[Alienware 17R4 / 15R3] - Disassembly + Repaste Guide + Results

If you look at your clock speed in OCCT test in previous post, you can see processor can't hold its stock Turbo boost during 100% load. You need upp the PL1 and PL2 power limits. Your BGA running for half machine.

 

Yes, but I want temps under control first, then Ill give her more power. It seems like I got the temps under control ill give it the power it wants.

 

I ended buying all recommend items from a few different places. Amazon canada and US as well as from frozen cpu. It seemed to be the best average price. Total was about $120 USD before Customs. We will see what happens at the border lol.

On a side note, I was going over the process to repad an repaste and I have never done it before with Liquid Metal. Are we suppose to keep the Electrical tape around the CPU once the repaste is completed and we reassemble everything? or are we suppose to remove the tape once the heat sink is in place.

Thanks again

 

Here is Battlefield 1 for 30 min after fan curve adjustment and a few other tweaks with the system. Alot more acceptable to me.

 

I just repasted my laptop and overclocked to 4.1 Ghz. I used Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut but my temperatures running time spy are running 95C on CPU and 76C on GPU. Do you think I didn't use enough of the paste? Only thing I can think of.

 

@iunlock It's done! Between 12 and 10 degrees less.
I use Aluminium HS 20x20x6mm (I reduced to 20x20x4mm) and Artic MX-4 Thermal Compound
To hold the HS to the tape i use Artic Aluminia Themal Adhesive. It's like glue, but thicker.

 

Do these temps look alright or do i need to mess with the heatsink/paste a little more? Grizzly Conductonaut and Fugipoly ultra pads.

Before:


After:

 

Likely not enough LM and/or a contact issue.

Nice.. Good job.

The Temps are a bit high... It'd be worth it to repaste.

::iunlock::

 

what kind of temps should i be seeing?

 

I also tried to use fujipoly 11W/mk 2mm and aluminum HS 20x20x4mm and a little better than using Artic mx-4. 2-3 degrees colder. I liked it more with Fujipoky, because I did not have to glue the heatsink, because the black plastic kept holding the HS/Thermal pad.

 

how do you machine the HS down 2mm? or can you buy them that size?

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

I had bought 6mm for use in another component. I use an iron file for metal (I do not know if the translation is correct, in Spanish is "lima de hierro para metal") to reduce to 4mm. In Amazon.com maybe you can get the right size.

 

@iunlock

I'm located in Seattle and would want to have you do a repaste on my 15R3. Please contact me if you're able to assist.

 

PM sent.

::iunlock::

 

I machined all mine at the shop in bulk. It's cleaner and faster.

::iunlock::

 

The heatsink on the PCH should be 4mm? It says 5-6mm in the starter post? If it's 4mm then I need to either get a different one or shave off 2mm.

 

Ideal it is around 4-5mm depending on the tolerance level of the black cover plastic.

Ex. On my personal unit #1 17R4, the 5mm fits perfect. Nice and snug, while on my other unit #2 17R4, it liked 4mm much better.

So in short...it varies, but roughly it'll be around 4-5mm on avg.

 

Hi,
i really want to say thank you to iunlock for this repaste guide.
I got the overheating problem al looooong time and dell torture me with weeks of stupid tests
until they send me a service guy who change the whole coolingpart but it changes nothing.
Today i repasted my system (whithout removing the mainboard, yes its possible look at youtube^^)
Now i love it runs so cool ive never dreamed of i made two pictures (screenshot wont work dont know why)
Its the OC3 Profile from the BIOS before repaste it overheat and throttle down to 2,9ghz after it runs stable with under 70degree at 3,8ghz.
But now i use my own overclock with 4ghz and no extra vcore and temps jumping around 70degrees^^

Before:


After:

 

Question: if I need 1mm thick pads but have excess 0.5mm pads, can I press two together to make 1mm? Or would the air gap ruin the conductive properties?

 

Will work but the results won't be optimal.

 

Want to lower the temperature of your Alienware? Buy a Graphic Amplifier + external GTX! They are about 20-30 degrees less at all... !

 

-______________________-

 

I ordered this. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NACVLWM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

have a friend that had a R3 that says it lowered his temps 10-15C over the repaste. We will see, I want to test it out on the vent closest to the CPU and see what happens.

 

And that device works? I have a graphic amplifier for 2 years. I just changed my gtx 1080 to a gtx 1080 ti aorus x. (Changing the graphics card without having to change my laptop, is a great advantage).
After changing the thermal pads and applying LM, the maximum temperature (in summer 34 to 39 degrees ambient temperature) my 17 r4 is maintained at 30-32 degrees on standby and maximum 60-62 degrees at maximum power.

Plus: gtx 1080 ti aorus x practically no noise and the temperature is very low.

 

Supposedly it does, its 30$ US so its a small price none the less, if it does not then im not really out anything if it does drop the temps like a friend of mine says then it will be a good investment for 30$ and allows me to use my 1080 thats in my laptop at a cooler temp.

 

In the past, I tried another similar one and it did not give me good results. Maybe this is better.

 

well I messed up my conductonaut repaste. My cores are all over the place now with thermal throttling happening without any overclock. What's the procedure for removing all the lm? I'm gonna repaste with kryonaut.

thanks.

 

Rubbing alcohol, a bottle of Jack and a lot of patients.

 

Haha for real? It won't just come off with a few good swipes? The bloody thing gushed out after I let out the initial pressure. Now I'm completely out of lm.

What a nightmare that was. Is it doable to go back to paste at this point?

 

It comes off pretty easy with some paper towels and rubbing alcohol. Just take your time and once you wipe off some LM, discard that piece of paper towel/napkin (ie..no double passes...just once then discard etc... LM is tricky and messy) ... For clumps you can use tape to lift it off as this method works very well.

 

Phew. Thanks bro! I thought I was hooped.

What about removing the lm from the heatsink side? Same procedure? Is there any danger if say there's a bit left on the heatsink when I repaste with Kryo?

 

As for the heat plate side just clean it the same and the best you can. There will be a silvery stain, but that's okay. Just make sure to clean it to where when you swipe over it with the paper towel, there's no Grey left on the paper towel.

::iunlock::

 

this is becoming a very frustrating process. Stripped it down and repasted with Kryonaut. Thing can't even hold 4.1 in OCCT for more than 2 min. Not sure what to do at this point. Core 1 and 3 seem to be ok, but 0 and 2 overheat. I feel like stock paste was more stable. I have a new 7820/gtx 1080 btw.

 

It's a right ***** cleaning conductonaut off the heatsink. I remember on my second repaste using considerable elbow grease and time, not to mention paper towels, to wipe the lm out so I could try Kryonaut on my gpu. Turned out to be 1-2 degrees higher (in my haste, forgot to account for cure time), and prompted repasted back w LM. I won't mind repasting or reopening my laptop (its become second nature by now), but I will NEVER switch away from conductonaut again. Im in it for life lol

 

Fair enough. I'd give it another shot if I had any left in the tube but it shot out everywhere lol.

Anyways, looks like the kryonaut wasn't applied correctly. I spread it on there, but I used quite a bit.

What's the proper technique for applying kryonaut? I know it says to use a pea size then spread it, but it seems to spread too thin and I see sections of the die exposed

Thanks

 

See this video buddy

 

@iunlock Thank you for the great guide. I just want to know if you have a guide to the thickness and placement of thermal pads on a 15r3 w/6700HQ and 1060, because as far as I can tell the only ones covered in this guide are the 17" model and not with 1060. If however it is stated in another comment I am sorry for not noticing.
TIA

*Also you could consider to change the guide at the point of taking the whole mb out, as it is possible to remove the heatsink by removing the little screws on the fan housing. It might scare off some people, having to remove the mb completely

 

I've clearly stated in this thread somewhere of why NOT to remove the fans like that. That is the lazy and wrong way to do it for many reasons.

There is a reason why the mobo needs to be taken out.

As for the chart, yes let me try to locate it... I know it's floating around somewhere...hmm thought it was in the OP but I guess not...

 

Just a follow up from the cooler post I made, it arrived and I hooked it up to the back. Here is what is weird there is really no diff in core temps from after the repaste but the air coming out the back of the computer is noticeably cooler. So it seems like it is cooling the heat sink but that's not translating into lower temps.

Over all ill keep it on there as the laptop does not really move unless i'm on a business trip and then it removes with just one click. The heat on the overall laptop seems lower especially the heat radiating from the keyboard and palm rest when under heavy gaming.

The cooler is good at moving noise away from the laptop so I don't really hear it from the side of the laptop but behind I can. You can manually adjust the fan speed or let it work on auto. Just somthing to tinker with.

Anyways here is about 30 min in BF1 with it on Ultra.

 

I might try to make the seal around the cooler a little better with some double sided tape. so many ridges im wondering if its affecting the test. ill have to mess with that tomorrow when I get back home.

 

I did not understand. Did you get the temperature down? How much?

 

The Core temp's AKA the CPU and the GPU only dropped a few C.

But the over all system was also running cooler, I am going to make the seal a little better on the heat sink to the cooler and see if it makes a noticeable diff. The Alienware has alot of ridges in the back the stop the natural seal its supposed to make. ill let you know what I find out.

 

So, Gave the unit direct access to the heat sink and the temps were kind of odd, it did drop them by a decent amount but also look at the rest of the temps of other components. All I can think of is its sucking a crap ton of air thur there that its pulling air over the MB also.

My house stays a constant 72F so the ambient temp should stay the same.

Overall, if someone was to scared to do a repaste a option like this might be a way to go. Tho you will have to find a way to make it make a good seal otherwise its moot.

These temps are with Kyro and repad applied on both before and after. BF1 Ultra 1440P settings used to tax it.


Disclaimer!!!!
I was just screwing around with coolers to see if any of them would help temps. Repaste ans repad is still by FAR the best way to go.

Before

After, With directly pushed against the heat sink.

Cardboard is to hold down the rubber flap to make a good seal.

 

Dont use thimgs like the Opolar on a gaming Laptop.
The laptop puses more air out than the opolar can suck so its mor a blockade better turn the laptop fans a bit higher.
if you repaste with kryonaut the temps are ok normal its only around 10 degrees lower than the standard coolingpads from dell.
to lower temps 20-30degrees you need to use conductonaut.

PS.: if a alienware overheats and a service guy came over to fix it he normaly got no problems if you give him other paste even liquid metal to use maybe you have to hand over some extra buggs ^^

 

This one is 5700 RPM it moves more air then the current fan can. But the was the point was to find out if more airflow would affect cooling. In the end it did but only by 6-8C

 

i want to repad repaste and do the PCH mod but the '' and a ton of time balancing the stupid HS'' got me scared i dont want to spend a ton of time balancing stupids HS and also i dont know how to do it tho

 

So don't balance the heatsink? Not everyone does this. I simply repasted, I didn't even use new pads and I still saw a drop in temps. If your temps are really out to lunch and you want to deal with it youreslf then you will have to look into it.

 

I still prefer the cooling pad approach, U3 with custom fans is a bulletproof solution so far.

 

@koneko22 unless you see double-stacked thermal pads and/or a visible imbalance on the heatsink, it's not needed to "balance" the heatsink using regular paste

liquid metal is whole different story

 

*Edit, wrong thread