Thermal paste deteriorating

[deividosis]

Hey everyone, I have a Macbook Pro mid-2012 15" non retina and I repasted it with Arctic MX-4 thermal paste, after the repaste the temps drop significantly by 10 degrees celsius. But after using the machine for a day or so it increases by 10 degrees again! So, I disassemble the machine again, pull the heatsink and I see that there's less thermal paste in the middle of the cpu and more on the edges, so I thought I put too much so I repaste again. The same thing happens! I open it up again and I see that my application was perfect, it covered only the CPU die not going past it, but still it looked as if there wasn't that much coverage of the paste in the middle. I used a thin line for CPU and a little blob on the GPU for application, I also tried spreading it but the same result happens. So, I thought it was uneven pressure on the heatsink, but I don't think I could mess this up, I tighten the screws one by one slightly till they're tight, I don't over tighten them. Immediately after application my idle temps are around 45C and 80C under load on Windows 10, after some time the idle temps become 55+C and 90C under load, and it's not after I let the machine to heat up, I power it down and let it cool before the tests. Before MX-4 application I had applied DeepCool Z5 thermal paste, I don't remember if it deteriorated but with it I got 95+C under load. So, what could be the problem here?

[ki8aras]

5 minutes ago, deividosis said:

Hey everyone, I have a Macbook Pro mid-2012 15" non retina and I repasted it with Arctic MX-4 thermal paste, after the repaste the temps drop significantly by 10 degrees celsius. But after using the machine for a day or so it increases by 10 degrees again! So, I disassemble the machine again, pull the heatsink and I see that there's less thermal paste in the middle of the cpu and more on the edges, so I thought I put too much so I repaste again. The same thing happens! I open it up again and I see that my application was perfect, it covered only the CPU die not going past it, but still it looked as if there wasn't that much coverage of the paste in the middle. I used a thin line for CPU and a little blob on the GPU for application, I also tried spreading it but the same result happens. So, I thought it was uneven pressure on the heatsink, but I don't think I could mess this up, I tighten the screws one by one slightly till they're tight, I don't over tighten them. Immediately after application my idle temps are around 45C and 80C under load on Windows 10, after some time the idle temps become 55+C and 90C under load, and it's not after I let the machine to heat up, I power it down and let it cool before the tests. Before MX-4 application I had applied DeepCool Z5 thermal paste, I don't remember if it deteriorated but with it I got 95+C under load. So, what could be the problem here?

try screwing down the heatsink in an x pattern if that makes any sense

[deividosis]

This is the order I screwed it in, is it not good?

[deividosis]

Bump

[JoostinOnline]

Did you take a picture?

[deividosis]

Unfortunately, I didn't

[deividosis]

Pulled the heatsink again, here is the previous application, I think I put too much this time

[deividosis]

This is my current application

[LogicalDrm]

1 hour ago, deividosis said:

This is my current application

The lower one has too much imo, but I don't think its main issue. Since how it spreads looks fine.