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HELP: How to apply thermal paste

post #1 of 10
4/5/08 at 9:24am
Thread Starter 
Alright, my CPU is idling at 75c and my GPU is at 80c, I've opened up my M170 and It didnt seem dusty at all, so I went out and bought a small tube of AC5 which people say will help.

Now the problem Is I have no idea where to apply it, or how much is needed. I dont really know anything about hardware components, so If anyone has any pics which could show me where and how much to apply that would great.

The M170 is currently in peices at my desk and Im typing this on a MacBook, and I really dont want to spend anymore time on the OSX than I have to.
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post #2 of 10
4/5/08 at 3:53pm
according to my training... for a cpu and AS5, you would want to use about 1/2 of a pea-sized amount and twist the heatsink a bit after contact to spread a bit.

Too much compound is a bad thing...
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post #3 of 10
4/5/08 at 4:50pm
grab a plastic sandwich bag and stick your finger in it and spread the compound across the CPU in small circular motions coving as much of the CPU as possible, but like the previous poster said, dont use too much.
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post #4 of 10
4/5/08 at 9:09pm
Have a read of the instructions here:

http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=80879

Its for a 9300 but exactly the same applies...just ignore the first few steps for the pinmod...
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post #5 of 10
4/6/08 at 1:52am
goffer, i see your point, but it is not optimal to spread the compound before you place the sink. By spreading it, you are making an uneven layer of paste no matter how careful you can be, and when the sink is applied, there is a small chance of air becoming trapped between reducing the efficiency of the application. Sometimes drastically...

I used to do it that way myself.
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post #6 of 10
4/6/08 at 1:53am
yes just a very light covering of paste.
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post #7 of 10
4/6/08 at 3:08am
I just put the size of a rice on cpu or gpu. then place heatsink ontop
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post #8 of 10
4/6/08 at 10:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by diefool View Post
I just put the size of a rice on cpu or gpu. then place heatsink ontop
this is the way i would put it on. However, if your cpu is now idling at 75 and it never did before i would not think that you need to to replace the thermal grease. You need to find out why your temps are so high, my guess is it's not thermal grease. check you fan speed and is your cpu running at 100%?
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post #9 of 10
4/6/08 at 11:06am
If you do end up applying, I believe the plop and drop method is best (rice grain of it, then just apply the heatsink)

I do believe however, that having new thermal paste will not fix this issue in general, 75 is FAR beyond a reasonable temperature and thus a 4 degree drop because of paste won't really help. Wardo is on the right track
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post #10 of 10
4/6/08 at 2:23pm
I did reseat my cpu as it was idling around 70c, i did it with as5 and spread it very thinly across the core , now i idle at 38-40c at the same time clean out your fins on your heatsinks. I have put some filters over the fan vents to help stop the accmulation of dust.
Did you have lots of dust on your heatsinks when you took it apart? because if you did that was 90% of your problem.
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