Just did my first ever laptop surgery

More than two years ago, I bought a pair of HP 6510b's, one for me and one for my wife. They came with Windows Vista Business. Because they only came with 1GB of memory (2x512MB), I had them upgraded by replacing a 512MB SODIMM with a 2GB SODIMM, and they ran well enough after that. I had the technician at the store install them.

I recently decided to migrate one over to Ubuntu Linux where having 2.5GB's of memory seems pretty much useless so I returned the 512MB SODIMM which was easy since it fits under a cover at the bottom. I placed the 2GB in my wifes machine (Vista 64-bit), this was harder. I had to remove the keyboard to replace the second dimm... I know it is no biggie, but I was "proud" to be able to do it myself.

 

Well done! Don't you just love the feeling when you have been tinkering with your system and it turns back on again?

 

Congrats. Now you can be your own tech.

 

lol next task: repasting CPU and GPU!

 

Yes, I was worried it might not.

 

Maybe a hard drive upgrade. CPU and GPU... oh boy.

 

copper mod on gpu.

 

LCD screen replacement,now your talkin.

 

drilling and copper mod....thats my current project. Just did the drilling last night. Good job now you know more about computers than 90% of the world ^^

 

You know what's better than copper? Modifying the heatsink to sit flush on the die.

 

huh? PM me about that. I think i know what your saying but not sure

 

I read somewhere copper shims ruin GPU die..

 

Lapping! I did that once and it didn't really help much. Only with extreme overclocking will it be of signficant benefit or if your heat spreader or heatsink are warped.

Congrats @ OP though. It's a start. I'd rather see people do those simpler upgrades themselves than get raped at expensive labor rates. Memory is literally a five minute operation usually, and some places charge as much as $50 to do this.

 

Yeah, heatspreaders are notoriously not flat. It is the norm to be either bulged or sunk in. What I meant though was instead of shimming to replace a thermal pad, making the heatsink sit lower. I did it on my Inspiron without too much trouble. Just a tiny bit of bending the heatpipe in two places and a little trial and error.

 

Just be careful bending heatpipes. They are hollow inside, so if you choke them off or make a small break in the shell, you'll compromise their heat transfer abilities.

 

I remember that feeling =[ I lost it eventually however.

 

there hollow? I thought they were solid copper. Why would they be hollow? they wouldn't be any near as effective as them being solid....

 

Heat pipes have use liquid that turns to gas inside to transfer the heat efficiently.
Edit: They are actually more effective then using a solid copper pipe.
Edit2: Please be careful while bending them, the gas is mildly toxic IIRC.

 

can't be i became an addict of the chemical it release and now i open a notebook every 2 days

 

oh wow thats cool. thx for the info plus +rep

 

Yes, it works just like an AC unit. The liquid evaporates on the hot part, and condenses on the cool part. And more effective than solid copper is quite the understatement. Inside they almost always have some sort of fine metal mesh wick so they don't have to rely on gravity to bring the liquid back to the hot part. The fluid inside is actually pretty safe. Usually water, acetone, or alcohol.

 

Depends on the working fluid they use. I think a lot of them just use water (at low pressure so it vaporizes more easily), so that wouldn't be toxic. Still, breaking them open will release the working fluid, so it'll only be as conductive as the metal that's left in the walls... which is only about 1/80th as effective as when it's operating properly. Wikipedia does have a pretty neat article about heat pipes ( here).

 

I see. I know some heat pipes use water, but I dont know about computer oriented heat pipes, you say it's water?
Well I guess perhaps in a low pressure container water could be used, not sure why they would use it when there's other liquids that can vaporize at lower temperatures. Hmm maybe there is something I am missing...

 

water has the highest specific heat temperate out of anything. It can carry more heat than anyother fluid. Now if they used water/colant then it'll be able to transport the most heat and be very conductive when it comes to heat.

 

Yeah I know the basics on how heat pipes work.

Water, acetone or alcohol. Gotcha. Overall safe provided you don't go sniffing acetone in massive amounts.

 

By changing the pressure inside the heatpipe, they can make the water evaporate at any temperature they want.

 

Yes I am well aware of water usage for cooling, however a heat pipe requires the fluid to vaporize into gas. Water has a high boiling point, of course can be taken down if the pressure is decreased.

Hmm overall it seems water can be used for computers.

yeah I already stated that. I just wanted some one with more knowledge like you to tell me the fluids used in heat pipes.

 

what about ammonia?

 

Just wanted to pipe in and say congrats to the OP

 

don't know i just remember water in chemistry class that it has the highest specific heat of any liquid

 

i dont put them back together and then i turn them on. but i lost it too

its hard for some. i think people like me and crimsoned are more likely to end up in industrial or embedded systems fields... where our thirst can be quenched...