I purchased a used Dell Latitude 5400 with an i7-8665U processor.
With any 'new' laptop that I purchase I always give it a good internal clean, internal blow out, processor fan cleaned, old thermal paste/pads removed and replaced.
Prior to carry out the above I always run a test to see if there has been any improvement at all. Whilst monitoring temps using Open Hardware Monitor I run the Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool and Cinebench.
Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool results in max temps of 4 cores:
#1 77C #2 92C #3 75C #4 72C
Cinebench results in max temps of 4 cores:
#1 98C #2 98C #3 95C #4 89C
The processor fan was pretty clean, however the processor thermal paste was crumbly and there was quite a huge amount spread across the whole chip (not only the actual 2 chips). There is a sort of 'rail' with a slight ridge around the whole chip and thermal paste was across it all basically like a dried puddle.
I applied two liberal grains of thermal paste (ARCTIC MX-4) and closed it up.
I re-ran the tests however now 2 of the cores even for the Intel Processor test are hitting 100C. Basically much higher temps overall.
I am aware that the heatsink/fan for this laptop is pretty underwhelming, loud fan as per some reviews. Assuming it would usually run hot, could the paste across the whole chip have led to better cooling/temp management? As opposed to what is usually recommended i.e. pea sized on the chip itself?
I don't have much thermal paste left to experiment but may have to order some more in and test. Any advice?
