WHEEL BEARING GREASE WORKS AS THERMAL PASTE!!!

qonqy_fookat · October 3, 2020

So I obtained a laptop that had a really bad thermal issue; upon hitting the CPU with a stress test the temperature would INSTANTLY jump to 100C, trigger the PROCHOT, then INSTANTLY drop to like 60C or so, and repeat. I think what happened was someone took the heatsink off and put it back on but didn't change the dried out factory thermal paste, so since it was dried out it probably left lots of tiny gaps. (3/5 of the screws being loose probably didn't help either.) I need to buy some good new thermal paste but in the meantime I decided to try a temporary alternative so I tried some blue wheel bearing grease I had (melting point over 200C so no worries there) and to my surprise it WORKED! Temps still fluctuate kinda fast but when I start the stress test, it gets to 80 pretty quick but then holds there and slowly rises from there up to the 90s as the heatsink heats up. It appears it can just about keep the CPU running at full load and max turbo frequency at 90C without throttling.

So yeah it's not as good as good thermal paste but it does work and is WAY better than nothing!

kelvinhall05 · October 3, 2020

Spoiler

Thermal paste is like $5-15 for a tube that will last dozens of repastes...

dizmo · October 3, 2020

manikyath · October 3, 2020

to be honest.. depending on the heatsink and just how smooth the surfaces are.. that may be closer to dry temperatures than to paste temperatures.

also, there's more to "it works" than a temperature difference, most somewhat fluid substances that dont have big grains will have some temperature advantage over going dry.

without having personally tested either, i'd dare say that the only reason wheel bearing grease wins from mayonnaise is that it wont rot away from the heat of your cpu.