Thinkpads Forum

I just took out the fan of my T500 only ro see there's 3 thermal pads on there. One for the CPU one for GPU and one more for another thing under the GPU. The manual said the spot on the unknown part should be rubber to peel off but it seems like thermal material like the others.

Also the area for the fan to contact the chips seems small. Do I just put a small dot of grease on the metal parts
http://i.imgur.com/CnrjKuT.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/AdnNQ1K.jpg

MOD Edit: please read the Forum Rules, especially Section 5.

From top to bottom. The upper left is your CPU, directly to the right is your GPU and the bottom small one is your iGPU (integrated graphics). The smallest one uses a thermal pad of rubbery like compound that only needs replacing or thermal paste if it's damaged from heat burn through which would appear as a tearing of the thermal pad. You can go on youtube and they have videos with thermal pasting for the T500.

The only video I see of thermal paste on the T500 involves spreading the paste with a credit card/similar on the heatsinks. I thought that wasn't a very good method compared to just putting a small pea sized dot in the middle of the CPU? Should I apply the paste directly to the CPU/GPUs, or the heatsink?

It's not critical unless you're using Arctic silver, which can create electrical short circuits from overspill.

Clean the surfaces carefully with 91% isopropyl alcohol from the drug store. It is extremely important that none of the old material remains, because it is hard and can prop the joint open.

I apply a thin layer to each part. That's not the only way. There is so much conflicting advice, one has to conclude that practically any method works.

What a difference that made. I did a dot on each of the units and now no overheating- it could get up to 90 degrees C in a beat just through Flash in a browser and shut down. Now it's running at a steady 40C when idle and around 60C with most stuff running.

I also gave the fan and internals a blast with canned air- not sure how much that helped.

The T500 with discrete ATI graphics can get as hot as blazes even with Arctic Silver 5. I had trouble loading the ATI drivers and the GPU ran at full 100% which caused excessive heat. The pea size dot works. I always put a little less and add as needed. I use an exacto knife to spread out the thermal paste over the die on each processor. I have a T510 as well and it runs very cool in comparison with the Nvidia NVS3100m GPU.

if the thermal pad is damaged, you need to get a new "thermal pad", search for it on amazon or ebay.

The usual applying of thermal paste may not work as good, because there is a larger gap between the heatsink and the chip.

hhhd1 wrote:if the thermal pad is damaged, you need to get a new "thermal pad", search for it on amazon or ebay.

The usual applying of thermal paste may not work as good, because there is a larger gap between the heatsink and the chip.

I guess that would be for the integrated graphics? So far it hasn't been a problem. I may be using the GPU only though; haven't been able to get switchable graphics working. Is there a way to get the iGPU temperature reading in TPFancontrol?

gravy robber wrote:What a difference that made. I did a dot on each of the units and now no overheating- it could get up to 90 degrees C in a beat just through Flash in a browser and shut down. Now it's running at a steady 40C when idle and around 60C with most stuff running.

I also gave the fan and internals a blast with canned air- not sure how much that helped.

I had a similar experience with my "new" T500. It was overheating terribly; opened it up and removed the old paste, pretty degraded, put new paste and the highest it's ever been since is 80C under heavy graphics. I love this machine.

hhhd1 wrote:if the thermal pad is damaged, you need to get a new "thermal pad", search for it on amazon or ebay.

The usual applying of thermal paste may not work as good, because there is a larger gap between the heatsink and the chip.

I have used thermal paste, and it works well. I used it because I didn't have the pads. I worry that the paste won't last as long as the pads. There is no indication yet, two years later, that it's a problem.

Use the pads if you have them. Use paste if you don't.