Shocked how many people ignore thermal paste spread patterns

I repair laptops on the side here in Austin and I see so many units come in with CPUs overheating. Today I took apart an old Dell that someone had worked on before and the thermal paste was just a thick blob in the middle. No spreading at all, like they just squeezed it on and closed it up. That's why the CPU hit 95C under basic web browsing after only 20 minutes. I always spread mine thin with a plastic card to cover the whole die surface, and it dropped temps by 15 degrees. Has anyone else seen bad paste jobs cause major damage in their shop?

2 comments

2 Comments

campbell.robin1mo ago

Honestly, that thick blob in the middle is a classic rookie move. Tbh I once saw a guy use toothpaste because he ran out of paste and thought it would work for a few days. Ngl the smell was something else when that thing finally cooked itself to death.

wren8061mo ago

Buddy tried drywall joint compound once. That was a bad week.