First of all, thank you, this is awesome. The effort you put into this, to help other users to replicate yours successful steps is remarkable.
Also, shoutout to the guy who used a pencil to create a cutting guide for the PTM.
That being said, I couldn’t help but think “hold on, there has to be a simpler way to do this.”
I tried… And these are my two cents.
What you need:
- (optional) pencil and paper
- PTM7950/Thermal Grizzly PhaseSheet / TIM of your choice
- Framework Screwdriver
- Hairdryer
Steps:
-
BE CAREFUL. Liquid Metal is not to be messed with. Luckily the stock TIM should be solid but malleable in normal working condition.
-
Warm up the laptop with some CPU bench, leave it running for ~10 minutes
-
Disassemble the midplate following the official guide
-
Remove the (non captive) lateral screws holding down the cooler
-
remove the 4 screws on the cooler springs
-
now the tricky bit: take out your hairdryer. Warm up the center of the cooler for a while. In the meantime, twist the entire heatsink side to side a little. Keep warming up. When it wiggles (should have 1cm of play laterally) you can put the plastic flat side of the Framework Screwdriver between the cooler and the mainboard and carefully use it to pry off the cooler. I managed to take it off without prying too hard.
-
when the cooler is off, put it aside.
-
take some paper towels and put them in protection of the mainboard, just in case
-
scrape off the old LM TIM with the flat part of the FW Screwdriver or tool of your choice. I strongly recommend plastic tools to work on the die. You can be more aggressive on the heatsink.
-
clean througly with IPA both sides
-
cut to size your TIM of choice. I used Thermal Grizzly PTM PhaseSheet.
-
Apply, close up the patient, test and be happy
[Sorry in advance, english is not my first language]