Cooling mod for PCH on Dell "Gaming" laptop

[cbkummer]

Hey everyone! I've been working on computers for around 20 years, but I'm just getting into mods and such. I own a gaming laptop, the Dell G7 7588 to be precise, and this stupid thing can't keep itself cool for anything. When it overheats, it throttles to like 10w PL1 and the clock goes to 799mhz. This happens frequently when playing pretty much any game later than 2010. I've done everything possible to mitigate this, undervolting, limiting the turbo boost ratio, changing the TIM, and I've even replaced the cooler. I FINALLY got the temps under control, it's maxing out at 85 C on the CPU and 79 C on the GPU, however the stupid thing is still thermal throttling. After a lot of research, I found out the PCH is overheating, a fact that Dell likes to hide by not often allowing you to actually view the PCH temps in HWINFO64.

Anyway, I'm trying to devise a cooling method for my PCH. There isn't a lot of clearance between the die and the plastic inner shell, and I've seen mods online where people just cut the shell and put a heatsink on the PCH, which seems to work well, however, I don't want to cut the shell, and the plastic right above is the housing for the CMOS battery. I'd rather improvise a cooling solution that doesn't require damaging the housing at all. I've tried putting a copper shim on the PCH, and while that helps, it doesn't work long term. So I had the idea to maybe solder a heat pipe to the top of the copper shim, and maybe use double-sided thermally conductive tape to attach to the existing heat pipes. I've attached a picture of the existing motherboard, with the purposed changes.

My question is - has anybody done something like this before? Would it theoretically work? What other considerations am I missing? Might this overload the existing cooling solution?

[emosun]

A heatpipe might work but just keep in mind that there very well may not be a good solution to the problem. Without any real air or thermal mass absorbing the heat a heatpipe might do very little. I almost like the heatsink option better as at least air can get to it

[W-L]

18 hours ago, cbkummer said:

-SNIP-

 

As a test try putting a heatsink on to see if it alleviates the issue. Even a thinner heatsinkor copper shim or low profile heatsink should work but if you are able to get a heatpipe over onto the fans or cooling array that would work best. 

 

If nothing is being used in the M.2 area that might be a good spot for just a low profile heatsink and a heat pipe over onto the PCH.

[cbkummer]

49 minutes ago, W-L said:

As a test try putting a heatsink on to see if it alleviates the issue. Even a thinner heatsinkor copper shim or low profile heatsink should work but if you are able to get a heatpipe over onto the fans or cooling array that would work best. 

 

If nothing is being used in the M.2 area that might be a good spot for just a low profile heatsink and a heat pipe over onto the PCH.

I put a small copper shim on the die, and it did help, a bit. It takes about 10 minutes longer to throttle than it used to. There is very, very little clearance above the PCH, like maybe .5mm. I do have a M.2 drive installed, so that's not really an option. Should I modify the proposed route for the heat pipe and move it over to the fan instead of the heatsink?

[W-L]

21 hours ago, cbkummer said:

I put a small copper shim on the die, and it did help, a bit. It takes about 10 minutes longer to throttle than it used to. There is very, very little clearance above the PCH, like maybe .5mm. I do have a M.2 drive installed, so that's not really an option. Should I modify the proposed route for the heat pipe and move it over to the fan instead of the heatsink?

If it is possible to bring it over towards the heatpipe over to the fan heatsink that would be best. But even adding a larger copper shim and coupling it to the chassis or bottom cover even if it is plastic will still help some in terms of heat dissipation. It won't be good as say a proper heatsink or if the casing is aluminum but do some good. 

[cbkummer]

3 hours ago, W-L said:

If it is possible to bring it over towards the heatpipe over to the fan heatsink that would be best. But even adding a larger copper shim and coupling it to the chassis or bottom cover even if it is plastic will still help some in terms of heat dissipation. It won't be good as say a proper heatsink or if the casing is aluminum but do some good. 

So, I actually read another forum where someone fixed the lack of cooling on an XPS PCH by simply taking a 6 w/mk thermal pad and putting it over the PCH, then making sure the other end touched the heatpipes. I have a few of those lying around, so I tried that this morning, and after about an hour of Doom Eternal, my PCH had peaked at 71C, well below the 80C it used to hit with ten minutes of playing that game. I think I may have this resolved without needing to worry about buying any heat pipes or soldering or accidentally shorting something out. 

[W-L]

10 minutes ago, cbkummer said:

So, I actually read another forum where someone fixed the lack of cooling on an XPS PCH by simply taking a 6 w/mk thermal pad and putting it over the PCH, then making sure the other end touched the heatpipes. I have a few of those lying around, so I tried that this morning, and after about an hour of Doom Eternal, my PCH had peaked at 71C, well below the 80C it used to hit with ten minutes of playing that game. I think I may have this resolved without needing to worry about buying any heat pipes or soldering or accidentally shorting something out. 

Hmm while thermal pads are ok at transferring heat they aren't exactly the best for wicking it away like a heatpipe but hey if it works it works!