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Shoutout to the old thermal paste trick on a stubborn laptop
Had a client's Dell Inspiron 15 that kept shutting down after 10 minutes, even after a full fan clean. On a hunch, I replaced the dried out paste with some Arctic MX-4 I had left over from a desktop job, and it's been running cool for a week now. Anyone have a go-to paste for laptops that get really hot?
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riley4310d ago
Seriously, a fresh tube is cheap insurance. That old paste breaks down faster under laptop heat cycles. Seen too many come back with the same shutdown issue because someone used crusty leftovers. Grab a small tube of MX-4 or even Noctua's stuff. It's not about overkill, it's about not having to open the thing up again in six months.
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Wait, you're still using leftover paste from other jobs? I always crack a fresh tube for laptops since they're so picky about heat.
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lee_reed10d ago
Honestly I've reused paste from a half empty tube for years without any problems. My old gaming laptop ran fine for three years after a repaste with leftover Kryonaut. The whole fresh tube thing feels like overkill unless you're working on some crazy overclocked machine. As long as the paste isn't dried out or contaminated it should transfer heat just fine. I just don't see the real world difference being that big for a normal laptop.
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