FAQ: How to (step-by-step) clean the 8790 GPU cooling system.

I will try and make a step by step with pictures on how to take the keyboard and top plate as well as the bottom plate and heatpipe assembly out for cleaning and a good AS5 treatment.

1] Turn off laptop
2] Remove Batteries
3] Flip it over
4] Remove screws around the heatsink plate (bottom of the laptop towards the rear)
5] Remove the CPU heatsink plate screws in the order (they are numbered)
6] Pull with the plastic grips and lift the heatsinks clean out of the bay
7] Blast with compressed air and use a brush to remove the dust
8] Remove CPU and store separately
9] Clean the RAM fan while you are at this step
10] Flip the laptop over and remove the keyboard
11] remove the metal plate under the keyboard (remember which screw goes where...)
12] You will find the GPU etc. here - dont touch anything...
13] On the metal plate you will find another heatsink - clean this also
14] Now under the keyboard (right side) you can see two fans...you have to clean both the fans and the compartments around this...use compressed air and Q-Tips
15] Re-Assemble the metal plate and the keyboard
16] Flip over the laptop
17] Install CPU - clean surface and apply thermal paste
18] Install heatsink and tighten the CPU screws in the correct order
19] Close the laptop with the plastic plate - AFTER - plugging back the RAM fan
20] Install the screws and stop as soon as they give resistance ( dont overtighten)


OTHER than the CPU screws which are self tapping - DO NOT overtighten any of the screws. Be careful NOT to strip all the screw heads because of excessive force. Be patient and use the right tools to do a good clean job.

I do this once every 3 months.



MOD OPPORTUNITIES:

You can mod the cooling mechanism for the GPU under the keyboard. You will need to install a non-metallic thermal interface between the GPU and the metal plate under the keyboard. Find the better ones on the web and cut to size. Use this same material on the other two chips you can see under the metal plate. Be VERY careful because all these chips are sensitive to static and any rubbish in there will cause shorting.

Here are a few pics of mods that I did...



More pics:

http://www.gurushankar.com/oddities/laptop/87902.jpg
http://www.gurushankar.com/oddities/laptop/87903.jpg
http://www.gurushankar.com/oddities/laptop/87904.jpg

Revisions -

the copper tape is better when applied UNDER the black shield that you see. I have revised it so that it goes underneath and therefore touches more of the metal plate.

Dont do any of this if you are uncertain or if you have shakey hands. It is by NO MEANS difficult and anyone should be able to pull it off with a bit of concentration but I just had to put this warning in there...



REPORT:

The mods dont seem to make any HUGE difference to the GPU performance...all benchmarks are the same.


FUTURE:

I am looking at fabricating the metal plate under the laptop out of copper with low profile ridges in and around the GPU area to promote cooling.

gsferrari - Nice Job..

thanks...but it hasnt really improved anything. The GPU cooling is woefully inadequate in the 8790. It works...but not as well as it could work if they had implemented a slightly different design.

I am thinking of making a BIG change to my 8790 which is now basically a desktop after I nearly destroyed it


Remove the keyboard and use an external keyboard

Install dedicated heatsinks to the GPU, MEMORY, CHIPSET etc.

Place a larger fan over the the CPU fans.

I will post pics shortly. Waiting for a new system to come in before I start messing with this one

Excellent job on this report!
I couldnt tell if the cooling got better for the gpu on mine after applying AS5 to it, but one thing I do know, is that I can play games ( Falcon4, LOMAC, Swat4, etc..) without any artifacting, heating issues at all. last weekend we played Swat4 continuously for just over 5 hours and no issues at all. When I got out of the game, mobmeter had the cpu temp at 55 deg C, and then it quickly dropped to around 46 C, then after more rest it drops to 42 C.

On the top of the keyboard (where the edge meets the rest of the laptop) you will find 4 tabs. Push them all backwards and the keyboard will pop loose. Then carefully disconnect the "ribbon" connector under the kayboard. To do this safely use a screwdriver and push at the light grey "holder" to move it outwards...this will release the connector.

lift out the keyboard and clean it also when you have the chance.

gs

You can do the GPU steps but if you havent cleaned your Sager in a while then it WILL be dusty and clogged inside...why not do an all around job once and for all.

gs

To remove the KB(Keyboard) , there are 4 or 5 tabs ( hard to see ) located at the top edge of the keyboard tray, against the thicker edge of the laptop body. Just push the little black tab forward towards the lcd scree ( push-in) until you here a small click and you'll feel the KB come up slightly. Once you push all of them in, the KB will come up , but the KB connection cable is still attached. To disconnect the small flat cable, take a small flat screwdriver ( small one is easiest) and push the little plastic piece that holds the flat cable in towards the lcd screen. Do this on both sides of that little plastic connector holder. It will not come off, it will just loosen up and relieve the pressure that basically wedges the flat cable in the connector. Once this is done, carefully just remove the KB flat cable and KB together from the unit and set aside.
The easiest way I have found to remove the screws from this plate is to lay them out on a towel, setting them in the same position that you remove them from the plate. This way they go back in exactly from the positions that you removed them.

I was so close - I had cleaned everything but I did not lift the plate under the KB that was what was over heated my gpu I bet. The two big fans must have been packed. I will AS5 and keep it clean from now on. I also may try modding this area for some cooling.

From my experience cleaning helps keeping the system run cooler and therefore quieter but it does NOT fix artifacting. If you start to see artifacts on your screen contact Sager as soon as possible. If you don't see artifacts my best advise is to sell the unit and buy a newer model like the 9860.

-Mat

hehe, I went ahead and used heatsink compound as well, just a tad to help....should have benchmarked it before and after just to see...

can the pics be hosted on another website cause they are not showing

No, cleaning isn't the only solution. The GPU needs to be clocked differently with something like ATiTool, too. Doing these two things seem to've cut down the instances of problems with people who have already done so to their machines. I don't have the specs for stable re-clocking of the GPU. I'm gonna have to sit down and dig through all the threads, collect this information and make one big 8790 sticky (unless someone else beats me to it; I'm lazy). Until then, search the Artifacting threads.

I opened my 8790 up and cleaned it out under the keyboard for the first time since I got it in Sept 04. I just now started to get the artifacting that the 8790 is infamous for. One thing I was a bit disappointed in was when i removed the metal plate under the keyboard I noticed there was no thermal paste connecting the GPU to the "heatsink". I'm an electrical engineer and I've had the themodynamics class and I know just a metal to metal contact isn't near enough to transfer heat especially when you have a GPU in a laptop where heat is an issue. Over time heat can destroy a chip, we all know this, and i'm very confident that the 8790s showing artifacting is a dying chip even though underclocking may remedy it for the time being as in my case, however eventually it will die completely. Now I'm curious if had Sager used some sort of thermal paste to connect the GPU to the "heatsink", i put it in quotes because of the poor design i wouldn't consider a heatsink, then could the artifacting problem been prevented. We may never know, but my gut instinct tells me yes.

Isn't there some sort of paste holding a thin metal sheet between the gpu and its heatsink? I seem to remember seeing that last time I took off the keyboard and plate for dust bunny eradication. Pretty sure it was the same type of thing that the factory puts on the cpu as well, which I have since removed from my machine in favor of arctic silver paste.

Speaking of heat problems, lately I've been getting some artifacting after prolonged periods of playing BF2. It's only happened a couple of times, but it's enough to make me even more careful about taxing my little 9700 for very long. This is the only computer I have at the moment, so going out in flames is not an option quite yet. I'm almost tempted to mod the case/cooling system like gs did myself. =P