Replacing thermal compound. Instructions for HP Compaq laptop.
Your laptop is running hot? Maybe it’s time to replace thermal compound on the CPU. This guide will explain how you can replace thermal compound in a HP Compaq nw8240 laptop. This guide should work for many other HP laptops too.
For those wishing to make their laptop perform cooler overall, adding a high-grade thermal compound to the interface between the chip and the heat sink is a great suggestion. I use Arctic Silver 5 for my hardware, since it’s the proven best thermal paste on the market today. It seems a bit expensive for the amount you get, but it’s well worth it.
If you are having hard time removing the keyboard and accessing the processor, check out service and maintenance guide for your HP laptop. In most cases you’ll find disassembly instructions in there.
The results are quite clear - the Arctic Silver 5 helped quite a bit. It lowered the CPU temperature from 151F to 138F (66C to 59C), lowered the Local Temp from 131F to 126F (55C to 52C). The hard drive now stays cooler because there’s less heat getting trapped in the case. I’d say this is a great result for something as seemingly ineffectual as thermal paste.
You can find Arctic Silver 5 here.
By the way, if your laptop overheats and shuts down without any reason, check the heatsink. Most likely it’s clogged with dust and lint. You can clean the heatsink with compressed air.
Topics: Overheating, Processor (CPU), 3. Compaq & HP Laptops |
February 18th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
[…] Alternatively, you can clean up your laptop without taking it apart by blowing off fans and heatsink with compressed air. This is not the best way to fix the problem because some dust will stay inside the laptop but it will work. By the way, if you’ve been using your laptop for a few years, it might be a good idea to replace thermal compound on the processor. It will help to keep your laptop cooler. Here’s another resource with covers laptop overheating in more depth. […]
February 21st, 2008 at 11:38 am
[…] Also, if you’ve been using your notebook for a few years, replacing thermal compound between the heatsink and processor will help to keep your laptop cooler too. […]
February 27th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
[…] Removing dust from the cooling module (heat sink and cooling fan) will take care of the overheating problem. Also, replacing old and dried out thermal compound with new thermal compound will be a good idea too. This guide was created for a Sony Vaio PCG-GRT260G laptop. Models affected apparently also include the PCG-FX, PCG-GR, PCG-GRZ, PCG-GRV, PCG-GRX, and PCG-NV series. However, these models may have slightly different layouts than the one outlined in the guide. […]
May 9th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
[…] 5. Do not forget to apply thermal compound on the CPU and VGA chip located on the graphics card. Without thermal compound the laptop will overheat. […]
May 11th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Is see no mention of applying thermal grease on the vga chip within google. I have completely disassembled and cleaned the fans and heatsink on a Toshiba P35 laptop that is known for overheating. Also, I applied new thermal grease on the cpu.
It ran good for about an hour. The next day it would shut off after it got to the desktop. Any comments on what to do.
May 13th, 2008 at 5:07 am
I have a Dell D400 Latitude laptop which gets very hot and sometimes shuts itself down. What is the best way to deal with this? Is it safe to fiddle around inside the laptop? Will I loose anyting on my hard drive? I think I just have to clean the fan.
May 13th, 2008 at 8:03 am
Tom,
Can you see both fans spinning on startup? Maybe you forgot to plug in one of the fans? Are you using the laptop on a flat service so both air intakes on the bottom are not closed?
May 13th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Duncan,
Here’s how you can clean both the heatsink and cooling fan on a Dell Latitude D400.
1. Remove the keyboard as it explained in these instructions. It’s not difficult. After you remove the keyboard, you’ll get access to the fan.
2. Blow off dust from the heatsink and fan using canned air. You can buy a can of compressed air in any local computer store.
July 3rd, 2008 at 8:02 am
[…] In addition to instructions for removing and replacing the keyboard, the author explains how you can access some main laptop components such as CMOS battery, RAM modules, Wi-Fi card, processor, heat sink and cooling fan. This could be very handy if you decide to upgrade laptop memory, clean the cooling module or replace thermal paste on the processor. […]