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Applying thermal grease vs warranty

Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 4:40 pm
by CZOLG
Hi,
I've been reading quite a lot about people applying thermal grease to improve the heat conduction between cpu and the cooler.
I own a t43p and when on 100% load the CPU has 76-80 degrees.
That is quite high. The machine is 4 months old with a 3 year warranty.
I was wondering that if I disassemble my machine, the warranty will be voided. Is this the case? Did you apply the thermal grease while the machine was in warranty?

Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 3:24 pm
by agarza
Supposedly it voids your warranty, however when Lenovo sends you a new fan (which is CRU Customer Replaceable Unit) you can change it and not void the warranty. Changing the thermal paste in the CPU is OK, but if you remove the brown gunk in the heatsink GPU area and you later send your laptop for service, you may have troubles claiming the warranty.
Realistically you can lower about 5-7C off or even more depending on the thermal grease you used (I've investigated and found out Arctic Silver 5 is highly overrated there are better thermal pastes.

I applied AS5 in my T42p on both CPU and GPU. Results: CPU 100% Load: 71C, GPU 100% load: 91C (FireGL T2).

What I recommend you do is to undervolt your CPU using NHC, it can easily shave about 6-10C load temp. Try it out.

Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 1:11 am
by Temetka
What is better than AS5?

Also, in XP HNC took over my ACPI settings and prevented my machine from entering sleep/standby mode. If I were to relaod it, how would I go about configuring NHC so it could sleep?

Thanks.

Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 6:06 am
by CZOLG
Thank you for the reply xtr.
I am wondering however how is it possible that Lenovo will simply send me a new fan. Let's assume I want a new unit. So I just call them that my fan is loud and they basically send me a new unit?
Without any technician looking at the machine?
This is a little bit odd.
I just tried the NHC as you suggested. It has been a while since I last played with it and the changes are quite significant. The best thing is that it includes the TP Fan Control.
I am in the process of determining appropriate voltages for my T43p, but my machine is already much quieter and runs cooler.
So thanks for the tip again.

Temetka,
I believe that if you have for example mobile meter running, the system will not go into standby. I had the problem and all I had to do was quit the Mobile Meter.

Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 6:39 am
by bontistic
I'm not sure about a T43 fan being CRU, can anyone confirm this?

Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 4:28 pm
by Temetka
CZOLG wrote:Temetka,
I believe that if you have for example mobile meter running, the system will not go into standby. I had the problem and all I had to do was quit the Mobile Meter.
Interesting. I leave mobile meter running all the time. After removing NHC but leaving Mobile meter running, the system will enter standby just fine.

Maybe I need a config file for the T41P? I have heard people talking about different config files for NHC, but I am so new to it that I am not sure. In the past I have always just let Windows or the manufacturers software do the job, but I find NHC intriguing.

Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 5:27 pm
by CZOLG
The problem is not the Mobile Meter itself, but both applications running simultaneously. I think this issue was raised on one of the threads here regarding either NHC or TP Fan Control utility.

Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 3:16 pm
by agarza
Temetka wrote:What is better than AS5?
I posted a question on Tom's Hardware Forums here

This link is very interesting:
Thermal Compund Shootout

Arctic Silver 5 is highly overrated. Look at the article, is very interesting.

Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 7:26 am
by dsigma6
I'm gonna run out and buy Shin-Etsu!

AS5 rolls off the tongue so much easier..

Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 11:10 am
by agarza
dsigma6 wrote:I'm gonna run out and buy Shin-Etsu!

AS5 rolls off the tongue so much easier..
I would like to also to buy some. But probably shipping costs to my country would stop me right now from getting it.

If you find a place selling it, go for it. Supposedly the best thermal paste ever (Die Arctic Silver 5!!)