[SOLVED] Components overheating after thermal repaste!

[Seeker21]

Hi. Few days ago, I bought a thermal paste because my laptop's(acer nitro 5) cpu(i5-8300h) and gpu(1050ti) temps were closing in the safe limits. I just bought the one I could get easily because everyone on the internet keeps saying that it doesn't really matter what thermal paste you buy because it's at most a 1 to 3 degrees difference between the best thermal paste and the generic ones so I got this thermal paste. Excited to reapply I opened the laptop cleaned everything the correct way, and applied the new paste. I turned on the laptop and the temps were horrible. with a simple stress test with a random software cpu reached 95 degrees and gpu 70 or 75 degress when before that the cpu was reaching 88 degrees with a year old thermal paste and gpu 65 degrees so I opened it again and repasted in another way, but still same results. I then mixed the thermal paste for like 1 min and applied it again with the same bad results. When I open the laptop after testing the paste was dry in certain places of the cpu and gpu like it had evaporated or something, and I'm very sure I've applied it the right way because I've done it so many times in the past. All this has forced me to disable turbo boost and have 40 grams of unusable thermal junk. Plus I've undervolted the cpu and gpu heavily. Is there any way I can improve this paste with any hack or something, because I'm stuck with it and it's a complete 40 grams.

 

[Grobe]

Can you describe the original thermal paste condition, like was it dry and flaky?

Also - how much thermal paste did you apply ?

Is there proper mechanical contact between the cooler and gpu/cpu ?

 

[Seeker21]

Can you describe the original thermal paste condition, like was it dry and flaky?

Also - how much thermal paste did you apply ?

Is there proper mechanical contact between the cooler and gpu/cpu ?

-The thermal paste looks a little bit watery:

https://imgur.com/ZqtQuyp

View: https://imgur.com/ZqtQuyp

-I applied it in several traditional ways. First time I've used more than needed paste which made the heatsink push the excess to the sides with the pea method for the cpu and line for the gpu then I tried spreading then the first method again in a more precise way and less thermal paste with no avail. Also the after the two times I've done it and taking off the heatsink some parts of the paste were very dry especially on the cpu as if it has been 2 years in use when I've only used it for few minutes. I'm pretty sure it's going to look the same if I opened it now too.
-It definitely looks like there's proper contact and I make sure I've screwed the heatsink into their places really well and everything is fixed and steady. I'm not sure I can press it or harden it more than that.

 

[BogdanH]

..because everyone on the internet keeps saying that it doesn't really matter what thermal paste you buy because it's at most a 1 to 3 degrees difference between the best thermal paste and the generic ones..

-is true.
But it's also true, that when saying that, "everyone" has the "right" paste in mind. The thing is, in my opinion, IceFusion paste isn't really meant for CPU's or GPU's. I think that, because you said, it becomes dry in very short time (within days). Thermal paste, that's meant for CPU's (for higher temperatures, that is), shouldn't dry that fast. Actually I got suspicious when I saw it's a 40g package.. normally, CPU thermal paste is sold in 3-5g syringe (consumer market).
Can't say for all brands, but I know Noctua and Arctic Silver thermal pastes. They stay "wet" even after year(s) -I mean, it still smears after you remove cooler. So... get the right paste (doesn't need to be the most expensive) and apply it properly.

Just sharing my opinion

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey there,

That CM paste doesn't appear to be very good. It has a thermal conductivity of just 1 w/m-k. Depending on the make/model laptop, it's likely it already came with better thermal paste.

I used Arctic MX-4 which has thermal conductivity of 8 w/m-k, on my HP Omen 15. There should be a perceivable reduction in temps.

Most laptops will run hot. My CPU I7 9750h, would run at anywhere from 85c to 97c ish with CPU at all core boost @4ghz. This made my fans spin like crazy. Whilst not the worst thing, defo annoying.

With the new paste, GPU temps are only about 1-2c below normal (which is typically 68-70c - never more than that really). For the CPU there was a noticeable difference. The CPU at 4ghz now only gets up to about 85c max, with a game like BF V, playing for a few hours. In terms of fan noise, it's night and day. My ears are thankful. CPU is able to boost for longer too.

In terms of applying paste, just a pea sized blob in the middle of the chip, will allow for an even spread as you replace the cooling system, and screw it back into place. Make sure to put the screws back in a criss-cross pattern, so when you tighten them down one by one, there is an even enough spread of pressure to even out the paste.

edit: You can also try undervolting your CPU to reduce temps a little more if you haven't already.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

-is true.
But it's also true, that when saying that, "everyone" has the "right" paste in mind. The thing is, in my opinion, IceFusion paste isn't really meant for CPU's or GPU's. I think that, because you said, it becomes dry in very short time (within days). Thermal paste, that's meant for CPU's (for higher temperatures, that is), shouldn't dry that fast. Actually I got suspicious when I saw it's a 40g package.. normally, CPU thermal paste is sold in 3-5g syringe (consumer market).
Can't say for all brands, but I know Noctua and Arctic Silver thermal pastes. They stay "wet" even after year(s) -I mean, it still smears after you remove cooler. So... get the right paste (doesn't need to be the most expensive) and apply it properly.

Just sharing my opinion

Completely agree with you. Never came across that paste before. As you mentioned, I've only seen the small syringe types with up to a max of 8grms in them. Although the better ones cost a little more (Arctic MX-4 should be widely available for €£$10 or so -4grms), It's worth it.

 

[Seeker21]

Ok Thanks everyone. Only if I knew about the w/m-k thing and other importent properties, I wouldn't have bought this. Will take it into consederation next time. Thanks.