Re-apply thermal paste to PB

[jrsx]

I have already taken my PB apart once since I got it, but I am hopefully going to dig into it pretty soon, replacing the thermal paste and upgrading the stock 60 GB hard drive. Does anyone know if the 12 inch powerbook uses only thermal pads? I have read that every other powerbook uses either only paste or a combination of pads and paste, but the 12 inch PB which uses only pads. Can anyone confirm this? Also, I know I should probably get pads, because the GPU has a very odd shape, where the four chips on the top of the main chip are noticeably taller that the main chip. Should I just go with pads for everything? Or buy a few pads and a tube of paste to use on the CPU?
Thanks for any recommendations!

 

[2984839]

Mine used a pad. I replaced it with a dab of Antec Formula 6 paste and it runs 1-2 C cooler.

edit: This was just for the CPU, I didn't touch the GPU.

 

[jrsx]

Mine used a pad. I replaced it with a dab of Antec Formula 6 paste and it runs 1-2 C cooler.

edit: This was just for the CPU, I didn't touch the GPU.

I'm assuming the heatsink came off without trouble then? So as I understood, yours had only pads.

 

[2984839]

I'm assuming the heatsink came off without trouble then? So as I understood, yours had only pads.

Yes. I left the pads on the GPU because they looked fine. The CPU pad was pretty ugly looking and fell apart when I pulled off the heatsink.

Taking off the heatsink is not too hard, but you have to wiggle it a little to break it loose from the suction. The only annoying thing is that nearly every screw is of a different length so you have to pay attention when putting them back.

 

[GraniteTheWolf]

I dont own a powerbook, but recently I put new thermal paste on my old Alienware Area-51 M7700 Pentium 4 laptop. It had heat spikes under cpu stressing that caused the fans to jump up and down under full load, peaking to 79C (which isnt bad really, but the jumping fans with jumping temperatures told me it was bad.)

Pulled off the big heatsink and the thermal pad that was on it had become hard as a rock and very inefficient. Cleaned off the old thermal pad paste from the cpu/heatsink and put on some artic silver 5.

That old giant pig of a laptop now wont get hotter then a steady climb to 67C under a fully loaded cpu. No more fan jumping and heat spikes either. Big change from 79C

My Point: For older computers its probably a good practice to apply new thermal paste if your having heat spikes or abnormally high temperatures with a clean heatsink.

Old rare laptops are so fun

 

[iamMacPerson]

Odd. My 12" G4 (1.5GHz 2005 model) used thermal paste for the CPU and a pad for the GPU.

 

[Intell]

The post 1Ghz 12" Powerbook has two thermal pads and one paste point. The pads are over the GPU/VRAM and the northbridge. The pads are likely still fine and should only be replaced if damaged or dry/cracked. The CPU is the paste point. Be careful when tightening the screws over the CPU. Powerbooks are known to sometime have those screws become detached from the logicboard is screwed too tightly. Resulting in the heatsink not making good contact.

 

[jrsx]

The post 1Ghz 12" Powerbook has two thermal pads and one paste point. The pads are over the GPU/VRAM and the northbridge. The pads are likely still fine and should only be replaced if damaged or dry/cracked. The CPU is the paste point. Be careful when tightening the screws over the CPU. Powerbooks are known to sometime have those screws become detached from the logicboard is screwed too tightly. Resulting in the heatsink not making good contact.

So the 867 has two pads and one thermal paste point, but do you know about 1 GHz+? And, is it a bad idea to replace paste with a pad (of course with the paste cleaned off)?

 

[iamMacPerson]

So the 867 has two pads and one thermal paste point, but do you know about 1 GHz+? And, is it a bad idea to replace paste with a pad (of course with the paste cleaned off)?

I think he meant that the ones that came after the 867MHz model (1.0+ GHz) use 2 thermal pads and 1 paste point.

 

[jrsx]

I think he meant that the ones that came after the 867MHz model (1.0+ GHz) use 2 thermal pads and 1 paste point.

And he is right, I just took my heatsink off. However, and have a bad situation. The two spring screws on the MB wouldn't come off, and when the heatsink came off with them still in, the tiny ribbon posts did too. I'm wondering if the heat cracked them, because I put hardly any force on them at all. What should I do about that?

 

[iamMacPerson]

And he is right, I just took my heatsink off. However, and have a bad situation. The two spring screws on the MB wouldn't come off, and when the heatsink came off with them still in, the tiny ribbon posts did too. I'm wondering if the heat cracked them, because I put hardly any force on them at all. What should I do about that?

Yikes! What probably happened was the age, heat over time and stress of trying to remove the screws that caused them to break free. Best bet would be to replace the part they were attached to (sounds like its the bottom pan of the machine).

 

[Altemose]

Yikes! What probably happened was the age, heat over time and stress of trying to remove the screws that caused them to break free. Best bet would be to replace the part they were attached to (sounds like its the bottom pan of the machine).

This sounds like it is going to be getting expensive very soon....

 

[jrsx]

Yikes! What probably happened was the age, heat over time and stress of trying to remove the screws that caused them to break free. Best bet would be to replace the part they were attached to (sounds like its the bottom pan of the machine).

No, the ribbon things were attached to the motherboard. I'm pretty sure they were already broken, because the spring-screws were at an odd angle in the first place, not perfectly vertical. Do you think they are necessary?

 

[Altemose]

No, the ribbon things were attached to the motherboard. I'm pretty sure they were already broken, because the spring-screws were at an odd angle in the first place, not perfectly vertical. Do you think they are necessary?

Are you talking about the ports for ribbon cables? If you get the plugs appropriately seated in the connector they shouldn't move much at all! Take a picture!

 

[jrsx]

Are you talking about the ports for ribbon cables? If you get the plugs appropriately seated in the connector they shouldn't move much at all! Take a picture!

No, sorry. I mean the place the screw screws into. The two spring-screws don't have a place to screw into anymore, and are worthless now. They go on the sides of the heatsink. There are like 6 other screws, so I'm wondering if it can go without these.

 

[Altemose]

No, sorry. I mean the place the screw screws into. The two spring-screws don't have a place to screw into anymore, and are worthless now. They go on the sides of the heatsink. There are like 6 other screws, so I'm wondering if it can go without these.

Screw it down with fresh paste and see if it moves. Judging by the parts diagram I am looking at it may be okay. Just ensure the top and bottom heatsink screws are properly torqued down.

 

[jrsx]

I'm happy and confused at the same time, the heatsink doesn't appear to use those screws incredibly much, and doesn't wiggle at all, and I think it's perfectly safe. So I'm happy. Here's why I'm confused - the spring-screws have absolutely NO RIBBON! Once I managed to get one off the heatsink, they don't appear to screw in anywhere after all. Weird.

 

[Altemose]

I'm happy and confused at the same time, the heatsink doesn't appear to use those screws incredibly much, and doesn't wiggle at all, and I think it's perfectly safe. So I'm happy. Here's why I'm confused - the spring-screws have absolutely NO RIBBON! Once I managed to get one off the heatsink, they don't appear to screw in anywhere after all. Weird.

Very weird. I first thought you were talking about the ports on the Logic Board for ribbon cables. As long as it is secure and will keep a good contact with the CPU and paste it should be good!

 

[eyoungren]

When I first got my wife's 12" PowerBook these screws had to come put because the heatsink and the logicboard had to come out. The LCD was broken so to replace it, doing that was necessary.

At the time I had no experience with thermal paste, adhesives, pads, etc. In fact, as of right now I've only done this twice. Anway, when I finally got things together and was able to hand the PowerBook over to my wife those two screws were left out (why leave them loose in there since they won't tighten) AND I did not apply any thermal paste at all. I just put it back together and crossed my fingers.

The Mac runs fine. Of course it gets a little warm, but I don't think much warmer than it would have had I never opened the case. I am not suggesting that you should not have undertaken this, nor that what I did was correct. But I am pointing out that those two screws do not seem to be critical.

Take that for what it's worth.

 

[Intell]

Screws have ribbons? The way the two heatsink screws on the 12" Powerbooks work is like this: Screw, spring, heatsink, shaft, logicboard. The screw shafts (the things screws get screwed into) are attached to the logicboard. They are very prone to break off of the logicboard as they are held in place by seemingly weak welds. Once broken off, they are near impossible to re-secure.

 

[jrsx]

Hmmm, there is no suggestion of any screw shafts broken off. And there are no inclined planes/screw ribbons/the wavy thing on the long part of the screw either, nor any signs of there once having been. Idk.

@Eyoungren: The 12" PB has no thermal paste at all?? And you did leave those two spring-screws out. Ok, I was worried that they were used for a very sophisticated and advanced reason for which I could not comprehend.

I'm not sure if it was built this way, or if I did it, but the copper heat pipe on my heatsink has a small dent in it at the very top where it connects to the main span of the heatsink. It looks like it has always been there, and I was careful not to bend it taking it out, but is it bad if it has one small dent in it? I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to random laptop internals.

 

[Intell]

Sounds like you broke the shafts off of the logicboard then. You could try to separate the screw from the shaft by gripping the smooth shaft stud with some pliers and unscrewing the screw.

 

[jrsx]

Sounds like you broke the shafts off of the logicboard then. You could try to separate the screw from the shaft by gripping the smooth shaft stud with some pliers and unscrewing the screw.

There are no shafts on the screws that I can see.

 

[Intell]

The shaft is the duller grey colour part of the screw that your finger is partly covering up on the right. That part is to remain attached to the logicboard.

 

[jrsx]

The shaft is the duller grey colour part of the screw that your finger is partly covering up on the right. That part is to remain attached to the logicboard.

That's what I initially thought, but there is no way that would come loose. It is all one part on my PB. I tried using pliers to see if the screw was two pieces, but it wouldn't budge in any place.