Thank you for your answer, yes it was more than enough, I only used half of it.

As you can see in the pictures ( 1557 - Imgur), there was almost no thermal paste on the GPU or the heatsink. Bad job done by Dell.

Now, about the results, the GPU is definitely 10 C cooler and the laptop doesn't stutter or force shutdown anymore, even after hours of gaming and playing youtube. However, the CPU is stll very hot (90 C when working) and 60-65 C when wresting and if I try to restart, it will give me a BSOD just like it did before the copper shim mod.

Conclusion: is it better than before? Yes it is. Is it good enough for the price I paid and Dell name? No, it's still a piece of crap.

About the 9 cell battery, I boght my 1557 in Dec. 2010 and the batery died in August 2013, so the battery was crap.

About the SSD update, you should definitely do that, it's worth every penny. I bought a 250 GB Kingston SSD on black friday and replaced the old hdd.
Then I bought a HDD caddy ( 2nd HDD Harte Fahren Caddy Für 12.7mm Universal-CD / DVD-ROM Optical Bay | eBay) and replaced CD/DVD unit with the old HDD.
Now I have the operating sistem on the SSD and the pron on the old HDD, it's great, it boots in under 5 seconds.

However, I'm not looking forward to opening the laptop and doing this every year. It takes about half a day to do and my blood pressure goes up just thinking about doing this because Dell did a crap job.

 

So I thought I'd add to this to discussion that I have a Studio 1555 that overheats due to the GPU. Found this thread and followed techifan1's instructions in post #96 to the letter as far as shim thickness/assembly order, and so far my overheating issue seems to be fixed. I was a little worried that it wouldn't given that my model is not the 1557 and there are differences in the heatsink assembly, but so far it is good. I seem to have dropped about 10C from both the GPU and CPU @load, and I no longer have to throttle my GPU to battery-saver in the Catalyst Control Center to keep it from overheating.

Very very happy about the performance of this machine now (I originally bought it from a friend with a broken screen and lid for $80! a couple of years ago), thank you so much to everyone that posted here about this issue and in such detail figuring things out. Unbelievably helpful to someone like me just randomly searching for solutions through google.

specs/improvements:
- Core 2 Duo 2.8Ghz T9600 (original was Pentium 2.0Ghz T4200)
- 4GB RAM (originally 3GB)
- ATI Radeon Mobility 4500 series
- Seagate 600 240GB SSD (original was Toshiba 250GB HDD)
- replaced failed original optical drive with newer revision
- installed backlit keyboard
- added an expresscard to USB adapter
- replaced screen/bezel/lid (designer Seaweed lid, original was black)
- copper shim mod for GPU
- Windows 8.1 (original was Vista)

 

Awesome info in here. I have two Studio 1558 laptops (Core i7-820 and Radeon 5470 GPU) that were doing random shutdowns. I took one apart and found the heat sink compound dried and cracked, then found this thread. I figure I'll add what I did in the hopes it helps someone else.

I was able to make my own copper shim using a 1/2" copper pipe strap (all copper, but some are steel with a copper cladding). I pounded it flat, polished it some with emery paper then cut out a small shim for the GPU. This strap was 0.55 mm in thickness (12mm in width) and seemed to fit perfect without having to also shim the vram chips (I left the original vram heatsink pads in place). I did a dry fit prior to cutting the strap to make sure it would be clamped tight and it was. I also measured the compressed portion of the factory dell heatsink putty pad and it looked to be about .35-.4 mm. Once I had the shim trimmed to size (10mm x 12mm x .055mm thick) I put Artic Silver 5 on the gpu, pressed the shim on, put more AS5 on the heatsink for GPU and on the CPU as well. Carefully lowered the heatsink fan assembly and snugged down the screws.

I don't have any before temps of the first laptop, but after temps on the first laptop were as follows.
I installed the latest HWMonitor software (the CPUZ-ID guys).
I ran the newest PassMark benchmark suite set for medium duration and 3 iterations and checked the highest temp of all of the cores
AFTER SHIM MOD:
CPU high: 76 deg. C low: 48 deg. C
GPU high: 78 deg. C low: 49 deg. C

I do like that my high temps are below 80 deg. c at this point and the laptop never shut off while running the benchmark suite. Here's hoping for the same success with the second laptop.

I'll be doing the second laptop shortly and will edit this post to add those numbers. *EDIT: temp added*
2nd Laptop:
BEFORE SHIM MOD
CPU high: 85 deg. C low: 47 deg. C
GPU high: 81 deg. C low: 46 deg. C

AFTER SHIM MOD
CPU high: 80 deg. C low: 44 deg. C
GPU high: 73 deg. C low: 46 deg. C

 

I registered just to say thanks to techifan for the advice way back on the shims.
Although the exact same size shims could no longer be sourced on ebay, I decided to use geenerous dollops of ICD7 to bridge the gaps.
We have 2 1557s. One of them even had the motherboard replaced by Dell out of warranty at a cost of €330 a couple of years ago.
One of them has also always had the fan operating while the other was usually quiet.
In the last 3 months, both started to exhibit all the signs which are now obvious to me, but had me confused at the time.
The local PC repair shop blamed the HD .
The PC which recently was crashing (spontaneous power off) within 3-5 mins of bootup has now been running over a week.
The PC which was idling at 68 deg C and getting up to 100 deg C is now idling at 48 deg C and maxing at 69 deg C.
Thanks again forum and techifan

 

Same here! The 1557 copper mod works like a charm!! Just applied it and it drastically improved temperature readings on my old little laptop .

Just to let everyone know: the company mentioned earlier in the posts - metaloffcuts - still produces the copper shims on special order, just write them an email.

Thanks a lot for the detailed descriptions and all the pictures. Special thanks to techifan! All the best!