Swapping CPU's W510 and General Cleaning questions.

[James2406]

w510, BlueTooth, Intel Wifi, q720, FX880m, 8gb ram, 500gb HDD.

Okay. I just bought a 820qm (Thanks RMSMajestic!)

I've bought the Artic Silver 5 kit with all the cleaning solutions and such.

This will be my VERY first time changing a CPU, removing the heatsink, applying thermal paste, & cleaning my laptop's internals. I can tell you I am very nervous. I fear I'll brake something and render my precious into a brick. I was wondering if anyone and everyone could dump links to videos that are Thinkpad Specific for cleaning and paste applying ( I couldn't find any ) and all the advice your hearts and mind can give. I have all the tools and have taken my laptop apart to add more ram, I've taught myself how to remove the palmrest in preparation for this as well.

Thanks everyone and I appreciate the read!

[ajkula66]

The only tool that you'll need is a small Phillips screwdriver.

Download the appropriate HMM from the link at the top of the forum's page and proceed accordingly.

Once you've removed the heatsink, clean the remainder of thermal paste from GPU and the heatsink itself with isopropyl alcohol.

There are many different approaches to thermal paste application, I use the "credit card" method because it has worked well for me over the past decade or so. Obviously, YMMV.

Good luck.

[theterminator93]

A good place to start would be by following the link at the top of the site to the HMM - hardware maintenance manual - for your model. The CPU is usually not buried too deeply on these systems so getting the palm rest and keyboard off will be the most "major" disassemble you should go through. Just be sure you ground yourself somewhere before you start disassembling and try to not touch any flat chips on the motherboard, don't directly touch the die of the CPU/GPU etc.

While the system is open and you've got the heat sink/fan assembly out, it'd be a good opportunity to get a can of compressed air to blow out dust etc. from the internals of both the computer as well as - most importantly - the fan and heat sink. Hold the fan with one hand so it doesn't over-rev while you blow air through the heat sinks from what would be the outside of the computer. Rotate the fan slightly and repeat a couple times to get the dust off all sides of the fan as well. Use short, controlled bursts of air that are about 1/2-1 second long each. The can will get cold as you release air.

Applying and cleaning thermal paste is often overcomplicated IMO - just use some Q-tips and rubbing alcohol (90% or higher concentration) to clean the old grease from the heat sink and CPU/GPU dies before you apply paste. A thin line about the size of an uncooked grain of rice is all you should need - in many cases, that can be too much as well. When you reinstall the heat sink just be sure to limit the side-side movement of it after it contacts the thermal paste/processor die to limit the amount the thermal grease gets "shoved out" from between the heat sink and die - and to limit production of any bubbles. Once the heat sink touches the core, screw it down in a criss-cross pattern.

Hope this helps!

[James2406]

Just be sure you ground yourself somewhere before you start disassembling and try to not touch any flat chips on the motherboard, don't directly touch the die of the CPU/GPU etc.

I don't know what the "die" is, do you mind explaining? Also what are some DIY ways to ground yourself out, I don't have one of those tethers.

While the system is open and you've got the heat sink/fan assembly out, it'd be a good opportunity to get a can of compressed air to blow out dust etc.

Should I buy a specific type of compressed air, I know if you even slightly turn most cans, they shoot out moisture. That's kind of scary.

Q-tips and rubbing alcohol (90% or higher concentration) to clean the old grease from the heat sink and CPU/GPU dies before you apply paste.

I have this kit, http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4 ... SX425_.jpg Will this be okay as a alternative to the rubbing alcohol?

There are many different approaches to thermal paste application, I use the "credit card" method because it has worked well for me over the past decade or so. Obviously, YMMV.

Thanks! I'll refer to the Manual.

[Hans Gruber]

You don't need canned air for the CPU, you may need it to clean off the fan. If canned air makes your nervous use the wind power from your lungs to blow out all the dust around the CPU. I just replaced a T61 CPU the other day. It's quite intuitive, it had a flathead screw that you rotate counter clockwise. The rule of thumb, righty tighty lefty loosely when trying to figure out which way to turn screws.

I use an exacto knife kit set to apply thermal paste with an angled blade tip. I use arctic silver 5. I used to use a flat blade razor before I got an exacto knife set. Both are similar to the credit card method, the flat blade razor is often used in painting and household cleaning encased in one of those metal holders. You simply apply a very small amount of thermal paste that can be glossed over the CPU die.

The intel processors have an arrow on the CPU in in the upper right corner. The CPU socket has an arrow and you line up the arrows when inserting the CPU.

I use a painters rag to clean off the thermal paste and sometimes a Q-tip for thermal paste on the die (silver cap over the CPU).

I use a toothbrush to clean off the fan to loosen the dust if it's hardened and stuck to the fan blades.

Go to youtube and type in "replacing Intel i7 processor on laptop" for how to videos.

[theterminator93]

The die is the core of the processor - where are the microscopic transistors and such that do all the work are located. It's the shiny black part at the center of the chip.

Any off-the-shelf compressed air ought to do, I prefer the kind that come with a straw to help direct the air to more precise locations. As a highly compressed gas, it's actually a liquid inside the can. If the can is full enough and you spray at an angle, the level of the liquid reaches the discharge port on the can and you get the liquid form of the compressed gas inside the can. Always blow air with the can upright to avoid this.

The kit you bought looks like one of the "overcomplicated" methods for applying paste. It should do the job just fine, but isopropyl alcohol would have been cheaper.

[ajkula66]

Oh, and before you even contemplate bringing the screwdriver to the machine, make sure that the battery has been removed.

Compressed air is fine and would be my preferred method, but stick a thin screwdriver or a toothpick between the fan blades so they don't move while you're spraying the heatsink.

Happy upgrading.

[James2406]

Will my bios be compatible with this cpu? My father said the cpu may need to be manually configured with switches or some thing of that sort. Atm I have the palm rest off and almost have to the heat sink off so I'm feeling dumb for not thinking of this first.

Also what is this? "Deleted Picture"

[ajkula66]

BIOS will recognize the CPU automatically. No switches on ThinkPads that would serve that purpose.

The antennae in your picture are for the optional WWAN card.

[theterminator93]

Switches and jumpers for CPU bus speed is a relic that died in the with the 20th century. Everything is automatic now.

Also for pictures - post a link to your photo rather than embedding it if it's more than a few kilobytes in size. It's one of the rules to help people who are on limited phone data plans/slow connections etc. That pic doesn't even fit within the real estate of my T61p's WUXGA screen.

[Hans Gruber]

Switches and jumpers for CPU bus speed is a relic that died in the with the 20th century. Everything is automatic now.

Also for pictures - post a link to your photo rather than embedding it if it's more than a few kilobytes in size. It's one of the rules to help people who are on limited phone data plans/slow connections etc. That pic doesn't even fit within the real estate of my T61p's WUXGA screen.

I had jumpers for the bus on my intel 775 chipset for my desktop for Q6600 quad core. That is circa 2007/2008. Never seen jumpers on a laptop in the 21st century.

[James2406]

Got it in and running great. Thanks for all the help guys!

[bit_twiddler]

Let us know what your temps are... also, there are some blue thermal pads on top of 4 chips
around the CPU/GPU area, did you put them back in before you torqued the heat sink down?