First of all I don't know much about cleaning heatsinks myself although my computer does run cooler after doing this. This is just mainly to show where it is, comments are welcome.



This shows what to take off to get to the heatsink. The screws were really tight there so get someone big and strong to get them off for you if you can't do it yourself



This is the heatsink thing under there. There was a useful sign that said something about it being a heatsink and getting hot so I knew that's what I was looking for. There are 4 screws with boingy springs on them that you have to take off to take it out. Maybe you can do it without taking it out but I did anyway.



Here's a picture of the heatsink taken out. The side facing the camera had some cat hair and a ball of dust on it. I blew out the dust as well as I could, I suppose it would be safe to use a canned air thing if the heatsink is taken out of the computer like that, since you don't need to worry about over spinning fans.

You can also look into the place where the fans blow air from but I didn't see any dust in there so I didn't really bother with it. It looked like all the dust had been blown into the heatsink anyway and not into the space where the fans are.

The bottom two pictures are not really about cleaning the heatsink but I'm including them because I was wondering if the thermal pad looks that awful on all computers after using them a fair bit? I am a little too scared to do artic silver but after seeing this I'm doubting the effectivness of the thermal pad since it got so burned and gunked up already.




That's it.

Thanks for pics violetdream!

My CPU looked like yours.

After two months of daily use, I removed foil and gunk and polished the heatsink before applying a nice thin layer of thermal paste. Judging from the amount of dust, I will have to clean the heatsink once or twice per year.

BTW, I allways remove the battery when I am working on the intenals of my Sager - old habit.

Have you looked at it again since applying it, does the thermal paste get yucky too I wonder? How did you remove the pad thingy, did you take the cpu out?

Hey thanks Violetdream, you've done a great service. Great photos. Glad you had the rocks to take this on. Keep it up.

My CPU looked the same too. And since ASing my CPU, I opened it up again to clear out the dust (there wasn't nearly as much there the second time). The thermal paste seemed to be doing fine - didn't look burned or messed up at all. It had obviously shifted around a little compared to when I first applied it because as it heats up, the paste becomes more malleable and hence rearranges itself. So when I peeled the heatsink from the CPU (with AS between), it did make the surface uneven - like peeling apart a grilled cheese. I didn't have time to clean off the old stuff and reapply it, so I just slapped the heatsink back in and so far, all is well. No overheating so the paste is doing fine even after seperating and reseating the heatsink. Which leads me to believe applying the AS in a very thin, even layer isn't *really* that critical. Just my personal experience.

great guide! Glad I tried it. BIG DIFFERENCE FOR ME, BUT....
I went a step further and resurfaced (lapped) my heatsink and CPU.
If you are not familiar with the process here is some info:
http://www.overclockersclub.com/guid...ppingguide.php
http://www.overclockersclub.com/guid...ppingguide.php

First I used a plastic spatula and just a dab of denatured alcohol on a rag to remove the old thermal pad residue and the thin aluminum that was stuck to the heatsink.
I started with the heatsink to get the feel. I CAREFULLY wet-sanded with 600 and 1000 grit paper and then I polished it with Mothers Mag Wheel Polish to a nice shine.
I did not use ANY water on the CPU just a VERY SLIGHTLY damp cloth to remove the residue. Then I polished it with Mothers Mag Wheel Polish to a slight shine.
I made sure to remove all polish with a dab of alcohol and waited a few minutes to make sure it was dry.
I applied a thin layer of Artic Silver Thermal Paste to the CPU and then a thin layer to the part of the heatsink that comes in contact with the CPU. (Make sure to spread as evenly as possible to ensure good contact.)
I carefully screwed it all back together tightly and guess what?
using MobileMeter my CPU temp booted up at 38 deg C (2 deg lower than before) and the laptop fan runs WAY less it seems. The temp still fluctuates from 44 to 54 degrees and back, but the graph shows that it takes longer to rise than it did before.
The weirdest part is that my hard drive temp is WAY lower now too. It used to run at 46-49C while running Star Wars Galaxies (very stressful 3D game) and now it topped out at 45C.
I fugure this should make the battery run a tad longer too.

Thanks again for the guide!!! I would have NEVER tried this without such great pics.

If you remove the heatsink like shown in the above the pictures, can you simply put it back in or do you need to re-do the thermal paste...I would like to remove the heat sink to clean it but I dont have any thermal paste at the moment...
Thanks

I have put the heatsink back in without re-applying the paste with no negative results. It doesn't seem to make a huge difference.

Cheers

I removed the heat sink and damn there was a lot of dust built up. I put the heatsink back in without applying new paste and my lappy is running great. Its amazing how much better she runs with open air flow!