Thinkpads Forum

for my laptop (see sig), can anyone tell me how difficult it would be to open it up and replace the thermal compound with arctic silver 5? (i have a tube already so no cost)

also: how well do PIII mobile cpu's undervolt?? how would i go about it? use prime95 as in tutorial here?

uzibear wrote:for my laptop (see sig), can anyone tell me how difficult it would be to open it up and replace the thermal compound with arctic silver 5? (i have a tube already so no cost)

also: how well do PIII mobile cpu's undervolt?? how would i go about it? use prime95 as in tutorial here?

I don't know about with the T2x but with the T42 it's fairly easy. I did this after IBM did an on-site motherboard replacement and the guy didn't apply any new thermal grease to the processor.

At least with the Radeon 9600 there is a thermal pad that isn't easily removed so I didn't bother with Arctic Silver there.

Let me know how it goes, I wanna know if it's worth it to open it up and put Arctic Silver under there since the active cooling is very weak, being a laptop and all. Let me know what your temps look like.

I am surprised a repair guy did not put thermal compound to the CPU. I replaced the CPU in my T41, and I most carefully cleaned off all the old compound everywhere and applied fresh new thermal compound to the CPU and to the fan. I would not run a laptop at all without thermal compound, and really, I would not open a new laptop up to replace the thermal compound. My bet is that all laptops come out of the factory properly in this regard. My CPU runs at body temperature most of the time. ... JD Hurst

jdhurst wrote:I am surprised a repair guy did not put thermal compound to the CPU.

When I got my system board replaced, no replacement of the thermal compound (boo, but I was in a rush). I've been monitoring the cpu and GPU temp in MM, and no change so I think I'm good for now until I get a hankering to remove the keyboard bezel/palmrest sometime in the future.

Artic Silver is superior to the point that it's well worth it on any system!

I've never failed to get any less than 5 to 10 degrees F improvement on any system that's provides CPU temp monitoring. And often more. On a laptop with a variable fan control the benefit is obvious.

But it must be done right, and consider your warranty.
Thinkpads are well documented- have a look before you decide if you really want to try. Look at the Service and Troubleshooting guide or at least at the Service Parts List (it has a cool 'exploded' view of your Thinkpad that may be all you need)

General notes:

>Remove _All_ of the old compound from the CPU and Heatsink. I use alcohol.

>Put a VERY thin coating on both. Your tube is enough for, say, 50 -100 uses! I use a hobby blade and the hobby blade never actually touches the core or the heatsink. Be gentle. You don't want this caked around the core. You don't want an air bubble there either so paint it on smoothly. If you suspect there's any contamination or bubble at all just start over.

>Don't get Artic Silver on your fingers! And if you do, don't rub it. Rinse with alcohol. If rubbed it will go right thru and into your skin. You've been warned!

Hope that's helpful!

What are your guys' idle CPU temps? Mine is anywhere from 43-49 idle but gets up pretty high when in 100% use.

The T series has too many variants for your question to provide a sane answer. A T30 (had one) runs much hotter than my T41 (have one). Your T30 temperature makes sense. My current machine runs at 37 degrees or less at idle. ... JD Hurst

I just took my T22 apart to put AS ceramique on the CPU. I prefer it to AS5 as it works just as well and is a bit more easier to handle and totally non conductive.

It was really easy - take out 2 screws underneath, pop off keyboard, remove plastic guard and attachment that holds down the HSF, cleaned it off, applied ASC and reinstalled. Took me about 10 mins total.

My temps now are great - idle on ac is between 39c and 44c, load is around 58c - not bad at all for a P3m. Before i took it apart i was getting high 60s when under load. I found using a laptop cooler helps too, the bottom of the T22 gets quite toasty I bought a targus one for $25 from Best Buy.

My max load temp is about 78c for a P4M 1.8GHz. Does anything else think this is too high?

...

Merlyn IMO, that's high!
I'm assuming you're running the IBM CPU tests off your recovery cd though- Not the same as real world use for most people.


Batula, yea, IBM uses the same white thermal grease as (most) everyone else..

I know Alienware gets knocked a lot here but have any of you ever looked inside one? Not that adding noise dampening grommets or better thermal compound isn't anything that can't be done yourself- but here's the thing- most people don't want to!

Has anyone tried this yet on a T43 as this could have quite an impact on the fan issue?

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=11427

Just installed AS-5 last night and have been running informal benchmarks on an undervolted system.

If you're comfortable building your own system, it shouldn't be hard. You just have to figure out which screws to remove on the bottom of the T4x and take apart the left side in the right order (since the parts are overlapping):

Keyboard
Palmrest
PC card slot
Left LCD hinge
Left chassis support rib
Heatsink/Fan

Just be observant, patient, and don't force anything. The actual application of AS-5 is easy, just remove the old compound from the CPU and heatsink with rubbing alcohol and a lint-free cloth, and apply a think layer of AS-5 directly onto the CPU.