Thermal paste for GPU and CPU

[George1157]

Hi Folks,

Quite often my 8760w is overheating and auto switching off, typically GPU or Core0. I'm not overclocking or anything like that, just normal office applications and simple web browsing. I've checked the fan cleanliness and function and both OK, as is the air access to the fan vents.  A previous post suggested renewing the thermal paste for the GPU and CPU which I've been putting off for too long and the problem hasn't gone away (as I'd naively hoped).

Could someone please advise which paste is recommended for HP machines and if there is a different type for GPU and CPU or both use the same paste?

Thanks and regards.

George

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

Here is the Service Manual:

Manual 

This is back when HP used to produce really excellent Manuals with sharp clear images and easy to follow instructions. Look at pages 68-75. You have a heatsink over the graphics board and then another one over the CPU. The thermal compound is applied on top of the shiny metal core of the graphics board and the processor. The key thing is to cover completely but in a thin coat. You can use the same thermal compound (paste) on both applications. There are lots of types of thermal paste on the market. I happen to like the kind with a high metal content such as Arctic Silver (TM). 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Arctic-Silver-High-Density-Polysynthetic-Compound/dp/B07NV27PDX/ref=sr_1_3?...

The high metal content stuff is a bit thicker and its a bit like brick mortar. You only need a circular glob the size of a shotgun pellet on the core surface to start out. Very dense so you have to use the spatula to thin it out over the surface and then bolt the heatsink down on top. While you have the heatsinks off be sure to thoroughly clean all surfaces. You can use rubbing alcohol and it does not even hurt to use a very mild abrasive like emery cloth very lightly to prepare the surfaces and wipe down with a clean lint-free cloth to finish. It should be clean as a whistle and sparkle. Also clean the cooling fans. Use alcohol with a Q-tip and clean each plastic blade of the fans. Make sure the whole interior compartment and particularly the exhaust vent holes and the exhaust vent grille are clean and free of dust. 

Post back with any more questions and please accept as solution if this is the info you needed. 

[George1157]

Hi Huffer,

Thanks for the tips and links and especially the almost instant response, much appreciated.

As you point out the manual is superb and I've saved a copy for eternity. The dismantling looks relatively straightforward so I'm slowly losing my sense of trepidation. I've ordered the Arctic Silver paste from Amazon so should be here in a couple of days. I'm going abroad for a week in the morning so the job will have to wait a while  but I will update you when completed.

In the meantime I'll mark this post as completed since the question asked has been well and truly answered - and some.

Cheers and have a great day.

George

[George1157]

Hi Huffer,

Back in January I promised you an update having accepted the previous answer as a solution, so not sure if I should be posting the update as a new post or as this reply. I'll post again as new if this reply isn't appropriate channel.

In any case I've finally returned from various travels and yesterday actually managed dismantle the 8760w and to apply the Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste to both the GPU and CPU. It was significantly easier than I'd anticipated, and could almost go so far as to say it was easy. However, upon taking off the GPU cooler assembly I was faced with the GPU and its heatsink covered in old grey thermal compound and the other graphics board components covered in white thermal pads.

I wasn't prepared for the white pads being there and didn't have any new ones but as the white pad material was still soft and pliable I reused it on the other graphics board components. I thoroughly cleaned the GPU and CPU and applied fresh Arctic Silver 5 to them and their heatsinks and reassembled the laptop.

Upon reboot the laptop shut itself off about 30 seconds into the bootup and then auto-rebooted and worked fine for a couple of hours until I shut it down for the day. When working I fired up SpeedFan and observed the PU temperatures which were both at least 10 deg C lower than before applying the new thermal paste so I was well pleased with myself. The bottom of the laptop case was also pleasantly luke warm rather than the near scalding hot experienced for many months previously.

However, this morning the laptop booted up normally and worked for about 20 minutes before auto shutdown without warning again. The bottom of the case was cool so I'm guessing it wasn't due to overtemperature but hadn't thought of checking via SpeedFan before the auto shutdown. Attempting to reboot is only partially successful in that it boots to desktop icons and most of the taskbar icons but auto shuts down before boot is complete (Avast icon visible in taskbar). This happens even when the laptop is booted from cold after an hour or more between attempts.

So, a couple of questions spring to mind which I hope you can help with.

1) are the white thermal pads critical or was it ok to re-use them?

2) if new ones are indeed needed could you please advise what HP recommend (as you did for the Arctic Silver thermal paste)?

I'm feeling relatively confident that with the GPU and CPU running so much cooler the auto-shutdowns are not related to overtemperature, so have you got any ideas what else might be causing them? Or how to diagnose the issue further?

Thanks for your patience.

George

[Huffer]

The pads can be reused so you are OK there. The compound is only used where pads are not...where its metal to metal. Unfortunately it is possible that damage has already been done to the board or to the processor/video card. If the operating temperature was reduced by the cooling compound it has done its job and there is something else going on. Have you checked Event Viewer to see if there is any info on the shutdowns? I tend to agree with you its not thermal. 

[George1157]

Hi Huffer,

Good to hear that the pads can be re-used, at least that eliminates another possible variable.

I have looked at Event Viewer in the past but unfortunately I'm a bit of a novice in interpreting it and none of the entries made much sense to me.  Currently I have the additional problem that the re-boot doesn't fully complete so I can't even get to read the Event Viewer entries. I'll have another go in the morning (after a night of laptop inactivity) and see if I can open Event Viewer and export the entries. If I'm successful would you (or one of your colleagues) be able to interpret the entries by any chance?

Cheers and speak tomorrow hopefully.

George

[Huffer]

If you can post the Event Viewer log somebody here can read it and interpret it. 

[George1157]

Hi Huffer,

Quick update with some good news and some not quite so good.

In the morning I switched on the pc and it went through the boot sequence almost to the end before auto switching off and auto rebooting several times without complete success. But then I had a brainwave (too much beer last night I suspect) and thought of booting into Safe mode (with networking), which completed successfully. I was then able to do a full backup of all my precious files which I do religiously at end of every month but which was not possible at end of Feb. The pc behaved impeccably for the several hours of backups and never auto-switched off even once. It ran luke warm as it did a couple of days ago after renewing the thermal paste.

Having finished the backups I also opened Event Viewer and downloaded and saved the log files to an external drive. I saved the log files that had recent data in them, and didn't save any that either had no data in them or had data with non-recent events i.e., events where the most recent was over a month old.  To aid identification of today's auto shutdown events these occurred for about an hour from 06:30 UK time, thereafter it was in Safe mode. The only problem I now have is how to get them to you because I don't see a way of attaching them to this reply 😞  There are about 12 files varying from 64KB to 39MB and a total of 145MB so please could you advise the best way to get these to you?

Thanks again.

George

[Huffer]

When you reply there is a toolbar at the top of the box where you type the message. See the little paperclip? Works just like composing an email/ May take a day or two to pass the censors but eventually I will be able to get it. 

[George1157]

Hi Huffer,

I do have a toolbar at the top of the box where this reply is typed with everything you can wish for but unfortunately no paperclip 😞

There are 4 alignment icons, bullets, numbered bullets, increase/decrease indents, quotes, spoiler tag insert, 4 text formats, text and background colour, font size, clear formatting, insert/edit code sample, insert/edit link, insert emoji, insert photos, insert videos and insert table and try as I might, no sign of a paperclip. I've also looked throughout the settings in case that was governed by a switch or other configuration but can see nothing there either.

Am I perhaps on a different version of the HP Community web app, or am I missing something more obvious, like maybe browser type?

Soz for stumbling at such a trivial issue.

Cheers.

George