Replaced thermal paste on a215 and it's amazing what a difference it makes!

The (seemingly unchangeable) settings for the fan on my computer are as follows, go on at 45 degrees and turn off once it drops to 40, the problem was that even while idling at the desktop it would rise up to 45, the fan would turn on for like 7-8 seconds and cool it down to 40 then 30-45 seconds later it would go through that again, I found it terribly annoying in quiet areas (library etc...) so I took the laptop apart and replaced the stock thermal paste with AS Ceramique and now it idles around 39-40 and even while doing light stuff like surfing/listening to music, it barely rises a couple of degrees, and when it does rise to 45, the fan dissipates the heat faster (45 degrees down to 40 in 2-3 seconds vs. the 7-8 seconds it used to take), plus this should help extend my battery life a little, now that it doesn't have to waste as much power on the fan...
All around this was a great success!!!

 

congratulations on a cooler laptop. you'll be the envy of all... oops wrong topic.

 

How hard was that? How much is the AS Ceramique? My fan runs a lot when I idle (A300/305) - kicks in every 2-3 minutes for 30 seconds and I haven't been able to figure out how to control either the fan or underclock the processor so it runs cooler. I don't mind if it is running if I'm stressing it, but in idle it is driving me crazy.

 

I got the ceramique a while back but it should be less than $10

It is not easy, I had to take apart the entire laptop cause the proc is on the bottom of the mobo, with no easy access compartment from the bottom, maybe your's is easier...

Good luck.

 

I'm tempted to do this aswell, though I've only got the standard Zalman thermal paste that came with the GPU and CPU heatsinks that I bought when upgrading my old PC. Would that be ok or would it be worth buying something like OCZ Freeze Extreme thermal compound? Does the case go back together well (no extra keyboard flex or anything)?

 

Arctic Silver 5 is the currently best thermal paste out. Costs about $10-20 with Articlean+Purifier.

Every thermal paste test and review ive read, AS5 has been undefeated.

 

According to this test, OCZ Freeze is better than Arctic Silver 5.
Edit: Also, it beats AS5 in this review as well.

 

i think it's called shin-etsu or something along the lines. there's different types but that's supposed to be the best stuff supposedly, but it's hard to get in the states.

 

Thanks for the info. Maybe I'll have the authorized repair center do it when I have them look at my overactive fan.

 

Those test dont account for AS5's 200hour cure time which improves the temperature overtime.

I doubt it will drop by 5c like the company says but it does have a break-in period due to its materials characteristics