VPC-Z Change Thermal Paste

Dismantle video can be found here. Sorry If I have my hands in front of the camera sometimes

Vaio Z11 Dismantle on Vimeo

 

Recently took my laptop apart and put new thermal paste. I didn't buy the best one and now i'm slightly regretting it.

My CPU is on my blanket with 40-60% load and runs around 56-57 degrees. My CPU is the P9500. Cleaned out the fan everything.

Question is, will good thermal paste drop the temps down to 30ish degrees? It idles at about 40ish, never lower than 40.

Also, i'm planning to swap out the CPU with a 35W 2.96-3.06GHz and my CPU is a 25W. I read that people are successful in doing so, but seeing that my laptop runs a little warmer than normal....I'm wondering whether with better paste I can explore a CPU upgrade

 

Btw, Releasing Daemons: How to clean the heatsink and renew thermal compound in a Sony Vaio VGN-Z590 (VGN-Z Series) laptop

 

Hey Chluz thanks for posting the video. I've watched it. It's brave of you to take the Z apart, but you do seem quite seasoned at it.

 

Usually, CPU paste just causes a 2-4 degree difference, so not as much as you'd hoped. Therml paste application however, is much more important. Badly aplied thermal paste could lead to a 10 degree difference (although I've never witnessed it first hand). Are you getting the same temps when running it on a hard surface ? its possible that the blanket is blocking the ventilation ports under the laptop.

It's been opened way too many times, and the insides are starting to look like something created by doctor frankenstein... (Copper shim undeer the gpu, added an ssd to the originally hdd only model, and had to take it all apart at the beach when a grain of salt caused my laptop to die when switching to stamina.... it so happenes that the grain was on the express port, so I didn't actually have to take the laptop appart to fix it . If it ever gets sent to sony repairs, i$I wonder what the guy taking it apart will think ! )
Only thing thats anoying me though is the fingerprint reader is dead, it must have scratches on it or something...

 

Chulz, what size is the copper shim that you put over the GPU? I know you stated it was .5mm, but I was curious for what length/width you put yours at. Was going to try this, but wanted to get measurements first.

Thanks

 

Also, how did this turn out for you temp wise? Did you see a improvement overall in GPU temps with the copper shim vs original thermal pad?

 

They changed their page, but I think it was this one :

HP DV9000 Thermal Copper Shim / Spacer for CPU 0.5mm | eBay

I remember 2*2cm seemed right. A bigger shim would probably not fit under the folds of the heat sink, but that one was ok.

Unfortunately I wasn't really measuring temps properly before I did this, but I have a vague idea of what they used to be. I think I got about 2-3 degrees improvement. What it will do is that it will equilibriate your cpu and gpu temps, though.

The reason I had to use the shim is because I tore the original thermal pad that was on the gpu when I took the heatsink off, and no other thermal pad (and I tried a lot) seemed to transfer enough heat.

To be honest, if I had the possibility of doing this again, I would not touch anything and keep the valid warranty

 

Good information. I have no warranty on mine, just bought it used and working to tweak everything I could off the bat on it. Temps on the CPU seem a little higher than I think they should be, so was planning on replacing the TIM with some shin etsu that I have laying around from another laptop project. Figured I would look into the GPU while I had it apart.
Thanks for the help

 

My Vaio VPCZ11 corei5 had recently been spinning the fan really loud even on startup and idling. This occured after a very small drop from the couch to a carpeted floor (1-2ft). Anyway i investigated with hwmonitor and temperature on startup/idle is at minimum 60c and then averages to about 75 (on balanced mode). Silent mode doesn't do much differnce. Then when i open firefox or skype or really any other app it goes to 85c. I won't be able to do any more tests or power up the laptop until i receive my replacement for my broken keyboard ribbon cable (Note to readers: BE CAREFUL HOW YOU REASSEMBLE YOUR KEYBOARD!).

So i think there must be something to do with the heatsink since i've sprayed EVERYWHERE INSIDE/OUT/DUCTS with aircompressor. When i opened it up it didn't really look at all that dusty. So i've now completely dismantled it and it seems like the CPU thermal pad has peeled up a little. From my understanding that shouldn't matter because as long as the pad is covering the cores (located in the middle) then that's alll that matters, right? Correct me if i'm wrong on that. I've taken as much pics and angles as i can and i'm wondering if the heatsink or thermal needs changing??


I haven't unscrewed the heatsink yet. If i do, and i take off the heatsink, will i need to replace the thermal sheets on BOTH the CPU and GPU? What should i use for both? Reading here suggests you must not use anything else but a thermal pad for the GPU. And what's this shim/spacer for?? Is that necessary? So here are the pics.








Notice the gap from above the thermal sheet and below the heatsink. Is this normal?

 

There will be some gap as you see in the pictures there as the cores of the CPU are raised up from the PCB itself, dont know if there is an actual issue unless you take off the heatsync.

Depending on the type of pad used and how old it is and environment, it might have dried out a bit and shrunk, and when it took the shock of being dropped, it shifted the pad so its not making good contact anymore. Would be good to just replace it with some good quality TIM material. I like IC7 Diamond or Shin Etsu myself and they work well for this.

For the GPU, I managed to carefully take off the heatsync and the pad for the GPU remained intact. I am still planning on swapping this out when I have time for that project, but have not gotten around to it yet. I ordered some Phobya XT pads for it just incase it ripped though, so might be a good idea to have some on hand.

Your heatsync appears to be fine in the pictures there, doubt any real damage happened to it, so guessing just replace thermal pad with some good paste. Let us know how it goes

 

Oh, to answer your question, the copper shims would be used if you wanted to replace the thermal pad on the GPU completely and have the best thermal transfer possible. Pads are not all that efficient unfortunately, and the copper shim fills that gap instead and has far better thermal dissipation to between the core and the heatsync.

 

Great info jollywombat! Thanks, so while i play the waiting game for my other power part, ill go ahead and order the thermal pads you recommended for the CPU. So the peeled thermal pad edges on the CPU shouldn't be affecting temperature performance? Then i'm not sure why the high idle temperatures. So first things is clean with 99.8% isopropyl alcohol (highest i can get here) and clean reside from both CPU and heatsink. Next just put on the thermal pad and screw back on heatsink. Sounds pretty simple unless i'm missing something else?

I'll probably will accidentely destroy the GPU pad so i'll be better off with shim as opposed to the Phobya XT? Like this one? HP DV9000 Thermal Copper Shim / Spacer for CPU 0.5mm | eBay whichever way is the easiest to not screw up.

I'll post updates with pics once i get all my parts delivered which will probably take a few weeks to get here. Thanks for advice and help

 

The small portion of the pad that contacts between the CPU and heatsync probably got shifted so is not making good contact anymore I would guess, but you cant see it without taking off the heatsync to actually see the cores.

For the CPU, I would suggest not using a pad anymore, use some good quality thermal paste. Would recommend Shin Etsu as its great for this sort of application, best paste on the market IMO. For the GPU, yes, a copper shim will be better. Remember to line both sides with the paste for best possible transfer, and follow the guides on their website for it, too much paste is bad The pads I was talking about were for if you wanted to replace the original GPU pad if you wanted to continue using a pad vs using a copper shim. Also if you wanted to put pads on the GPU DRAM as there is none on it or horrid pads depending on how they built it.

 

I find it hard to believe that a copper shim will provide better contact than a thermal pad or thermal paste. The whole concept behind thermal compound is to flow to compensate for less than perfect surfaces. Adding another rigid, non-flat surface to the equation would seem to hurt more than help.

 

If the option existed to put just thermal paste, then that would be the best option, but there is a .5mm gap between the GPU and heatsync that they chose to use a thermal pad on to solve the issue rather than build out the heatsync to properly make contact with the GPU Core. The copper shim provides better thermal dissipation assuming you properly apply a thin layer of good TIM on both layers. Alot of laptop designs use this method for just a pad for the GPU vs paste like the CPU, assuming it is so the GPU does not add to the CPU temps being so close on the same heatpipe cooling system while still retaining moderate cooling for the GPU.

I have done this before on various notebooks, and assuming you use a quality pure copper shim that has been precision ground to a flat polished surface, it lowers the GPU temps anywhere from 4-12c (horrid pad on my HP Tx2 on the gpu for the 12c, stuff was like brittle styrofoam). This is not something you want to do if you have a warranty obviously, and you need to make certain that the pad does not slip or shift. Some people recommend using artic silver TIM adhesive for this to be safe, but I have not had an issue with it shifting and prefer not to deal with the hassle of the adhesive.

Do not recommend trying to make the shim yourself. Made the mistake of that a long time ago when experimenting with an old notebook, couldn't get any precision and it was very rough, and not good quality copper. =s Made the situation worse with temperatures. Was an interesting experiment though.

 

My hat is off to anyone who ventures in to add paste, a shim, a pad or anything that re-seals the heat sink to the cpu and gpu. I've had Zs opened before and replaced a number of components and I've got the handle on removing the top half from the bottom without ripping any connecting cables, but getting to the MoBo looked on the video like essentially completely taking apart the computer. Not for the inexperienced nor feint of heart!

Someone dropped my Z11 and the impact clearly caused the pads to lose contact with the heat sink and my Z went from 0-100C in about 7 seconds, then shut down. After watching the dissembly video, I decided it wasn't for me and made a Square Trade claim.

 

I'm really inexperienced when it comes to this stuff - first time i've opened a laptop. It did seem daunting after the dvd part, partly because those connectors looks so tiny and had no idea how to disconnect them. But after that it was pretty straight forward, just disconnect cables from ssd, and unplug everything from mainboard and pull it out. But yea changing thermal stuff is where i'm really hesitant and since i have no warranty i might as well give it a shot.

Jolly: okay so you're saying once you take off the heatsink i should leave the pad ontop of the GPU and then put a shim ontop of that and then put the heatsink on? Sorry it's getting a bit confusing for me and i really want to make sure i get this absolutely right because you only get one shot at this.

Can you please tell me a step by step instruction for what must be done?

 

No, you would be removing the pad entirely. Once disassembled, then you will remove all pad/paste from the GPU/CPU and their connecting spots on the heatsyc, clean them well with isopropyl, then apply the new paste to the CPU core as per instructions from the provider, then apply a light coating of paste to the GPU core, place the copper shim carefully on top of that, apply another thin coating of paste to the top of the shim, then replace the heatsync on top of it all and screw down.

I ordered the part and will be doing it myself here once it arrives, will take pictures and try to draw up a guide for you.

 

The GPU Shim arrived today, however not impressed by it at all. The unit I received has numerous scratches and even a couple divots in the shim. Considering the cost of this, the condition is unacceptable. I will take some pictures of it later, and will be contacting the seller. I ordered the same shim as you Movendi. I will probably try to use the part still, perhaps hand lap the shim down to what it should have been to a mirror polish, not sure.

How did yours turn out Movendi?

 

Why are the shims necessary?

 

Maybe re-read this thread...

 

I did. Just not convincing. Does it depend on the condition of the pads?

 

Actually copper shims perfectly manufactured are better than the pads as they provide better heat transport. That is a big plus for overclockers or entusiast gamers. But since we are talking about a Z1, that isn't the real gaming machine at all but needs to be reliable, make the decision based on availability. Proper shims are quite hard to source (I mean the really good ones that deserve a place in our beloved toys) and it is far more DIY to put a double sided conductive paste'ed shim between heatsink and GPU die for safe operation and whatnot.

My opionion is that if you don't game or overclock, you can't do something wrong with the original pad (with the stock pad I get decent temps even overclocked!). We say, don't change a running system.

 

Exactly as Pyr0 stated. And as some of us utilize the Z1 for a little portible gaming and overclock GPU in it, the copper shim replacing the lower quality thermal pad is a plus for keeping the GPU cooled properly. I contacted the seller of my GPU shim, they are shipping a new one out, but its going to be another couple weeks probably since its being sent from UK to USA. Deciding if I want to just use the existing shim or wait. The condition will have negligible effect in the end really, more of a I paid a money for a supposedly perfect quality shim, I expect it to live up to its claim.

 

Got it. Thanks for the clarifications. So now, with my manufacturing and hardware supply experience, I can't see what's so hard about cutting copper shims of the right thickness to the right length and width, first time, and without corroding their surfaces. But no further comment is needed for my benefit.

 

Sorry, I was assuming you didn't understand there was a gap to fill. Personally, I always worry that removing the heatsink with a thermal pad attached will contaminate the pad, even if it stays intact, and that I should find some new material to replace it. However, I've done it once to replace the CPU paste, and at least nothing seems horrible since then (not a ringing endorsement for doing it in the first place).

 

New shims have arrived from seller. He sent two of them this time, and they look alot better and I will proceed with those. Will look to get this done tonight if I have some free time and will take pictures to draw up a guide. Stay tuned

 

Sounds good, mind giving us a link to him? or the product you bought? I've not gotten the cajones to take apart my Z just yet, but good to know when I do (on a low budget and can't afford to screw up, although I just got myself a REALLY nice $400 IPS panel from korea see here)

 

That's a damn nice monitor! Is it possible to get it's full resolution from your Z1?

 

iphone screen parts, Power Supplies items in pcfx computers store on eBay! is the seller, and the item is "HP DV9000 Thermal Copper CPU Shim Spacer for CPU 0.5mm".

Its really not all that bad to take the Z1 apart, its a well built unit. Only sketchy part is if you have the stock paste/pad on the heatsync/gpu then you have to gently pry/rock off the heatsync to get it off, but smooth sailing other than that.

Shim is installed and all paste replaced. GPU when running furmark is now sitting at ~78c vs the 84c it was at before. CPU temps went down ~2c overall when under full load in prime95, from 85c to 82c, idle temps ~42c in static nvidia GPU overclocked, high performance. Debating on tearing it apart again to reapply the paste and ensure everything got good contact, and possibly try a few other TIM pastes like IC7 which is what I usually use for desktops. If only I could use Indigo xtreme like my main system has

Have some pictures, will make up the guide soon.

 

I actually didnt try as it takes only DVI-Dual Link. I'm running it off my desktop currently though and it's a beauty for $400 (gotta thank those people or curse them for discovering the monitor and making me buy it

Okay, thanks a lot jollywombat! looking forward to the guide + pics

Edit:
you think it's a bad idea to buy a shim first, and then maybe when I have time over the summer (and a nice paycheck for security) to replace it then? It should be fine right?

Thanks again

 

Yah, no issues with pre-ordering the shim. It takes forever to ship since its in the UK anyways

 

Hey Jollywombat, what's your 330M clocked at? I ran furmark for 10+ minutes on my stock clocked 330M and my max temp was 75c

 

Dunno about him, but for me with my 330m at 550 MHz i hit 96C playing bad company 2. I can also go to 610MHz with maybe 1C difference in temps

 

Well, I guess no point messing with my cooling setup. I just OC'd to 550mhz and looped the Heaven benchmark twice and the max temp was 76C!

96C is scorching! I'd be afraid of those temps.

 

My normal overclock is 640 clock, 1040 Memory and 1408 Shader. Yah, I would be nervous hitting 96c personally. Your hitting throttling though at those temps.

 

Sorry for the delay folks, crazy week there. Little sister was on life support with pneumonia and medication complications (doing better now though thankfully), pet ferret died, and few day vacation. Writeup coming soon here now that I am back

 

I'm sure I'm showing my ignorance here, but why would 550MHz give you wild temps but not 610 MHz?

@Qwaarjet: what were your FPS on those Heaven loops at 550MHz?

 

My apologies for the long delay on this, crazy past couple months here with work and family health issues.


To start off, I decided not to film/take pictures of the full disassembly process as there is a video of this already in the thread here that is excellent to consult. While it seems scary, it really is not that bad to take this unit apart overall. I would suggest making a note of your CPU/GPU temps before taking everything apart, noting both full load and idle temps so you can check results at the end of all of this. Attached just a few shots here of the progress as it goes.





Once you reach the point of getting the motherboard itself out of the unit, and unscrew the screws holding the heatsync to the board, you will be carefully removing the heatsync. This might be a little worrisome for some people as you have to apply a little pressure carefully rocking the heatsync back and forth to break the dried thermal paste. Its not a big deal, but a little scary if you’re not used to it.

Once off, you can see the old paste on the CPU and the thermal pad on the GPU. As you see, the CPU has a plastic barrier around the edges of the core to prevent any possibility of the copper touching the circuitry on the CPU. I would suggest leaving this intact, you can easily clean the CPU core without touching it. The GPU has a similar setup plus the pad. Carefully remove the thermal pad from the GPU with tweezers as we will be using the outside frame of it again shortly.





Clean off the CPU core (The CPU has the CPU core and the Intel HD graphics core, I will be just referring to the entire thing as the CPU Core however) and GPU core with either a cleaning kit from Artic, or can use very high purity Isopropyl alcohol (91% minimum) as the cleaning agent as well. Q-tips, cotton balls are the standard cleaning items to carefully get the old paste off, followed up with a coffee filter for the final wipedown as it does not leave fibers/dust. I prefer to use gun cleaning patches as these are inexpensive, leave no fiber/dust, available in bulk, they seem to work better overall as they are very durable while scrubbing off old paste.







Do the same for the heatsync, make sure its been well cleaned multiple times. I would suggest cleaning the copper GPU shim as well to ensure no oils are there from handling. I suggest wearing fresh latex gloves for the final wipedowns of the cores/heatsync so as to be sure no skin oils get on them as well.



For the thermal pad that you removed from the GPU earlier, it consists of multiple layers of material. I removed one of the layers that only contained the frame around the pad, then put that frame back around the GPU core so as to protect the circuitry from the copper base of the heatsync. Probably not needed, but I prefer to be safe and it does not affect anything.



Apply your new thermal paste to the CPU core. I would recommend Shin Etsu personally, but there are a number of good pastes out there. I use the small bb sized bead of paste method, others prefer to spread it themselves, both worth fine. You will also apply a small bead to the GPU core as well. Carefully put your copper shim on the GPU core on top of the bead, and gently and evenly apply a little pressure on the shim so it spreads the paste evenly and sits squarely on the core. You will apply tiny bead on top of the shim them as well for its contact with the heatsync.



Carefully reattach the heatsync to the motherboard, do your best to ensure it does not move side to side at all as we want it to go straight down on the paste to ensure proper spread. Carefully tighten the screws to reattach the heatsync, a few turns on each screw at a time taking turns so pressure is even for the paste expanding under the pressure.

Once fully tightened down, visually inspect the work to be sure the heatsync is fitting fully where it should be and has no gaps.



Put it all back together again, and boot up and verify your CPU/GPU Temperatures immediately to make sure everything went as planned. If done properly, you should be seeing lower temps for both CPU and GPU cores overall, but due to type of thermal pastes used, some have curing/set periods of time before it is working optimally. Shin Etsu requires no curing/set time, so it is a good option here. You can check your temps using HWMON or any other software you prefer for this.

 

jollywombat, good guide! Rep added.

Just a tip from my personal experience: The less thermal grease the better. Its main use is just evening out the roughness of the die and heatsink surfaces. I always apply a bit of grease and spread it over the CPU/GPU die with a clean razorblade to cover the whole surface with a thin film. Shin Etsu/Arctic Silver/AC MX pastes are easy to spread. By doing that, I know that I have the whole area covered (who knows if the heatsink spreads the grease evenly when pressed onto the chip?) and I don't have a too thick layer of thermal grease that rather blocks heat transfer.
I always hat very good results with this technique.

Other than that, there is nothing to add to your guide IMO. What are your temperature values before/after?

 

I used to use the spread method of applying paste, then changed after reading some research done by IC7 on various ways to apply thermal paste showing that the bead method was best due to air pockets getting in the spread method.

Link to study

There was a bit much paste on the Intel iGPU, I cleaned that up to a smaller amount after taking the picture and seeing there was more than intended on there =s.

Thanks for the rep and good review!

 

jollywombat, great manual! Thanks. Rep add.
Here is some pics with disassembled heatsync
VAIO cooler fix

 

What happened to the fan that you had to take it apart? Good pictures of the process

 

Just for clean and lubricate.

 

Hi Jolly, great guide! I just got the shims from that ebay seller, I've just got a question. Did you sand/lap the shims? or did you use them in the shape they came in. I'm wondering because i notice the shims aren't perfect and could use some sanding.

Thanks again for your guide + advice!

 

Using too much paste ist not really a problem, except that it creates a mess and is harder to clean if this should ever be needed. Excess paste ist pushed out when the heatsink is applied.

Your method is much less messy and can be recommended. A small dab in the middle will be as efficient though.

 

The replacement shims I received from the vendor after the poor quality initial one was acceptable and did not require lapping. The first shim I received was very poor and might have required some basic work it if I had not gotten replacements. (This had pits in the shim, corrosion, bent out of shape)

Something to note regarding it though, unless its in very rough shape, it probably isn't worth lapping since your having to apply dual layers of paste here (GPU to Shim, Shim to HS), so your gains through lapping will probably be too minor to detect assuming the shim is at least completely flat to begin with. Plus, you need to maintain the thickness to properly fill the large gap between the GPU core and HS contact.

Good luck!

 

Yeah, true about needing to keep the thickness... Hmm, I might just take a 1000+ grain to it though... I bought 2 and 1 of them did have a small nick in it... we'll see. Thanks again!

 

So I just tried this fix last night... took about 2 hours... and my Vaio Z no longer turns on. When you push the power button, you hear the sound the Vaio usually makes right before BIOS like something powering up, but then nothing happens after that. I figured I probably killed my Z probably when I was struggling to take out the heatsink screws... is there any hope? Or will I have to look for a replacement