Thermal Paste for Laptop. I need your help!

[Falkentyne]

Finally mx-5 arrive.
Opened the laptop.
Unscrew all torqs
Disconnect the cable that go to mainboard.
Clean.
Put mx-5 pt.. Awesome paste..
Screw all. Torqs.
Connected the cable to MB and suddenly
Sparkles and smell to burn plástic. A little black smoke come to me.

I burn and kill my laptop

Not turning on
Battery was connected.. A big big mistake

Come from technical store. A waiting for the resume of damages.

Damn...
Damn..

Damn.

What "cable connected to motherboard' are you talking about?
The battery cable?! Or a different cable?

The only cables that have to be disconnected when repasting a laptop is:
1) AC power cable (first, before you take the laptop apart).
2) Battery internal connector cable.

When re-assembling connect:
1) Battery internal connector cable, right before chassis plastic panel attachment (make sure proper connection and insertion fit!)--battery cable is the very last cable to plug in before you put the "case" cover on.
2) AC Power cable (After chassis fully assembled and screwed only).

So what happened?

 

[nguyen]

Holy crap that sounds like bad news.

 

[Hyderz]

oh man, i pray for you that the damage is minor....

 

[XT785]

Best choice, but most expensive; TFX (Or Thermagic ZF-EX, which is its clone). Aliexpress is perfectly safe, it has a money back guarantee. You just have to deal with the slow boat shipping.
For sanity purposes, TFX if you can get it on amazon but it's expensive. If you want to save money, you can buy 6.2g of TFX on aliexpress for about $28 or so.

ZF-EX is the same paste as TFX (might explain why it's so expensive), but if you're lucky you can buy it for 2 grams / $7 if there's a sale or discount.
This is the best paste because of how thick it is, and thick is good for laptops.
TFX / ZF-EX is *thick* and very difficult to spread. But spreading it gives the best results on a laptop. Suggest you follow these posts here.

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If you have access to amazon USA, SYY-157 is extremely good paste, it's basically a wetter, easier to spread TFX. On a laptop, make sure you spread a thick layer of it. (spreading it too thin gives worse results).
Read here: And you can see how well it does vs TFX.

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Thank you for visiting the TechnologyGuide network. Unfortunately, these forums are no longer active. We extend a heartfelt thank you to the entire community for their steadfast support—it is really you, our readers, that drove

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TechnologyGuide

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FuzeIce Plus is basically the same paste as SYY-157 (all those factories in Guangdong seem to be next to each other so that explains that; some may come from the same factory or multiple factories may be using the same composition), but is a bit more expensive.
SYY-157 is basically the most bang for the buck, with how much you get per gram (8 grams is $13 dollars) and its performance being right up there with TFX. The 15% off coupon is apparently up once again.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079DQS77Q/

Thank you so much for your in-depth answer! Very easy to understand! May I ask which paste are you currently using for your laptop? Thanks once again!

 

[XT785]

Finally mx-5 arrive.
Opened the laptop.
Unscrew all torqs
Disconnect the cable that go to mainboard.
Clean.
Put mx-5 pt.. Awesome paste..
Screw all. Torqs.
Connected the cable to MB and suddenly
Sparkles and smell to burn plástic. A little black smoke come to me.

I burn and kill my laptop

Not turning on
Battery was connected.. A big big mistake

Come from technical store. A waiting for the resume of damages.

Damn...
Damn..

Damn.

Sorry for your loss! I hope everything gets sorted out without any more hassle!

 

[nguyen]

Thank you so much for your in-depth answer! Very easy to understand! May I ask which paste are you currently using for your laptop? Thanks once again!

I use Thermalright TF-X on my Triton 500 (10875H + 2070 Super) and the thermal has been fantastic after 1 year of usage

That's 93C max when the CPU is pulling over 100W

 

[Falkentyne]

Thank you so much for your in-depth answer! Very easy to understand! May I ask which paste are you currently using for your laptop? Thanks once again!

Liquid metal (Galinstan homemade) on the CPU (still good after a year)
SYY-157 on the GPU (GTX 1070)
TFX (Thermagic ZF-EX) on desktop (RTX 3090 FE and i9 11900k)

 

[XT785]

I use Thermalright TF-X on my Triton 500 (10875H + 2070 Super) and the thermal has been fantastic after 1 year of usage

View attachment 202636

That's 93C max when the CPU is pulling over 100W

Wow! Amazing Sir! No thermal throttling whatsoever? Since I see it is close to PROCHOT. Where did you purchase this paste from? Please state the method of application?
Do you use this method?

 

[nguyen]

Wow! Amazing Sir! No thermal throttling whatsoever? Since I see it is close to PROCHOT. Where did you purchase this paste from? Please state the method of application?
Do you use this method?

I use the 5 dots methods on the GPU and just 1 line on the CPU, warmed up the paste with hairdryer so that it can spread easier (TFX is very thick and will not spread very well at ambient temp) then mount the cooler.
TFX and Thermagic ZF-EX are readily available in my country, maybe you can buy them off aliexpress?

 

[XT785]

I just placed an order on aliexpress of a 2g tube. I hope this is the real deal and no fakes. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...earchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_

 

[juanldeaza]

What "cable connected to motherboard' are you talking about?
The battery cable?! Or a different cable?

The only cables that have to be disconnected when repasting a laptop is:
1) AC power cable (first, before you take the laptop apart).
2) Battery internal connector cable.

When re-assembling connect:
1) Battery internal connector cable, right before chassis plastic panel attachment (make sure proper connection and insertion fit!)--battery cable is the very last cable to plug in before you put the "case" cover on.
2) AC Power cable (After chassis fully assembled and screwed only).

So what happened?

Here in the picture i mark the cable that burns when i reconnect

 

[xtreemchaos]

that looks like the display cable.

 

[juanldeaza]

A waiting technical report...

 

[yotano211]

I have the MSI ge75 model laptop, I use cool labtory liquid ultra

 

[Caring1]

that looks like the display cable.

Yep, the LDVS cable, and they only fit one way so pretty hard to stuff that up.

 

[xtreemchaos]

i think the op has a short on the 12v rail i dont think he messed up on the putting the cable in as you say its hard to mess up attaching it.

pretty hard to stuff that up.

 

[juanldeaza]

Some capacitors burned.... Waiting a final report.
My new mantra:
Always disconnect the battery!

 

[XT785]

Some capacitors burned.... Waiting a final report.
My new mantra:
Always disconnect the battery!

ALWAYS!

 

[LastSilmaril]

Best paste for Laptop are: Thermalright TF-X, SYY or Thermagic ZF-EX. These pastes should last a long time under high temperature.

How to apply new thermal paste
1. clean off the previous TIM with 90% isopropyl alcohol
2. Put the X pattern on GPU (4 small dots in the quadrant) and 1 line on the CPU
3. Use a hair dryer to warm up the TIM before mounting the cooler
4. Tighten the screws in the X order to evenly distribute the mounting pressure (1 rotation then switch to the opposite screw)
5. Keep using the hairdryer to heat up to heatsink
6. Tighten the screws until it stop completely using only the fingers to hold the screw drivers (do not use your palm as you can over-tighten)

Thanks for this. Ended up using SYY with these instructions and my trusty ten-year-old Sandy Bridge i7 X220 is usable again instead of hitting 90+ deg C on 20% cpu usage while having the fan screaming. (It still hits 90 deg when near 100% sustained, but this is a rare situation, and the fan doesn't run quite as loudly as it did.) It was remarkable to see what happened there, almost all the paste was shunted off.

It actually got under the black protective tape on the heatsink--you could see it bulging. Here's a closer look fwiw.

I ended up removing this black protective cover from the bottom of the heatsink entirely, cleaning off the thermal paste and adhesive, and then putting kapton tape on the exposed contacts atop the CPU to avoid a short from the heatsink. Appears to have had no adverse effect so far.

Not pictured: incredible amount of dust in the fan, about four years worth, last time I repasted, when I likely used NT-H1 (lesson being: don't...)

Thanks again!

 

[juanldeaza]

Mi Laptop finally dies. I burned the MB, Screen, only RAM survive and Nvme. MSI dont have parts available. And today was a sad day, i throw my beloved laptop to the garbage. All this horror, because i dont unpluged the battery. Now i need to buy a new PC, i choose now Desktop. More easy to fix. A minute of silence for this warrior, my beloved Laptop

 

[Shrek]

It was a hard way to learn; I feel your pain.

A sound decision to move to a desktop; laptops are hard to work on, run hot, ...

 

[LastSilmaril]

Mi Laptop finally dies. I burned the MB, Screen, only RAM survive and Nvme. MSI dont have parts available. And today was a sad day, i throw my beloved laptop to the garbage. All this horror, because i dont unpluged the battery. Now i need to buy a new PC, i choose now Desktop. More easy to fix. A minute of silence for this warrior, my beloved Laptop

oof, sorry it didn't work out dude
RIP your laptop, but good luck with the new PC!

 

[XT785]

Mi Laptop finally dies. I burned the MB, Screen, only RAM survive and Nvme. MSI dont have parts available. And today was a sad day, i throw my beloved laptop to the garbage. All this horror, because i dont unpluged the battery. Now i need to buy a new PC, i choose now Desktop. More easy to fix. A minute of silence for this warrior, my beloved Laptop

Sorry for your loss my dear fellow. I share your grief, and know exactly what it feels like to lose something so beloved. Really sorry once again for your loss. RIP your beloved laptop. May you have enough courage to bear this loss. Hope your data is safe!

Also, good luck with the new PC!

 

[micropage7]

sorry to hear that, but that's something to learn, always check then recheck, if you are not sure just ask someone or just browsing it
but if there's a chance for err there will always be

 

[nex86]

I was also looking for a good paste to use for my new Acer Nitro 5.
The CPU is always getting up to 95°C, for now I used MX-5, but I barely see a difference compared to the stock paste. But I even see a spike to 97°C now.
For now I throttled the CPU TDP with XTU because I'm too worried of it getting too hot.

So you guys say Syy 157 and thermalright TF-8 are good pastes to go with?
which one of the two would you recommend?