Studio 1557 copper shim dimensions/thickness

[OneCool]

Also, FYI try the following Everest Ultimate Edition 5.30.2054 (beta) dated 2010-03-11 it now shows me accurate cpu fan speeds.

http://www.lavalys.com/support.php?lang=en

Yeah,Im going to get the chipset too this time.

Thanks for the Everest link.I will try it.

[ClaudioA]

Thanks for the interest.

Thanks a lot techifan!!!

[techifan1]

After discussing the practicalities of copper modding/shimming a 1557 I thought it may be useful to share my experiences on taking the Laptop apart.

First off, it is most important that you print and study the following from the Dell 1557 service manual BEFORE you start taking your Laptop apart. This will give you more detailed information about the removal of the items below.

http://support.euro.dell.com/support...n/SM/index.htm

Read the following notes from the Service Manual.

Notes, Cautions, and Warnings.
Before You Begin.
Before Working Inside Your Computer.

Print off from the Service Manual and study the following procedures BEFORE you start.

This is the order for dismantling the Laptop obviously reverse for reassembly.

First remove Battery and Press power Button (This grounds the system board)

Remove Center Control Cover (1 Screw)
Remove Keyboard (2 Screws)
Remove Base Cover (3 Captive Screws)
Remove Hard Drive (4 Screws)
Remove from the bottom of the Laptop 8 Screws (7+1 Short Screw)
Remove Palm Rest (10 Screws, 6+4 Short Screws)
Remove Optical Drive (1 Screw)
Remove System Board (7 Screws)

You will end up with 33 screws (not including the base cover screws which are captive) and you do not want to loose any of them so as you remove each of the items listed above make sure you store the screws in separately marked containers.

Pay particular attention to the following.

After removing the screw that secures the Center Control Cover I found it best to carefully pry apart with your finger nails the Cover upwards and away from the bottom of the Laptop. Start at the rear center, then when it separates work along the rear edge towards the right, then down the right hand edge towards the front. When that is free work along the rear edge towards the left, then down the left hand side towards the front. Do not use any metal blades or screwdrivers or you will damage/scratch the plastic.

When you remove the Keyboard note that the ribbon cables are retained in a latch mechanism and must be released by carefully rotating the latch upwards. The same applies to the Touch Pad Connector ribbon cable.

Before you can remove the Palm Rest you have to remove various cables. Look at the attached photos they show the cable routing and make it easer when you come to reassemble the Laptop.

After removing the 10 screws that secure the Palm Rest I found it best, as before to carefully pry apart with your finger nails the Cover upwards and away from the bottom of the Laptop. Start at the rear left corner, and then when it separates, carefully work along the left hand edge towards the front. When that is free move to the right hand corner, then work along the right hand edge towards the front. Do not use excessive force, if you encounter resistance make sure that all screws have been removed. As before, do not use any metal blades or screwdrivers or you will damage/scratch the plastic.

When you remove the system board be very careful about static charges. Always make sure you touch a suitable earth connection before handling and always hold the board by the edges to avoid touching exposed chips and other components.
Also when working on the system board make sure it is suitably supported and does not flex excessively.

Hope you find the information useful.

[omo]

Excellent!

[techifan1]

Excellent!

Thanks, much appreciated.

[pp02442]

Have just logged in after months away (I made the original request re copper shim dimensions) - there've since been contributions which I wished I'd seen before finally carriing out the mod, last night (!).
Yes, techifan1's detailed instructions get the thumbs up: I'd already got hold (eBay supplier) of a 13mm square, 1.2mm thick copper shim. This turns out to be too thick (again, refer to techifan's posts for details). I'm ashamed to say that I fitted it anyway - I had to disassemble heatsinks a second time to replace the thermal pads on the two video RAM chips with something thicker, since otherwise with the thickness of the copper shim (+IC7 compound either side) there was quite a gap between the pad and the heatsink. Hopefully will be OK now.
Re testing the outcome, all I can say is that attempting to stress the GPU (GPU Caps Viewer, running four demos at the same time... stresses sufficiently?) the GPU temps (but video RAM temp??) were max 76°C (CPU high 40s/low 50s).
Many thanks again for all the initial pointers and advice. Re detailed instructions, can't do better than techifan1's posts. Cheers!

[saintist]

Techifan1,
If i don't have the copper shims, but i need to mod the gpu/cpu anyway, what would be my best approach say, using IC7 compound only? (i ask because my system shuts down and i need to fix it asap, not time to order shims)
1. Can I: Use IC7 for Cpu heatsink, use IC7 for both gpu & gpu ram. The Question is: Do i remove the thermal pads on gpu/ram heatsink and use IC7 only?
or....Apply IC7 over the thermal pads?? or...leave the gpu/ram as is with original thermal pads and no paste at all?
This answer might be useful for others like me that need emergency fix rather then planned.

[OneCool]

Techifan1,
If i don't have the copper shims, but i need to mod the gpu/cpu anyway, what would be my best approach say, using IC7 compound only? (i ask because my system shuts down and i need to fix it asap, not time to order shims)
1. Can I: Use IC7 for Cpu heatsink, use IC7 for both gpu & gpu ram. The Question is: Do i remove the thermal pads on gpu/ram heatsink and use IC7 only?
or....Apply IC7 over the thermal pads?? or...leave the gpu/ram as is with original thermal pads and no paste at all?
This answer might be useful for others like me that need emergency fix rather then planned.

I would not recommend using just IC Diamond to bridge the gap between the heatsink and the GPU.A copper or aluminum shim is really the only way to go if you want to improve heat transfer and keep the system stable.

[techifan1]

Techifan1,
If i don't have the copper shims, but i need to mod the gpu/cpu anyway, what would be my best approach say, using IC7 compound only? (i ask because my system shuts down and i need to fix it asap, not time to order shims)
1. Can I: Use IC7 for Cpu heatsink, use IC7 for both gpu & gpu ram. The Question is: Do i remove the thermal pads on gpu/ram heatsink and use IC7 only?
or....Apply IC7 over the thermal pads?? or...leave the gpu/ram as is with original thermal pads and no paste at all?
This answer might be useful for others like me that need emergency fix rather then planned.

I would not recommend using just IC Diamond to bridge the gap between the heatsink and the GPU.A copper or aluminum shim is really the only way to go if you want to improve heat transfer and keep the system stable.

I agree with OneCool, he is spot on with his reply above.

[saintist]

Thanks guys, I am ordering the shims then.