Does reapplying thermal compound on Averatec 2370 help?

My Averatec 2370 runs really hot. It often hit 80C and starts to throttle. I have been keeping it cool by using RmClock and undervolting it, but it can only do so much. This is ridiculous since my other laptop is a Celeron 520 that runs at the full speed as the Averatec 2370 all the time and it never gets hot. I tried fan calibration, too, but it's still hot.

I am wondering if anyone tried reapplying the thermal compound and notice a temperature drop or is the machine cooling system not designed well.

 

Re-doing your heatsink installation might help.

You will need both a top-notch thermal paste (e.g., Arctic Silver 5) and a replacement thermal pad ... or be prepared to find a solid copper shim.

A single heatsink serves both the dual-core CPU and the Nvidia GPU. Here is the problem... The heatsink clamps down over the CPU chip with 4 screws, but there is nothing to clamp down the heatsink over the GPU. And the GPU runs hotter than the CPU - go figure.

You can't use just thermal paste. There is a thermal pad over the GPU. If you don't replace this with an equally thick pad, you must use a flat shim to make up for the difference. Finding a small piece of pure copper sheet the correct thickness to use as a shim can be difficult.

Be very careful you don't bend the heatpipe or scratch the copper surface. Use a wood tongue depressor or popsicle stick to scrap off the existing pad. Once you remove the heatsink from the motherboard, it is pretty well useless anyhow. Some folks use 99% isopropyl alcohol, but I prefer to carefully use acetone and cotton swabs to clean all existing thermal compound and thermal pad adhesive from the heatsink and the CPU & GPU.

New thermal paste should be about the size of a grain of rice and spread VERY thin using a paper business card. If you opt for the copper shim between the GPU and the heatsink, remember to repeat the process so you have a film of paste on both sides of the shim.

Let me explain why I specifically said 'pure copper' for the shim. Steel has lousy thermal conductivity - its why good stainless steel pans often have a copper bottom. Aluminum isn't quite as good a thermal conductor as copper, but it's adequate. The problem is that your heatsink is copper, and if you place copper against aluminum, you will get corrosion. And that corrosion will impede heat transfer.

While you have your heatsink (and by extension, cooling fan) out of the chassis, take the time to make sure you have removed all dust from both.

 

Actually, after reading your post, I realized it was really risky to actually do this. It's the thermal tape. I doubt I'll be able to remove the heatsink without damaging the thermal tape, so I am wondering if there is a ready source of replacement.

Using a thermal tape to fill in the gap is really poor design. No wonder it runs hot!