Overheating Message

One of our customers, from Victoria BC, came into the shop with the computer showing symptoms of overheating message on the screen and it powers off.

As you can see in the photos, the heatsink/fan assembly is covered in quite a bit of dust. No doubt this computer has given great service to its owner but looks tired and overheated.

The system is over 6 years old, so a simple blowout of the dust won’t necessarily fix the issue.

We have removed the heatsink, and it looks like the thermal paste has gotten dry and crumbly at one side. It also appears that the paste has separated at the other side.

We will need to replace the old paste with a new paste.

We’ll clean the old paste off of the CPU and the heatsink with isopropyl alcohol and apply a new coat of

Thermal paste – it should be somewhere between the size of a grain of rice and a pea.

The processor is a 2nd gen intel, so most of the heat is concentrated right under the very center of the

Heat spreader

Reattach the heatsink and we’re done – good for a few more years of service

Here at Priority 1 Computer Service, we encourage everyone to hold on and use their old systems for as long as possible. If your system can be made to run well then you gain a few more years out of your investment. It saves money and saves the environment!

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.