Laptop CPU Upgrade Gone Wrong -Help Needed! Not enough thermal paste?

So as I mentioned in this thread...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-upgrade-t6600-cpu-t9600-cpu.html#post7524066

I replaced my Vaio's 2.2ghz T6600 CPU with 2mb cache

with this

I applied a somewhat thin layer of Arctic Ice thermal paste on the cpu. The swap seemed to go fine and the computer ran slightly sluggishly but was running.

However, the fan is incredibly loud and won't stop whirring. In addition the Windows Experience Index score for the cpu went DOWN from 5.7 to 4.7 so I shut off the laptop to prevent damage to the cpu.

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My question is, do you think the fan and drop in the WEI score is a result of using not enough thermal paste?

Too much thermal paste?

Do I also need to replace thermal paste on the heat sink?

Is the cpu defective?

Or does a drop in the WEI score mean it's none of those things and the cpu itself just wasn't designed for the computer.

I went from a 35 watt cpu to a 55 watt cpu, though multiple people told me that won't be an issue since they are both socket p and it's a big roomy laptop. Should I undervolt the cpu?

 

To simplify, what would you do if your cpu performance fell after you upgraded.

Would you add more thermal paste, or remove thermal paste, or is it caused by going from a from a 35 watt cpu to a 55 watt cpu?

Would you try undervolting the cpu?

 

First things first, download the latest CPU-Z and post us a screenshot. CPU rarely fails, did you check the CPU temp while on idle and under load? E8435 is basically t9900/x9100 with higher default voltages, they tend to run hotter than t9900/x9100. And yes you should definitely try undervolting the CPU, it makes your CPU run MUCH cooler at the cost of absolutely nothing, everyone with C2D should undervolt.

Can't believe people still believe in WEI scores, it's THE WORST benchmark tool ever existed. And about thermal paste application, did you properly clean off the leftover thermal greases on the heatsink and CPU core before you start applying anew?

 

lol WEI scores don't mean much but if other people are getting a higher score than you then something must be wrong

 

or, the heatsink in your machine isn't designed to handle the almost 2x heat load that you're now dumping into it.

 

I cleaned off the CPU core but I didn't clean the heatsink.

Here is a picture of how my heatsink looks...



I only applied the thermal grease on the CPU core, not the heat sink that rests above it. That is correct right, or should I apply thermal paste on both?

Do you think that if I open up my laptop again and clean off the heatsink, it will fix the problem?

After that, I will undervolt the cpu as well.

Thank you so much for your help.

 

Check with CPU-Z as mentioned and also monitor your idle temperatures. Report your finding here and from there we'll be able to tel you. 35W to 55W is a big gap, but considering most OEM paste job aren't too good you probably shouldn't see that much of an increase in temps with a good repaste. I actually saw a decrease in idle temps going from a 45W to a 55W TDP.

EDIT: In regards to your last post, clean both the CPU and Heatsink. Reapply the right amount of paste on the CPU, slap the heatsink on it and screw it in place. Follow the numbers beside the screws, they represent the order in which you have to tighten them. You'll know you didn't use enough space if areas on the CPU core wasn't covered by paste.

This video should give you an idea of how to repaste: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnqflymgOHU. Take the opportunity to clean the heatsink fins (what most people call the "radiator") when it's disassembled.

 

You need to clean BOTH the heatsink and CPU core before you start applying new thermal paste, you did it correctly by not using it on the heat sink, applying a thin layer on the CPU core alone is usually what needs to be done.

You might not like it but you gotta remove the heatsink and clean off the thermal paste you just applied, remember to clean BOTH the core and heatsink before you re-apply the paste.

 

There is probably a lot of dust in that fan guys.

Stop lecturing about correct thermal paste application. The fan must be unscrewed from 3 screws to clean the dust out, a point I think everyone here but you and I have missed ('just clean out the dust while you're at it').

 

I actually did a really good job of cleaning out the fan with compressed air. I took apart the whole laptop and cleaned everything out when I did the update.

Thanks you for all the suggestions everyone. I really appreciate it.

I'm going to open it back up this evening...

1. Clean off the heatsink and CPU using the Arctic Ice cleaning solutions

2. Reapply the Arctic Ice thermalpaste to the CPU

3. Screw on the fan and heatsink back in the correct numbered order on the screws.

4. Undervolt the CPU to 30 watts or so.

5. Install CPU-Z, and post the results on here.

Please let me know if there's any steps that I've skipped.

 

Thank you so much for your advice everyone. I did all of the above steps, and now the CPU and fan are running quiet as a mouse.

Yes I know it's meaningless but my Windows Experience Index score for both the CPU and the Memory jumped up to 6.6! The CPU score was 5.7 before the upgrade, 4.7 after the failed upgrade, and it's up to 6.6 now so that's a good sign.

I ran CPU-Z and here are the results...



I'm happy I did the upgrade, with the beefy gpu, and the ssd, I think I can use this laptop for another 2-3 years without worry.

 

What temp do you get on load. considering you jumped good 30W.

 

If I may add this:

Maker sure that the layer of thermal past is very thin.

The right procedure is to screw each screw a bit an then move to the next one. Then repeat the procedure until they are all tight.

It won't hurt to remove the screw afterwards and check that the CPU was making a good contact with the heatsink.

I'm not sure how this can be done? I'm not aware of a software or a hardware that allow you to read the DTP.

Can the OP install the following software in his laptop:
realtemp
orthos

Then tress the CPU with orthos while recording his temps. without undervolting, and with the laptop sitting on a flat desk, the max temperature should not exceed 80 - 85c max (after about 30 minutes of stress).

Anyways there is no risk for the CPU nor the laptop in the short term, The CPU will downclock itself if the temperature is over 105c.

EDIT:
Does the CPU goes over x3 (i.e. 800MHz) when stressed?
It could be that the BIOS does not know how to manage the E8435 and thus is it locked in its lowest multiplier.

 

Yes the cpu goes all the way over to 3.06 ghz under stress even when undervolted. Is there is any point in overclocking it beyond that, considering that it's a laptop.

Yes, I applied a nice thin even layer of thermalpaste using a credit card as shown on a youtube video.

I stressed the CPU (small FFTs - Stress CPU test) with orthos while recording his temps, without undervolting and the max temperature after 30 mins was 99c! Will that temperature damage the cpu or laptop?

Does a max temp of 99 after 30 mins mean that the cpu and heatsink are not making good contact, or could it just be because I replaced a 35watt cpu with a 55watt cpu?


However, in general use, I only rarely see the cpu go above the 60s, and when undervolted it's usually in the 50s.

 

If you can see like the shape/ mark of a rectangle on thermal past on the heatsink side, that means that the CPU and heatsink are making good contact.

Assuming that the heating is sitting properly on top of the CPU, that the 99c are because of the 55W. In other terms the heatsink is having trouble cooling the CPU. 99c is quite close to 105c which is the T junction of your CPU. I won't be surprised if your CPU reached 105c in a hot summer day.

Try undervolting. RMclock doesn't fully support the T9900 so I can only assume that it won't fully support the E8435. So the only option to undervolt is ThrottleStop.

Try to undervolt and see if you can decrease the temps under load to something around 80c.

You mean around 50c under normal use (like listing to musing or using a word processor), right? That's a little high. My T7250 undervolted temperature is about 40c under normal use. My T4200 without undervolting is usually below 40c.

 

I redid the thermal paste makes a pretty big difference (this time using a grain of rice size paste in the center rather than spreading it across with a card), and it seems to have lowered the temperature a bit. Under normal use, it ranges from 49-55 and it takes quite a bit longer for it to get to 99c (but it still happens after 20 minutes or so).

I'm okay with that I guess. Maybe it will go down a bit more once I've used it for a few days.

 

I used closer to two grains of rice of thermal paste in my second application.

Now, I realize that might be too much. But how much of a difference in temperatures would that make really? Using just a grain of rice more than recommended shouldnt increase the temperatures much right?

Maybe I'll give the Arctic Edge a few days to settle in.

 

Undervolt the CPU with throttlestop, the E8435 was designed for apple desktops, it's probably given way more voltages than it actually requires. You could easily lower the load temp by at least 13-15 C by doing this. My c0 stepping x9100 runs perfectly fine with voltages lower than the stock level even after a decent overclock to 3.33Ghz.

 

Thank you. I will do that.


Will the fact that I used roughly the size of two grains of rice of thermal paste on the cpu, rather than one grain of rice, significantly increase my temperatures? Or would I have had to use a lot more to see a signficant difference?

I am getting the same temperatures as before, when I was worried that I used too little thermal paste, now I am worried that I may have used a tad too much.

(I basically did one line that went across the long part of the rectangular shiny part of the cpu)

 

Actually it's very hard to measure how much exactly thermal paste do you need, but usually 1 grain of rice sized paste should be enough, but using a bit more shouldn't affect the temp drastically as long as you spread it even.

Those E8435/8335 run hotter compared to their core2duo counterparts, especially the C0 stepping ones, but usually a decent repaste job and undervolting should solve. Undervolting is a must for high end core2duo cpus like t9900/x9100/E8435 if you are not planning to overclock and want to keep them running cool.

 

Is there a guide on exactly what settings I should change? I assume I have to undervolt using throttlestop. But what exactly do I do on throttlestop in order to undervolt my E8435 (and possibly overclock it as well).

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...arket-upgrades/531329-throttlestop-guide.html I bought a x9100 because of this wonderful program, it unlocks the multipliers on intel extreme CPUs like x9100!

 

please read this, it should help with applying the paste...
http://www.arcticsilver.com/pdf/appmeth/int/ss/intel_app_method_surface_spread_v1.1.pdf

 

Thank you for the PDF. I already read the guide. The first time I applied it, I tinted the thermal paste as shown on the guide. It was not getting great performance so I tried the grain of rice method but I think I used a bit too much (closer to two grains of rice). I doubt it would make a big difference either way but I can open it up and change it again if you think it will help.

I read the guide but I'm still confused because the OP of the guide does not explain which setting I should enable and which I should leave alone.

If you don't mind, could you please tell me which settings you enabled for the x9100 to unlock the multipliers and to undervolt it, thank you.

I have an Intel Core 2 Duo E8435 cpu (it's very similar to the X9100)

I would really appreciate if someone could tell me step by step what settings to use to absolutely minimize heat and maximize battery life using Throttlestop except when I am in Performance mode (at which point I want to maximize performance)

I already added Throttlestop to the Task Manager so that it starts with Windows.

 

It has to be an X9100.

Only extreme editions can unlock.

The E8435 is more paired to the T9900.

 

Ok, so it can't be unlocked.

Any suggestions on what settings I should use to undervolt it, minimize it's heat generation, all while maybe overclocking it to 3.2 or 3.3 ghz? Thanks.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...arket-upgrades/531329-throttlestop-guide.html Post your questions there, people there can be very helpful.

About overclocking, you can't overclock your E8435 via throttlestop, you can however do it via setfsb, but I would advise against doing it as your CPU already runs very hot, overclocking requires more voltages and will only make it run even hotter.