Questions about Repasting

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I am looking to repaste my laptop and clean the heatsink.

Originally, I noticed some dust, hair, debris etc buildup on my heatsink between the fan and sink. Once I started taking things apart, I noticed that I couldn’t clean it without removing the heatsink entirely.
Through some other forum posts, I asked and about repasting, and ordered some PTM7950 (2mm think I believe, its been a while). I plan to repaste with that when I clean the sink.

The question is:
Should I be concerned about the thermal pads being ruined during the process? Can I re-use them? If not, what big box chains sell thermal pads I can buy so I can complete this job tonight?

Thanks!

Additional Info:
7840U
~ 1.5 years old
Used mostly for school and some moderate gaming (eGPU since the new year).

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Unless something has changed since I got my framework 13 amd 7040 board, there are no thermal pads. Framework used thermal paste which a general rule of thumb I’ve seen tossed around is to replace the paste every time you remove the heatsink. So you’ll probably want some high percentage rubbing alcohol (90%+) to clean the existing paste off.

The PTM7950, though coming in a “pad” shape, also is not a thermal pad. Its just paste that has been shaped into a thin rectangle.

When I put PTM7950 in my laptop, I got a few extra frames per second on some video game performance test and my peak temperature dropped by a couple of degrees in s-tui, so I’d say you’re making the right move! I’ve put PTM7950 in everything ever since.

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Good to know, thanks!

I have extra “pads” (ptm), should I get some thermal paste to replace the old stuff? Or will the ptm be usable on the other hot stuff?

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When I recently removed the heatsink on my FW 13, I found that there weren’t any other thermal pads on other things, like there is on the FW 16. So you only have to re-paste the CPU, there aren’t any other thermal pads.

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As BigT said, you only have to re-paste the CPU, I just want to clarify that PTM7950 is replacing the thermal paste so you don’t need to get other/additional thermal paste.

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To both you & @BigT, it went well. In mid June, I ripped her open, cleaned the paste as best I could, put the pads on and have noticed that the thermals spike less, but the fan still spins hard and loud under full load (expected).
Im just glad the fans spin for less time when Im not pushing the machine and it just needs a short burst to cool off.

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It’s actually possible

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