Dell G3 17" heat sink removal issue.

Obligatory "I'm a newbie to laptops". Please excuse my lack of knowledge on the topic.

Model: Dell G3 17" i5 8300h, gtx 1060 maxQ, 2 days old

So after finding out that this model's cooling solution wasn't the best, hence the high GPU temps that hover anywhere from 72-82 degree celcius when gaming, quick research led me to believe that I should try and reapply thermal paste. After all, I would like to maintain the GPUs life and performance for as long as possible. I've heard horror stories of GPUs dying prematurely as a result of consistent overheating. I spent a pretty penny on this laptop (my first laptop ever) as a college student on a budget, so the last thing I would want is to be left with a fried GPU in less than a year's time. (I don't think I'm being paranoid, but let me know if I am lol. I've already had a person tell me that so far)

I watched this vid
as reference for this little undertaking (except I'm merely reapplying thermal paste, not employing any kind of liquid metal. The process for that seems much too involved for my level of experience).


I opened up the chassis and unscrewed the heatsink screws, but unlike in the video, the copper plating just wouldn't budge. As I looked more carefully, I realized that there was some very strong black adhesive tape holding the plating and the fan together. There was no such tape like this in the video, granted he did say it was his second time opening up the chassis.

I began to try to peel off the corner of the adhesive tape, but it was so strong that it barely budged, and when I added some more force, bits of the ripped pieces remained stuck on the surface. Looking at the video, there is no sign of any kind of struggle to remove any tape that may or may not have initially been present in his case. As a newbie, I feel so apprehensive to try and completely rip this tape off; it's almost as if it's screaming "DO NOT PEEL" lol...


So I guess my question is, do I have the go ahead to peel this tape off - brute force - or am I better off not messing with it? On top of that, in the case of the guy in the video, why does it seem that there is no adhesive of any kind holding the heat sink plating onto the fans like in my case?


I really would like to be able to reapply thermal paste, but I don't want to get overzealous and start savagely peeling away at the adhesive at the expense of messing something important up.


If you read this all, thanks a bunch. Any kind of advice or insight is appreciated.

 

Doing mine in a couple of weeks, I can update on how the process goes.

I bought two G3 17's (one for my nephew and one for me), one from the Microsoft Store in Canada and one from Dell Canada.

I've been watching that video however some of the capacitor layouts are a bit different on my nephew's G3 with GTX 1060 and 8300H, I haven't looked too much into my G3 with GTX 1050 and 8300H as I'm suppose to get my panel replaced some time next week from Dell's Home service.

 

If you do happen to open the thing up and notice the adhesive I'm talking about (and/or how to fix it), please update me. I'm still struggling unfortunately.. lol!

 

I don't think it's adhesive....I've never seen adhesive applied to any CPU or GPU die ever in my 20 years building, modding and servicing computers.

 

It's essentially just a strong black tape preventing me from taking off the heat sink. I'm pretty sure only the 17" model has it but can't confirm that.

 

Do you have a picture of this tape or obstruction?

 

I forgot to mention the user janthe6th re-pasted with liquid metal to high success without undervolting on this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/dell-g3-in-house-what-do-you-need-to-know.817110/page-8

He's also on a local Canadian forum I use very often and has posted the same results on that forum, he did not mention anything difficultly removing the heatsink or old paste and nothing about any adhesive substance under the heatsinks.

Edit:

I've decided to go Conductonaut (liquid metal) for the CPU heatsink and Kryonaut for the GPU heatsink with my G3 laptop(s).

As this reviewer seems to have the best temps with the above re-pasting configuration and it makes a lot of sense since on of the heatpipes are link to both CPU and GPU heatsink (this same heatpipe also goes over the VRM heatspreader).

https://www.ultrabookreview.com/20439-msi-gs65-review/

The CPU usually heats up the most even in a GTX 1070 Max-Q configuration such as the review above which is also true in the Dell G3, so since the GPU is efficiently cooled by Kyronaut thermal paste the CPU being hotter of the two and prone to throttling needs the Conductonaut liquid metal.

This make the heat from the CPU transfer a lot faster to it's own heatpipe and the linked heatpipe between the CPU and GPU and with heatpipes where's it cooler that's where the heat transfers moves towards so that would be where GPU heatsink is which is already sufficiently cooled.

 

Hey Pundrew,

I just purchased a G3 (15") and am in the same boat as you! Did you figure out what to do with the black tape? Also, what thermal paste did you end up choosing? Thanks in advance!

 

Just an update I forgot to post because I've been so busy with the start of classes, I removed the heatsinks on my Dell G3 with GTX 1050 early this week because I deemed the laptop is a keeper with no current defects and from my experience just removing the heatsinks alone without re-pasting (even if you re-paste other than LM) warranty service cannot notice the difference.

Long story short, I did not find any so called black sticky matter under the heatsinks, I only found paste that is already starting to dry up 3 weeks after the laptop was manufacturer directly from Dell's production line (my nephew's G3 is the one bought from Microsoft which was manufactured late in 2017 and have been sitting at Microsoft's storage warehouses).

 

Hey Polar, still no luck on my end. Maybe our units have secretly been refurbished or something and the repair guys resealed the heat sink with the tape unbeknownst to the manufacturers. Did you purchase your unit off of the Microsoft website like me?

 

Hey again, the tape is actually on top of the heat sink not under it. It overlaps with the heat sink and the fan compartment.

 

Take some pictures of what you're talking about?

 

I got mine from Micro Center and afaik it's brand new. I ended up getting an external cooling pad and undervolting the GPU and CPU. It's been adequate so I don't feel the need to repaste, at least for now *fingers crossed*

 

Got a chance to remove the heatsink on my nephew's G3 today, apparently the GTX 1060 versions or retail Microsoft version the heatsink and fan are bind together.

It's impossible to remove the heatsink without unscrewing the fan screws and removing the whole heatsink alongside both fans which I did, otherwise it's no different than my G3 and no black sticky stuff either.

 

pasting my experience from another thread:

My liquid metal experience: Very pleased! No throttle! Turbo boost on

Running AIDA64 stress both CPU & GPU 15 minutes in: CPU 90C, GPU 79C. Before LM, my CPU shoot straight up to 100 and GPU mid 80s. (I doubt I would ever need to push my CPU & GPU this hard in real life usage)
In game: Doom: CPU low-mid 60s. GPU low-mid 60s. Probably hit 70 if I game longer. Before LM, CPU low 90s and GPU mid 80s
Normal usage: CPU high 40s - low 50s. GPU high 40s - low 50s

I followed bob of all trades video for this process. The only difference of our 17" model is that the fans is part of the heat sink so a few more screws need to be removed to take the heat sink off.

For the 1st attempt, temps stayed the same so I opened up the laptop 2nd time and find out I applied too little liquid metal on the CPU. I notice that ONLY the middle part of the heat sink has contact with the LM. I know that I applied a very thin layer of LM across the surface with a little build up in the middle.

So I applied a little more and got the result above.