Thought of a solution for 8662 HDD overheating

i dont know if this works...
its just crossed my mind...

so..heres the story..im playing GRID for just couple minutes in room temperature and the HDD hits 70C like nobodies business...so...im worried bout it a bit...
thinking of using aluminium foil covering the HDD to transfer/spread the heat to the np8662 chassis?
but i still wondered on some things..
1.will the aluminium foil MELT? or even burnt? checked already that the melting point is way far from HDD temps can reach(around 600c)

2.aluminiums has electric conductivity...but , in my old hp dv6500t...
the HDD is screwed into a CHASSIS which is made from some kind of metal , covering the whole backplate(which has the solder solder thingy..not the sticker part)....but still it worked on cooling my HDD(my old dv6500t using hitachi 5400rpm 200gb and the temps never reached 60c)

i wondered if i can actually try this...dunwan to screw the whole hdd....

and also....the white silvery sheet which is located below the hdd in np8662 is it some kind of metal?

 

Well let's see the responses and try it and let us know.

 

Haha, aluminium doesn't start to melt until around 660*C. That's more than 10 times hotter than a typical hard drive. You don't need to worry about it melting on you.

This may help. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5156387&postcount=603

 

If the temp reaches 660 C, i think theres more to be worried about then hdd temps lol

 

70C?

Check the other threads for lowering your HDD temps first. A cooler will help too. I understand that it costs.

Call your vendor ASAP if all fails.

 

Anyone actually tried this to see the results?

 

the problem with this is if there is any space, and i mean any space between the drive and the foil, the foil is going to cause the drive to bake itself.

 

yes..i checked and theres abundant space two wrap aluminium foil about 2-5mm thickness..

since that the foil itself doesnt confine heat , but transferring...im going to home depot to find that...

ill post my results later..see ya

 

Okay, I'm confused. Do you mean aluminium foil or real aluminium sheet metal?

 

is it the same?
er i mean....the aluminium foil used for cooking to wrap food

 

Aluminium foil used to wrap food isn't going to do squat. It's way too thin and malleable even if you layer and flatten it. What I'm talking about is one of these. Industrial grade sheet metal. The one in the link is just an example. http://cgi.ebay.com/5052-H32-Alumin...in_0?hash=item5188f3df56&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

 

i wish that i have access to these resources easily...but since that i live in southeast asia...the shipping cost would be higher than the item itself , and not cost-effective

 

Thermal tape and aluminum sheets.....Isn't this stuff you would find in a hardware store?

 

I don't know how they do things in Southeast Asia, but that means that either devilcm3 lives in a place where those resources are really hard to come by, or he isn't a handyman.

I'm going to The Home Depot or Lowes later this week to pick up some copper sheets. A buddy of mine is letting me use his metal saws over at his shop so I'll be able to put on a copper HDD heatsink and a copper northbridge shim to replace the thermal pad.

I've already added enough copper to my machine that it now weighs 4.5kg. Adding a huge plate of copper to the HDD and a northbridge shim is only going to make my back cry even more, haha.

 

visited the local hardware store...aint find the copper sheets...only aluminium foils...
so...testing now how the wrapping works or not..

mind showing yours after you done modding?

oh y....i did some experiments , and theres a strange thing happen when the aluminium foil gets contact with mainboard and the system will go unstable..

 

Yeah, aluminium conducts electricity, don't let it touch the motherboard (or any other circuit board) or you could fry your system

 

it does work...but the results are not that great...only manage to push my hdd temps down to 65...but still above the allowed treshhold...
gotta think another way to do it..

 

Be careful when you are applying aluminium or copper. This is why lining the entire metal face with electrical tape and thermal tape is important.

A 5*C drop in peak HDD temperature from 70*C to 65*C using aluminium is actually a very big drop. It's still far from 60*C, but it's a start. May I see a picture of how you applied the metal onto your HDD?

 

I would also gladly like to see how you applied the foil. Thinking of going to my local home depot to buy some metal.

Soviet Sunrise, can you provide in more detail how to apply the aluminum on the HDD? Should I wrap it or cut it into two squares? And I should cover the whole thing with thermal tape?

Thanks

 

I'll get back to you on this probably next week. This week I'm going to dedicate to replacing my LCD panel and drilling holes into a spare backpanel.

 

heres the picture...pardon for the image quality..its quite blur...the AF dont work quite well






and also..a little video...


basically...the 'flaps' in the sides of the HDD is for transferring the heat to the laptop chassis..because i thought of the chassis being a strong metal...and it is good for thermal conductivity...

but since that the aluminium foil i use to fill the gaps between hdd and chassis is not perfect...the efficiency is not 100%
using slim metal casing screwed into hdd(about 1-2mm thickness) plus a good handiwork of applying soft metal to fill the gaps will prove better results...at least thats what i thought about..

btw...theres an article in silentpc review that i read recently said that the sides(black part) of hdd is hotter because the density is higher than the cover of hdd...thats where i got the idea of transferring heat to the laptop chassis

 

How well electrical tape be doing this procedure? Will it melt or burn or anything like that being inside the laptop on the hard drive?

 

i dont think it will melt..
thermal tapes are designed to have higher melting point..because the main function of thermal tape itself is to transfer heat between two mediums...just like thermal paste..

 

Are the majority of the 8662 owners having high HDD temps? Mine is equipped with a WD 320GB 7200RPM HDD and it runs very cool.

In fact, my entire system runs cool and I can play Crysis with the computer on my lap for hours without it getting uncomfortable.

 

how cool exactly is your system?
mind showing us the hwmonitor temps?

 

devilcm3. Did you wrap the baking foil around the entire HDD, or only the bottom side of the HDD?

 

Have you updated both your notebook's BIOS and gotten the latest Intel SATA (motherboard) drivers? The latter keeps improving and my temps are nowhere near what they were with stock drivers. Secondly, I sent my notebook in recently for repair (<3 2 days, drove to Sager & back, keyboard & dvdrom latch issues) and they updated the BIOS on it. The latest BIOS (not sure what version, I should check*) is significantly better with fan management than previous (March 09 and earlier) BIOS were - it's not a constant on/off and instead the fans are on for longer amounts and at a much lower speed, keeping the system cooler. I'm impressed with the latest BIOS.

Lastly, I wouldn't go wrapping alum foil like that (I tried that, and tried wrapping the underside of the cover, and it -increased- temps for me), and instead if the above two things don't work, contact your vendor & get an RMA and send it in to be fixed.

*It looks like the BIOS on this notebook hasn't been updated since April (so 1.02.16). I had been running 1.02.15 until Sager flashed the BIOS this week to the latest, so either that BIOS improved fan control, or Sager has custom BIOS settings/a more recent one than Clevo's, or else they did something else that they didn't mention (because as I said, no more on/off fan noise, and usually a constant very low fan activity is on, about 2-3degrees cooler (46C) when running games (! not silent mode; this is lower than my silent mode/max cooler temps). Alternatively there is a bug (or something mechanical) with the fans on some machines that needs to be fixed; do your notebook's fans go on (loudly) and shut off repeatedly (instead of a low constant fan activity)?

 

i already apply those things on software side...but none give any significant effects....and no....theres no relationship between the fans and hdd...
and if you wrap the underside only..the heat is going nowhere...you must have do it in the way that the hdd heat can be transferred elsewhere

i wrap it around..

 

I'm transferring large files right now and the temps of the HDD of my M860TU reached a max of 69C. I don't understand why this is happening, I have all the latest SATA drivers and have the updated BIOS of this system. Cleaned the fan, applied thermal paste to both CPU and GPU but still the HDD is really hot.

In addition to the northbridge heatsink adding heat to the right palmrest of this laptop, I'm pretty sure the HDD contributes also since if I feel the palmrest is really hot I go to HWMonitor and always see that the HDD temps are greater than 60.

I'm using a Western Digital 320GB 7200RPM. What could be the problem? Is it because of the brand?

Is it recommended to remove the aluminum foil that came with the laptop? I thought about this since with the aluminum foil intact, it covers the "hole" of the hard drive where it says "do not cover this hole"..

 

no....other brands do have the overheating too..

depends on your room temperature...if yours around 30c or more...expect the hdd to break 65c point...

never remove the aluminium sheet on the laptop....its only your source of hdd heatsink(except you mod it lol)

 

Ah. But it covers the hole of the HDD right?

 

Goddamn, if you're that concerned about it, just make a little hole in the foil. Problem solved.

 

Hey Sov, lol. Ok

I was just thinking of ways on how to lower the temps of my HDD.

 

I just finished installed my new LCD panel into my machine. Tomorrow, I'm going to start drilling holes into the backpanel of my laptop. And I haven't gone out to buy the copper sheets yet either. I should be seeing a fairly modest drop in temperature for all my components.

 

Did you upgrade your LCD?

 

I swapped out my old LP171WU1 TLB2 with the LP171WU1 TLA2. The TLA2 is considered to be the most beautiful 17 inch CCFL screen from LG. I also tightened up my display hinges and dusted out all the crap that somehow built up above the hinge area. I did need to grind off the right bracket a bit because the TLA2 border is perfectly flush with the bracket making it stick out too wide while the TLB2 was indented at the upper right. Technically I voided the warranty the screen since I ripped off the OEM brackets and the inverter enclosure, but I can give a rats *ss. If it breaks, I'll just replace it again. The TLA2 I received was dead pixel free and is utmost stunning. Also, I can now say that my screen is a true LG OEM panel and not an Apple rebranded LG panel. In short, Apple free, dead pixel free, dust free, loose free, and warranty free, haha.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350225252419&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

 

So I put electrical tape on top of the hard drive where the aluminum foil would be touching and then I took several layers of foil and folded it to the dimensions of the hard drive and placed it on the hard drive covered with electrical tape.

I already drilled holes in the back cover from before so that would be helping with the aluminum foil getting cold air from my cooler. What I can report is that in a non air conditoned, non cooler environment, my HD temps are around 50, highest being 55, the biggest plus is that I no longer feel the heat in the palm rest, which was my biggest problem. In a air conditioned environment, with cooler, I got my hard drive as low as 39 and stayed around there no matter what the task was.

So it works, and I no longer have a sweaty right palm after long periods of work. lol.

 

Lol, can you post the pictures?

 

yeah..pictures

i wonder how the holes of your backplate looks like...

 

Sorry for taking so long. I was taking a look at the M860TU HDD design and I think you may need to sandwich a sheet of EMI shielding between the plate and the hard drive as I do not think thermal tape alone will protect the exposed board on the hard drive from the copper. I'm not entirely sure and I wish I had the M860TU to work with so I can experiment on it first hand. If you can't acquire some EMI shielding, just use electrical tape as an alternative. Nevertheless, there should be enough ceiling clearance to fit a thick copper plate in there. You should be able to get better results than mine.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5218933&postcount=659

 

To add some info to this thread:

Originally, the aluminum sheet that came with that came with my M860TU was "taped" to the motherboard itself, so what I did was tape it to the HDD itself and I've noticed some drops in temps.

 

Soviet,

I just saw your laptop's "copper-world!" picture. What size sheet did you use (L x W x H) for the HDD. Mine stays cool, but I'd love to keep it VERY cool. Also, has anyone tried putting the little copper heatsinks all over the bottom of the m860tu / np8662, and if so, what are the results? (Do they fit?)

Jason

 

we dont have that huge piece of aluminium plate that screwed to the laptop chassis itself....if people were to add that copper plate....must make four holes on the sides to be screwed to the HDD...

 

I got myself an aluminum sheet (actually a push plate as the aluminum sheets I found were too huge to even be considered for these purposes) and now I'm going to get it cut down to the size of the hard drive to place directly on it (separated by electrical tape of course). Hopefully over the weekend I can post results.

Soviet was right about the aluminum foil, over long duration or activity with the hard drive, it just doesn't cut it and the drive gets just as hot as before.

I will consider this the 'final solution' before I just resort to selling the laptop as I have need for the DVD drive to install a hard drive in there.

 

The thing about aluminium foil is that it doesn't stick flush against the HDD; there will be a lot of air pockets underneath the foil and will essentially bake the HDD alive. Plates are the only effective solution here as you will be increasing surface area and mass so that the heat would saturate into the plate rather than stay in the HDD.

 

I was thinking.....

I found this hdd caddy, originally for an inspiron 6000, and it seems to be a perfect fit for any hdd, with minimal size. All one would need to do is unscrew the plastic top. Here is a pic of it: http://www.pchub.com/uph/photos/item/6336476214461275002_0G5044.JPG

What if one put the hdd in the caddy, then the copper plate on top of it? Is this a feasible idea? Would the weight be too heavy for the SATA connection to hold? (The np8662 hdd is connected parallel to the motherboard and is about 2 cm vertical from it)

 

That is actually not a bad idea. The HDD mounting bracket shouldn't have a problem holding down that much mass.

 

What are the dimensions for your copper plate Soviet Sunrise? And which side would I be putting the caddy and copper plate? The copper plate would go on top of the metal side of the caddy but should this side be on the bottom or top of the hdd?

I think it should be on the top because when you flip it over, the copper plate is facing down which should reduce the palm rest heat. Or will there be very little airflow on that side?

EDIT: Looking back at the inspiron 6000 caddy, the holes will be a problem. Theres gonna be air gaps along the holes. A caddy w/out holes will be necessary like this d600 caddy: http://www.mobilepcparts.net/images/73.bmp

 

I cut my copper plate to 5.4x9.4cm. The Home Depot only sold copper sheets in standard so I had to buy a 0.086in sheet, which is about 2.2mm. I probably took about 0.05mm off from lapping it.

The caddy should go on the bottom of the HDD where the circuit board is. The copper plate would then go ontop of the caddy. You may need to buy a thinner sheet as the caddy will be adding more thickness to the setup.

 

Guys, I don't have the luxuries of a Home Depot here and no one down here seems to want to cut this push plate. What would you guys recommend I use to cut it myself?