How to install my heatsink/fan properly?

A few weeks ago my fathers laptop started making a loud buzzing noise which turned out to be the fan failing. The laptop eventually refused to start, apparently being able to detect that the fan had failed. I ordered the exact same part off ebay and am now trying to install it. Here's a picture of the old cooling system that I removed from the laptop:



On a side note, would anyone happen to know what the aluminum-like film on the heatsink is? Is that burnt thermal compound? Here is a close-up of it:



The new part does have the same type of metal film on it, but it is not peeled away like on the old part. It looks like aluminum; should I remove it before putting the heatsink on the CPU?

I cleaned the metal pad on top of the CPU with Isopropyl Alcohol, is this where I apply the Arctic Silver 5 that I bought?

Here's a picture of the motherboard:



Is the top of the CPU the only place I should apply the Arctic Silver? If you look to the left of the CPU notice the white square-thing? What is that? A temperature sensor maybe? When the cooling system is in, that white pad touches the bottom of the fan (it's actually a metal pad with some sort of white rubber coating on top of it). Should I leave the rubber white pad thing there?

Here is a picture of the motherboard with the cooling system sitting in:



Sorry about my disorganized and probably confusing post, and for bombarding you with so many questions. I really don't want to screw this up, though, and would appreciate any advice you might be able to give.

Thanks so much for your help

 

Looks like dried thermal compound to me.

Clean both sides with the cleaning compound, apply a minute amount of AS5.

There are many application methods, and most users will swear by their own preferred method.

Me?

I'll have you read the AS guide. http://www.arcticsilver.com/ins_route_step2amdas5.html

 

Hello, thanks for your reply. Just to make sure I understand, you think that I could clean the silver stuff off the heatsink?

What kind of cleaning compound do you recommend using? I probably shouldn't have done this, but to clean the CPU I softly scratched the old compound off with a plastic credit card.

 

Some heatsinks come with a thin layer of aluminum to help seat it with CPU. You can take it off if you want. I personally remove it and just use paste.

It is peeled because when you removed the old heatsink, the existing thermal paste was probably dried frozen it ripped it open.

Yes. See AS website for application instructions

The white square thing is a thermal pad for the Northbridge or your GPU, which require little cooling. You dont need to apply paste on these. Do not remove it either.

All good

 

I use the ArctiClean stuff.

So that's what the foil stuff is. Haven't noticed it on any of the CPUs actually.

Thanks for the headsup, flipfire.

 

You mean, it is there because aluminum is malleable and has different material structure than the pseudo copper heatsink right.
Just making sure

K-TRON

 

That's the northbridge, and the soft thingy is a thermal pad. Leave it alone and just smoosh the cooling assembly back down on it. And considering your fan is basically on top of the northbridge it must be pretty cool, haha.

I just realized Flip already answered that, but I don't feel like deleting the above. Meh.


And be careful with that AS5. It's conductive, so if you accidentally glop some on some other components it migh suffer some mischief. Thankfully, AS5 is very easy to work with. (MX-2 is a good paste for you to try out, though)

 

I would suggest taking a closer look at the picture.
The northbridge is solely cooled by contact with the thin metal plate the fan is mounted to. Not much of a heatsink, I would bet it runs pretty hot, since it isnt actively cooled.

K-TRON