Question Weird laptop behavior after changing the thermal paste ?

[demozide]

My laptop was running hot so I removed the screws, opened the backplate, and wiped the older paste with a soft tissue paper and IPA. I applied a little bit more because I had heard that "very little" paste would be more damaging than "too much" paste. I put everything back together and started the laptop. Weirdly it turned on for a second and quickly went off. The power button was doing nothing for a few seconds and fortunately turned on after.

Ever since that incident, my laptop auto-hibernates within 10 minutes of playing any graphic-intensive games. The first hibernation is guaranteed but the rest of the hibernations are random. Sometimes one hibernation would be it for a session and sometimes it does it for more than thrice. All this happens while plugged in ONLY

I went through "Event Viewer" to find:
"The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."
or,
"Session "ReadyBoot" stopped due to the following error: 0xC0000188"
or,
"Miniport Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter #2, {1512a392-15a1-43b7-b1d2-5599536885dd}, had event Fatal error: The miniport has failed a power transition to operational power"

Windows Reliability Report showed a Hardware Error. But, it doesn't anymore.

I have turned off "Hibernation" via PowerShell and now it is working fine but, if the laptop has a very low charge and running on battery it shuts/sleeps down and starts a loop (keyboard backlight turns on and off infinitely)

Power modes are tweaked long before. It is set to not sleep.

Is it my power brick? The authorized technician changed the paste and the whole motherboard again so I don't think thermal paste is the thing. TP was Artic MX-4.

Is there anything that I can do?

 

[Lutfij]

Did you make sure to reconnect the CPU fan connector? Some people have forgotten to do so when reassembling. Speaking of reassembling, did you reassemble the laptop in the same exact order but in reverse to what you'd disassembled the laptop?

Did you remove thermals pads on other areas, by any chance? You could try and see if the laptop is pending any BIOS updates as well.

Would help all of us to know what the make and model of your laptop is and why your laptop needed a motherboard change a certified technician.

 

[demozide]

Did you make sure to reconnect the CPU fan connector? Some people have forgotten to do so when reassembling. Speaking of reassembling, did you reassemble the laptop in the same exact order but in reverse to what you'd disassembled the laptop?

Did you remove thermals pads on other areas, by any chance? You could try and see if the laptop is pending any BIOS updates as well.

Would help all of us to know what the make and model of your laptop is and why your laptop needed a motherboard change a certified technician.

The laptop is ASUS Vivobook Pro 16 - K6602VU.
In the case of CPU fan connector, even if I had forgotten to plug it in the technician would've done it the second time while installing the whole new board.

Because, after 3rd time of complaint registering, they decided to replace the mobo.

I think I have installed it in reverse. I don't remember correctly. I was scared after the laptop hiccup because I think I have forgotten to disconnect the battery and it messed something in my mobo. But they replaced the board and I can rule out that assumption.

I never touch thermal pads because it can be messy. I suspected SSD might have corrupted. So I swapped both, removed only one and switched slots and the issue wasn't solved.

Installed BIOS update from 2023 July again to see if it works. "Nope" said my laptop.

 

[demozide]

It would be splendid if you found any solution regarding this matter. Thanks in advance!

The only workaround is turning the Hibernation off through PowerShell.