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How do I correctly apply thermal paste on a laptop CPU with a small surface area?

I watched several videos on YouTube, went through a lot of overclocking forums and websites, but I am yet to find a "correct" answer to this question.

Some agree with the "pea method" where you apply a pea-sized glob onto the center of the CPU and then mount the heat sink over it and let the pressure of the sink spread the thermal grease evenly across the surface.

Others tend to gravitate towards the "business card method" of evenly spreading a thin layer of thermal compound across the CPU surface using a business card.

And then I read something about needing to apply more thermal compound to laptop CPUs because they don't have integrated heat spreaders.

I'm confused. I own a Acer 5542G notebook with an AMD Turion II X2 M500 CPU and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 GPU. This computer has been overheating a lot lately (even playing Minecraft for a few minutes would trigger a system shutdown) and I just recently took it apart and cleaned it.

There was no dust accumulating on the fan grill, so I removed the thermal compound, cleaned the CPU surface and applied some new compound. I used the "pea method". My CPU has a rectangular surface so I applied two little pea-sized dots.

After I did this, I ran CoreTemp and here's what I saw (idling temperatures):

That's a lot of heat! I'm guessing I screwed with my application of the thermal paste. I'm hoping anyone who owns an Aspire 5542G or a computer with an AMD Turion X2 M500 processor that has experienced the same problem could help me out here. Thank you.

Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled

I am running 64 bit Ubuntu 11.10 on an i7 with 8gigs of ram. I thought of putting this on askubuntu.com but decided that maybe the question has a much broader appeal.

I have the following error message popping up when I run math simulations.

CPUn: Core temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = xxxxxxx)

CPUn: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = xxxxxxx)

I realize that this is a hardware warning message (machine check exception, correct me if I am wrong). How do I turn these messages off? Since it doesn't seem to have a detrimental effect of my calculations or my computer (presumably), I don't like it cluttering up my virtual console screen with hundreds of these messages.

Will it damage my MacBook if I put it in the fridge to cool it down?

I've a got longstanding problem with laptops overheating (MacBook Air/Pro) and it's not only related to one machine. The laptops are overheating especially during hot days (summer).

I've found that keeping them in the fridge for half an hour makes a dramatic difference in their performance. However I am afraid of the side effects and that the laptop may stop working, because of water coming into the internal parts of the laptop.

How safe is it to keep a laptop in the fridge?

Does keeping it in a laptop sleeve case or in a plastic bag protect the laptop enough? Do the temperature and time also matter (like half an hour is the optimal time)? Or is it a bad idea at all and can it damage the laptop very quickly (assuming it's in Sleep mode, so it's basically turned off)?

Does heat damage computers while turned off?

I'm well aware that overheating is a common source of damage to computers, but can high heat damage them even while powered off? And if it is possible, is it likely?

I ask due to some old components that have been sitting in the trunk of my car for several weeks now, in 90°F+ mid-summer heat, and in the sun. I originally planned on recycling them, and stuck them in the trunk for transport, but today I thought of a new use for them, and I'm trying to decide if they're worth the trouble of re-purposing. If there's a good chance they're fried, then no, they're not.

Is it okay to have 100% CPU usage constantly?

I often do 3D rendering in the background which consumes 100% of the CPU (I lower the priority of the process so that it does not hinder any tasks I am working on).

My concern/question is whether it is okay to run a computer/laptop with a 100% CPU load constantly.

Could this reduce the lifespan of the system?

How to disable software-initiated overheat shutdown (due to broken sensors) in Windows 8?

A power spike broke the CPU temperature sensor on my motherboard. Memtest86+ runs fine. However, neither Linux nor Windows boots under default options. Windows simply shuts down during boot. Linux reports overheat during boot and shuts down in a few seconds. If I specify thermal.nocrt=1 in the kernel boot options, Linux will boot and work correctly.

The CPU temperature reported by the motherboard sensor is -40℃ (negative) in BIOS and 216℃ (due to integer overflow) in Linux. The CPU temperature reported by the CPU's built-in sensor is 35℃, which is correct and consistent with the idle temperature before the power spike.

It is reasonable to believe that Windows shuts down also because it sees an extremely high temperature. In order to use Windows on this motherboard, I need to disable the software overheat protection. Essentially, I need the equivalent of thermal.nocrt=1 in Windows. Is that possible?

Is storing electronics in high temperatures different than operating them in high temperatures? [duplicate]

This may be a weird topic for SU but for those of us who are on the go a lot proving tech support or just carry our gear because we can and it is nice to always have around and with us, is storing hardware and electronics in 90F+ degree car trunks in backpacks a bad idea? Hardware meaning: switches, hard drives, routers, and other little devices with circuits.

I know they should never operate in those temperature ranges but is storing the same thing?

I understand that laptop batteries are effected by heat due to how they are built, but not sure about electronics that are not running.

To prevent overheating, why not turn laptop upside down?

The fans and ventilation holes are positioned on the bottom of the device, as with most laptops, as well as the HDD and other components making heat. If these items are all positioned on the bottom, and since I never touch my laptop (it's used like a desktop) why not turn it upside down? This way the ventilation holes would get a far more direct access to the outside air. Also the natural circulation of any house will draw drafts that will move the hot air from the other components such as heat sinks etc and move them away.

However, there are one or two minor issues I have found with this design, 1. The fan holes would get exposed to far more dust, however with regular cleaning, dust filters or better yet, positioning the device vertically ( so the holes face outwards ) could eliminate this issue 2. Would being upside down place pressure or stress on other components.

This idea seems more effective than placing a prop underneath, as this allows even faster air exchange. I appreciate your ideas and thoughts :)

How can I manage the fan speed on a Lenovo thinkpad t510? [closed]

How can increase the speed of the fan on my Lenovo Thinkpad t510 running Windows 7?

Is there any software or script that helps me with this?

Inconstant Overheating Issue in Laptop

I have a Lenovo Y50-70 with 960m VGA. You may have heard about the cooling problems . So just after I bought it , I bought a cooling pad too. not the best possible one, but it keeps CPU's temp around 78 c , and GPU's around 70 , under load. that was enough for me. The problem is that without no noticeable change in my situation(room temp, cooling pad setting, ... ) temp sometimes gets out of control and goes up to around 90 - 95 under load. It's how it is for some time(few days i mean) and after that for some time it is OK . and the loop goes on. I've experienced the whole procedure two times.

I cant figure out what is causing this!

Melting plastic around DC-in jack in laptop

I recently noticed that the plastic around the DC-in jack of my laptop was warped (melted) a little bit. Since I noticed, I have done some experiments, and saw that the metal tip of the charger heats up very much when I am gaming, or performing CPU-intensive work (it's so hot that i can't hold it between my fingers). When I am using Windows normally (web browsing, music, video), the tip is not hot. I tried using another charger from a compatible laptop, but its metal tip overheated as well, so the problem is not caused by the charger.

I have been using this laptop for gaming for 1.5 years and I never had this problem. When gaming I always use a laptop cooler. Dust is not the problem (i cleaned out the dust), and the CPU and GPU temperatures are not higher than when I got the laptop. The only thing that is excessively hot is the charger tip.

Because I bought my laptop from the USA, sending it to warranty and back would cost more than the laptop's value, so I need to fix it myself. I have googled around, and I saw that the problem might be the DC-in jack that is located on the motherboard of the laptop. I plan to take the laptop apart and see if it has become loose, and soldering it in place if it has.

My questions for you are:

• Did anyone deal with this problem in the past? Did anyone manage to fix it?
• Is the DC-in jack the culprit in this case? Or is it possible for the problem to be caused by another part on the motherboard?
• Is there any way I can check the DC-in jack with a multimeter? What should I measure (resistance, etc)?

EDIT: My laptop is a Sager NP5135 (aka Clevo B5130M). I also posted on NBR, including some pictures: link

Linux Mint 14 severe overheating

I've tried switching to Mint (it was Mint 12) about 6 months ago, but failed to do it due to enormous overheating which made it virtually impossible to run any applications more complex than Gedit.

Time had passed, and now I'm back again with Mint 14, but feeling way more determined.

What I face are the following issues:

1) Great overheating (and by great I mean that just by doing nothing my CPU temp is floating around 70-75 C, which I find a lot)

2) Running multiple applications (let's say Chrome, Skype and Pidgin) results in critical overheating and immediate shutdown of the system

3) Due to the stuff listed above, my battery drains in about 10-15 minutes, pretty much turning my laptop into a crippled desktop machine

I've got a HP-dv6 laptop (i7, 6gb RAM, dual graphics)

Here's the output of lspci:

        00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM   Controller (rev 09)
        00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Core Processor Family PCI Express Root Port (rev 09)
        00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
        00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
        00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 05)
        00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 05)
        00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev b5)
        00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev b5)
        00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev b5)
        00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 4 (rev b5)
        00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 05)
        00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation HM65 Express Chipset Family LPC Controller (rev 05)
        00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 6 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 05)
        00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 05)
        01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Whistler XT [AMD Radeon HD 6700M Series]
        07:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express  Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 06)
        0d:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)
        13:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5209 PCI Express Card      Reader (rev 01)
        19:00.0 USB controller: NEC Corporation uPD720200 USB 3.0 Host Controller (rev 04)

what i've tried to do already:

1) I've edited my grub file to add some "splash" arguments there

2) Installed jupiter and powertop

3) Tried to upgrade to newer kernels (up to 3.8), btw running anything newer than 3.5 results in both resolution and wi-fi detection fail

4) Read lots of forum threads devoted to the topic

So, my question is simple:

What else might I do to become finally able to use Mint as my default OS without the risk of being burned alive by the CPU heat?

Why does my computer randomly power off?

Situation:

have a 6 year old PC but it powers off randomly, sometimes it will take a few hours, or sometimes it won't happen at all

when it does happen, the system loses power, but the mobo power LED is illuminated

when i press the power button, the PC will not turn on again

to turn it on again, i need to flip the power switch on the back of the PSU until the mobo power LED extinguishes, turn on the PSU, and the 'on' button works again

restarting the PC shortly after it has powered itself off seems to increase the probability and frequency of it powering off again (sort of how you would expect a heat issue to manifest?)

what i have done:

getting annoyed with my PC shutting down while gaming etc i decided to get out the wallet to attempt to fix the problem, gives me a good excuse to update as well :p

Round 1: new processor with stock cooling, new mobo, new RAM (old ram discarded), new GFX card, meaning that the only hardware that has been kept are the PSU, HDD and the tower unit

and the symptoms are the same.. powers off randomly

so, round 2: added a case fan, bought an aftermarket cooler for the CPU; installed with new thermal paste, re-seated the GFX as far away from the CPU as possible, removed the side panel of the case to improve airflow

..and the symptoms are still there... :'(

i did think it was a heating issue, but ive exhaused every idea i have to cool the machine, along with the hardware above; my room has no centeral heating, its winter, and the unit is next to an open window!

so logic says the PSU is the culprit as its the consistent variable in all the builds

i guess the only thing left to try is forking out for a new PSU.. before i spend £50 is this the action you would recommend? if so why? (to help me understand the situ) if not then what do you think is the problem?

Bent processor socket pins LGA1155 after overheating CPU

I have an i7-2600k (not overclocked) on an ASUS P8Z68 V-Pro motherboard that I was cooling using a Corsair H60 since last August. My A/C went out for a period of two weeks and my ambient temperature went up accordingly, of course, and at some stage the cooler quit. Luckily I was running ASUS AISuite and it notified me of high CPU temperatures, so I shut down the game I was playing to investigate.

Before I concluded the cooler had died, I did a little testing with the fan speeds and such, to try and determine where the issue might have originated, until finally thermal shutoff shut the machine down when the CPU reached 99C.

I changed the water cooler out for the stock cooler, after cleaning the CPU correctly with arctic silver cleaner and reapplying thermal paste; however, by accident I wiped the CPU dry with a non lint-free cloth and when I re-seated the CPU I noticed some had got into the socket pins. So I removed the CPU and using very fine tweezers I tried to remove the lint, but in the process bent some pins in the socket area. I then spent some time carefully bending them back into the original position, which didn't work for all of them but I felt I'd better leave them before they snap off from too much moving around. Anyway, cue a re-seat of the CPU and no boot whatsoever, and I got a little worried but didn't have time to delve into any repair as I had to leave town for a week.

Anyway, I'm now back and looking for advice on what to do and where to start before I go forking out 700 bucks on a new CPU and motherboard.

Thanks for any assistance!

Edit:
OK, so new motherboard installed and I used the old i2600k and it won't even boot. Everything spins up, but no POST beeps or anything, not even a flicker on the screen. Could I have fried my CPU as well?

Underclocking without BIOS option

I have never over/under/downclocked my laptop, however it is seriously suffering from overheating. I have cleaned it out and am running the fan at full speed the whole time. I also have turned the power option to powersaver in the vain hope that it may help. It is a Lenovo Thinkpad x100e and has the worst heat dispensing design ever. One google will show that this laptop is known as a lapburner.

The only thing, short of replacing the machine, that I can think of is underclocking the CPU (AMD Turion Neo X2 1.6 Ghz) I can't find a BIOS option that will let me do this though.

EDIT: Max core temperatures measured with HWMonitor came out at 92 degrees celsius when streaming video. With advice, undervolting achieved 88 degrees celcius. I have replaced original thermal cooling paste with some better quality paste and have taken fan and heatsink off for a dust removal session. I would upload a picture but I have no camera. I cannot see any dust left though.

Any suggestions on how I can achieve this would be great!