Precision 7710 Northbridge thermal pads

Hello all,

I've replaced the Motherboard for my laptop in the service center, and i noticed that the technician did not applied any thermal pads or paste for northbridge and i'm currently facing big temperature issue in laptop (CPU hits 100 Deg C), i want to make sure if NB should be applied thermal pads on it or anything else , and does it really effect CPU temps??

 

A north bridge wont change the temps of your CPU. Sounds like the tech didn't do a good job with mounting/pasting the heatsink to the CPU. I would take it back since it's overheating now...

 

It is also very possibly, even likely, that the technician installed the wrong heatsink corresponding to a different GPU. The assemblies look identical other than very slight differences in some areas. I've had a tech replace our 7710 heatsink when a fan bearing was making noises. When he was done, the boot temps immediately went over 90c on the CPU and then idled at mid 90c. He said that was normal. I said "noooooooo" and asked him to swap back in the original. The temps then booted and idled at 40c. Then he agreed that the heatsink must've been wrong model even though we couldn't perceive the differences between them just by looking with our eyes. The thermal pads were all there on both, but the new one was not fully making contact with the CPU because the replacment heatsinks GPU area was meant for an AMD and I had an NVidia. And because of that it messed up the offset for the CPU and the CPU wasn't making sufficient contact with the new heatsink thermal paste.

I have a few posts regarding that ordeal here

I resolved this by using the original heatsink until Dell pro support sent me another replacment and I'd install it myself. Considering the techs initial statement saying the overheating was "normal"I didn't want another ignorant technician. All techs are not like that of course, I've had some great ones. But I'd rather do it myself. WHen the correct heatsink arrived I installed it and it worked great. Idle temps are in high 30s and low 40s.

Always test the system before the techs leave the table, even if they act like they have important places to go. My tech almost drove away before I noticed the temps were not normal. It was awkward for me to stop the guy from leaving and driving away. He was trying to assure me it was normal just so he could get on to his next appointment. I had to insist he get out of his car and return inside to reinstall the original heatsink.

 

Appreciate your reply and high value info, seems that Dell's services installed nVidia heatsink, shall i call them back and ask them to replace it with the correct AMD heatsink ?
And another question, my laptop disassembled more than 5 times and changed the motherboard 3 times and heatsink 2 times, can i ask for a replacement with a new one?

Thanks

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

 

Hi, yes I would definately call Dell and request a new heatsink. And considering how many times they've visited you for repairs you could suggest they instead simply send you a replacement system. If they agree to replacing your system, then you simply wait for new system to arrive, swap over your drives into the new system and return the old system. They may not have anymore 7710's though since that is a few generations old. I tried when I had to have 4 or five heatsinks sent, but they said my system was too old to consider swapping entire system for a new one. Ya never know though. See what they say.