Hardware Exchanging thermal paste?

[neoxdonut]

Got my fist overheating message today playing Mario galaxy docked 59c? changed the thermal paste today played and whole console feels hot after 20 minutes playing docked. I think the fan in my switch might not be working

 

[driverdis]

Got my fist overheating message today playing Mario galaxy docked 59c? changed the thermal paste today played and whole console feels hot after 20 minutes playing docked. I think the fan in my switch might not be working

While the switch is hot put your face in front of the fan exhaust and try to tell if you can feel air. You can also remove the backplate and see if the fan turns on in demanding games like BoTW

 

[neoxdonut]

I'll test that out

 

[waqster]

After replacing the awful thermal paste application by Nintendo with thermal pads and MX-4, I’ve noticed the fan spinning up less, and the console just feels cooler. My idle temps range from 20-25C, and under load playing Crysis in handheld mode, about 42-48C. Absolutely worth doing and it’s so easy. Just be careful with the screws as they are really susceptible to stripping. I did remove the copper shim.

 

[console]

I hate cheap thermal paste from all company put lousy thing on them. Because it's OEM things like old school paste is not good.

Prolimatech Pk-3 Nano Aluminum is doing much better because of more 5 C cooler than Arctic MX-4. Prolimatech Pk-3 Nano Aluminum price is more than Arctic MX-4.

Both Prolimatech Pk-3 Nano Aluminum and Arctic MX-4 are very safe to use it. No need to worry about it.

I glad that I did order both Prolimatech Pk-3 Nano Aluminum (Amazon) and Arctic MX-4 (Newegg). My paste from my 7 years old Nvidia Geforce GT 630 video card is not normal anymore went to about 60 C from 30 C - 35 C (do nothing still on desktop) then play game then skyrocket to 103 C when I play SpellForce 3, Starcraft 2 then I have to force to close game down to prevent damage to my video card before hit 105 C will shut down.

I will have to replace old paste to Prolimatech Pk-3 Nano Aluminum paste would help more. Because video card is make more hotter temperature than CPU cause paste to dry out really fast. I save my Arctic MX-4 for CPU only and Prolimatech Pk-3 Nano Aluminum for video card only (To take extra 5 C cooler down).

 

[neoxdonut]

After replacing the awful thermal paste application by Nintendo with thermal pads and MX-4, I’ve noticed the fan spinning up less, and the console just feels cooler. My idle temps range from 20-25C, and under load playing Crysis in handheld mode, about 42-48C. Absolutely worth doing and it’s so easy. Just be careful with the screws as they are really susceptible to stripping. I did remove the copper shim.

Were did you get the thermal pads?

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are you supposed to feel air coming out the top if the switch is 49c when docked? i dont feel any hot air comin out the top so i think the fans might be broken in mine

 

[waqster]

Were did you get the thermal pads?

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are you supposed to feel air coming out the top if the switch is 49c when docked? i dont feel any hot air comin out the top so i think the fans might be broken in mine

I’m using the Arctic Cooling Thermal pad, cost me about £7 from eBay for a small square. I put them on the RAM shield, and the metal backplate so that it aligns with the heat pipe.

 

[neoxdonut]

I’m using the Arctic Cooling Thermal pad, cost me about £7 from eBay for a small square. I put them on the RAM shield, and the metal backplate so that it aligns with the heat pipe.

what thickness are the pads did you get?

 

[burhansalih]

@NattyBoh what were your results after your recent attempt?

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what thickness are the pads did you get?

Normally around 1mm or 0.5mm usually most thermal pads.

 

[waqster]

what thickness are the pads did you get?

I bought the 0.5mm thickness, but I’m not 100% sure they’re the ideal size. But they’re obviously working fine.

 

[rs1n]

Only read through a few posts on the first "page" of this thread... I think people need to think through some of these mods as they do not seem thermodynamically sensible.

1. Keep in mind that thermal pads are NOT as effective as thermal paste in terms of conducting heat. Sometimes the choice is dictated by the size of the gap between two surfaces (i.e. if the gap is too wide, a thermal pad is the better choice as it is just not economical to use a volume-equivalent amount of thermal paste). In one of the videos, I saw a thermal pad being placed between the copper pipe and the APU -- why is thermal paste not being used here?

2. Heat flows from high to low. Unless you've measured the temperature of the heat shield above the RAM chips during operation, and the RAM chips themselves, you could very well be passing heat from the shield onto the RAM chips. This is precisely why the RAM chips do not have any thermal conductive layer connecting them to the heat shield out of factory. While removing the copper shim reduces the amount of heat transferred onto the shield from the APU, you still need to be wary of whether the temperatures of the RAM chips are actually higher than the heat shield after the shim is removed; the thermal paste will likely still create a thermal connection between the CPU and the heat shield unless you are precise enough to isolate the thermal paste from ever touching the heat shield. When you look at other consoles, the RAM chips are connected (via thermal pads) directly to the metal shroud or larger and more massive heat shield -- they are isolated from the heat coming off of any CPU/GPU/APU.

 

[Vipertongn]

Hi All,

I've been looking at videos and threads in regards to how this is done, and everyone has a different method they tend to do. I'd like to try my hand at this, but I've never really done it before. So I had a few questions:

• Is it really necessary to remove the shielding above the ram? I'd rather not open that up since it looks very delicate. Would putting 0.5mm pads on top be enough?
• The method I see people use often is remove the paste from heat sink and die. Then place the paste on top of the die and spread it using a plastic scraper. Copper plate should be removed to allow for die to make direct contact with heat sink (paste in between). Heat sink is placed on the die and paste is applied along it from where the thermal goop was previously. Pads (0.5mm) are placed on top of the heat shield above ram and then the metal backing is installed. Is this sufficient enough?
• I'm planning on using Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut Thermal Grease Paste and Thermal Grizzly Minus Pad 8 High Performance Thermal Pads to get all this done.

I'm hoping I'm understanding this all correctly. I really appreciate the help!

 

[randy_w]

Hi All,

I've been looking at videos and threads in regards to how this is done, and everyone has a different method they tend to do. I'd like to try my hand at this, but I've never really done it before. So I had a few questions:

• Is it really necessary to remove the shielding above the ram? I'd rather not open that up since it looks very delicate. Would putting 0.5mm pads on top be enough?
• The method I see people use often is remove the paste from heat sink and die. Then place the paste on top of the die and spread it using a plastic scraper. Copper plate should be removed to allow for die to make direct contact with heat sink (paste in between). Heat sink is placed on the die and paste is applied along it from where the thermal goop was previously. Pads (0.5mm) are placed on top of the heat shield above ram and then the metal backing is installed. Is this sufficient enough?
• I'm planning on using Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut Thermal Grease Paste and Thermal Grizzly Minus Pad 8 High Performance Thermal Pads to get all this done.

I'm hoping I'm understanding this all correctly. I really appreciate the help!

I just removed the metal cover on my switch, don't think ram needs cooling at all as it's LPDDR4 used in mobile phones and tablets. If you really want you can use thermal pads, but there's a pretty wide gap between the ram chip and the metal shield. As for thermal paste, arctic mx 4 is good enough, thermal grizzly is completely overkill.

 

[ray_ray696]

I personally think cooling the ram will have no benefit since it is not downclocking due to temps. I only do thermal paste and copper shim removal on any switch I do. The few I did for myself and friends of mine use Carbonaut thermal pads for the CPU so they are paste free and will not dry out over time.

How did the Carbonaut pad work out vs thermal paste? Is the fan quieter during graphical demanding games?

 

[driverdis]

How did the Carbonaut pad work out vs thermal paste? Is the fan quieter during graphical demanding games?

Seems fine although I would say it performs the same as paste. I also did one recently where I tested out using a 0.5mm minus8 pad instead and I hit 68c with a 1785 CPU/921 GPU so the carbonaut or should be lower than that.

 

[Idrolitina]

I submit myself to the power of GBAtemp.
I read the whole thing, and I am still unsure how to proceed, lol!

I was thinking MX4 on SoC and HeatPipe, 1mm pads on the ram, removing the copper sheet, but not unlid the metal plate covering RAMs and SoC.

I have a 64c after 30min docked Luigi Mansion on both my NSs. ( I read that it is ordinary to be around that temp here)
Even a little bit higher if I play Alien Isolation for the same time.
50 or a bit lower undocked.

I still do not understand if these temps are bad or normal.

Since I am planning to follow the same procedure, @burhansalih-san, can I ask you what your temperatures on something as intensive as LuigiMans or BotW are after 20-30mins?

Also, any other input is more than welcome!

 

[nero99]

Fun little cooling mod to do. Replace the copper piece on the apu with a .3mm copper shim, add thermal grizzly arronaught to the cpu and shim, put thermal pads on the ram chips under the ir shielding, and a few thermal pads on the heatsink, and a thermal pad on the emmc chip, makes a big difference

 

[Rahkeesh]

I recently had to replace the fan on my Eristia since it was buzzing like crazy, that meant re-doing the factory thermal job with grizzly kryonaut "grease". The new fan is much quiter and temps are good, but the back of the console can be a bit uncomfortable warm to hold now with standard size joycons, even without overclock. I'm concerned that the thermal conducitivty between the pipe and the IR shield might be too good now, both in terms of handheld comfort and in terms of the IR shield warming other components it shouldn't so much, especially under overclock. Wondering whether there is some less conductive (but still conductive) material I should be using between the heat pipe and IR shield.

 

[binkinator]

I recently had to replace the fan on my Eristia since it was buzzing like crazy, that meant re-doing the factory thermal job with grizzly kryonaut "grease". The new fan is much quiter and temps are good, but the back of the console can be a bit uncomfortable warm to hold now with standard size joycons, even without overclock. I'm concerned that the thermal conducitivty between the pipe and the IR shield might be too good now, both in terms of handheld comfort and in terms of the IR shield warming other components it shouldn't so much, especially under overclock. Wondering whether there is some less conductive (but still conductive) material I should be using between the heat pipe and IR shield.

More heat transfer is always better. Heat that has transfered out to the shield is heat that’s not sitting inside your CPU. That’s a good thing.

Do you have empirical temperature and fan speed metrics you could share?

 

[randy_w]

I recently had to replace the fan on my Eristia since it was buzzing like crazy, that meant re-doing the factory thermal job with grizzly kryonaut "grease". The new fan is much quiter and temps are good, but the back of the console can be a bit uncomfortable warm to hold now with standard size joycons, even without overclock. I'm concerned that the thermal conducitivty between the pipe and the IR shield might be too good now, both in terms of handheld comfort and in terms of the IR shield warming other components it shouldn't so much, especially under overclock. Wondering whether there is some less conductive (but still conductive) material I should be using between the heat pipe and IR shield.

Are you sure you got a genuine fan? Maybe the new fan you put in is fake and it's not moving enough air.
Or you can try to create your own fan curve:

Create system_settings.ini in atmosphere\config folder and paste following codes:

[tc]
tskin_rate_table_console = str!"[[-1000000, 40000, 0, 0], [36000, 43000, 51, 51], [43000, 53000, 51, 153], [53000, 58000, 153, 255], [58000, 1000000, 255, 255]]"
tskin_rate_table_handheld = str!"[[-1000000, 40000, 0, 0], [36000, 43000, 51, 51], [43000, 48000, 51, 102], [48000, 53000, 102, 153], [53000, 1000000, 153, 153], [48000, 1000000, 153, 153]]"

Now you can edit the fan curve, for example [43000, 48000, 51, 102] means fan will accelerate from 51 at 43 degree C to 102 at 48 degree C. Speed range is 0-255. Experiment with it you'll find the values suit you.