revised cooling improvement for 2370

This post may help others, but you will have to adapt to your installation.

Revision:
After several months of operation using the original procedure listed below, I found GPU temps again starting to climb. Cleaning the fan and heatpipe radiator only helped marginally. My best guess is the heatpipe over time will tend to warp due to repeated heating and cooling. It is clamped down over the CPU by screws, but is dependent solely on the adhesive (originally a thermal pad) to maintain good contact with the GPU.

I first experimented with a wad of aluminum foil between the heatpipe over the GPU and the aluminum case bottom plate. Temps immediately dropped by nearly 10C. However overtime aluminum and copper will cause corrosion and act as an insulator, besides, copper is a better heat conductor.

I picked up a flat ended 1/4" copper pipe cap from the hardware store. It was just a bit taller than the distance between the heatpipe over the GPU and the inside of the aluminum bottom plate. I cut a series of grooves around the open end of the cap, then slightly spread the 'petals' like a flower - just enough to maintain firm but not excessive down pressure on the heatpipe.

I cleaned the flat cap bottom and heatpipe over the GPU, applied a tiny bit of Arctic Silver 5 to the flat end of the pipe cap and placed it on the heatpipe. I then carefully replaced the case bottom plate. The sharp edges on the petals against the bottom plate and the AS5 at the other end keep the cap from moving.

My 10C temp difference remained. I suspect more due to adequate clamping between the heatpipe and the shim/GPU below it. However, some heat is transferred to the notebook's bottom plate as the bottom is warmest where the pipe cap makes contact. Yes, I do expect some corrosion between the copper cap and bottom plate, but this is easily cleaned off with a pencil eraser when I periodically remove the bottom plate to do any maintenance.

Being aluminum, the bottle plate quickly distributes the heat over its entire surface and doesn't get hot, just warm. As the primary vent is on the bottom of this notebook anyhow, you should never place the notebook such that this vent is blocked. The additional warmth shouldn't matter - and it is helping to cool the whole notebook.

Yes, the OEM heat transfer mechanism for the 2300 series (and clones) is lousy. However, using the improvements in this post, this particular unit has had the least problems. I am beginning to suspect the reported deaths (and I've had one too) are a result of heat destruction of the GPU rather than solely a BIOS issue.

Original Post:
The OEM installation of the heatsink can be improved. However you will have to manufacture at least one of the parts yourself. You will need:

•Arctic Silver 5 or better thermal paste
•cotton balls and/or cotton swabs
•pure isopropyl alchohol or acetone
•a 1" copper plumbing cap (make sure the end is flat)
•1000 grit sandpaper
•copper metal polishing paste
•jewler's phillips screwdriver
•coping saw
•fine metal file
•wood toothpicks
•lint free cotton cloth
•a cardboard business card​

You will cut a 1cm X 1cm square from the end of the plumbing cap with the coping saw (a clamp or at least vice grips will help hold the cap while cutting). This material is about as pure copper as you are going to readily get and the correct thickness. Sure you might find another source material, but around here this was the least expensive means.

Carefully remove the burrs around the edges with the file being careful to not remove any material from the flat sides. Use the sandpaper to remove the scratches near the edges and some of the oxides. Try to minimize scratches on the flat sides.

Polish the entire piece with metal polish (basically a fluid fine grit sandpaper) to remove oxides and fine scratches. Wash with the alcohol or acetone and set aside. (BE CAREFUL - both the alcohol and acetone are highly flammable and need good ventilation!)

Remove AC & battery from your notebook; then press and hold the power button for 15+ seconds to drain off any stored charge. Make sure you have fully discharged any static from your body before proceeding.

Open the notebook bottom hatch and remove the six screws securing the fan and the heatsink. Using a small magnet to keep the screws from falling into the notebook is a good idea.

Carefully remove the fan from the case (leave it plugged in), and carefully lift the heatsink free of the notebook and set it aside. Clean any accumulated dust from the fan blades and set the notebook aside.

On the heatsink, you will see an excess of thermal paste from the CPU, and a foam thermal pad for the GPU. Remove both using the alcohol or acetone as a solvent and broken ends of toothpicks as scrapers. Do not scratch the heatsink surface. Be careful not to bend the heatsink in any way. Clean out any accumlated dust from the radiator fins. Set aside when throughly clean.

Using only cotton balls or swabs dampened with alcohol or acetone, and broken toothpicks, clean the surfaces of the CPU & GPU chips inside your notebook - Do not get sloppy with fluids inside your notebook!

Your prep work is done. It is now time to reassemble.

Place a teeny dab of new thermal paste - about the size of a grain of rice, maybe smaller - on the CPU. Use an edge of a business card to just completely coat the top of the CPU. Any more that that is not only a waste, but may decrease the effectiveness in cooling the chip. The factory almost always uses way too much paste. The sole purpose of the paste is to fill microscopic scratches on the chip and heatsink and improve heat transfer. The copper is a much better heat transfer material than the paste.

Do the same with the top of the GPU.

Remember that thermal pad that used to be over the GPU? It had a depression in it. The thickness of the pad inside that depression has to be duplicated. This is what that little piece of copper you made does. Lay the copper shim centered on top of the freshly pasted GPU. It should be just a teeny bit bigger than the GPU. Press it down evenly into the thin layer of paste. I suggest using another broken toothpick to avoid transferring any finger oils to the copper.

Now, very delicately put another layer of thermal paste on top of this copper shim just like you did on top of the CPU & GPU.

Carefully reinstall the heatsink. Make sure you don't slide it around and dislodge the shim sitting on top of the GPU. Secure it with the 4 screws. Then reinstall the fan and secure it with the remaining two screws. Last reinstall the bottom plate on your notebook.

When you were cutting the shim out of the plumbing cap, did you notice how readily the heat from the cutting transferred throughout the entire cap? Copper is a very good heat conductor. Steel is a lousy heat conductor. Aluminum is slightly less good than copper. Another reason for not using aluminum is that over time whenever copper and aluminum are in contact with each other, they will start to corrode. As the heatsink is made of copper, a copper shim is the best approach.

My notebook GPU routinely operates 10-15C cooler than the OEM installation. I find my notebook's fan also runs less often. This will also violate any warranty you may have.

 

If you still have the 2300, i would like to see snap shot of the cooling modification.

I'm still trying to understand how the heatsink works. I was thinking, if the pipe has hole wouldn't that be better? That way the heat doesnt get trap inside, instead the fan just blow it out. I might just buy one to test it out, if i can find one on ebay.

 

Sorry, I'm not going to rip apart a working system to photograph all the pieces, then reassemble it. And unless I do rip it all apart, there really isn't much you see different from a stock 2370. The only visible difference after assembly is the 1/4" copper pipe cap that uses the notebook's metal backplate to add additional down pressure over the graphics chip.

Hole? The purpose of a heat pipe is to conduct heat from an inner area of the PC to a radiator behind the exhaust vent. Copper is a much better conductor of heat than air. If you drill a hole in the heat pipe you will decrease its efficiency.

 

All you have to do is remove the screw from the botton plates and the CPU/GPU is right there. I'm not sure what part you are refering to. Unless the everex twin is different, than it wouldn't be a twin.

I shoved some shim between the plates and the tube heatsink and it still heats. Since you were successful, I would just like to copy you that's all.

 

You are correct in that the CPU/GPU is right there under the back plate. What I am saying is once you have properly assembled the revised cooling, it will look the same (other than the extra 1/4" copper plumbing cap) as it did before you did anything. There is nothing to be gained by taking a photograph.

"shoved some shim"? What does that mean? The shim MUST be copper, MUST be flat, MUST be polished, MUST be the same thickness as the removed thermal pad, MUST be placed properly, MUST use properly applied and high quality thermal paste. Failure to do the installation EXACTLY as indicated in the instructions is quite possibly going to make things worse. There is no "shoving" of anything. It may just be your phrasing, but it makes it sound like you did some incredibly sloppy work.

And what software are you using to determine the current CPU & GPU temps? I use HWMonitor (CPUID Hardware Monitor).

FYI- you could temporarily use a wad of aluminum foil in place of the 1/4" cap placed between the heat pipe over the GPU and the back cover to increase the pressure between the heat pipe and GPU ... but due to the chemical reaction between copper and aluminum, I don't recommend this as a permanent arrangement.