My wife's laptop is past its 3 year warranty and it keeps shutting down from overheat. I opened it up and found that there is a gap of about 3mm between the processor and the heat spreader which is mounted rigidly and cannot be tightened. Thermal grease is not made to fill wide gaps, so a thermal pad seems to be what i need here since i can't close the gap by lowering the heat spreader. So I'm asking for advice about thermal pads since I've never bought or worked with them, other than to dissolve one and replace it with thermal grease. Where do you buy them and what kinds are good? Are there any other mediums that would be better for a wide gap like this?

8/26/2007 12:29:01 PM

not sure if this is what you are talking about, but I got one of those cooling pads, made by Targus

I've used it since I got my laptop back in December, and I haven't had any trouble with overheating. It plugs into your USB port for power. It does make the battery drain faster, but my computer has never had any heat issues.

8/26/2007 12:40:20 PM

this is a toshiba, isn't it?

8/26/2007 1:23:44 PM

^^ Completely not at all what he's talking aboutl.

8/26/2007 10:48:15 PM

3mm seems like a large gap. did she drop the laptop?

8/26/2007 11:10:46 PM

^ you seem to know what I'm referring to. No, it wasn't dropped, when it was still under warranty it went in for service because it wouldn't power on. Now the warranty is over but I'm guessing that they replaced the processor or heat spreader when they repaired it and left out something that was supposed to fill the gap.

8/27/2007 6:36:58 PM

i don't get it...why all the hate on toshiba? i've had nothing but toshiba laptops for a decade (and our company has mostly had those) and i've NEVER had trouble with overheating or anything like that...the early ones were a bit flimsy in terms of the hinges on the screen, but that's my only complaint

8/27/2007 7:54:02 PM

yep toshiba makes a good laptop.

i've got the smallest one and it's great.

8/27/2007 9:11:34 PM

can you not just stick a copper/aluminum sheet cut to the appropriate dimension, I'm guessing like 1" by 1", and load it on both sides with the thermal paste? Then maybe you could drop a dab of super glue on one of the sides to secure it once you've stuck it between the proc and real heat sink. Those sheets come in a grab-box assortment at craft stores with brass, steel, aluminum, copper sheets and strips. Maybe 10 bucks for a 6" by 6" box of 'em.

8/27/2007 9:43:11 PM

the old P4 toshiba's were notorious. I'm pretty sure it was a design flaw.


I've worked on several. as soon as they get dusty, they overheat. They had 0 tolerance for blockage of the fans/vents

8/27/2007 9:43:32 PM