X775 / X770 Disassemble Thermal Repaste

The following is a general guide for disassembling your x775.

Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible or in no way can be held responsible for the information within this guide or your actions as it pertains to this guide. It is intended only to inform. In no way do I recommend you void your warranty or try any of the following steps. Continue at your own risk.
The model used is a X775-Q7270
Recommended tools: Small Phillips, ESD safe working area, FOD can (something to keep all your screws in)

Prep: I secured several layers of paper towel to my screen with scotch tape to ensure I did not scratch it in the process. I recommend this or any like material to protect your screen. Even if you hate it, you will hate it more when its scratched.

Picture 1
Step1. Remove Battery
Step2. Remove the 15 screws labeled F6. (dark Blue)
Step3. Remove CDROM drive (screw nearest subwoofer holds this in place) Slide out. (Red)
Step 4. Loosen screw on memory/hd panel (lightblue) and using any non metal flat head pop panel up and remove.

Picture 2
Step5. Remove Hard drive.
Step6. Remove memory
Step7. Remove F6 screws and 1 SILVER f4 screw (3 total here)
NOTE: Under where your hard disk drive sat is another F4 screw not labeled in the picture.

Picture 3
Step8. Turn laptop right side up. Lift up screen. Place index finger inside of rom drive area and feel upward for cut. Press upward and “pop” keyboard out. If it doesn’t pop right up with a little pressure look at bottom again to ensure all F6 screws have been removed.
Step9. Keyboard has 2 ribbon cable connections. Before completely removing the keyboard, pull out the white socket sides for the robbon cables, and disconnect by pulling on ribbon cable tabs. DO NOT PULL RIBBON CABLES. Lay keyboard aside.

Picture 4
Step10. Disconnect viewable connectors and ribbon cables. At this point it is not necessary to remove or disconnect the wireless card.
Step 11. Unscrew single f6 screw (left of wireless card) to free top half of case.
Step12. With screen flat, work your way around the case remove top half.

Picture 5
Step13. Carefully disconnect 1-7 on image.
Step14. Unscrew 2 screws securing the board to the bottom half of the case. At this point if you haven’t already, also disconnect the wireless antenna.
Step15. Wiggle board out, paying attention to usb ports. Flip board over (I kept fan connected due to pain in a$$ connector not wanting to cooperate)

Picture 6
Step16. Remove 8 screws holding the cooling block to the cpu and gpu.

PICTURE 7
Step17. Carefully remove heatsink. Repaste according to your favorite thermal pasting guide. There are several different methods. Find what works best for you.
To Reassemble: Reverse this guide.
Shims: I have yet to find the proper size copper shims to replace the stock 3m ones. 1.5mm thick I had and they were entirely too thick. Please let me know what you use or find and I will gladly update this post giving credit where credit is due.

Picture 8
This is the bottom of the case. Mod away!

 

Picture 7 and 8 ARE BELOW!!!!

I didn't wait for my second heatsinks, i had to bend the ones to get them to clear the bottom of the case and thus it looks like crap. But function was goal here. I recommend...
1. Get copper heatsinks from ebay. Get the cheap short ones that way they clear unlike mine.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/33065619721...X:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649#ht_3982wt_1396
2. Get thermal paste and remove the thermal stickies on the bottom of those heatsinks.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100013

*NOTE: See the copper shim in the picture that is between the heatsinks. There is a shock absorber pad on the bottom of the case that prevents heatsinks from being placed along this area. Don't paste one there... it will just have to come off.






Currently looking for IPS 17.3" screen.

 

WOW! Awesome work USNRoberts! Very detailed and great photos!

I know a lot of people on here have been eagerly waiting for someone to make a disassembly guide for the x775s. You'll probably be "Da Man" in the Toshiba forums for the next couple weeks

Thank you for the awesome contribution of knowledge!

 

Awesome! So that's what it looks like! I was really interested in the keyboard removal, stakes instead of spring clips.

Some of the guys on the Gateway forum had mentioned they were using a thick ICD7 compound with no problems due to not finding the correct shims.
I'm not 100% convinced in doing that due to possible sag, but ymmv.

What is your opinion for the guys who just want to clean the dust and hairballs, disassemble or do you think compressed air will do the trick?

Thx, +1

 

Awesome stuff!

Thank you!

 

Whoa! That's an actual MXM slot isn't it? You could potentially upgrade the X775 to something like a GTX 570M and whatnot.

 

I dont know. You tell us. Is MXM the standard now? What other notebooks is it found in?

 

Well, MSI, Alienware, and Clevo all use the MXM slot as well. Clevo has used that system for a while actually. Good to see that Toshiba actually jumped on the bandwagon.

Also, using this knowledge that those vents are where the CPU and GPU are actually means you can more efficiently cool them off. using those heatsinks, I say just place four on the GPU, since the GPU pulls more power, and two on the CPU. On the copper portions of course. Then get the CoolerMaster U3 and position each of the fans under the vents and blast air over each one.

 

This is going to depend on IF Tosh used standard or non standard MMX.

How to find out, serial number off card? ..and will the bios care?

..rubs plastic crystal ball...

 

Well im working on finding a RGB led screen to replace the current one I have, then I will take a look at this here video card we have going. Funds not what they used to be!

 

Toshiba doesn't use an RGB LED screen on the Qosmio as far as I know. They use an LCD screen... o.o

 

To clear this up quickly, LED screens are still LCD. LED refers to the backlighting used behind the liquid crystals. Not too long ago the backlighting was ccfl (yes like the long lights in most stores). Today, its common for the use of LEDs or more specifically white light emitting diodes (wled). There are all kinds of wled styles. multi-side lit, single side, and others im not too familiar with. And lastly RGB led's are a different method. By using colored leds apparently the screen is capable of much more vibrant colors. I really want IPS instead of TN but anything better than what i have is good for me

A pretty good explanation here
Monitor buying guide - CNET Reviews

 

With my cooling mods i top cpu temp 81' max!

But, I'm depressed because the 1866mhz ram I received is running at 1333mhz 9-7-7-20 1t. Not cool!

 

USNRoberts, your laptop looks like a perfect candidate for this kind of mod: Heatsink mod

It should work well, and it's easy to make if you can find a pre-drilled copper sheet (just cut it and install it).

Also, why is your RAM running at 1333 - the 2820 supports 1600 MHz RAM, so it should run at those speeds. Is it because the SPD table doesn't have a 1600 MHz entry (in which case you could flash it probably)?

 

Hi Roberts,

Thanks for the instruction, I opened it for the second time trying to repaste again since the first time, I didn't see much difference in temp. Now I'm in trouble, I guess I loose up the screen cable, now I boot up with blank screen.

Could you show how to open up and get to the screen cable? I don't know how to open the screen hinges where the cable attached to.

I plug an external monitor to my laptop, it's working fine.

I might screw up the screen cable when I tried to close the laptop panel.

Hope you could help with this,

Thanks

 

See in the guide, picture 5. The number 5 star is your cable for your screen. Verify that and the 6 and 7 star are all in snug. There is no clamping mechanism si might have came out.

 

Mr.Roberts , did you add the heatsinks, if so did you use the 3M thermal tape or drill?

thx

 

I added 2 pictures to my second post that show where I added headsinks. I didn't wait for my second heatsinks, i had to bend the ones to get them to clear the bottom of the case and thus it looks like crap. But function was goal here. I recommend...
1. Get copper heatsinks from ebay. Get the cheap short ones that way they clear unlike mine.
eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices
2. Get thermal paste and remove the thermal stickies on the bottom of those heatsinks.
Newegg.com - Arctic Silver Alumina AATA-5G Thermal Adhesive

*NOTE: See the copper shim in the picture that is between the heatsinks. There is a shock absorber pad on the bottom of the case that prevents heatsinks from being placed along this area. Don't paste one there... it will just have to come off.

 

Just an update I'm trying a 3rd ram type at 1866mhz

 

I've purchased the gtx 560m card you have in your laptop(s). It does not have an EEPROM, which means the vBIOS is embedded in your system BIOS. However, this doesn't mean you can't use other cards.

Glad to see toshiba using MXM! Why not try a 6970m?

 

If the vBIOS does not check then this would really help if ya got the bucks

Here's another for sale; http://forum.notebookreview.com/com...geforce-gtx-480m-2gb-ddr5-mxm-3-0-type-b.html

usnnavy's picture is a bit fuzzy but it looks like we have non standard MXM cards?

Here is another 560m card;

 

So my most recent project has been wrapped up (S&W M&P) and I'm honestly getting really tired of my screen. So currently I'm shopping for the perfect replacement to get the best bang out of our buck. Trying to get away from TN but my knowledge is so low, definitely a learning experience for me.

 

So, for example, can I change the 560m for a 670m or 7970m?

 

The only GPUs Qosmios will accept are those that are Toshiba made for that specific type of Qosmio.
For example: the x775 might be upgradable to the Toshiba GTX 670m from the Qosmio x870; however only the Toshiba version of the GTX 670m will work [can't use ASUS/Dell/MSI/etc..]

If the x870 doesn't come with a AMD 7970m, then you can't upgrade to it. Not to mention, Toshiba has NEVER used AMD as their GPU solution.


tl;dr, GTX 670m: maybe ; AMD 7970m: no

 

So a 670m buyed in ebay or amazon won't work to?

 

Most likely no.

 

Roberts, I swapped my screen out with a Dell XPS 17.3" 1080p screen, that looks 10x better than the crap that came on the laptop. It's glossy, not matte, not sure what you're looking for but I can find the link to the one I bought if you're interested. It was around 80$ but this was almost a year ago.

As for the thermal repaste, im not noticing any better temps with arctic silver, it still gets almost to 90C when gaming, and the gpu gets into 80's. I'm gonna look for some of those heatsinks and try what you did.

Edit: I have an x775 Q7272

Oh, and where did you get those little copper plates you stuck on there?

 

Looking at that picture again and according to the people I've been speaking to, i.e. Toshiba Tech Specialists, I have been told that the X770/X775 model does in fact have have an MXM 3.0B slot.

I'd also like to state that it DOES recognize the 570M and 580M. However, due to the issue related to heat, the laptop doesn't react well if the 570M is paired up with anything greater than a "Sandy Bridge" Core i5 CPU.

These are the two i5 choices that are best suited for use with the 570M and will not bottleneck the graphics card:

The Core i5-2450M ( 2.5GHz Stock; 2.8GHz 2c/4t --- 3.1GHz 1c/2t | Max Turbo Values|)
The Core i5-2540M ( 2.6GHz Stock; 3.1GHz 2c/4t --- 3.3GHz 1c/2t | Max Turbo Values|)

These CPUs are 35w total combining a 25w CPU with a 10w iGPU, the HD3000. The i7s are 35w CPUs and run too hot, so nothing beyond the second listed CPU is advised. Even the dual core i7 models out there are known to run a bit warmer than the two Core i5 processors listed here.

The 570M is recognized by the BIOS, tested by one of the specialists whom I spoke with after he got off work. He says the 570M he used was a standard Clevo card from the Ebay user 'upgradeyourlaptop', I.E. Eurocom. He ran a few tests and found that the TIM used matters a lot in this case because your temperatures will be rather high. Any cooling mods like the ones listed here are advised if they'll work without much of an issue. I cannot post any pictures of this since I've only to take his word from it, however... it's definitely nice to know that there's someone who has attempted it and had some success.

As far as temperatures go, he used the Qosmio X775-Q7170 laptop model, as it's seen on Newegg, and reported these GPU and CPU temps from two simultaneous 3DMark Vantage runs:

Run #1
CPU: 94*C (hottest core)
GPU: 90*C

Run #2
CPU: 97*C (hottest core)
GPU: 95*C

(The GPU scored ~11,000 in performance mode, not sure if that's a bottleneck or temperature related but it looks right. )

He used Arctic Silver 5 and it hadn't cured yet, so that mattered a bit here I think, AND without any notebook cooler. ~Temperatures between a batch of cured and uncured Arctic Silver 5 can vary by as much as 3-5*C!~ This was also done with the 1.10v BIOS, that was recommended by me, to keep it from throttling. (He says "thank you" btw and, since I learned about it from here, I figured you all deserved that much credit. ^_^)

Again I hate not having any pictures to prove this, however he said it works fine, despite running really really hot even for just two Vantage runs, and I was on speakerphone with him while he did the tests and such if that matters.

I hope this gives you all a bit of insight in the end! If someone wants to test it, I'll help out with the cost of the 570M so they aren't entirely deadened by the horrid price. (They run around $350 + shipping. )



Thanks for reading!



-Imglidinhere-

 

Great info Glid !!!

Glad to hear I was wrong! I think GPU upgradability [even if unofficial] should be the norm for gaming laptops.
If the upgradability is dependent on heat, I wonder if the new 28nm GPUs will fare better... [supposedly they emit considerably less heat than current 40 nm GPUs - GTX 560m, 570m, 580m are 40 nm].

 

Well, the interesting thing about the GPU with the X775 line is that the BIOS sees it, but follows along the same lines as the M17x R2 with a 6970M. However, since the laptop BIOS follows the CPU's temperature over the GPU, it'll kick in under high stress. Just keep in mind that the difference between the 560M and 570M is the jump from a 50w TDP to 75w.

Just sayin'.

 

Heck yea, good info. +1 for getting my hopes up..

 

I would love to have the funds to play with some of the upgrade hardware. However, unless it's stolen, the cost quickly reach my "point of returns".

The CPU/GPU upgrade{s} can easily hit $700 unless you go for ES and pulled boards. One part of me says shut up and go for it...but then I normally get buyers remorse wondering if i should have put the money toward a fresh laptop with new MB?

All in all i can only hope that laptop manufactures will add a universal e-GPU port on the killer i7, 13 to 17" laptops. With.. a choice of screens for crying out loud!

(Maniacal laugh!) Then we could game with the best of them on home base?

 

The beauty of it, I think it would be very easy on dedicated gaming laptops. But I do not think we will ever see this because its all about money for the manufacturers and their suppliers. How many of Asus G75 sales will be from those who own the 74 or 73 (or any other gaming laptop with old chips).

 

Nice! Its actually upgradeable! Now I have to sell all these toshiba 560m on ebay before the word gets out.

 

I was reading a thread where there were certain SB CPU's sans IGP. I never thought of this but when the 560m takes over, the HD3000/4000 is still left running full power mode?

 

Yea, it's ALL about money, no? The whole scheme of planed obsolescence would go down the drain? It's hard to say as the MXM boards would take a hit vs full powered desktop GPUs, however a lot of sales would got to people wanting the latest CPU and MB...not every one games.

I have a desktop in the works as I travel with a thin and light. Somehow moving a 10 pound, overheated, gaming DTR around ruins the moment...and I don't think I will be around when we see killer gaming perfomance in a 15 watt chip

 

I ordered myself some mx-4 and im considering to repaste my cpu/gpu on my x770.
I just wanna repaste the cpu and gpu and clean out the laptop with compressed air.
What do I need?
and what r u guys talking about 'copper shims' and what not

 

Wow! Hey thanks for that man. Well done. I'd definitely have a look when I upgrade the CPU and re-do the thermal paste (arctic clean + arctic silver 5). I will also do some cleaning with an Air Duster (i've got a flammable gas one, it evaporates quickly, no water in it).

I bought a refurbished Qosmio x770-107 in the UK for £1000 (down from £1500). I was told the previous owner didn't want it anymore and upon using it, I could see why. It is not the friendliest of laptop, esp if your moving from XP to Windows 7. I tried the gimmicky stuff like 3D (needed extra config and the screen would be stuck on super-bright mode until reboot). Official nVidia driver updates wouldn't install due to compatibility problems (don't know why, I did pick mobile GTX560m). The 3D camera (still don't know how it works)... forget about face recog feature, it's all a nightmare to configure! There's WinDVD (which works, until I accidentally closed the screen lid and the whole thing effed up) and the Toshiba player (god knows what this is for). The Toshiba Assistant, Updates, pin board repeatedly accesses and presents me with messages and menus which I have to navigate like a maze.

The EU Toshiba support page is pile of excrement, no official replies from Toshiba employees, mostly users helping users... all in all, I have a quite bleak view of Toshiba. A shoddy asian companies, just wants to make money, no customer care. The laptop is NOT for people who wants things to work straight out of the box.

The low Window's score worried me too but then I realised it's because of the hard-drive. Starcraft 2 grinds to 10fps when the screen is filled with units. I take it that SC2 is not optimised for mobile quad-core CPU or Windows 7 has a bottle-neck. Who to believe?!

The location of the fan is frankly quite terrible. Put your cup of coffee there and it will stay warm. So my advice is remove anything that sits left of the laptop. Shameful Toshiba, bad bad design. I hear the fan used to be on the right and something like 80% of the world are right-handed people and have their mouse on the right. So they'd get a nice hand cooking? Heatwise, maybe this is ok in north-pole, if you move to a hot country (20-30 degrees C), I think there will be trouble.

What worried me most is that "Function" and Shortcut keys (those next to the speakers) to mute, kill wifi or decrease brightness don't work from the BIOS boot onwards, rather it's a software loaded in Windows. My problem with that is if you boot in DOS or another OS, then they won't work. If a hacker gains control of your laptop, then they can lock you out of using keyboard and the shortcut key software. There's no way to kill Wifi with a hardware switch. If your CPU spikes, then goodbye to controlling mute or brightness. My old VAIO's Function keys are loaded right from BIOS start. It's a BIOS always-on feature. If I enter BIOS, I can mute the speakers or dim the screen. This is much better design. Clearly Toshiba engineers don't have many brain cells.

 

Sorry you don't like your x770-107. Shame you had to buy if before learning it's quirks. I did a lot of reading and research before i bought mine, but a few things did slip thru. 3D was never really ready for prime time on any laptop. I find few people thrilled on full size sets with it; and with the kids destroying the glasses and all. Upgrading the drivers seems to be a curse for the 3D models.

If a hacker gains control of my laptop, in DOS, more power to him. Please don't keep your nuclear secrets or banking info on any laptop without proper security software. Los Alamos National Laboratory comes to mind.

Starcraft 2 may have been running on the HD3000, not the 560M? I have two optimus laptops but wish we could just manually switch GPUs as needed; as on my UL30vt.

As far as fans, they are on the left, right, or out the back. So, choice of vendors are in order if you have a strong preference?

Let us know if you have something specific if you don't end up throwing it out the Window

 

I would have to add that the game is probably not utilizing your GPU properly. Though the X775 line was a bit of a test line-up to see if it could work.

 

I am having trouble disconnecting the cable marked as n.1 in picture 5 and the one in picture 4. Pls help. I cant find anywhere where to do it, tried simply pulling the wires but they re not coming out. Thnx

 

Anyone?Its my second attempt of getting to my cpu and i cant disconnect that cable and my laptop cant run a game at all anymore so i desperately need help.I m certain it just needs repasting cause air comes out of the fan but it's not hot.

 

There's actually 2 cables in pic 5 that are labeled "1". However, it's still hard to see what type of cable and connector it uses. If it's possible for you to upload your own photo of it [zoomed in], we may be able to be of more help.

Also, if it's a cable connector [with a plug], then look for any latches that may need to be moved before it can disengage. If it's a ribbon type, then very carefully dislodge the top clip using a small and precise instrument [I use a dental pick].

I couldn't find any good video, but here's a good picture that shows a ribbon connection:

 

Its the one marked as n.1 in picture 5 with a star and in picture 4 the one next to the wireless card cables. Its a male-female type connector but i just cant figure out how to disconnect it perhaps because im worried i might damage it. If anyone disassembled this particular laptop model I would greatly appreciate any help. Its similar to the one in the picture i attach but cant figure it out, despite getting everything else disconnected.

 

The OP has not responded. As Alex requested, please send a close up of your connector. The one you show, also bad, may have simple clips that just pull apart.

In anycase, for the heatpipe to just "start blowing cold air" implies you may have a CPU problem. Never over 8 laptops have I seen thermal compound just suddenlt fail! Is there more to the story?

No offense but by your questions, you may want to bite the bullet and send for repair if possible. If you damage a connector in the wrong way, then it's expensive MB replacement. Not what you want to hear?

GL

 

Hi guys, I need to ask you something, Past year I have bought an Thoshiba Qosmio X770 it is always hot as hell when were playing games such as Guild wars 2 or Alice Mdness Returns for an example, but this time the thing has gone worse When youre playing randomly about 10 minutes, my notebook shutsdown, I haved searched because sometimes i can assure its not really hot in the windows sucess viewer the error it's an Kernel-Power 41 (63), I can assure its not realted to Nvidia drivers nor Bios, its not an software problem so I haved determined its an themperature problem, maybe i need to repast al the cpu, my question for you guys its to ask if haved the same problem as my like you cant play anything, and how you solved it, if I need to buy that copper heatsinks Robert posted before, Where I can find ones properly good ones on ebay, and where or how to apply them on my laptop, its first time for me on aply this thermal thing solutions, please help me.

Sorry for my bad english im from spain.

 

Have you tried cleaning your fans/vents? They could be clogged with dust; as they should be cleaned every couple months. A clogged fan/vent can lead to excessive overheating when gaming.

 

If anyone is interested in my '' point of view '' in this laptop & its GPU ... please be free to comment in this page :
HERE!

Cheers.

 

@pliskin2006

First of all check your Toshiba Power Saver settings in the Power Plan you use in Windows (choose your plan by clicking your battery symbol on the Taskbar, next choose more options, in your Plan choose advanced settings, next find on the list Toshiba Power Saver).
If your X770 is switching of during playing after short time, almost always is the problem with Power Plan, which is switched to secure battery, and all you have to do is switch this option to maximal performance only (this optio has 2 states only). This option is available also in BIOS.
I hope, that will help you.