ThinkPad T400 - renewing the thermal grease

[Harryc]

Late advice: use AS ceramique.
it won't run or seperate after a year or two like AS5

You caught my attention with this comment since I use and recommend AS5 religiously and have never heard of this failure. Did you read about this online somewhere? A link would be great. Thanks!

[blackomegax]

From experience with it. (yes, genuine AS5 from newegg). whenever i'd swap or upgrade a cpu or heatsink after a year, it was clearly seperated with some clear liquid runoff. suspension medium? i dunno. Also the tube itself, if you let sit for long enough, will do the same and secrete the clear liquid before any paste comes out.

Modern AS5 may not suffer from it. but ceramique is awesome too, and warrants consideration for mobile use.

[deickos]

very interesting thread indeed - well my T9400 goes in vista max at 75 celcius which i thought unacceptable and i m running ubuntu until i figure out what to do. Normally cpu is at approx. 56 celcius but that it already high...
with ubuntu i m normally at 31 celcius and with mandriva at 38- 40...
those with switchable Gpu should apply paste in three spots right?

[redhook]

What do you mean? Yeah, inside of my laptop is fairly dusty after more than two years of operation but the surface of the chips was clean, except for the old grease.

I know this is an old post but I have to point out what should be painfully obvious here. The system is overheating because all the dust in it has clogged the heat sink, is restricting airflow and is insulating heat. Make sure you clean out the fins of the heat sink and get all the dust out of the system before putting it back together, once you have done that it will run like new.

[redhook]

From experience with it. (yes, genuine AS5 from newegg). whenever i'd swap or upgrade a cpu or heatsink after a year, it was clearly seperated with some clear liquid runoff. suspension medium? i dunno. Also the tube itself, if you let sit for long enough, will do the same and secrete the clear liquid before any paste comes out.

Modern AS5 may not suffer from it. but ceramique is awesome too, and warrants consideration for mobile use.

I have never seen separation of AS5 in a system, and I have replaced CPUs after years of continual use with AS5. As for the separation while stored, if you read the instructions this is mentioned and they say to either store the syringe tip down or to mix it in the syringe with a toothpick before use. I keep mine stored tip down, perhaps you have seen separation from not storing the syringe properly and applying diluted AS5?

[blackomegax]

It's been years since working with any of their syringes. and im pretty sure the applications i saw seperate were properly done. I was pretty anal about it. even went as far as checking the credit card with a leveling block thing. (im so glad modern headspreaders negate the need for.....that whole process.)