HP Envy 15 (V2) inside pictures for people who want to reapply thermal paste

Ok today I decide to reapply thermal paste and took couple of pictures to show how to do it and what kind of parts you need to remove.

First you need to download service manual and read it. All the instructions are there for how to dissemble the notebook. Following pictures might help you to understand service manual.


Things you need to unplug before remove the top panel




Things you need to unplug/unscrew before remove heatsinks




Here's the CPU picture without heatsink




Cleaned CPU heatsink




GPU picture without heatsink




Cleaned GPU heatsink




I use white cotton cloth and alcohol to clean the CPU/GPU and heatsink(s) and use AS5 as a thermal paste. CPU/GPU temp drop nearly 4C-5C. I need to wait until AS5 settle down. I'm expecting another 2C drop after that.

 

good job man and thanks for the pics. i had mine apart the other day to replace the HD and i thought about re-pasting the CPU/GPU but they looked alright.

 

hey before you cleaned it, were the chips coated with silicon paste or what?

 

some kind of thermal paste. It reminds me clay

Specially GPU paste is really bad and Hp need to teach those assembly guys how to do it.

 

+rep to bigspin from me. Thanks for the pics.

 

Is that i7 model? Looks different than i5 w/ more ram slots!

 

Yep ! that's i7 model.

 

you can also tell from the single 45nm die on the i7, vs the 32nm i5+intel integrated chip

 

Wow, that i7 core has a rather large (die?) area, looks like its three times the size of the Core 2 Duo in my beast

And that's one small motherboard.

 

How to purchase new dual HDD bracket

 

yes the i7 has a larger die on it, which is why i had to remove the cpu pad (some black plastic sheet) from the copper heatsink when I swapped out my i5. seriously don't think the plastic did anything except help trap heat anyway.

 

I have just finished applying some arctic silver 5 to the CPU and GPU in my Envy this morning.... how long will it take to settle in on average and I can see any improvement?

At the moment, my average temperatures look about the same, if not a little higher than they were before. I assume it might take a little while to cure?

 

It'll take about a week or so for the thermal paste to cure. You can speed the process up by running burn tests

How much did you put on? Just a small bead in the center of the die is all you need.

 

Thanks for that.

Yeah, I only put a small bead on and then spread it to cover the whole core evenly. I'll just wait it out I suppose. Hoping for up to 5C improvement...

 

How did you spread it? I hope you used somthing completely clean. Using somthing like your fingers or somthing you touched with your fingers without degreasing and cleaning it is a no-no.

I generally reccomend not to spread it manually. As long as your HSF mounting is designed properly and you install it properly, the preload and force between the HSF and the core should be enough to spread it on its own. personally, I power my system back on before reinstalling the keyboard/cover and applied more force to seat the HSF against the CPU after heating it up to ensure the IC 7 Diamond Thermal Paste could more easily flow and cover the whole of both cores. Then tightened the screws one more time (criss-cross pattern, tighten in several steps!)

Combine using a sub-optimal spreading technique with the fact that AS5 is only "mediocre" by now and your application may not turn out any better then the factory paste.

I will say that the factory paste/application on my Envy was not bad at all really. They did use allot, but no exorbitantly so. I did not measure scientifically, but I did not notice temps lower after my application of IC Diamond 7. Change was within normal mount to mount variance. I actually got a more significant change after I disassembled again, cleaned, reapplied and remounted.

 

where do I get the service manual?

where would I get the parts to upgrade to dual ssd/hd combo?

Thanks!