Thermal paste availability / Raising the dead
My main system stopped booting two weeks ago, so had to move back to my previous system. Fortunately, a lot of my stuff was in Dropbox, so after a decent interval, many of my files were available on the previous machine. Yay Dropbox. There are, however, still a few files on the dead system I'd like to get. Today I took that system apart, popped the fan off the CPU, and found dried thermal paste. Hmm. It's possible that the CPU might be cooked (I was away during the Final Crash), but on the off chance that it just over-heated and shut down (does that even happen?), I know I need to clean off the old thermal paste (Q-tips and rubbing alcohol) and apply new. Strap the fan back on, power up and see if it boots. Best Buy only ships this on-line, and Canada Computes doesn't seem to stock it. Can anyone comment on where they get thermal paste? I could wait for delivery, but it would be great just to get the stuff and move on. Thanks for your feedback! -- Alex Beamish Software Developer / https://ca.linkedin.com/in/alex-beamish-5111ba3 Speaker Wrangler, Toronto Perlmongers / http://to.pm.org/ Baritone, Board Member, Toronto Northern Lights, 2013 Champions / www.northernlightschorus.com Certified Contest Administrator, Barbershop Harmony Society / www.barbershop.org
On 08/07/18 15:03, Alex Beamish via talk wrote:
Best Buy only ships this on-line, and Canada Computes doesn't seem to stock it. Can anyone comment on where they get thermal paste? I could wait for delivery, but it would be great just to get the stuff and move on.
http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?cPath=8_128 - lots of different thermal compounds to choose from. Cheers, Jamon
I would try Sayal Electronics. There is one near Vic Park/Steeles but there are other locations. https://secure.sayal.com/zinc/index.asp On 8 July 2018 at 16:35, Jamon Camisso via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
On 08/07/18 15:03, Alex Beamish via talk wrote:
Best Buy only ships this on-line, and Canada Computes doesn't seem to stock it. Can anyone comment on where they get thermal paste? I could wait for delivery, but it would be great just to get the stuff and move on.
http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?cPath=8_128 - lots of different thermal compounds to choose from.
Cheers, Jamon --- Talk Mailing List talk@gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
On Sun, 8 Jul 2018 15:03:34 -0400 Alex Beamish via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
It's possible that the CPU might be cooked (I was away during the Final Crash), but on the off chance that it just over-heated and shut down (does that even happen?), I know I need to clean off the old thermal paste (Q-tips and rubbing alcohol) and apply new. Strap the fan back on, power up and see if it boots.
Alex, Are you able get the heat sink off without removing the CPU? Try taking the cover of the computer off and aiming a big ventillation fan at it. -- Howard Gibson hgibson@eol.ca jhowardgibson@gmail.com http://home.eol.ca/~hgibson
Alex Beamish via talk wrote:
There are, however, still a few files on the dead system I'd like to get. Today I took that system apart, popped the fan off the CPU, and found dried thermal paste. Hmm.
A better bet if you're just trying to recover files is to get an appropriate USB external enclosure for the old system's storage device, put them together, and plug into your new system for review and copying. If the old system still has life in it, it should be attempting to boot from cold start and getting at least a bit of the way down the road before overheating and refusing to continue; in that case fresh thermal grease might work wonders. Blow dust bunnies out of the CPU and PSU fans and watch that they both spin; replace if not. But there's a good chance the old box is pining for the fjords. -- Anthony de Boer
On Sun, Jul 08, 2018 at 05:40:05PM -0400, Anthony de Boer via talk wrote:
Alex Beamish via talk wrote:
There are, however, still a few files on the dead system I'd like to get. Today I took that system apart, popped the fan off the CPU, and found dried thermal paste. Hmm.
A better bet if you're just trying to recover files is to get an appropriate USB external enclosure for the old system's storage device, put them together, and plug into your new system for review and copying.
Or, just move the harddisk to the current machine. -- William Park <opengeometry@yahoo.ca>
On Sun, Jul 8, 2018 at 6:59 PM William Park via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
On Sun, Jul 08, 2018 at 05:40:05PM -0400, Anthony de Boer via talk wrote:
Alex Beamish via talk wrote:
There are, however, still a few files on the dead system I'd like to get. Today I took that system apart, popped the fan off the CPU, and found dried thermal paste. Hmm.
A better bet if you're just trying to recover files is to get an appropriate USB external enclosure for the old system's storage device, put them together, and plug into your new system for review and copying.
Or, just move the harddisk to the current machine.
I would have done that already, but the system I'm using now has compact power plugs, and the previous has the old style four conductor power plugs -- otherwise, I wouldn't have bothered the list with this question. -- Alex Beamish Software Developer / https://ca.linkedin.com/in/alex-beamish-5111ba3 Speaker Wrangler, Toronto Perlmongers / http://to.pm.org/ Baritone, Board Member, Toronto Northern Lights, 2013 Champions / www.northernlightschorus.com Certified Contest Administrator, Barbershop Harmony Society / www.barbershop.org
On 07/08/2018 07:09 PM, Alex Beamish via talk wrote:
I would have done that already, but the system I'm using now has compact power plugs, and the previous has the old style four conductor power plugs -- otherwise, I wouldn't have bothered the list with this question.
Do you have any of the old external drive cases? Adapter cables?
I bought a big tube (actually a syringe, probably 20-30ml) of white thermal paste at Neutron Electronics in Guelph for about $10, years ago. For the amount of repair work I do, that's a lifetime supply. --Bob. On 2018-07-08 03:03 PM, Alex Beamish via talk wrote:
My main system stopped booting two weeks ago, so had to move back to my previous system. Fortunately, a lot of my stuff was in Dropbox, so after a decent interval, many of my files were available on the previous machine. Yay Dropbox.
There are, however, still a few files on the dead system I'd like to get. Today I took that system apart, popped the fan off the CPU, and found dried thermal paste. Hmm.
It's possible that the CPU might be cooked (I was away during the Final Crash), but on the off chance that it just over-heated and shut down (does that even happen?), I know I need to clean off the old thermal paste (Q-tips and rubbing alcohol) and apply new. Strap the fan back on, power up and see if it boots.
Best Buy only ships this on-line, and Canada Computes doesn't seem to stock it. Can anyone comment on where they get thermal paste? I could wait for delivery, but it would be great just to get the stuff and move on.
Thanks for your feedback!
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participants (8)
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Alex Beamish -
Anthony de Boer -
Bob Jonkman -
Don Tai -
Howard Gibson -
James Knott -
Jamon Camisso -
William Park