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From: "Rod Pemberton" <dont_use_email AT nohavenotit DOT com>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: DJGPP cross compilers for open-source hardware
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2013 18:10:41 -0400
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On Fri, 11 Oct 2013 12:53:02 -0400, RayeR <glaux AT centrum DOT cz> wrote:

<OT>

> In notebooks sometimes there are very terrible thermal design.  
> Manufacturers use thick thermal "chewing gum" (even 0,5 - 1mm thick!)  
> between chip and heatsing that cause overheating. One colegue reported  
> me some machine with core i3 that reached about 80-90C after power up in  
> SETUP! He disassembled it and replaced the gum by copper plate of  
> appropriate thickness + thin layer of classic thermal past[e] and  
> temperature dropped down about 30C!

In the mid 90's, my friends and I started assembling PCs from
components.  I used thermal paste on my processor between it
and the processor fan.  At that time, thermal paste was known
as heat sink grease.  It was for ensuring that heat transferred
 from power transistor to a heat sink.  I.e., it eliminated any
small air gap between the parts.

My friends hadn't used paste for their fans.  They were having some
reliability issues.  Using paste wasn't something that was mentioned
back then by the parts suppliers.  I.e., they mounted the fan
directly to the processor without paste.  I replaced the paste once
a year because it dried out.  I did hear that a friend back then
tried copper foil.  I don't know how that worked out.  I never heard
any more about that.  I'm not sure where he heard of that either.
I've only heard of that in regards to PC fans.  I would suspect
that aluminum foil could work too.  Both are good heat conductors
and malleable metals.  Aluminum foil is really cheap here.  Copper
is not cheap.  My main concern would be the the processor and fan
heatsink are flat enough that a piece of foil fills the gap.
I.e., I'd be concerned this is no different from mounting the
fan to the processor without paste.

Today, the manufacturer sells a fan with their processor and puts
thermal paste on their fans.  I didn't change it on the motherboard
that died, about 5 years...  It was rather dry.  It was not chalk.
I'm definately going to check the consistency of the microprocessor
paste on this machine a year or two from now and replace if needed.
Naptha will remove old grease/paste very well.  Naptha is also known
as mineral spirits, turpentine, white spirits, and Stoddard solvent
according to Wikipedia.  I.e., don't use a knife to scrape off...

When I worked for a small electronics manufacturing firm, I learned
that there are actually a variety of heat sink greases or thermal
pastes.  We used one that had microscopic glass beads in it.  This
prevented electrical shorts from the metal back on some transistors
to the heat sink.  They were still having transistors short out.
Eventually, they added to a thin plastic sheet.  They used the metal
case for a heat sink and it had microscopic metal burrs which caused
shorts between metal backed transistors.

> I guess it's not random occurence but it's intention - the planed
> device lifetime. It has to be engineered precisely to fail the
> device after waranty and enforce user to buy new device. And this
> is not only one way to achieve this, e.g. modern printers are full
> of funny screw-uppers...

Indeed.


Rod Pemberton