Thermal paste for T21 processor?

[strekship]

I was having heat problems with my T21, so i opened it up and cleared out a lot of dust. I took off the heat sink and noticed that there were some dried flakes of what seemed to be thermal paste. I put it all back together but decided not to turn it on becasue of the lack of thermal paste. Should i buy some arctic silver and put some on?

[dsigma6]

you pretty much answered your own concerns! every time i've opened up an older laptop, the thermal paste has either been nonexistent or just a dab here and there. my t20 hardly had a drop on it, so of course i reapplied. it's a very easy thing to do, go ahead with it.

if you run it with no thermal paste, monitor the cpu temp and you should be fine.

[agarza]

Absolutely, do replace the thermal paste.

But be sure to clean properly the heatsink and the CPU core with isopropyl alcohol, but I recommend using ArtiClean Remover Kit.

Then apply a thin layer of AS5 or better yet Zalman STG!

[strekship]

Thanks for the qucik replys. I am going down to the local PC shop to pick up some Arctic Silver 5. How much should i put on? I have only put thermal paste on my Athlon 64 before. The laptop has a PIII-M 800mhz processor.

[dsigma6]

a paper thin layer.

random edit: 11/11- Everyone says to use a paper thin layer...I did so on my first T23. Yesterday I put about 2X more on my second T23, and it wouldn't go above 54C at 1.13ghz under 100% CPU for 10 minutes. The first T23 with the paper thin layer will go up into the 60's under full load.

Both have tpfancontrol running once it hits 50C, so without it, the temps would soar.

[strekship]

Ok. I applied the AS5 and now my laptop seems to be working fine. No more freezeing problems so far.