Kerio Posted July 30, 2016 Share Posted July 30, 2016 Hi, My laptop was heating up a bit too much (temperature above 90’s in normal load, and sometimes shutting down after hitting 100C), so I finally decided to open up my Dell XPS 15 (L502X) and replace the thermal paste. I have few questions: When I opened it up, apart from the thermal paste on the cpu (i7-2630QM) and gpu (Nvidia GT-540 2gb), there were several white pads, and one grey pad. The grey pad was above the motherboard HM67 chip. This is the first time I ever saw a heat sink with thermal pad needed to cool down the motherboard. Or am I missing something? And what are all these small white pads? They seem to be covering different chips on the motherboard. Does anyone know the width of these white pads, and grey pads? Are all of these thermal pads to conduct heat? Or some are meant to block heat? I think the white ones are meant to block heat, but I may be wrong. Anyhow, after replacing the thermal paste (didn’t do anything with the pads, since I wasn’t expecting to see them anyway), the temperature of CPU and motherboard remains in 80’s C, and GPU in 70’s C under normal load (20 browser tabs, and some MS Office work alongside). So, although it is not in the dangerous zone (90s and above), it is still quite warm for not so intensive tasks. I have cleaned the heat sink, and fan etsc also. I also used good quality thermal paste (CoolerMaster Gel Maker Nano). And the the fan still works in an annoying manner with bursts of sounds, instead of constant sound. It is very annoying, and I rather have the fan working the whole time than these annoying bursts (fan on, fan off, fan on, fan off, and goes on like this constantly). Any solution to fix this? I am also considering downgrading to I5-2540M (lower TDP, and dual core), but its not worth it if the fan is going to behave in similar manner. Please share your experience if you use any other CPU on this laptop. I don’t think the GPU is replaceable on this one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 30, 2016 Share Posted July 30, 2016 Hello Kerio. Sorry to hear of the issues. The thermal pads are important. All computers use them in at least one or two places. The pads serve a purpose very similar to the paste, to transfer heat to the heat sink. If they were still soft and supple they can continue to be used. The typically do not need to be replaced unless they get dried out and hard. The fans kicking on and off may be due to the fact the machine is still running on the verge of where they would kick in and once they do things quickly cool down so the fan shuts off. I am not familiar with that thermal paste and it might not be the most effective. I suggest you try IC Diamond and see if it lowers the temps even more. if it does, that could make the fans less erratic. You did repaste the GPU and cleaned out the fan and heat sink radiator, correct? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerio Posted July 30, 2016 Author Share Posted July 30, 2016 The "grey" one was soft and supple, but the white ones (5 or 6 in total) seemed like they are not thermal pads. They seems more like a cussion type to block heat. Can you tell the complete name of IC DIAMOND. I will search it on Ebay. Yes, I repasted everything, and cleaned out the fan, and heat sink radiator etc. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 30, 2016 Share Posted July 30, 2016 Yes, IC Diamond is the name of it. Innovation Cooling is the name of the company. http://www.innovationcooling.com/ Maybe my good friend @Papusan can tell you where he has found it for the best price. He is also from Norway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. AMK Posted July 30, 2016 Share Posted July 30, 2016 (edited) Please consider this solution as well, http://www.coollaboratory.com/product/coollaboratory-liquid-ultra/ Your video @Mr. Fox Edited July 30, 2016 by Dr. AMK 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papusan Posted July 30, 2016 Share Posted July 30, 2016 (edited) 22 hours ago, Kerio said: Hi, My laptop was heating up a bit too much (temperature above 90’s in normal load, and sometimes shutting down after hitting 100C), so I finally decided to open up my Dell XPS 15 (L502X) and replace the thermal paste. I have few questions: When I opened it up, apart from the thermal paste on the cpu (i7-2630QM) and gpu (Nvidia GT-540 2gb), there were several white pads, and one grey pad. The grey pad was above the motherboard HM67 chip. This is the first time I ever saw a heat sink with thermal pad needed to cool down the motherboard. Or am I missing something? And what are all these small white pads? They seem to be covering different chips on the motherboard. Does anyone know the width of these white pads, and grey pads? Are all of these thermal pads to conduct heat? Or some are meant to block heat? I think the white ones are meant to block heat, but I may be wrong. Anyhow, after replacing the thermal paste (didn’t do anything with the pads, since I wasn’t expecting to see them anyway), the temperature of CPU and motherboard remains in 80’s C, and GPU in 70’s C under normal load (20 browser tabs, and some MS Office work alongside). So, although it is not in the dangerous zone (90s and above), it is still quite warm for not so intensive tasks. I have cleaned the heat sink, and fan etsc also. I also used good quality thermal paste (CoolerMaster Gel Maker Nano). And the the fan still works in an annoying manner with bursts of sounds, instead of constant sound. It is very annoying, and I rather have the fan working the whole time than these annoying bursts (fan on, fan off, fan on, fan off, and goes on like this constantly). Any solution to fix this? I am also considering downgrading to I5-2540M (lower TDP, and dual core), but its not worth it if the fan is going to behave in similar manner. Please share your experience if you use any other CPU on this laptop. I don’t think the GPU is replaceable on this one? 8 hours ago, Mr. Fox said: Yes, IC Diamond is the name of it. Innovation Cooling is the name of the company. http://www.innovationcooling.com/ Maybe my good friend @Papusan can tell you where he has found it for the best price. He is also from Norway. 8 hours ago, Kerio said: The "grey" one was soft and supple, but the white ones (5 or 6 in total) seemed like they are not thermal pads. They seems more like a cussion type to block heat. Can you tell the complete name of IC DIAMOND. I will search it on Ebay. Yes, I repasted everything, and cleaned out the fan, and heat sink radiator etc. I've used this Danish website below. They have most of what you want in cooling. Even EK - TIM Indigo Xtreme, And the best paste ever for me <Liquid Ultra> + lot of other stuff you want. Norwegian computer web sites have almost nothing and is a dead place for Harcore power enthusiasts!! @Kerio GO FOR LIQUID ULTRA ON PROCESSOR. If you don't want, then go for ICD. GPU isn't the big problem to cool. ICD, Grizzly Kryonaut and Gelid Extreme is good enough for Gpu!! And I don't look on the prices if there is something I really need... You don't need apply new paste every day http://www.coolerkit.dk/shop/koelepasta-268c1.html Edited July 30, 2016 by Papusan 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerio Posted August 9, 2016 Author Share Posted August 9, 2016 I have narrowed down the annoying fan noise problem. It is something to do with hard disk. My XP215 (L502X) came with a 750 GB WD 7200rpm hard disk. I created an image of my system on a portable drive, and restored the image on a 500 GB Hitachi 7200rpm, and well, the fan noises were gone. I don’t know how and why, but the fan behaves much better. To make sure that it is something to do with hard disk, I used the same system image to restore Windows on another 500GB hard disk (5400rpm), and the fan noises were back on that one. So, the only hard disk (among the three that I have) without fan noises is the Hitachi 500gb 7200rpm. I can’t explain why is it so. It is not a Windows issue, since I used the same system image, and did not re-installed a fresh Windows 7. Maybe some sort of software incompatibility with some hard disks, or something else. Another strange thing is that I thought the laptop would remain cooler on a slower 5200rpm hard disk, as the cpu would have to waite for processing due to slower read I/O from a slower hard disk,, but it apprently gets much warmer on a 5200rpm hard disk (compared to both 7200rpm hard disks). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 That's interesting. I'm glad you figured that out. Strange that the 5200 RPM HDD gets hotter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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