Arctic Silver 5

I've been reading around for a few months before deciding to try AS5. I cleaned off the old paste with high-purity isopropyl alcohol (99%), applied the amount stated as per the AS website. Everything was clean, the heatsink was set properly and still my temp is running higher now than when I started. The fan used to only cut in every ten mins or so on a low load and now it's every 1-2 minutes.

I tried the dab and set method and then the spreading out very thinly with a credit card method. I was very careful when setting the heatsink and in both cases, the temp rose and the fan kicks in more often.

What am I doing wrong? Is this expected within the "break-in" period or did I do something wrong? The constant fan is driving me crazy as it wasn't like this before.

Edit: I should probably have said this is a laptop.

 

what temp readings are you getting, and what are the specs on that laptop?

 

Firstly, what was the previous thermal interface material like (pad or paste) was it dry and crusty or still soft and pliable?

Did you clean things up as well while you had the heatsink off?!? By pulling things apart but not blowing/sucking out the crud from your heatsink, CPU fan and inlet/outlet vents you may have inadvertently dislodged crud into the flow path and impaired the convection flow through the system. I pulled apart our laptop and applied AS5 and we noticed and immediate difference but the old pad was definately dried and flaky

 

Positively; your fan is working and I assume by your post you have read removal and application procedures from:

www.articsilver.com

Possibly pull the sys apart again and focus on crud removal.