Heatsink Does Not Working Properly

[himgil]

Hi folks,

My problem is my heatsink on Toshiba L300 laptop. Several days ago, my computer started to shutdown due to overheating. Changed thermal paste, clean dust, yet same disappointing result. Today I realized that my heatsink does not working as it should be. I run my PC as is apart, and checked that the part right above the processor is SO DAMN HOT, but fan-end of heatsink is ridiculously cool.

So, is it possible to a copper-based heatsink just lost its ability to conduct? If not, is it how heatsink should work? Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[drums101]

when the cpu is hot is the air coming out of your fan/heatsink hot too? or is that just cool/luke warm? that copper pipe is a heat pipe and they are actually hollow on the inside...can you inspect the heat pipe and look for cracks? if there is a crap it will pretty much be useless....if thats the case good luck finding that part to replace thats gonna be difficult...you could check ebay

 

[himgil]

Fan blows definitely cool warm air, even though CPU unit is burning like hell. I've checked the copper surface yet couldn't find any crack or scratches. I never dropped it or touched it before, I guess the liquid or gas inside of it has just diffused over time.

 

[drums101]

its a sealed chamber so it shouldnt diffuse over time...but its very possible that there was a manufacturers defect when they made it...how old is the laptop?

 

[himgil]

4 years old. I've never disassembled the laptop, so I thought the only reasonable explanation of malfunction is possible diffusing over time.

 

[drums101]

maybe it was a really small crack in the pipe and like you said it slowly released its gases over time....a quick search on ebay turned up some good results actually

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TOSHIBA-L300-L300D-L305-L305D-CPU-HEATSINK-6043B0044801-V000140250-V000140240-/280845001121?pt=US_CPU_Fans_Heatsinks&hash=item4163aaa1a1

The only other possibility that could be causing this is the mainboard became warped and now the heatsink is not able to make solid contact with the cpu....this would be very hard to tell if it was the case the only way to know would be if other people had a similar issue with the same laptop (known problem)

 

[himgil]

thanks for reply drums101. yet, a quick question. even if heatsink doesn't make a solid contact with the CPU, shouldn't heatsink transfer heat equally all over itself?

 

[drums101]

yea it should...didnt think of that...thats a good sign that its the heatsink for sure.

 

[himgil]

For future readers\searchers.

After I diagnosed my heatsink\heat pipe problem, I simply replaced it (bought from eBay for 5 bucks), and it runs just fine. Temperature is always around 50C and has not occurred any problem yet. So if anyone has a problem which could be described broadly as sudden shutdowns because of overheating of CPU, one should check thermal paste and fan and heatsink's functionalities before taking any serious action. Yes, this piece of *** based on copper, some gas, pure water, etc. could be broken and might stop working.

Thanks for replies.

 

[drums101]

glad you figured it out man!