Made $80 replacing thermal paste on a client's 3 year old gaming rig and they asked why I didn't just clean the fans instead

I keep seeing people wipe dust off fans and call it a cooling fix, but that's ignoring dried paste. Heat transfer drops by about 15 percent after two years, so are you a fan cleaner or a real tech here?

4 comments

4 Comments

susan_wright3419d agoTop Commenter

Had a customer last month with a 4 year old laptop that was hitting 95c under load. Cleaned the fans first, dropped it to 88c. Then repasted it and it went down to 72c. Huge difference. The thermal paste was basically hard and crumbly, no wonder it couldn't transfer heat anymore. So yeah, fan cleaning helps but the paste is where the real gains are after a few years.

smith.anna19d ago

Did you notice any difference in the paste quality depending on the brand of laptop? I've heard some manufacturers use better paste than others (especially the cheap ones), and I'm curious if that 4 year old laptop was a budget model or something pricier. Because if it's the cheap stuff, maybe that's why it was so crumbly after just a few years?

fiona98519d ago

Wait, are you SERIOUS they actually use different paste? That's INSANE!

theagibson19d ago

Laughing at myself because I'm pretty sure my 2015 laptop is held together with hopes and dreams at this point, not paste. Opened it up last year to clean it and the thermal paste looked like dried up Play-Doh, seriously flaking off in chunks. Tried to replace it but I accidentally used way too much and it squished out everywhere, making a huge mess. Pretty sure I did more harm than good but hey, at least my fans are clean now, right?