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Had to pick between reusing old thermal paste or waiting 2 days for new stuff to ship, and the answer surprised me
So last Thursday a guy drops off a Dell XPS with a thermal throttling problem, fans screaming, the works. I had two choices: scrape the old paste back on and send it out the same day, or tell him to wait until Monday when the new tube showed up from Amazon. I picked waiting because I have been burned by reusing paste exactly once, on a client's gaming rig back in 2021, and I still hear about it. Turns out that was the right call. When I pulled the heatsink on Monday the old paste was basically chalk, and the temps dropped from 98C under load down to 71C. Cost the guy two days without his laptop but he texted me a picture of his fan speeds looking normal, which honestly made my whole week. What do you all do when you are stuck without a part, make them wait or slap it back together and hope?
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theathomas26d ago
Man, this is just like when I try to fix something at home and I cut corners to save time, then end up doing it twice. Every single time I skip the right way, it comes back to bite me way harder than if I just waited. Good on you for holding out, that temp drop alone says it all.
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