VPC-Z Change Thermal Paste

Guessing your video cables came loose if you were having to struggle a little with the heatsync/motherboard. Go back over it and firmly seat the monitor cables back in and give them attention when reassembling the motherboard back into the case to ensure they stay firmly socketed. Also make sure you reattached the heatsync fan cable to the board (just making sure) as some systems wont post unless it detects the fan operating. Let me know how it turns out, will help as best I can.

 

Hi Jollywombat,

thanks for the response. Yeah, I made sure the heatsink cables were reattached as well as the fan, but I can reverify. I'm sure it's not a display problem as no lights are turning on when i hit the power button, and no responses except for that 1 boot up sound i told you about.

 

Gotcha. Well, try it again and see what comes of it =s. Might make sure RAM is seated well and all zif cabling is firmly back in place. Should at least be getting power light even if you damaged something.

 

Yeah I just went through again... and nothing... you think maybe it's the keyboard ribbon cable? I mean, nothing happens when I don't have power and push the power button, but with both the battery and the AC power it works so there's power getting across that cable, so it's not completely damaged.

oh well, we'll see, push comes shove, at least i got a nice summer job to fund my new one

 

Would doubt its the keyboard cabling since it should post and then throw an error that the keyboard is not present.

How hard did you have to struggle to get the heatsync off? Seems odd that it would die like that.

 

Quite a bit, almost stripped the screwhead... and removing thermal paste off the CPU was a pain too...

 

Wow, this thread has grown . Great pics Jollywombat by the way!

Achusaysblessyou, I had that happen to me once (can't remember if it made a noise though). Never was able to figure out what it was, but I pulled out the battery, docked it to to the power supply without the battery, and then it turned on and that worked. I think in my case it must have been a static shock of sorts. Anyways worth a try

 

Any update on how the system is doing?

 

Hi Chluz, yeah i tried all that, although my battery charges... at least the battery charge light turns on... but I'm pretty certain my mobo's dead

Hi Jolly, I think it's dead. At this point I'm looking at a Sager 9130 (Clevo P151EM)

 

Sorry to hear that man. If you want to get rid of the unit, let me know and I can take a look at it and see if I can do anything to get it working again.

 

I've had a VPCZ1190X for around two years now, and lately it's been having serious overheating issues. Idle in stamina mode is around 50C at the lowest, typically hangs around 60, and when in speed mode the GPU hangs around 75, and the heat brings my CPU to just under 70 at idle. Any graphics related application run in speed mode causes a heat shutdown. I took off the heatsink and found that the thermal pad on the GPU core had a tear going straight across the center of it. I have no idea how this happened. I replaced it with a 1mm phobya pad and put some arctic silver on the cpu with the spread method. I didn't touch the vram pads. Everything was cleaned with the arctic cleaning kit and I was careful to keep everything very clean. I did notice that there seemed to be a gap between the heatsink and vram with it reassembled, so I may need to put a .5mm pad in. Upon resassembly and rebooting idle temps in stamina were still 50C-65C for the CPU, and the turning on speed mode had the same temperatures and caused heat shutdowns. The fan looked clean for the most part, with no blockages. Any thoughts?

As of right now I'm thinking of putting a .5mm pad on the GPU and seeing if that will help the heatsink make contact with the vram, but that still doesn't explain why my idle temp in stamina mode is so high. The fan seems to be working properly so I don't think that's causing this issue.

Temps ramp up quite fast in stamina mode also. A Skype call brought CPU temps to 70C, nothing else in the background.

 

Hey man, sorry for your Z. i was having the same problem after i applied thermal paste, it's the 3rd time it happened to me actually this week. what i did is to remove the ram again, tried to put 1 first and try to boot, and then put the other 1. at some point it took me 3 trial to finally boot the pc but it did it. i just hope it works for you as it did with mine

 

, I just tried to replace the paste and pads and when I got to the vram chips I noticed that there still was the protective sheet left on the pads. The assembly workers only removed the sheet for the vram side but left the sheet for the cooler side on it. No wonder my Z kept throttling under high gpu load, there was some plastic in between pads and copper.

 

I just opened my Z1290S and gave the fan a big cleaning, which drastically improved airflow. Now it really blows lots of air through the vent, but the my temperatures were still like yours, ramping up quickly on SPEED mode. At least it didn't shutdown as quickly as it did before.

So I installed CPUID HW Monitor and started playing with the power settings. Changing the processor max speed from 100% to 99% already had a big impact on the temperature. Moving it down to 90% improved things further, now temperatures are quite reasonable and the fan runs much quieter.

I'll install some 3D games and play on the secondary monitor (two monitors increases the stress on the GPU) to check if I still get some forced shutdowns. If so, I'll change the paste to AS5 and the pad to this: Fujipoly Ultra Extreme System Builder Thermal Pad - 60 x 50 x 0.5 - Thermal Conductivity 17.0 W/mK - FrozenCPU.com.
What do you guys recommend, 0.5mm or 1mm?

 

My old Z13, mostly playing Minecraft and Terraria for my son nowadays, has been shutting itself off more and more frequent and I finally had no choice but to have a look.

I read about some other fan that was composed by two plastic bits that snapped together. Mine was one plastic bit (with the actual fan in it), which was plastic-welded to the copper heatsink assembly. I had to cut away some of the plastics to remove the fan and then tape it together afterwards.

Some pics attached of the air outblow, guess which is before/after...





Running memtest now for a while but there's no temp indicator there. But I can feel that the heat is now coming out of the heat exhaust, not through the bottom of the laptop as it was before.

 

my idle mode got into 70~75C, when i play games the CPU and GPU loads temps are 95~99C too hot for an ordinary laptop.. By following the guide by jolly would it lessen the temp on my z?

 

Same thing on my vpcz1290x - the vram pads had plastic still on them. That said, I've done this procedure a few times now with brand new GPU and VRAM pads from Sony and using MX4, and my temps now tend to be higher than they used to be. One thing I discovered kinda late is that you need to make sure a little tab on the side of the fan assembly sits on the opposite side of MB from the heatsink and chips. This makes it difficult to reseat the fan/heatsink assembly without moving it during the process, which itself isn't great for maximum effectiveness of the paste you carefully applied.

The only thing left to try is a different pad for the GPU or a copper shim (also, different thermal paste, like AS5). Not sure if it's worth it.

 

Probably way too late, but that was exactly the behaviour I got when I inadvertently trashed one of my SSDs. Try reseating the zif connector from the SSD assembly or HD, whichever you have, and if that doesn't work try removing it altogether: should boot from optical/USB if you have no SSD at all, I think.

 

AAARGH!!! How do you remove the *paste* from the CPU? The blasted grey stuff is rock solid, like very good cement, and resists all attempts to dislodge it. If I can't remove it from the heatsink, how on earth am I going to remove it from the CPU? Please suggest methods and solvents. I don't have the Arctic cleaning kit you guys seem to favour; it is not available in the local shops and it will take a week or more to get here if I buy online; meanwhile my laptop is spread all over my dining table.

Btw. the heatsink over the GPU came away totally clean - no adhesion there at all. The thermal pad on the GPU is intact. Is that normal? Did the assemblers forget to remove a top layer of plastic? The VRAM chips too have a plastic layer on top just like others have reported.

I did all this because the fan had stopped rotating altogether and the laptop kept shutting down, although the CPU and GPU temperatures were only about 60 C in idle (stamina mode). Perhaps there is another temperature sensor I wasn't monitoring.

 

Any ideas, guys? I managed to get the stuff off the heatsink by immersing it in paint thinner and scrubbing it with a toothbrush. Took several minutes, but it worked. I can't do that on the CPU side though.

The paste looks like Arctic Silver - when I scratch the residue with a screwdriver, it looks silvery instead of the usual grey.

 

isopropyl alcohol and a lot of patience. If your cooling fan isn't spinning, you have bigger problems though.

 

Thanks, Qwaarjet. All I had to hand was nail polish remover, so I used that cautiously and patiently, rubbing away with cue tips. Just switched ON a few minutes ago. All seems to be well (fingers crossed).

The fan is spinning now, and is a LOT quieter. It had jammed solid due to bad lubrication in the bearing/bush. Opened, cleaned, oiled (a drop of sewing machine oil), put back together.

I have ordered the Arctic Silver 5 and Arcticlean for next time. Now that I've done it once, I'm not so scared of the task, so I'll do this more frequently.

Any thoughts on the GPU pad remaining intact when the heatsink was removed. No adhesion at all. The pad too seems to have holes in it - I could see the light reflecting off the surface of the GPU through the holes. Anyway, I filled up the holes with thermal paste (the cheap white stuff; all I could get my hands on out here), put a layer of paste on top of the GPU pad, and put back the heatsink.

I'll run a few videos and report back.

 

I hate cleaning hard dried thermal paste. I feel for you! lol
Once it slowly soaks in some alcohol/nail polish remover the progress starts though. Glad you got that fan going! Just monitor your GPU temps, I wouldn't worry about the pad as long as it stays in place which it should with the pressure. It's not the optimal solution but due to the gap between GPU and heat sink it's necessary. Adhesion isn't necessary, probably had a little initially but the pressure keeps it in place. I'm sure with the work you just did you'll have overall lower temps and most importantly a working fan!

you're actually lucky you didn't tear the thermal GPU pad like others.

 

Is there any reason to think that this shim might not work for the GPU? It's 1.4cm x 1.5cm, but also 0.5mm thick. 1x THERMAL COPPER SHIM FOR ASUS G1 G1S GPU TO RESOLVE OVERHEAT ISSUES 0.5MM | eBay

 

Should be fine, IMHO. Just be careful it doesn't slide off the GPU when you put the heatsink back on. In fact, I think it would be a better idea to attach the shim to the heatsink (with a layer of thermal paste in between, of course) using small dabs of superglue on the edges.

I'm also curious why everyone insists on using high purity copper. IMHO almost any metal will do. I know that silver, gold and copper conduct heat very well, but even stainless steel is not far behind (as you'll find if you touch a steel kitchen utensil after it has been on the stove for a while), and is a darn sight better than air, plastic, or even regular thermal paste (not talking about special thermal pastes like Arctic Silver 5 et. al.but the cheap white stuff). There should not be much difference between 0.5mm thick high purity copper and 0.5 mm thick stainless steel.

 

Update: I ran PCMARK 7 basic edition. I got a score of 2385, which is not terrific, but I am happy that the laptop was able to run the benchmark at all. The fan makes a faint clattering sound at low speeds (presumably the fan wobbling on the worn out shaft and bushing) but under stress the air blast from the fan running at full speed is good to hear, and the temperature didn't go beyond 100C, nor did the laptop abruptly turn itself off with a high pitched whine.

I am attaching a picture. On the left are the idle core temps in stamina mode. Then I switch to speed mode, and browse the net a little. At the -20 min mark I install PCMARK7. Then the benchmark runs 3 times - you can see the temperature peaks corresponding to the various tests. Note that these are all with the cheap generic white thermal paste. I expect better results from the premium stuff.



I suppose I'll have to replace the fan at some stage in the near future, but for now things are looking good. I expect to be able to play games again - when I have the time to spare, of course.

 

while that's progress, esp since you had it shutting down before you went to work on it, temps still seam high to me. I remember when I had my Z11, even when I OC'd my GT330M, running furmark my temps would stay in the mid 70's. Maybe you're right, despite the fan working, it's no where near 100%?

 

seems expensive, esp considering you just need the fan, but you always have this option

MCF 528PAM05 Sony Vaio VPC Z Series VPC Z1 Cooling Fan 178794312 Original New | eBay

 

or this, it's not new like the other but way cheaper since it's just the fan.

Sony Vaio VPCZ1 Series MCF 528PAM05 Cooling Fan Tested | eBay

 

Thanks, Quaarjet. Repped for being helpful.

I like the second link - the free shipping is most attractive. For the fan+heatsink, the shipping alone is some $30. Ouch!

Two things you have to consider while interpreting the results, other than the el cheapo thermal grease:

1. The ambient temperature is in the mid 20s, so ~45C idle in stamina mode is ~20C above ambient.

2. Notice that the dips in the temperature in the gaps during benchmarking go below the idle temperatures. This indicates that the speed setting of the fan during idle is lower than optimal. With the fan running full blast the temperature dips below 60 while idle in speed mode before the fan slows down. This is about 35C above ambient. Maybe I need a modded BIOS with a better fan speed profile.

Btw. PCMARK 7 score in stamina mode 1450. LOL

 

Thanks. Yeah, it's a problem in this model that you actually need to slide the heatsink/fan assembly a little bit after putting it down, at least in my experience, because there's a plastic tab coming off of the fan casing that has to be positioned so it sits on the opposite side of the motherboard (it kind of locks things down, but I thought that's what screws were for!). The only other option would be to remove the fan from the heatsink, but I don't think I'm going to come close to trying that. Anyway, the idea of gluing the shim to the heatsink isn't bad - probably better achieved with epoxy on the perimeter. Of course then, you'll never be able to replace the paste between the heatsink and the shim again. Not sure whether this is worth a try at all, since I recently replaced the GPU pad with a stock Sony part, but particularly under certain loads, my temps are a little higher than I'd like. Who knows if the copper (or whatever type of metal) shim would actually make much difference.

 

IMHO if you have access to a stock Sony GPU thermal pad, then you don't need to do any of this. People have ripped the pad when they removed the heatsink, and didn't know where to get a new pad, so they have to do do all this, as simply putting paste there is no good.

Btw. how much is the stock GPU pad for, and where to get it?

 

Just got my copper shim, going to open up the laptop and replace my busted thermal pad and also replace the liquid metal stuff on top of the processor. When I use the alcohol, should I "scrub" the chips or just wipe them off a few times? Also, slightly related/unrelated question to this thread - are there any new drivers one can download for Z11's video card to improve its performance? Before I broke the thermal pad I still had nothing but issues with the graphics cards cutting out my LCD screen.

 

The old 'paste' between the CPU and the heatsink is very difficult to remove - took me a couple of hours with acetone (something I wouldn't normally use on a printed circuit board, but I was desperate). You need proper cleaning stuff, like Arcticlean or equivalent. If you don't have it, then use alcohol and rub patiently with cue tips until all the muck on the CPU is gone. Expect to work at this for at least one hour.

You can get better drivers from here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/342947-my-discoveries-vaio-z-s-hybrid-graphics.html

 

I've already cleaned up the paste before.

Okay, so I put paste on both sides of the copper shim, put it over the nVidia video card, and put the heatsink on top. They are all connecting too. However, any time I switch to Speed mode, the screen goes black and a while after the laptop turns off. I took everything apart again and only put the paste between the chip and the copper, with nothing from the copper to the heatsink, and the same thing is happening. Not sure what else to do.

 

Putting paste on both sides of the shim is good. Don't change that method.

Try restarting with the switch in speed mode. There might be blocking apps running that are preventing the changeover. Reinstalling the driver using clean settings is also recommended - if the driver is set to a resolution/refresh rate that is not supported by your display, you'll have problems like you describe.

Try the driver in the thread that I linked to. Andrew08's driver works best. Get it from the links in his signature (at the bottom of any post that he has made - (this last bit is for any newbies who might read this thread)).

 

No matter when the switch is in Speed mode, the screen is always off. I have to cut the power and put it back into Stamina mode for it to work at all. I'm not sure what's going on since both sides of the shim are pasted and the shim is definitely right on top of the nVidia card. Also, I downloaded one of the video drivers from above but it would stop half way through installation and say it failed.

 

The driver needs to be installed in a specific way.

1. Uninstall existing drivers. Check in device manager that both graphics adapters show standard vga or microsoft basic (Windows 8).
2. Disable driver signature enforcement. Click 'install anyway' when prompted about unsigned driver.
3. Install driver. use clean settings. If display goes black during this process, don't panic; wait about 5 minutes (to make sure the driver has finished installing), then press 'enter' to restart (imagine the restart dialog you normally expect to see after a driver installation).

 

I'm not sure what's going on. After I opened my laptop to put the copper shim in, the nVidia card stopped working. When I switch to "Speed" mode, the screen goes black and does not recover. I'm not sure if I fried the nVidia card somehow or if this is a software issue. I didn't change anything software-wise though. Also, when I look through the device manager, I don't see anything about nVidia. Is this because I'm in Stamina mode or because the laptop isn't detecting the nVidia card? Is there a way to check if the laptop detects the nVidia card or will it not because of the hybrid thing?

 

About $15 from Sony. You have to get a copy of the parts manual (search this forum) and then access the kinda hidden Excel spreadsheet attached to the diagrams, which tells you the part numbers. The Sony site you need is https://www.servicesplus.sel.sony.com/sony-parts.aspx. I ordered 417052701, SHEET THERMAL GPU, and two 417052601, SHEET THERMAL VRAM B. Hope that helps someone.

 

Hello,

I have a VPCZ133GX. I removed the old thermal paste and thermal pad and applied new paste (MX-4) to the the cpu and gpu. Everything seems to be working fine, the temperature has even decreased by a few degrees.


However, when I load a game, my FPS has dropped significantly (from 40fps to 4fps) and the computer starts lagging. Any idea what went wrong? Or do i need to wait a day or two for the paste to 'cure'?

Can supply pics if needed

 

Thermal paste on the GPU is not enough. You need a copper shim because the original pad was thicker than expected. Check earlier posts in this thread for details and links.

 

anyone know why these idiots would use a pad instead of having direct contact?

 

Good question. I suppose the nVIDIA guys changed the thickness of the GPU without telling Sony, and the design team there got a nasty shock when the parts arrived.

 

if replacing the pads to copper shim how much temperature will be decreased? im planning to change also the pads coz if temp reaches 100 degrees laptops just shuts down..

 

1. You don't HAVE to use a shim. If you peel off the existing GPU pad carefully you might be able to reuse it. You could also get a replacement GPU pad.

2. If only your GPU is overheating, then this is the cause. Otherwise (if the CPU is also overheating) it could be other things, like a dry fan shaft. Of course, I'm assuming you have already got rid of the dust from the air passages, and wiped the blades of the fan clean (carefully; the blades are delicate and fairly easy to break).

 

So I finally received my copper shim and the fan is much quieter than before. Laptop hasn't overheated once since..but then again, it's only been two days. Temperature is around 70-90 degrees Celsius when playing a game from 85-105+ (overheat).


However now I have a slight problem, every 5-10 minutes or so I graphically lag, and lag when in a graphic intensive situation. Could this be the curing? Or did I not attach the shim properly? This didn't happen before, but then again the fan would go much louder during those situations (and sometimes lead to overheating). However now mine doesn't and as a result I lag instead.

 

Another cause could be the Nvidia settings, selecting max performance when running a given application (in nvidia control panel) solved this issue for me.

 

A good utility to monitor temperatures is Open Hardware Monitor. It has a configurable graph that shows the temperature history, which I find very useful. I keep it running in my system tray and bring it up if I want to see how some activity has affected my laptop.

Open Hardware Monitor - Core temp, fan speed and voltages in a free software gadget

Also, keep an eye on the HDD activity LED. A lot of gamers complain that the game lags when a new scene/area/level is loaded in the game, but this could also happen as a result of other activity that accesses the storage. Maybe it's the VAIO media browser checking all your media folders, or something equally stupid.

 

This may be off topic, but there's a Nvidia Control Center for the Geforce 330m? When i tried looking at Nvidia's site but it wouldn't detect my card...


I'm also not sure if this is the issue but, it seems the temperature/fan is at a constant speed and won't increase when I enter a more intensive graphic situation. (Judging by the fact the temperature is really stable). I also don't have VAIO Media installed.