Modding the Tx1000 part 1 (changing the thermal compound)

[Mighty ABACUS]

***Warning: this mod will totally invalidate your precious
HP warranty!!! Do this if you are totally fed up with HP
Support ***


Part 1: Opening up your TX1000 (in my case, the TX1120
us) and changing the thermal compound with Arctic Silver
5 and "cleaning" the heat sink pipes.



Story: My TX1120us is almost perfect, no sound popping problems, manageable touch screen issues and no other
problems whatsoever EXCEPT for the heat issue (and my
best guess is that, so is everyone else!). Time to take
things the modding ways!


Part 1: Opening the TX1120 and changing the thermal compound and cleaning the heat sink and the heat pipes.


1 - You need to download this PDF manual if you want to open your Tx1000 and follow it STEP BY STEP! No buts and ifs, ok!

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00853874.pdf




2 - My PRECIOUSSSS!!!!












3 - oh my, is that the PRECIOUSSSS???!!!!







(why is it covered in "black" thermal paint of some sort?)





4 - is that the Dark Lord's factory thermal compound "gunk"??? Those nasty HP hobbit-ses!!!



my goodness, that's why its so hot!!!




5 - time to cool things up!






6 - but first,must remove that "odious black thing covering the PRECIOUSSSS!!!"









there, there, the PRECIOUSSS is clean now! Weeeeee!!!!




7 - After "lapping" the heatsink, do you now see the "EYE" of Sauron???






8 - and now applying the Elves' Arctic Silver 5





9 - the PRECIOUSSSS is now out back together!






10 - and finally the PRECIOUSSS back in the cage!






result: my temp is now hovering at 35~40 degrees Celsius!




Lotsalove,

GOLLUM

[Mighty ABACUS]

PS: please wait for the next mod...

the part 2 has something to do with soldering a usb Bluetooth inside the TX1120us and also an additional 2GB of memory via the usb pins inside the board...

Lotsalove,

GOLLUM

[airgaps]

Wow ! very impressive to be honest I wouldn't have the guts to open my tablet and disarm it that way (probably neither the knowledge!). Congrats on optimizing your baby!

[SimsHsia]

It was a fun read Mighty ABACUS

I've certainly have my share of opening my own system (HP Compaq) as well to clean up primarily the heatsink with the layer of dust collected over the past few years of use.

Have you tried, at some point, of removing the processor to see if it isn't soldered on? I tried it once I opened my own system and as much to my surprise the processor could be easily removable so I could, say, upgrade to a faster Pentium M processor (yeah, yeah, I know old system ). This would certainly provide information, for those enthusiasts that would like to upgrade their processor (and maybe void their warranty, unless if already expired, in the process) to a faster processor, like the AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60 (2.0 GHz) to TL-66 (2.3 GHz).

Looking forward to your other modifications and the LoTR story with it.

[MT77]

Wow, thanks for the pictures. Has your battery life changed any? Does the fan finally spin down?! This might just be why we can't get 4-5 hours on the 6-cell battery!

That black paint seems to be just for aesthetic purposes. Also, seeing that pad on your battery, you must have been fed up with the rattle the battery makes because it's loose?

Thanks

[manhattan]

Wow... Yup, you have them... 2 huge ones...

Good job.

Nice documentation.

Question... Since you apparently are going to be doing some hardcore modding -maybe you could answer this... Do you think it would be possible to add a wacom digitzer to it -if you had a spare one?

[Mighty ABACUS]

@ airgaps: thanks buddy! this is a typical hobby for guys
like me who have been slaving in the semiconductor
industry for more than 10 years i actually did this
mod a couple of days back but i was too lazy to post the pix here



@SimsHsia: yup, the processor is upgradable. its held in
place by some sort of Zero Insertion Force processor slot.
its very easy to remove and replace it. As soon as the
prices of AMD Turions go down, Im switching that baby
with a faster one.




@ MT77: i havent noticed anything with the battery yet
but the even before, the fan on my tablet is spinning down
as expected when i have it on powersave mode. it only
does spin up when i put it on high performance mode. yup
that black paint i think is just for aesthetic purposes only
and it also blocks the heat sinks capability of cooling the
processor efficiently since the heat doesnt dissipate faster
so i decided to remove it and it really helps since the total
processor temp went down by 10~15 degrees! the black
thing in the battery is actually a velcro i have put in since i
have already made an extenfal fan attachment before to
help suck the hot air out, its a 30mmx30mmx10mm mini
fan that i got somewhere else. i will post a pic of it later.



@ manhattan: i havent researched on replacing the
digitizer yet but it seems that it might involve hacking the
screen completely and changing the hardware. if someone
wants to volunteer and send me a wacom digitizer, i might
do it

[kanehi]

Looks like you put too much artic silver on. Suppose to be only a dab and not a slather.

[Mighty ABACUS]

@MT77: as promised, here's the pix of the mini fan i made to suck out the hot air from the exhaust.

[iatacs19]

Awesome thread, thanks for the pics!

What were your temperatures before? during idle and 100% cpu usage?

Is there any difference in fan noise? Does it spin down when you are just browsing the web?

Can you elaborate more on the black paint on the heatpipe's fins? Any other angle shots of this black paint and sponge?

Thanks again for sharing.