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    Thermal compound on old 9300?

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by Simpler=Better, Oct 8, 2009.

  1. Simpler=Better

    Simpler=Better Notebook Consultant

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    I'm working on my friend's old 9300(It still has the factory Dell image installed)

    This thing has been on probably 75% of it's life. I want to pull is apart, remove the dell thermal compound, and replace it with ICD7 thermal compound, but I am afraid that after so long the dell stuff will have hardened to the point of breaking things as I try to remove the heatsinks.

    Is this a legitimate concern? Right now the computer works but(In my opinion) it runs quite hot at idle.
     
    Simpler=Better, Oct 8, 2009
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  2. Commander Wolf

    Commander Wolf can i haz broadwell?

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    I don't think it's going to be a problem. The 9300 isn't that old. Even then, I've pulled older heatsinks off D600s and D610s and I've never had a problem with anything breaking. Just be gentle and everything should be fine.
     
    Commander Wolf, Oct 8, 2009
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  3. Simpler=Better

    Simpler=Better Notebook Consultant

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    That's all the reassurance I need :)
    It's getting 2GB ram, diamond-based thermal compound :D, and we will finally be getting rid of dell's OS image(It has never been reformatted)
     
    Simpler=Better, Oct 8, 2009
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  4. Mastershroom

    Mastershroom wat

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    No matter how old or crusty the thermal gunk has gotten, it's not going to be strong enough to break a half-inch thick copper/aluminum heatsink. ;)
     
    Mastershroom, Oct 8, 2009
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  5. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    The tin/magnesium piece which dell uses to interface between the cpu and the heatsink is going to take a while to get off.
    You will need a lot of q-tips, some good 90% rubbing alcohol, and a plastic pen cap. You will need all of them to get the old stuff off of the die. It like bakes into the die.

    You can replace it, it will take a bit to clean it all off, but it should be worth it.

    By the way, if you are concerned about temperature, install I8KFANGUI, to control the fans. You can crank them up to full or make custom profiles on when to turn the fan on.

    K-TRON
     
    K-TRON, Oct 8, 2009
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  6. Simpler=Better

    Simpler=Better Notebook Consultant

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    I went ahead and put ICD7 on the CPU, GPU, and northbridge. FYI, the north bridge could have used a copper shim, but my research told me that the ICD7 will be adequate to fill the gap.

    Fresh copy of XP installing right now, I will report back later.
     
    Simpler=Better, Oct 10, 2009
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