Reapplying thermal past on laptop cpu?

[devious93]

Hi guys,

Sorry for the inexperienced question but networking is more my forte than laptop repairs.

I've fully stripped down a friends laptop due to a major over heating problem on a 5 year old plus laptop and need to re apply thermal paste on this Acer Aspire Timeline x 4820 TG and slightly confused as to how this would be done on this build.

My understanding is the two shiny metal bits on the CPU is what passes the heat from the CPU to the cooler. The cooler has a black tape like section which has cut outs for those metal blocks.

Would I be correct in assuming I'd clean all this down, re apply the paste directly to the metal top bits of the CPU only so it's not all over the chip/board. Restick the black pad back down with a super light coating of paste which it seems like they have done and then squidge it all back in place?

Assuming this paste and some rubbing alcohol will do the trick?
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=AC-000-AC

 

[Gammawolf]

I'm no expert but, a few things i noted

Generally yes to everything you said - just fyi those shiny "metal" bits are producing the heat and are the silicon dies. They're fragile so don't treat them as bits of metal

That black tape doesn't seem to do much. I'd guess it goes on top of the processor as is a "guard" when they applied thermal paste in the factory.

 

[theforce]

Looks like the factory was overenthusiastic with the thermal paste. I would clean the heat sink thoroughly and the top parts of the two dies. Trying to clean everything surrounding the dies might cause you to damage the small fragile bits around the dies.

I always use pure alcohol and never had any problems with it. Don't apply a lot of the AS5 on the dies though, just a rice size amount for each die and then reseat the heatsink on top. It should spread the paste evenly.

 

[devious93]

Thank you both for clearing that up, much appreciated!

 

[iBSOD]

if its a c2d cpu, maybe consider undervolting it. the fans on my laptop often stop spinning since i've undervolted. you can drop the volts by like .25 to .3+ its crazy

 

[ukxenon]

my old laptop i replaced the thermal past and then added a few more holes so the fan could get more air through and it worked like a charm