VPCEE23FX cooler modification

UPDATE 06-23-2015 : Please read update at the bottom of this post.


Hello, I'm new to the Sony forum so please forgive me for any mistakes. I have a VAIO vpcee23fx as a work laptop. Its was released in 2010, so its quite old. I have upgraded the CPU to a AMD phenom x2 P650 (2.6Ghz) from a P320 (2.1 Ghz). It also has a ATI GPU 4200 series.

This GPU overheats so much that it desolders itself off the motherboard. It can also be because of cheap lead-free solder or bad cooling design. You can see in the picture that there is only a thermal pad on top of the GPU and the heat pipe is shared and in line with the CPU heat pipe. I have heard that AMD CPU's run hotter than intel, so there is a possibility that the CPU is heating up the GPU. When the solder under the GPU fails, you will not be able to POST when you press the power button, but you will see the power LED and capslock light turn on. A temporary fix is to get the motherboard reflowed. I have had success with a heat gun to reflow it, but not a permanent fix. (Yes, I know people will complain that its may cause damage but i don't care anymore).

I decided to go one step further and add a additional heat pipe and copper mounting plate. Notice in the "before" picture that the original GPU mounting plate did not have a copper pad, so it was not efficient. It consists of a 6 AWG copper wire and a plate of copper to have good contact with the GPU chip. I have chosen 6 AWG since its the biggest one that will fit. The wire has been flattened where it meets the copper plate and the heat sink, and them soldered on. Please do not comment on my bad soldering skills. It's very bad, but has good contact under the heat pipe. The thermal pad was removed and replaced with the copper plate and thermal grease. There is no gap. Black shrink tubing has been added to a portion of the heatpipe because it is above a chip. The original hard and brittle thermal pad from the GPU as been removed and thermal compound has been added on top of the GPU as well as in between the copper plate and the original aluminium plate.


It fits in the case very snuggly, without any modification to the case. And the new heat pipe doesn't touch the motherboard.


I do not have any before and after temperatures since the motherboard needed reflowing so i do not know if this is actually going to help. But if it last longer than a year, I'll let you know.

UPDATE 06-23-2015 : The motherboard needed another reflow again. We all know that a reflow is only a temporary fix. The next time this happens I will add No-clean liquid flux first before reflowing since the solder connection gets tarnished and it weakens the solder joint connection. The flux will clean off the tarnish and create a stronger joint.

 

Here is a After installation picture. (could only post 5 images in one post).

2 After Mod by evogt500 posted Apr 15, 2015 at 7:33 PM

 

Need results! That's what I'm here for. Before and after

 

Hi httuner. Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately I can give results for a couple of reasons. First off, the PC died from the GPU getting soldered off before I could measure any temperatures. The mod was made right after the the GPU was reflowed. Secondly, the GPU is an integrated unit so i don't even think there is a temperature sensor in it. I have tried HWmonitor and GPU-Z without any success. I do not want to give any "butt dyno" results, so i wont lie. The fan seems to run less but thats is not an indication of the mod working or not. The only results i can give you will be in the next 6 months. Since the time between reflowing was six months, if it last that long or longer, I will consider it a success. Sorry that could not give you the information you needed.

 

Try running the hardware monitors with admin privileges.

openhardwaremonitor has a nice graph that I find very useful.

 

Thanks for the tip anytimer. I have tried openhardwaremonitor and I still don't get a GPU temp reading.