Safe for noob to apply thermal paste?

A

amaklin

New Member
Hi guys,

So I'm replacing the hard drive inside my laptop as the old one is failing, and I thought that while I've got it all opened up I should do a little maintenance, give it a little clean & whatnot. My laptop has overheating issues so I was wondering if it was safe to do some research, watch some videos and apply some thermal paste myself?

Is thermal pasty stuff best left to professionals? Will I mess it up and destroy my laptop if I don't know exactly what I'm doing? :confused:

Thanks! :)
 
amaklin said:
Is thermal pasty stuff best left to professionals?
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Not necessarily.

amaklin said:
Will I mess it up and destroy my laptop if I don't know exactly what I'm doing?
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Yes.

Applying thermal compound is a delicate procedure, and extra care must be taken when doing it on a laptop just because of the way the components fit together. Typically, they have a thermal "pad" of sorts between the CPU and heat sink - it serves the same function as thermal compound does between the CPU and HS in a desktop, but it's just a little different. Before you go pulling up parts, have you tried looking at the fan area to make sure it's not clogged with dust or lint? The same goes for the heat sink area over the CPU itself. A can of compressed air can work wonders inside a laptop.
 
The laptop itself is about a year old and a few weeks ago I gave the compressed air a go. Only a little dust came out and the temperature hasn't improved and that's about as far as my knowledge can take me! I'll probably mess it up if I try the thermal paste myself so I think I'll leave it for a while and maybe pay someone at the computer shop a bagillion dollars to do it for me :o

Thanks so much for your help though! Wish my fiery laptop luck :P
 
depends really, if its 100% not electrically conductive thermal paste then its unlikely to cause damage.

Its not a hard process to do and can easily be done by someone new. It is pretty easy and not hard to mess up if you take your time.

Id replace the thermal paste yourself although its quite a process getting to the cpu inside a laptop, took me a few hours when i replaced some a while back so id imagine a computer store would charge you a few hours work.

usually it takes around 3-4 years for the thermal paste to become a problem, is the cpu fan spinning etc? what kind of laptop is it and what temps are you getting?
 
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I have a hp Envy m6-1207tx. The fan is running, a few months back I went into the bios settings and set it to run all the time. I wanted to make it spin faster since it would only kick in and spin fast once my temps were at about 80 (reeeeal helpful) but there was no option for it.

I keep a cooling fan pad underneath it at all times now and it's currently at 45C (just browsing internet) but without the fan, just sitting on a table, it gets to around 55C, 65+ on hotter days which I thought was a little excessive for just using the internet. It mostly just annoys me when I'm playing games, within 10 minutes, even with the fan underneath, it gets to 80 everytime and keeps climbing up to 90 until I have to take a break. Am I just expecting too much out of my laptop, or is that not normal? Shouldn't I be able to play for more than an hour?

The only things I could find on the internet to do with laptop heat was making sure the fan was running, cleaning out the inside and replacing the thermal paste... beyond that I'm lost! :confused:

Appreciate your help!
 
We were all noobs at applying thermal paste at one time. Just make sure you don't put it on too thick and that you get everything seated correctly.

However, a 1 year old laptop shouldn't need it's thermal paste replaced. For instance, I have a 6 1/2 yr old Dell laptop that is used every day that has never had it's thermal paste replaced. While you have it apart, check the fan shroud to make sure it isn't plugged up with lint and dust.
 
My laptop runs quite hot too.. I haven't found any options but to take breaks. Building a dedicated PC this weekend anyways. My only advice would be that laptops were never really meant for gaming, and that if possible, invest in a desktop :/
 
I know, I've been kicking myself over this laptop! Why oh why didn't I just get a desktop with double the specs for half the price :(

I think I'll leave the thermal paste as is if it's not supposed to be all mucked up yet.

Thanks everyone for your help! ::D
 
I'd disassemble it (CAREFULLY) if you can and really go to town with a can of compressed air and go for every nook and cranny. Try and reduce the time you leave a laptop sitting on anything that would suck in dust like carpet, beds, couches, blankets, etc. What temperatures are you getting? If you're still concerned about it get a decent cooling pad.
 
You know, that's probably my problem... even though it's on top of a (cheap) cooling pad it usually sits on the couch and other dusty things so maybe its sucked up a bunch of dust and I didn't clean it properly! I'll clean the living daylights out of it and see if that helps :)
 
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