N5010 15R Ati radeon HD5470 - i3 Processor - Thermal paste/pad

dk_dragonknight

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Dec 12, 2015
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I have Inspiron 15R N5010 model of Dell and lately I am facing overheating. Since it was out of warranty I decided to clean it myself and work on heatsink as well. I am stuck on whether to apply thermal paste/pad.

There are 2 components one is processor and second is GPU (ATI Radeon HD 5470 chip).

What I found is both the chipset has same colored component in between heatsink but the one on GPU was much thicker. It is confusing to me since I am newbie with laptop repairs. I am not sure if it is thermal pad or just thick layer of thermal paste.

Can I use thermal paste for both and apply thick layer of thermal paste on GPU?
What are my alternatives/best practice to fix it?

I am planning to buy arctic silver 5 to be used as thermal paste on processor. Please recommend.
 
Solution
That is not a design flaw. It is a special heat conducting material with the same properties as the normal thermal paste. It has the consistency of chewing gum, there is nothing wrong with that. You can re-use it you just have to prepare it first. Grease the tip of your fingers with oil and then start rubbing the material between your fingers, like you would do with modeling clay. Then, put it back over the chip and press on it until you give it a nice and even square form. Then add normal thermal paste on the CPU and place the heatsink back and screw it in. Make sure you clean the heatsink really well before putting it back.

popatim

Titan
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The best heat transfer is direct from chip to heat sink. The job of thermal past is just to fill the gaps where direct contact cannot be made. Air is not a great heat conductor. You do not want a think layer of thermal paste, it will act as a 'blanket' instead.
 

dk_dragonknight

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Dec 12, 2015
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I know but the problem is there is no option other than putting thick layer since even after mounting heatsink on top of motherboard gap between GPU and heatsink is largers than processor and heatsink.

I think its kind of a production defect for all N5010 dell laptops. Bad design i feel.
heatsink sits nicely on top of processor but not on gpu.
 

V1ctor89

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Apr 17, 2010
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That is not a design flaw. It is a special heat conducting material with the same properties as the normal thermal paste. It has the consistency of chewing gum, there is nothing wrong with that. You can re-use it you just have to prepare it first. Grease the tip of your fingers with oil and then start rubbing the material between your fingers, like you would do with modeling clay. Then, put it back over the chip and press on it until you give it a nice and even square form. Then add normal thermal paste on the CPU and place the heatsink back and screw it in. Make sure you clean the heatsink really well before putting it back.
 
Solution

dk_dragonknight

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Dec 12, 2015
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Thank you for reply victor it was really helpful. Can i buy this material anywhere? What is it called?




 

V1ctor89

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It is called a thermal pad. You can try looking for it in IT service stores. In laptops, it is mainly used to help cool down the GPU and VRAM.

Here is an example:

326849220_289.jpg