Repasting a P150HM

Hi,

my P150HM has just suffered a thermal shutdown while playing Assasin's Creed 3. This made me think a re-paste might be in order, especially that I have never done it since I got the machine. It seems that the general consensus is that the IC diamond is the way to go. How much do I need though? Is the 1.5 g syringe enough, or should I go for the 4.8 g one? Moreover, the former is 7 carat while the latter is 24, I am assuming is it also referring to the amount. Thanks for the pointers in advance.

 

Have a look at this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...e-guide-upgrading-thermal-paste-your-own.html
All the info you need is there.

 

Here is Application instructions from IC Diamond.

 

Does it change anything that the CPU die is not square? Well, at least according to the photos, I haven't opened the laptop yet.

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Be careful with IC Diamond. When removing it you have to be careful or it will scratch your CPU / GPU.

 

I don't know what paste is there now - it's whatever mysn use. It makes sense that IC Diamond is abrasive, diamonds are one of the hardest things out there.

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I use rubbing alcohol and soft cotton makeup remover sheet thingy and haven't had any problems with scratching on multiple paste jobs. I would never do it without the alcohol, though.

You will be fine with the smaller tube as it doesn't take more than a rice sized glob of paste. IC 7 and 24 are the exact same compound (IC 24 is just a larger tube). That link Tmets posted is a good guide as well as the one by Xotic. I did a comparison of TIMs a few months ago and show how I applied it. The link is in my signature if you think it may help.

 

Yes, apply like this if rectangle



The Dot method in the link works well for heat spreaders, without heat spreaders even on square dies, you might not have full coverage on the corners, anyhow the above is how you should do it if your CPU looks like that, its also the proper amount for IC Dimond

You cannot avoid it from what I have seen. It will Mar your heatsink and CPU die

 

There are other good pastes around. PK3, MX4, Gelid Extreme being a few.
Correct application is what makes the most difference though.

 

I agree completely. The proper application is the most important factor and you can't go wrong with any of the good pastes as long as you apply them correctly.

 

There are even some [barbaric] "compounds" that have been tested and actually did okay, such as mustard (although mustard did not endure for long under stress).

The link Hutsady provided is a good reference. If you're interested in thermal benchmarks, you may refer here: Thermal Compound Roundup - January 2012 | Hardware Secrets (refer to other pages for additional info on test machine, software, and compound info).

 

OK, so the paste has arrived. I have run the Kombustor before doing anything, and after a 7 minute burn-in the GPU reaches 92-93 degrees. I guess I should have probably asked this before ordering the paste, but is that rather on the colder or on the warmer side? My GPU is running on stock clocks.

 

was that with fn+1 switched on or off? also, try to slightly raise the back of ur laptop in order to get way lower temps. i for one am using two bottle caps to prop it up works wonders!
92-93 is a bit on the warmer side if u ask me. i get 81-82 after 20min kombustor with a 20% OC.

cheers

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It was with fn-f1 off, but I think in the end the fan was on full speed anyway.

 

I don't have experience with the 485m, but 90+ is definitely on the high side. Try repasting and let us know if temps improve. Remember that pastes cure over time, so temperatures will normally improve by several degrees after their recommended curing period.

 

Damn. One of the screws in the heatsink won't budge. I don't want to apply too much force not to break the gpu, are there any tricks I could use?

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The last resort to is saw a channel across one of the notches of the phillips head hole and use a large flat head screwdriver to remove it.

You must take care to make sure no shavings are still hanging around afterwards.

Otherwise just make sure you are using a correct sized screwdriver.

 

It is a size 0.0 Philips head. CPU repasting seems to have worked.

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Wow, I'd never feel comfortable doing that. All those shavings around the motherboard/gpu? Yikes! I'd have to leave it to a professional

 

I had to do that with my of the screws on my P150EM graphics VRM heatsink, it's not an ideal situation but its better than just leaving it as broken.

Obviously it would need to be done with great care and maybe some covering around the area to try and pick up dust.

 

Yeah, seems scary, especially that I am still under warranty. So far I just put the 3 screws back and got semi-satisfied with CPU repaste. The machine boots (success!). There was lots of dust and lots of old, hard paste on the CPU. I cleaned it with computer cleaning wipes and applied a line of IC diamond (the CPU die is not a square). Compiling mame with 8 threads makes the CPU reach 79 degrees, so I guess I did not completely mess this up.

 

The methods of dealing with stripped screws I was able to find were putting a rubber band between the screw and the driver or glueing them together with super glue. Does anyone have any experience with these?

 

Sounds nerve wracking. You're right though, you can't leave it broken. I've had a similar situation while installing coilovers on my S2000, but I didn't have to worry about metal shavings then.

 

I managed to get the screw out using a smaller flathead. Kombustor reaches 91 degrees after 10 minutes, so either I botched the job or the paste needs to cure a bit.

 

It could be that the 485m runs warmer than modern gpus, which wouldn't be surprising considering its fermi architecture. What kind of temps do you get while gaming?

 

Alt-tabbing from assassin's creed 3 shows 82 degrees.

 

Thats acceptable for well loaded.

 

Awesome. Not too bad given I've never done this before. Moreover, I should be safe from thermal shutdowns for a while now, as together with the paste I got a can of air and taking the radiators off has really allowed to blow the 1.5-year old dust away

 

That's good man, your temps seem totally fine. They should improve a couple degrees over the next week or two (depending on which compound you used.)

 

I used IC Diamond.

 

Nah temps won't improve, best temp you will have is right now.

After 2 weeks it will be full of dust and I'm pretty sure IC diamond has no curing time.

 

Wasn't sure which compound he used, but assumed it would improve since most have curing times. My temps were actually a little worse than stock after repasting with AC5, but eventually dropped several degrees over time. My laptop runs a little cooler than it used to now.

 

Moral hazard is partly correct. I know MX-4 has no curing time, ICD has a 2 hour time on average.

 

IC5's curing time is the exception rather than the rule.

 

The fans seem to be slower in "non-gaming" mode too.