Artic silver

Should I open up my laptop and replace the oem thermal grease w/ Arctic silver? I use to fix Toshiba laptops so opening one is no problem I'm just curious if it's worth the effort. All my previous Toshiba were salvaged ones, ie once broken but I fixed and kept, so they all had Arctic silver.

 

If it's running too hot, and you've applied arctic silver before and know how to clean the heatsink, chip dies etc. then sure. Otherwise.. if it's running hot and you haven't done it before make _sure_ you read up on it, 'cause most people put way too much goop on.

Krista

 

Yeah, actually I think I'm one of those who did put too much on because when I first started working as a Toshiba tech, I only put a little on, and the Sr tech who was training me was like "you need like 1/2 a stick" of the ceramic grease Toshiba produces. Well, I guess that kinda carried over unnecessarily w/ AS5.. lol Thanks for the tip, I'll prob do it when my CPU heatsink gets so clogged one day that air blowing/vacuuming won't be sufficient.

 

Don't feel bad. I worked at a location where I had to escort the tech workers in to fix machines once, and there was a problem with a bunch of dell motherboards... So the tech was working on a computer, putting in the new motherboard, and I watched him take an entire _tube_ of thermal grease and use ALL of it on the CPU.

I was like... um... you know that's thermal goop right? And he's like, yeah, and it also 'acts as glue' !!! for the heatsink to stick the processor. He went on to talk about how he really wanted to become a Dell technician for the area, so he could be the person they call to send out on on-site service...

Since he'd already finished and I wasn't working as a tech there (I was the webmaster) I didn't tell him that he'd just installed who knows how many motherboard/cpu combos in such a way that they'd probably fry... but I did notify my supervisor. Who I found out later who was so passive about things that he probably never passed the information on.

Considering the location... the computers going poof could be a 'bad thing', but hey, what did I know? *LOL*

Scary...

I think you can do an estimate of like 30+ computers with one tube of arctic silver. Just keep it in mind Most instructions say something about using about a grain of rice worth... some say it smooths out to about the thickness of a piece of paper. There's probably a smidge of leeway there.

I go with the if it ain't broke, don't try to 'fix' it mentality. Don't open it up and go through all that work unless you think it's running hot. I did it with my sister's acer... probably extended the life awhile but that's because you could cook on that thing.

Krista

 

Yeah, I guess I'm just being a guy and trying to tweak it any way I can.. lolz. thanks again

 

Well then go for it You know the basic premise and you really can't mess it up, much, if you follow instructions... someone posted a really good guide for the acer 5672wlmi on that in the acer forum... sorry don't know which thread. But it does a good job explaining cleaning and application.

I'm thinking of popping open my Asus and doing it... it feels a bit too warm for me in regards to the cpu.

Krista