charlie_ellis•1mo agoTop Commenter

Appreciation post: I finally stopped skipping the thermal paste check on every repair

I was swapping a CPU for a client in Phoenix last week and the system kept shutting down, so I pulled the cooler and found the old paste was basically dust. My boss said, 'You can't trust a paste you didn't put there yourself,' and now I check it every single time, even on quick fixes. How many of you make that a standard step in your initial look over?

3 comments

3 Comments

lewis.troy1mo ago

Wait, it was shutting down from old paste? That's wild, I've only ever seen bad temps. Your boss is totally right though, it's just not worth the risk to skip it.

morgan.logan1mo ago

Yeah, and it gets so much worse over time, right? I had a laptop that would just black out during video calls until I redid the paste, @lewis.troy. It's crazy how something so small can cause a full shutdown. My old desktop started doing the same thing, just powering off under any load. You really can't cut corners with thermal paste, it's such a cheap fix for a huge headache.

the_cameron26d ago

I used to think it was just a small thing too, but hearing stories like yours @lewis.troy really shows how bad it can get.