Cleaned out fan and applied Artic Silver. CPU seems hotter.

So I cleaned out the fan, applied Artic Silver like recommended in the pinmod guide:



I've noticed my fan comes on more often.

I would guess too much Artic silver? Or is Artic silver not that good?
Thoughts?

 

what was on the core originaly thermal pad or paste, if it was a pad maybe the paste is not able to bridge the gap, also AS5 can take a few days to work 100%

 

I'm not sure. I think it was paste. I cleaned it with rubbing alcohol.

What does a pad look like?

What do you mean with gap?

 

ideally you want no gap between the core and the bottom of the heatsink , if it was a thermal pad they can be quite thick.

http://images.google.co.uk/images?g...esnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=thermal+pads&spell=1

 

You would have known if it was a thermal pad (it would ahve been thick and rubbing alcohol wouldnt have cleaned it)

You had thermal paste so no worries there.

2 things i see.

1) Artic Silver takes about 200 hours to "burn in" and align its matrix to better take away heat. It seems like alot, but generally the results are worth it.

2) Just judging from the pic it looks like ALOT of AS5 on the CPU. Usually you just want a very thin coat. Too much can be almost as bad as not enough.

 

Thanks guys. I'll wait for while to see if it gets better.

If not I'll redo it with less AS5.

 

It's a little bit tricky to get the results you want with AS5.
I also replaced the stock grease on my T61 and made sure to clean the heatsink and CPU throughly with isopropyl alcohol + ArctiClean kit.
I've not noticed any noticeable difference when the CPU is idling and the fan kicks in at 50C (preset via FanControl), but if you game a lot and have a dedicated GPU it's very advisable to replace the thermal paste.

What I like to do is apply the AS5 with my finger on a plastic bag and then when resetting the heatsink I twist it a little bit so that the grease fills any air gaps between the CPU and the heatsink.

In a way AS5 sucks because that BS of '200 hours burn-in' is impractical for most users that don't use the laptop all day. I guess there are some better greases out there, but I just use it because I'm too cheap to buy another one. I've also a tube of Zalman STG-1 grease which also worked OK.

 

Yeah it looks like there is too much thermal paste on that. Use a razor to scrape some off and something to clean the sides (where it drips over the core) of paste.

 

Forget AS5. Get a tube of AC MX-2 which gives lower temps and no curing time.

 

the best way to apply thermal paste (from my experience) is to apply a small drop on the cpu and let the heatsink pressure spread it out. do not spread it by yourself. this decreases the chances of air bubbles. you only need a very very small amount. try experimenting a few times to see how much paste adequately covers the cpu after being spread by the heatsink.

 

I know if you buy from RJ Tech they actually advise you not to use thermal paste over any manufacturer paste. I'm not sure if this is just from the curing time or overall performance.

 

You put way too much on that, you definately got to take off some of the paste and reapply but this time jsut a little bit. Take a credit card or a plastic card, apply pressure and spread it untill THERE IS NO BUMPS, if there are bumps your temps would be higher. Trust me it happen when i first applyed AS5, i had bumps. Then when i redid it i notice my laptop got cooler.

 

Also, you wont notice a difference if you wait that 200 hours, usually in 200 hours it would jsut go down 1-2C. Thats all, you notice temps drop when you first turn on your computer.

 

I might give MX-2 a try, I know I'm on a high-climate environment but the fan is On almost all the time even after replacing the stock grease.
I'm seeing the C2D heat more faster than Pentium M's back in their days'

 

Or check out that Diamond IC stuff. Info is in one of the subforums, I think MSI?

 

Honestly most of the high end thermal compounds are pretty much the same. sure tests have shown that some are better than others but usually the difference is only a few degrees.

I think the application is the problem. As others have said you put too much and i personally dont spread the compound. I just put a little bit on the middle and let the heatsink do the spreading. It spreads it more evenly and theres a lower chance of airbubbles and bits of stuff getting into the compound when your spreading it.

 

I'll disagree on that point. I believe it was either tom's hardware or anandtech recently did an application test and showed that the drop and let the processor do the work method wasn't as effect or uniform as it should be. I think the credit card method is the way to go.

 

I recently stuck some OCZ Freeze on a notebook which was hitting 65-70 under full load. I used the small drop in the middle of the CPU method and temps are now 45-50.

Looks like you used too much, you only need > 1mm of paste between the die and heatsink so the rest would just get pushed out (and not make contact with the heatsink), that's why you could be seeing the higher temps.

 

I find ZALMAN STG1 the easiest to apply with it`s little brush.

http://www.zalman.co.kr/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?idx=221

 

Well the AS5 website says to let the Heatsink / cpu do the work. I would also just apply a dot and put the heatsink on to spread it.

 

That's what I'm going to try next.

The pinmod guide said to spread it with a rasorblade.

 

I reapplied AS5 on my Thinkpad.

I ran Orthos with the current AS5 grease and this are the temps (at the top CPU stock voltage, bottom CPU undervolted at 0.950V):


Then what I did was disassembly the heatsink, with my finger on a plastic bag 'scraped' a little bit of AS5 on the CPU and northbridge. On the heatsink I did the same but left compound in there and 'filled' any microscopic gaps rubbing the thermal paste. Reassembled everything.

Results:


Still temps climb on the 70's range with the stock CPU voltage but right now is maybe 28C at my dorm.

 

hi I changed cpu T9800 and I used mx-2
I spread paste about 2 or 2.5 mm thick paste on whole cpu and then put heatsink on it
first you must clean cpu from old paste then apply new
and the temperature of cpu is 49 C

 

I did that yes.

how was it before you applied the thermal paste?

 

You sure the heat sink is seated properly? Did you make sure to do the heat sink screws in a star direction to equalize the pressure on the CPU surface?

You should see temperature drops instantly. If its higher then something is wrong. I saw a 5c-7c drop in idle and up to 10c for max temps, but these figures can vary from notebook to notebook.

The curing period will only add in 0-2c after the 200 hours is done. I noticed nearly no curing improvement on any of my notebooks.

 

I thought I did it the right way, but observing my fan behavior I'm starting to doubt it now.

I also think I used too much.

I might redo it some day...

 

Does it apply to all thermal pastes, including the liquid metal ones?