New thermal paste for laptop - worse than before?

[Silverks]

Hi,

I've had an laptop for 4 years, and recently GPU temps started going nuts, 100-110° (close to dying?) degrees when playing, and 60° when idle. Now as far as I know, that's not normal. I also have a cooling pad.

So I bought thermal paste (Cheapest that they had - Arctic cooling MX-2). First time when I applied it I smeared it with a credit card in a thin layer. The temps went down for about 5 degrees. I tried reapplying the paste several times after that, in different ways: without smearing, sometimes with a lot of paste, sometimes with little. Now it's worse than ever.
I noticed that, usually the thermal paste just goes over the sides, and in the middle there is nothing, I think that this might be the issue, but as I have tried different styles for applying, I have no more ideas.
Is it possible, that the problem is, that every time I just fasten the GPU too tightly?

Currently my GPU is 75° when idle. I don't even want to know what would happen if I would start really using the GPU.

When the laptop was new, the temps were nice around 40°, and 80° when under load. The sudden heating started happening around 3 months ago. Also, CPU is always nice around 40°, and 50-60° when under load.
Laptop - Toshiba Satellite L755
GPU - Nvidia 525m
CPU - I3-2310m

 

[Harrison Whitmarsh]

Hello Silverks and welcome to Toms!

Well first I want to say that you should have asked us before applying new thermal compound that many times and in that many ways. There is a very specific amount that you should apply, and a very specific way.
This guide says it very well:
http/www.tomsguide.com/us/Laptop-Notebook-Overheating,review-1596-9.html

Thermal Compound is just a paste that helps make two pieces feel like one (similar to wood glue) and transfer heat more easily. If there is too much compound, heat could be applied in the wrong spot, which can cause issues.

Here is your real issue, age. You are using a machine with a second generation i3, so it must be about 4 years old. GPU's and CPU's will not run forever, and they will show their age in slowness and heat. I firmly believe that the reason your chip is hot is because it is slowly dying, not because it magically ran out of thermal compound to transfer away its heat.

Sorry that this post was blunt, I pull off band-aids quickly. Anyways, thanks!

- Harrison Whitmarsh
Lincoln Nebraska USA