Replace thermal pads with copper = good idea

[Rexilion]

Since I did not want to necromance this old thread I wanted to share my succes story here. Hope that is okay.

The laptop is a Compaq Presario V6000 with the famous overheating GPU issue. Since it came back from the manufacturer with a new mobo it's says it's a HP Pavilion dv6000. Makes one wonder the usefulness of marketing.

Anyway, the fan was set to spin all the time but the GPU was still way too hot (120 degrees).

First attempt: Open laptop. Clean out a lot of dust. Replaced original thermal pads with Arctic Silver 5. Laptop cooled down a lot, the GPU went to 80 degrees under normal conditions and to 95 under load. The fan stopped spinning at full speed all the time.

Second attempt: Open laptop. Replaced the thick and stretched out layer of Arctic Silver 5 with a piece of 1 mm copper slightly polished to something slimmer. Placed a little bit of Arctic Silver 5 on both sides of the shim. The result: 50 degrees under idle load and only 65 degrees under load.

Using copper to bridge larger distances between the GPU and the heatsing is far more superior than using a thermal paste alone. The difference, in my case, is 30 degrees.

The thread I referenced to mentioned coins. I used copper vs a pure thermal paste solution.

I hope that this will help other people who have just started out to tinker with hardware and cooling solutions. I'm really satisfied by the improvement despite having to buy a huge amount of copper.

 

[serpretetsky]

thats pretty cool. Did you somehow fasten the copper down? Is the cooling solution now sitting directly on the copper, or is there still a tiny gap?

 

[bryanl]

The only way a copper shim can help is from its extra thickness making the heatsink clamp down more tightly. Otherwise the copper won't decrease gaps between the heatsink and CPU since it can't conform to both curves at once.

 

[Cerb]

If you look on eBay, you will find sellers of shims make to fit certain notebooks, like those Compaqs. The pad deteriorates over time, and was a bad idea from the start.

 

[Rexilion]

Thank you all for your feedback and responses .

thats pretty cool. Did you somehow fasten the copper down? Is the cooling solution now sitting directly on the copper, or is there still a tiny gap?

Tiny gap filled with Arctic Silver 5. The gap was not visible through the naked eye. There is a bigger gap between the CPU and the cooling element then there is between the GPU and the copper and the copper and the cooling element. But it seems to stay in place since the design of the cooling element and the location of it's screws allows it to hold it together quite well.

The only way a copper shim can help is from its extra thickness making the heatsink clamp down more tightly.

Yes, that is what I asserted too. The 0,8 mm gap is just too big for the thermal paste IMHO. The copper makes the thermal paste fill small gaps which is what it was designed for.

Otherwise the copper won't decrease gaps between the heatsink and CPU since it can't conform to both curves at once.

True, but I shaved it down so it would still be better than a thermal paste only solution.

If you look on eBay, you will find sellers of shims make to fit certain notebooks, like those Compaqs.

Yes, I was aware of that. One example is here. Which is simply 100% pure copper. The exact same what I have right now.

Those are default 0,56 mm shims which should be stacked on each other to 1,12 mm for the V6000. That is quite odd, since 0,8 mm would have been a better fit. There is no way 1,12 mm would have fitted in there.

Back to your remark: Since these are the 'offerings' on Ebay I decided to buy a sheet myself and try the generic approach.

The pad deteriorates over time, and was a bad idea from the start.

I'm willing to replace it every 2 or 3 years. Furthermore, the offerings on Ebay are also composed of 100% copper (as far as a quick search indicates).

I would like to know why it would deteriorate (corrosion?).

 

[Cerb]

I would like to know why it would deteriorate (corrosion?).

Not the copper shim, but the original pad, which is why it wasn't a problem when the notebook was new.

 

[imagoon]

Just to put this out there, depending on what the original heat sink is made of, using a "pure copper sheet" may result in galvanic corrosion.

 

[Rexilion]

Thank you for your reply imagoon.

I think (hope) that my heat sink is also made of copper.

Not the copper shim, but the original pad, which is why it wasn't a problem when the notebook was new.

The original pad looked okay. It did not crumble in my hands or anything (like you see on the internet). But I suppose it's performance was pretty bad.

 

[Cerb]

The one I encountered was crumbling, around a metal mesh. A lot of the thick gummy pads would harden, and not adjust back to a good seal over time, instead (it was a common problem for P4 and socketed Athlon and Athlon64 CPUs, too). I rarely saw them in ntoebooks, but needing to clean (scrape) the CPUs and HSes and redo the TIM wasn't uncommon for me, on desktops, through maybe 2006 or so. I don't know chemically what they were or what they changed, but it was not a good time for cooling parts .