Had a repair shop guy tell me I was using way too much thermal paste, changed everything for my laptop

This old timer at a shop in Denver watched me paste up a CPU and said 'you're putting enough for a whole sandwich, not a laptop.' After I switched to just a pea sized dot, my temps dropped by 15 degrees and I stopped having to repaste every 6 months. Anyone else get told they were overdoing it on something simple like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

sandra91616h ago

Hear the same thing from a buddy who builds gaming rigs. He said I was "painting a masterpiece" instead of just "spreading some mayo on a burger." Once I actually measured my paste and put down a tiny dot, my laptop stopped sounding like a jet engine during Zoom calls. The old timers really DO know better about this stuff.

mila_reed10h ago

The small dot method is definitely the way to go, but I gotta point something out - even a tiny pea-sized dot can be too much for a laptop's CPU. Laptop dies are smaller than desktop ones, so you really only need a grain of rice sized blob right in the center. The pressure from the heatsink will spread it perfectly. Putting too much paste actually insulates the chip and makes temps worse, which is probably why your buddy was yelling about the mayo thing. Just something to keep in mind next time you repaste.