Does thermal paste expire?
I've got a P51 that's 2 years old now I think.
The fan is always on max. And it's hot, like I wouldn't wear shorts and put it on my lap hot.
Or perhaps there's another cause?
I've got a P51 that's 2 years old now I think.
The fan is always on max. And it's hot, like I wouldn't wear shorts and put it on my lap hot.
Or perhaps there's another cause?
The manufacture paste isn't supposed to expire and is designed for a long long life (5-10 years). That said, pump-out still happens.
Pump out is the result of thousands of thermal cycles of the heat source and the heat destination on the thermal interface material.
You might be able to fix your problem by replacing the thermal paste, but caveat is that "performance" thermal paste is MORE susceptible to pump-out and would need to be replace more frequently.
Manufactures choose "less performant" thermal pastes because they have longevity. You don't tell users to re-paste their CPUs on a year/bi-yearly basis.
DIY people choose the "performant" options because benchmarks happen only on the first day and non-performance means it's time to upgrade.
For you, replacing the thermal paste will improve the transfer of heat to the heat sink, but if your CPU/GPU generates more heat than the system can get rid of, it's MAX fan time. It's really a function of efficient your system is at generating and dissipating heat and what you are doing on the laptop.