Question about Thermal Paste

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itscometothis

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Aug 23, 2014
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Hello, I have recently purchased thermal paste and am planning on applying it to my laptop's cpu as I experience overheating issues. I know the procedure (clean off the old paste, apply a pea sized drop, make sure heat sink sits properly) but I have a question regarding the effectiveness over time. Will the thermal paste be effective directly or will there be a sort of grace period where I can expect the cpu to continue to overheat for a few days? I ask so I do not have to worry I've done something wrong if I notice my laptop is still overheating directly after it's application.
 
Solution
Karsten75
Usually the advice of a "pea-sized drop" cause people to put too much paste on. The idea behind the paste is not to be a layer between the heatsink and the CPU, but to merely fill in the small irregularities between the two surfaces. As far as possible, direct contact between the metal surfaces is preferred.

When I do this, I usually put more of a drop the size of a rice grain, then I use a credit card to smooth it over one of the surfaces.

While the paste's effectiveness should immediately be apparent, I've read that a few of these actually "cure" over time with heat from the CPU. That means that after a few days the temperatures may be lower by a few additional degrees.
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Karsten75

Karsten75

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Usually the advice of a "pea-sized drop" cause people to put too much paste on. The idea behind the paste is not to be a layer between the heatsink and the CPU, but to merely fill in the small irregularities between the two surfaces. As far as possible, direct contact between the metal surfaces is preferred.

When I do this, I usually put more of a drop the size of a rice grain, then I use a credit card to smooth it over one of the surfaces.

While the paste's effectiveness should immediately be apparent, I've read that a few of these actually "cure" over time with heat from the CPU. That means that after a few days the temperatures may be lower by a few additional degrees.
 
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itscometothis

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Aug 23, 2014
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That is odd because I opened it up to check it out and the paste that was on it (from the factory) was just caked on and falling off the edges. Suppose it might take a few tries to get it right but I'll give it a shot. Thanks.
 
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volcanoscout

volcanoscout

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Jan 5, 2014
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The factory paste job you had is fairly typical. I may be doing an injustice to some mfr somewhere, but I've worked on many laptops from all of the major mfrs and I'm convinced that their application philosophy is "Glop it on, cover it up and hope nobody notices". Even the smaller, boutique companies do that - I have two Sagers that I love, but the paste jobs on them were sad. When you can get up to a 10C load temp difference with a simple repaste on a laptop fresh out of the box, that's pretty pathetic.
 
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Karsten75

Karsten75

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Oct 15, 2009
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Well, whoever puts it on in a factory or assembly line doesn't really try to get the best performance from it now, do they? I spent a lot of time a few years back researching issues around thermal paste. Now I just follow what I found to be working.

 
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