Replacing Nvidia Thermal Pad? (Latitude E6420)

I just put a new heatsink/fan on my E6420, and I think I may have made a mistake with applying the thermal compound for the CPU. I'd like to remove the heatsink/fan and redo it.

However, does that mean that the little pad for the Nvidia GPU would have to be redone? It appears to be think thermal compound, and I'm afraid that if I remove the heatsink/fan, I'd have to find another thermal pad if it melts around the GPU. When I tried just thermal grease on the Nvidia GPU by itself, I noticed that it seems the heatsink doesn't touch the GPU unless it has something thick in between it.

Can I remove the heatsink and redo just the thermal compound on the CPU, or would I have to locate a replacement thermal pad for the GPU also?

 

As long as they aren't damaged, you can re-use the same thermal pads. Any thermal paste will have to be redone though.

 

Thanks. To be certain, does the GPU on this model use a pad, or a really think chunk of thermal compound? I'm afraid that if I remove it, I'd have to order an entire replacement heatsink since whatever is on the GPU isn't the same consistency as thermal grease. I just want to be 100% sure before I take it off.

 

I don't own one, so that's not something i can really answer. However, if the gap is rather large 0.5m or more, chances are that it's a thermal pad. If it's a thermal pad, it should come off in a single piece as long as you're careful removing the heatsink. The VRAM will likely have thermal pads as well (it's rarely thermal paste on those).

The most common setup i've seen is paste on the GPU and CPU and pads on the VRAM, but pads on the GPU aren't unheard of. Your heatsink might also take care of the chipset.