Dell Inspiron N5010/15r temps and penny shim mod

Dell Inspiron N5010 (aka 15R)
Intel I3 @2.23ghz
Radeon Mobility HD 5470HD gpu
4GB ram
Seagate 320GB hdd
Bought in August in 2010

My inspiron has never overheated in the past and I've used it minimally since 2010. So I started playing Stalker from Steam (first game ever played on it) a few days ago and the fan has just been way too loud for the past few days. So I decided to repaste the cpu and gpu to attempt to lower the temps and fan noise. Disassembling this laptop was a headache for the first time doing it.

So after I removed the motherboard, I pulled out the heatsink and accidently ripped the gpu silicone thermal pad. I used AS5 for the thermal paste. I put the heatsink back on and I noticed that there was a gap because the heatsink wasn't making contact with the gpu. The thickness of the thermal pad is between 0.3 - 0.5mm. After googling, I discovered the penny trick. The thickness of a penny is 0.5mm. I decided to try this little modification.

I used a penny from 1971 (pre 1982 pennies have more copper). I used 80 grit sandpaper to sand the penny down on both sides and I managed to shave off 0.2mm. I used 320 grit paper to smooth the surfaces of the penny. Then I applied AS5 to the gpu and surface of the heatsink. The penny now serves as copper shim to fill in the gap.

So in CPUID's hardware monitor,

CPU idling at 43C
GPU idling at 48C

After playing Stalker for 7 mins: CPU at 59C and the GPU at 62C.

The max temp value for the cpu is 65C and for the gpu is 68C.

Are these good temperatures? What are the average temps for idling and gaming? Can I expect to see any damage from this mod? Thanks

 

UPDATE: Being cheap doesn't always pay off (if it ever even does).

Using a penny as a shim didn't work well and the temps sucked (70-80C). I started seeing artifacts for the first time while I was playing STALKER for about 2 hours. I also bought a 1mm thick blue colored thermal pad sheet but the temps were worse lol! AKA the 'blue stuff' doesn't work. What a waste of $5.

Moving on... I ended up buying a $7 feeler gauge (for spark plugs) from O'Reilley's auto parts, a $3 bundle of copper shims from ebay, a $6 small tube of Prolimatech PK-3 thermal compound (from Newegg), and a $5 used Belkin laptop cooler. Idling temps are 47-50C and in STALKER gameplay (past 2 hours) are 60-65C. Plus no artifacts. It was a remarkable change indeed. Having the laptop cooler running when booting up the Inspiron shaved off a few temp degrees.

The thickness (width) of the gap in between the gpu and heatsink is around 86-88 in millimeters by the feeler gauge measurement. The shims that I bought were 1mm thick and so, I used sanding paper to shave off 4 millimeters.

I'm so stoked at the temps that I'm now getting. My laptop doesn't turn off anymore after running certain hours. I hope that this post can you help you if you're seeking a good cooling solution for your Inspiron.

 

Glad to see an informative post after searching for a solution to the overheating problem on this particular model. I've attempted a copper shim mod but I've been still getting high temperatures. I noticed however you did this procedure with much more precision than I have, such as measuring the gap between the gpu and the heatsink (which I think you mean .86 - .88 mm) and sanding down the copper shim.

I have a few questions. What grain sandpaper did you use to sand the copper shim and what was the final thickness of the shim? Also, I'm not sure if your heatsink is similar to mine (I'm assuming it is) but I've noticed that the screw nearest the gpu is positioned such that when it is tightened, it provides tension to the copper plate over the gpu towards its edge rather than the middle, causing the plate to "lift" the shim from contact with the gpu. I think I have this problem because my copper shim doesn't fill the gap precisely so I want to try again, this time getting all the measurements correct.