MiSJAH's guide on how NOT to Liquid Metal repaste!!

OK, quick back story;

I have the AORUS X5V6, it's a great machine. I wanted to push it to see how far it would go. So I repasted the CPU and GPU with Coolabatories Liquid Ultra. Got some great results:

Before:


After LM repaste:


Good stuff so far, but I wasn't happy with the GPU temps so I thought a little extra CLU on the GPU would be a great idea:





May as well chuck some more on the CPU while the X5 is open:



So this lovingly spunked CLU all over the inside of my X5 achieved the following:





Oooops, right?

So lappy gets shipped to UK repair centre, wages for a week go with it.

Moral of the story is be careful with Liquid Metal!

I know this is common knowledge but better informed, and now with pictures.










Anyway, Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut ordered, maybe second time lucky

 

Sorry that this happened man, liquid metal greed got the best out of the aorus.

While it may be common knowledge to some, the danger is very real so thank you for sharing! I hope this, instead of discouraging repasting with LM, instead encourages to be extra careful



Sent from my SM-G925I using Tapatalk

 

No worries, it's back now and in dire need of a repaste

Yeah, that's the thinking behind the thread.

 

Did you send it to gigabyte to get it fixed? If so, did they fix under warranty? I would imagine, no, but I wanted to ask anyways.

 

No a gigabyte recommended repair centre. Hahaha, I wish.

However, praise to the UK AORUS team, fantastically helpful.

 

It's a strange human trait to remain faithful and praise that which has already destroyed you.

It's difficult to give up the perceived value vs danger trade-off of Liquid Metal, to finally realize the benefits are not worth the danger.

It's like the gamblers disease, still insisting that given a little more time, and just the right amount of luck, they could have hit it big. If they'd just done something different it could have gone right.

Quit while you are ahead, warn others of your mishap - but don't turn it into a recommendation to do the same thing as you did - if they only would be "more careful than you".

It's not fun to watch...probably a lot worse to experience, why recommend others do it?

 

First mistake - Not covering the surrounding areas with Kaptop/Electrical tape.

 

I did with the CPU, the GPU had a cover around it but not tight around it.

 

Those shrouds are very basic. Its super easy for stuff to get under them. They are mainly to protect the component around the die.
Need to seal the edges like this -

Spoiler

 

Realised value of maxing 90*C+ prior to cpu repaste with LM, then realised the benefit of maximum cpu temps of 68*C. Also enough room to overclock to 4.5Ghz too.

I'm in no position to advise anyone on the topic, but hope that sharing my experience may help others.

 

That's the draw, the beauty of the win - when you win it's sweet.

When he lose's the gambler waxes poetic indifference, elicits the beauty of the win to draw back in his fellow gamblers.

"Fear not my humble loss for you shall surely win."

Just use a high grade non-conductive thermal paste, learn how to use it, learn if it needs curing time to give full benefit (Grizzly Kryonaut / Hydronaut), and test your before numbers honestly for comparison with the after re-paste testing.

And, be happy with any improvement, and avoid the constant re-paste cycle, trying to get that last 1C improvement you know is still waiting out there.

There's no improvement of any magnitude that's worth bricking your motherboard with conductive paste.

None.

 

At this point, I'll agree to disagree.

 

Not to solicit you or anything, but would you like me to walk you through doing this, like on the phone or discord where I can give you some examples in real time what to do and what not to do, and prepare you for a whole list of things to expect.
Like I would start off with how to prepare the surface and why, and explain in detail, and the materials to use in doing so, to avoid dust and contaminants and stuff.
I genuinely wouldn't mind helping you, since your going to do it yourself, and again.

 

That would be massively appreciated.

I'm away from home until the weekend. What time zone are you? I'm GMT.

Thanks man.

 

Im -5 GMT, you can always share a server with me on discord by clicking the link or finding me in the NBR discord server we have.
Then we can arrange something.

Normally I would put all tips here, but I know the laptop your using has a plethora of things about it that need to be addressed, like how it uses a cheap silicon paste inplace of thermal pads in some area's.
The company ACER creates wonderful products then skips out on the quality of implementation where it is invisible with thier new IP/branding of AURUS.

 

Sweet. Aorus is Gigabyte's premo brand

 

How many more times will you brick your laptop with conductive TIM before switching to non-conductive TIM? 2?, 3?, more?

 

Keep following the thread to find out

 

I literally just recalled that, and was thinking to come back here edit what I wrote, because I remembered I wrote Acer and was like wait - no I'm thinking something else... it is Gigabyte.... like ACER ever come out with anything decent LOLOL...

you beat me to the correction. Kudos !

I saw this and derped basically hahaha

 

I'd be interested in a proper guide as well too. Thanks

 

MiSJAH's guide on how NOT to Liquid Metal repaste!!

Step 1. - Don't do it.

Step 2. - Get non-conductive Thermal Paste.

Step 3. - Find and follow non-conductive Thermal Paste instructions.

Step 4. - Be Happy you didn't Brick your Motherboard with Electrically Conductive *LIQUID* Thermal Paste, like @MiSJAH and so many others that went quietly into the night...

 

RMAing laptop now due to 'other' issues caused by the repair centre.

Brand new X5 with me by the weekend to be LM'd ASAP.

(Thermal Grizzly, Isopropyl Alcohol, Scotch 33+ tape and lint free cloths arrived today ).

 

Sweet, glad it's working out for you. Aorus Support is awesome for coming through for you too.

Aorus are high on my list for a future laptop, as soon as this Max-Q mess works it's way out of makers new laptop systems.

 

Thanks man, I appreciate we don't see eye to eye on many things, I'd be intrigued to know your opinion of Max-Q.

 

It's another way to separate people from their money without giving them anything like what they imagine they are getting.

People hear 1080 Max-Q in a slim laptop, they only hear the "1080" part - remembering that's supposed to be awesome - and lose their common sense (how can that possibly work?, a 1080 in a thin laptop?? - how will it cool itself???) and lose their will to resist:
They don't bother to look at the details, like the supplied power supply is only 180w-250w, and a 1080 needs a 330w to stretch it's legs fully.

A "real" 1070 is mostly drawing 150w-200w while gaming all by itself:

And, a "real" 1080 draws 200w-300w(!!)


How is it possible that a 180w PSU can drive a 1070 Max-Q to full 1070 performance? It can't.

How is it possible that a 250w PSU can drive a 1080 Max-Q to full 1080 performance? It can't.

A good 1070 OC + new Nvidia software tweaks for adaptive performance cooling would have been far better.

Now thousands, or more, will get these 1080 Max-Q laptops and expect 1080 performance. They won't get it, and will try to push it to get it, disabling the new Max-Q detuning if possible, only to find there isn't enough power budget or cooling to make that happen.

And, we all get to hear their *****ing and moaning here on NBR... how do I make it perform like a 1080??

It's better to learn not to burn, than how to recover from the flames.

 

I don't know... thats from Tom's Hardware, I tend to not trust ANYTHING from that domain.
Now what does NBR report ? (those guys know thier ****.. just saying)

 

Might seem a little crazy, but when using any amount of LM, why not just be extra careful ?


in here I have an example of just an extra precaution , because I had to shim the heatsink, and using normal paste on both sides of the copper would just be not good,
so I used LM on the copper shim, and used as little as I could, and tapes the edges of the copper too, but just incase,
I always created a sort of shield around where the cpu is, incase a drop gets out here and there,
it might just dry up on the tape and over time go away. Just giving it somewhere to go.

 

It will be very busy for you bruh. Hope you get help from other... Explaining the buyers that they are screwed by Nvidia and the ODM 24/7 work

 

I've read on some threads that they use clear nail varnish to cover the transistors of the CPU. Have any of you considered trying it?

 

I did it in my work laptop with a i7-4700hq, "painted" the cpu carrier in varnish, applied CLU, and dropped temps by 20ºC.
Now, I would say that OP LM application was a bit bad, bad wetting of the cpu and gpu dies, would need a bit more brushing time for the LM to fully wet the silicon die..

 

What do you mean by CPU carrier? How about the GPU, did you also apply some on it?

 

What's the melting temperature of varnish?

Kaptop tape ordered. Thermal Grizzly LM, scotch +33, K5 Pro, and lint free cloths delivered.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Maxed Cpu/GPU temp has no chance to melt varnish(Silicon lottery use liquid electric tape for coating the vrm's). And I'm assuming you're not going to use it on the Die?

 

Kapton tape vs electrical tape, w/c is better to use?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Doesn't matter. Use what you have.

 

Thanks OP for having the courage to admit your **k up.

Ridiculous analogies to gambling aside, its just like any mod. There is risk, there is reward. You can control your fear about it by minimising the risks, realising there's a learning curve, that most of the rules of pasting don't apply.

LM requires a very good flat thin surface contact and that is in many cases determined by QC at the factory. I had to bend both my gpu heatsinks and also change thermal pad thickness and consistency to the point the core contact was good enough.

 

I just had to add some more to my 1070s. Was getting total power loss within a minute on opening a gpu intensive workload (gta5), started only in the benchmark then progressed into crashing in general play (the 1070s sit on 30-40% ea at max 1080p60 graphics settings incl AA). Opened it up and the surface of both gpus had some spots on the edges where it wasn't there any more... Added a tiny bit more and all good again.

Interesting thing it was happening while cold, when the temp readings were as low as 40C yet only last week it was mining 24/7 at 60-70C no probs.

Check a little while after your initial application and make sure the whole die is covered with the stuff. There seems to be some minor loss of the liquid as it alloys with the heatsink.

 

Speaking of Thermal Grizzly Kryonaught how does it compare to CLU temp wise?
Obviously CLU would have better temps but are they that much better?
I'm always a little wary about using and applying conductive metal paste.

 

I'm sensing that we should have a definitive guide for the use of LM. I've been meaning to try it this time around.

 

I recently liquid metal repasted both of my notebooks following this video guide.



Everything went fine. Most im portant to me seems the taping part.

Best regards

phila

 

Oh! I've actually seen your video. I've been watching it several times just to make myself more comfortable about the idea.

I have a few more questions though.

1) Where is the best place to buy the thermal pads and LM? I only see Kryonaut over Amazon Canada ($16.25 for the 1g).

2) Isn't this a concern for LM? It was recently shared to me together with this thread, but I haven't read through all of the thread yet.

3) Any other general tips for LM repasting? I've only ever done the normal repasting with my M18x before.

 

Sorry if I am not able to answer all of your questions:

1.) I bought Kryonaut through Amazon (Germany) as well (13,50 €). There is the option to buy it from Caseking (primary vendor over here as co-inventor works for them), but neither did I want to buy more than 1g (sufficed for two notebooks and probably one or two more) nor did I want to wait longer (amazon prime customer). I did not buy new thermal pads however.

2.) I can not speak for other notebooks but: My thermal paste did not stay put/was kind of pumped (several tries - temp allways rising after some days). This does not seem to be the case (up to now) with liquid metal as you can spread it really (really) thin.
Also the tape will prevent the liquid metal from getting in contact with anything of importance. Just make sure that you thighten the screws of you heatsink cross over.

3.) I liquid metal repasted for the first time and was so amazed about how easy it was to spread the LM that I instantly began working on my wifes notebook. Still I have one more hint: When taping beware that the tape is not to higher than the CPU/GPU (happened to me with my wifes notebook as I wanted to have a second layer in a certain area). This circumstance and gave me a shock when powering on the machine, as one core would reach 95°C instantly an thermal throttle in effect ;-) After removing the extra tape the temps are perfect now (even though we are talking about a Gigabyte P34W v4 - which was the "hottest" notebook I ever used).

Best regards

phila

 

Thanks, I'm getting confident about the idea of LM again. I'm just taking all the precaution I could.

Oh, do you have to retape the CPU/GPU when you do a LM repaste?

 

I understand you concern and think it wise to be carfeful. I was not sure about LM repasting as well. I was kind of forced into it due to the other TIMs beeing pumped out.

I hope I got your question right: Retaping would be better if your tape is spoiled by other TIM or an abundance of overflowing LM, or if the tape is not adhesive anymore.

If on the contrary the tape still firmly covers all the parts you want to protect (so that no LM could flow underneath) you should not have to retape again.

Best regards

phila

 

Is it fair to say that LM repasting would be at its safest if the taping is done perfectly? Other than using too much LM, I don't see how you can go wrong with it since (theoretically) you're just spreading it evenly at that point. I mean, how else can one be doing it wrong at that point?

 

The sheath around the GPU needs to be removed completely as there is a gap LM can get though:


Tape the GPU with Scotch 33+ tape:


And the CPU with Kapton tape:


The CPU die is shorter than the GPU die so a thinner tape is preferred.

 

Ah, so it comes with a tape by default? Is the Kapton tape better than the Scotch 33+? I remember iunlock just used Scotch 33+ on both.

In essence, the tapes must be hugging the base of the die. Right?

Also, what are those white paste-like things as well as the black tapes you're using?

 

As far as I know the producer does not matter that much as long as it is "electrically insulating" tape.

Still using a thinner tape on the CPU might help with not getting the tape layers to thick, as they will certainly overlap on the edges.

I as well removed the black plastic cover around the GPU, and did it for the same reason MiSJAH did.

Best regards

phila

 

White stuff is the stock thermal paste.

 

Wait, it has thermal paste on top of the thermal pads? Sorry, I’m just going off of my experience with my old M18x, and I don’t remember having that when I repasted. It was just the Dell toothpaste and thermal pads.

EDIT: I just realized we’re using different brands. That might be the reason, but I’ll be happy to be informed otherwise.