Turns out my PTM pads were still in the return window from amazon, and judging by some of the other posts regarding diy fixes, they are possibly not genuine (at least not the 7850 or whatever)
Also found a link to request a fix kit directly from framework once it’s available so hopefully after that my computer won’t sound like a jet taking off when I load up something marginally taxing 
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:
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]
Big thanks for your instructions. I just managed to replace the liquid metal with Honeywell PTM7950, and it went smoothly. The Cinebench R23 results jumped from 12k to 16k points, and CPU power increased from 35W to around 55W.
I used an ordinary hairdryer to heat up the heatsink. A few minutes of blowing air was enough, and the heatsink came off on its own after a gentle pull. It seems to me this is the least invasive method for the hardware.
For anyone wondering how big of a thermal pad is needed, the CPU die size is about 16mm x 12mm (so a fairly small thermal pad is enough to cut to size)
Today I placed PTM7950 on CPU, took mainboard out to avoid any accidental damage (following the official guide) and used hot air gun set to 100C (lowest possible) and relatively small air flow (about 1/3 of the range). It took ~5 minutes for heatsink to came off with gently pulling it up with Framework screwdriver. Only half of CPU was actually covered in LM.
Cinebench R24 score jumped from ~600 to ~900 points with power going from ~30W to stable 54W over 30 minutes test run.
I used a simple hair dryer to remove the cooler, you have to wait a little while for it to heat up, but after that it comes off easily, no need for the “Framework Screwdriver” or “twist the entire heatsink”.
I just put 2 shims under the fins of the heat sink, a little pressure on the motherboard near the GPU connector and it came off.
I have not tried changing the LM yet, but I assume the heat involved trying to get the heatsink off is:
Or is it better to remove the heat sink when cold? LM < 45 deg C ?
- Less than the >180 deg C that might melt solder.
@PSierra117 have I think experimant a melt solder more like 140°C
When removing it cold that liquid metal bond between the CPU and the heatsink is quite strong. You have to pull hard and there is going to be a good bit of board flex when getting it removed. If you aren’t lifting from the right place you have a good chance of bending your heat pipes at the least. If you can go for the hot option I think it makes it much easier. Once the heat sink is off you can let it cool down so the TIM goes back to a solid and it is easier/more manageable to remove. You can use a spudger to pry the big pieces off and something like the sticky side of electric tape to remove all of the little pieces.
My experience of doing the ptm swap:
In the end was actually pretty easy, didn’t do anything with heat guns or powering on without the covers etc.
Just got the cpu nice and hot, set the battery disconnect in bios, shut down, flip upside down, let cool.
Then follow the ifixit guide and gently levered the HS with a plastic spudger. Slowly pealed its way off the cpu.
The hardened LM then pealed off the cpu 99% intact and scraped the rest with a plastic spudger.
Cleaned everything with some Arctic wipes I had left over from my desktop paste and fitted a piece of PTM and reassembled.
I made the change last night from the stock Liquid Metal to the PTM stuff (from LTT).
I used a heat-gun on low to re-liquify the metal and get the heat sink off. It took about fifteen minutes of heat saturation to get it to budge and about an hour total from power down to boot. Cleaning off the CPU required a lot of que tips, rubbing alcohol, and patience. The spudger on the back of the FrameWork screwdriver works very well for getting the metal off too.
This is an inspiring note. Thanks for sharing.
What about the elderly with shaky hands that purchased the machine? If they are physically incapable of doing this process are they stuck with the issue? I guess survival of the fittest??
I wouldn’t think a recall option would go amiss at this point so that the paste can be applied in a factory setting. I don’t personally mind the diy but it’s not for everyone and I feel goes a bit beyond the plug and play upgradability of the framework.
For anyone who is having thermal issues and isn’t comfortable doing the swap themselves, I think it would be worth reaching out to support to see if they are willing to offer you any other options.
I’m reminded of a recent optional recall done by Arctic on their Liquid Freezr AIO coolers. They gave the option of an at-home kit with instructions or a free mail-in swap for a cooler without the issue in question. Logistics on Framework’s end will be the deciding factor on whether that is feasible, though.
I wonder if they’ll talk about the new thermal paste solution at all in the upcoming event. I wouldn’t expect they would talk about the old one failing, but maybe some positively spun details about the uplift from PTM or something… all I know is the wait is making it more tempting by the day to order a sheet from moddiy and do it myself. Can’t even pull 30w at 100% on a Cinebench R23 or stress-ng test.
I’m at 31W right now, are you saying it’s gonna keep dropping?
I would expect its just variance between models, personally. Regardless, if I observe otherwise, I’ll remember to update the post on it.
Roger roger. I just know mine was handling 45W not that long ago and only recently discovered how far it it had declined.
As i am physically incapable of preforming the swap (shaky hands) i still have my RMA on hold. I still have 7 months left on my warranty. Once the new boards without the Liquid Metal are available i will proceed with my RMA.
So far, in my personal experience, support at this time isn’t offering any replacements. I can only max about 31W and was going through the support dance…After sending them benchmarks, screenshots, and logs like 5 times, they just told me to wait for the thermal replacement.
This week I asked them to hurry up and offer me a better solution NOW because my warranty expires in 3 weeks and all they said was send us more “proof” you have an issue with thermals…
Support is either incompetent or intentionally wasting my time so my warranty expires. It’s maddening.