Does this happens often?

[REscobar]

My sister bought a gaming laptop Q3 2015, a Lenovo Y50-70

GTX 960M

i7 4720HQ

16 GB Ram

 

She has always complained about thermal throthling so I took it apart and cleaned every 6~8 months (no AC, third world country, lots of dust), but the problem never went away, so the other day, I decided to investigate further and replace the thermal paste and found lots of thermal compound spread over the heat pipes, upon clening and reaplying a more conservative amount, the throtling went away and now she games at 160 fps instead of 7~15.

 

So, does this happens often?

[AlwaysFSX]

Basically every single laptop has that issue.

[Enderman]

There is no issue with having extra thermal paste.

It does not affect performance.

The issue is probably that they used low quality thermal paste that dried out over time and didn't have good thermal conductivity from the start.

 

Using good quality thermal paste always gives a temperature improvement to laptops, especially older ones.

[REscobar]

Well, the day before I reaplied the thermal paste on my 2013 Hp Envy, and the ammount of thermal paste that HP applied was just right, also my other sister was given away a similar Lenovo that doesn't throtle, so that's why I was wondering

[Enderman]

1 minute ago, REscobar said:

Well, the day before I reaplied the thermal paste on my 2013 Hp Envy, and the ammount of thermal paste that HP applied was just right, also my other sister was given away a similar Lenovo that doesn't throtle, so that's why I was wondering

You can tell from even just the pics you posted that the thermal paste is dried.

[REscobar]

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

You can tell from even just the pics you posted that the thermal paste is dried.

Well, the system has throttled pretty much since it was bought, and was brand new-in box, and also the paste that was doing the actual "work" was not that dry, even more the paste that I applied has been sitting in a drawer for about 5~6 years, and worked better that the "factory supplied" (I know I'll have to reapply very soon, but that was all I had on sunday night)

[mariushm]

11 minutes ago, Enderman said:

There is no issue with having extra thermal paste.

It does not affect performance.

The issue is probably that they used low quality thermal paste that dried out over time and didn't have good thermal conductivity from the start.

 

Using good quality thermal paste always gives a temperature improvement to laptops, especially older ones.

Too much thermal paste CAN affect and DOES affect performance, but by a tiny amount. 

It would affect the laptop much more if there's too little thermal paste.

The paste is often applied in some automated way, and in that case the machine is usually programmed to apply a bit more than needed, just in case there's air pockets or if the paste has different consistency (colder room in the morning, warmer in the afternoon makes it more runny) ...

[REscobar]

2 minutes ago, mariushm said:

Too much thermal paste CAN affect and DOES affect performance, but by a tiny amount. 

It would affect the laptop much more if there's too little thermal paste.

The paste is often applied in some automated way, and in that case the machine is usually programmed to apply a bit more than needed, just in case there's air pockets or if the paste has different consistency (colder room in the morning, warmer in the afternoon makes it more runny) ...

So, do you believe the problem was actually solved by applying better quality (old af) thermal paste?

[Enderman]

5 minutes ago, mariushm said:

Too much thermal paste CAN affect and DOES affect performance, but by a tiny amount. 

It would affect the laptop much more if there's too little thermal paste.

The paste is often applied in some automated way, and in that case the machine is usually programmed to apply a bit more than needed, just in case there's air pockets or if the paste has different consistency (colder room in the morning, warmer in the afternoon makes it more runny) ...

 

[mariushm]

@Enderman , no offense but the videos above are mostly entertainment, not scientific. I could write paragraphs about how Luke drew wrong conclusions just by the way he "engineered" those tests - the video won't way anything useful.

[Enderman]

8 minutes ago, mariushm said:

@Enderman , no offense but the videos above are mostly entertainment, not scientific. I could write paragraphs about how Luke drew wrong conclusions just by the way he "engineered" those tests - the video won't way anything useful.

The real world tests show now difference.

Guess why?

 

When a cooler or block is mounted on a CPU or GPU, it is assembled using screws at constant torque.

This means that the amount of pressure applied is constant, regardless of the amount of paste.

Since thermal paste is a fluid, any extra gets squeezed out the sides, as you can clearly see in the images.

The result is a layer of thermal paste of equal thickness whether you apply a normal amount, a lot, or way too much.

 

Problems only arise when there are air bubbles between the two contact surfaces, or when too little paste is applied.

 

The reason the temps were bad is because it was either a crappy quality thermal paste, or it was old and dried out, or both.

[REscobar]

10 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Since thermal paste is a fluid, any extra gets squeezed out the sides, as you can clearly see in the images.

The result is a layer of thermal paste of equal thickness whether you apply a normal amount, a lot, or way too much.

Technically, this isn't true, since it's not posible to spread it evenly without having the perfect surface, perfect consistency and perfectly and evenly tightening the heat spreader, but for practical purposes, it almost always spreads evenly enough.

 

So the reason was most likely this, I double ask because I'm trying to educate myself

15 minutes ago, Enderman said:

The reason the temps were bad is because it was either a crappy quality thermal paste, or it was old and dried out, or both.

 

[markr54632]

Ive pulled a lot of laptops apart. 80 percent of them look like that. Too much thermal paste can become an insulator and can cause higher temps. However the amount used has to be a lot to make a big difference. Usually where I notice a big difference is when the thermal paste is super crappy old or both, the tension springs are worn, or if the proper torque sequence was not followed.

 

I had a toshiba laptop where the springs had slipped through the holes in the heatsink and were not applying pressure and the temps were horrendous. New springs good temps.

[REscobar]

How important is the torque sequence?, I didn't notice it until I was reasembling it, and tightened starting from 1 to 6