Thermal Paste/Overheating - Helios 300 (2019, I think)

curbmd

Hey helpers!

My Helios 300 was overheating while playing games, so I opened it up to see if I could clean fans, noticed it needed repasting, and watched a YouTube on how to do it.

I repasted it and have great temps on CPU and GPU.

However!  Now my "system" is running hot and I can't help but wonder if I did something wrong there.  I pasted the pink looking spots, after cleaning them (other areas, not the GPU and CPU - hopefully my pic worked to show it) with the Arctic stuff, but I can't help but wonder if I didn't do enough.

Or, from reading, should I have used thermal pads?  Are the areas that are pink areas that needed paste?  (the pic is before I cleaned the laptop)

Appreciate any assistance!

Hell_J

curbmd said:

And now that I've clicked on your link I can see it's even simpler than the pads and is a thick paste.  That looks like it's probably the kind of stuff that Acer originally used.

maybe not exactly the same, but you can use that instead. I read a lot of posts about those thickness of pads and they warry from model to model.
I would suggest to use that thick paste and you're good. If you buy this, from the link, I think you're good for few years..  

Just make sure you apply enogh of that paste. 

The best way to get thickness is from Acer directly but they hide that secret as snake hides its legs.
As I said, I got those pad thickness for one of my graphic cards after I wrote that I won't ask them for warranty if I screw something. That I'm aware that I'm changing this at my own risk..........
Then they sent me those thicknesses, I think it was Gigabyte or Gainward.

You have to be extra tiring and then maybe they will tell that info.

To save yourself from all that stress I would just buy that from amazon and apply it when needed.

Glad I could help.

Hell_J

curbmd said:

Hey helpers!

My Helios 300 was overheating while playing games, so I opened it up to see if I could clean fans, noticed it needed repasting, and watched a YouTube on how to do it.

I repasted it and have great temps on CPU and GPU.

However!  Now my "system" is running hot and I can't help but wonder if I did something wrong there.  I pasted the pink looking spots, after cleaning them (other areas, not the GPU and CPU - hopefully my pic worked to show it) with the Arctic stuff, but I can't help but wonder if I didn't do enough.

Or, from reading, should I have used thermal pads?  Are the areas that are pink areas that needed paste?  (the pic is before I cleaned the laptop)

Appreciate any assistance!

Hello.

Those thermal pads should be replaced with new thermal pads. I think those surfaces are not in such tight contact as CPU and GPU and thermal paste has no effect. 
What do you mean you repasted pink areas and not CPU and GPU? You didn't change paste on CPU and GPU? 
When you talk about repasting you usually repaste CPU and GPU, not other areas.  

You should just buy thermal pads and put them where pink stuff was and repaste CPU and GPU and it will be fine.
I would recommend Arctic Cooling MX-4, and their thermal pads.

Thermal pads come in different thickness and one way to know which thickness goes where. You need to apply paste on cpu and gpu, apply pads 1 mm everywhere except vmem, apply 0.5 mm pads on vmem, install heatsink, uninstall heatsink and check footprint everywhere, by paste and on pads
only this way you can know as each heatsink individual.
The other way is to ask Acer if they would send you which thickness goes where. I once got that answer for one video card few years back, from Gainward, it took them few e-mails but I got it..

One question pops in mind, why did you remove thermal pads at all? I repasted 60 laptops and never removed thermal pads, just opened and put new paste and put everything back. 

curbmd

Hi!

Thanks for the detailed answer.  That was very helpful.

To answer your questions:

1.  I did repaste GPU and CPU.  That went well.  They are running cool.

2.  I used thermal paste on the spots that had the "pink stuff".  The pink stuff is a paste of some kind too.  I used thermal paste there because the guide I was watching did it.

3.  I did not actually remove any true thermal pads.  I left the white pads that you see in the picture.  It was just the pink spots that I cleaned off and replaced with the thermal paste that I used on the GPU and CPU (again, just because the guide video I watched did that). 

I am admittedly quite new to this, but because of Covid my computer shops are taking over a month to return repairs/fixes, so I had to try myself.

curbmd

Just hoping for more info, if you can provide it (@Hell_J, but anyone feel free!).

The areas that had pink paste are supposed to be thermal pads? 

Your suggestion of thickness for "vmem" means video memory?  Which ones are those?  How can I tell?

Thanks so much for any assistance.

Hell_J

curbmd said:

Just hoping for more info, if you can provide it (@Hell_J, but anyone feel free!).

The areas that had pink paste are supposed to be thermal pads? 

Your suggestion of thickness for "vmem" means video memory?  Which ones are those?  How can I tell?

Thanks so much for any assistance.

https://www.amazon.com/viscous-thermal-paste-replacement-Aspire/dp/B01C5XWF2U/ref=lp_9974932011_1_2?srs=9974932011&ie=UTF8&qid=1591430009&sr=8-2

You can use this for pink spots.

What is the model of your laptop? PH315-XX-XXXX?

curbmd

Okay, got it - thermal pads go wherever there was that thick pink stuff. 

My model number is: PH315 - 53 - 74YP

And thanks for the Amazon recommendation.  Appreciate it.

curbmd

And now that I've clicked on your link I can see it's even simpler than the pads and is a thick paste.  That looks like it's probably the kind of stuff that Acer originally used.

Hell_J

curbmd said:

And now that I've clicked on your link I can see it's even simpler than the pads and is a thick paste.  That looks like it's probably the kind of stuff that Acer originally used.

maybe not exactly the same, but you can use that instead. I read a lot of posts about those thickness of pads and they warry from model to model.
I would suggest to use that thick paste and you're good. If you buy this, from the link, I think you're good for few years..  

Just make sure you apply enogh of that paste. 

The best way to get thickness is from Acer directly but they hide that secret as snake hides its legs.
As I said, I got those pad thickness for one of my graphic cards after I wrote that I won't ask them for warranty if I screw something. That I'm aware that I'm changing this at my own risk..........
Then they sent me those thicknesses, I think it was Gigabyte or Gainward.

You have to be extra tiring and then maybe they will tell that info.

To save yourself from all that stress I would just buy that from amazon and apply it when needed.

Glad I could help.