Thinkpads Forum

Hi

I have done something I realise I should not have, that is tried to repaste my thinkpad x230 cpu while being technically quite illiterate.

I repasted the cpu and removed something I took for paste, too from the gpu and pasted, too.

The laptop, first would beep 1 3 3 1 at first. After re seating everything, once, it prompted updating the time but immediately after showed no image after restart.

Now as I turn it on, there is no beep, and no image, fan goes on and off subject to its thermal settings.

Is it possible that the laptop might still be okay but would need thermal pad for the gpu? Of this different treatment of cpu vs gpu I have found out only now.

By now, I feel totally comfortable reapplying the pad on gpu (would need to buy it first; what thickness and other specs would that be? ), but I wonder whether the laptop malfunction as described above does not indicate some more serious failure.

What should happen if you use paste instead of pad on gpu, and is it a terminal mistake?

There is no dedicated GPU chip on the X230. One if the chips is the CPU, the other is a PCH, I guess.

If the thermal pad is thicker than the paste layer, is is possible the paste isn't contributing to a good contact between the chip and the heatsink, so the chip overheats and shuts off.

Then again, I wouldn't expect it to happen seconds after power-on, but who knows.

It is always possible that you accidentally damaged something else. Or the board was just ready to die.