12
Learned the hard way about thermal paste on a Dell OptiPlex in Austin
Was working on a batch of 10 OptiPlex 7040s for a school district in Austin last month and forgot to check the thermal paste on the first one. CPU hit 95C after 20 minutes of running a diagnostic. Now I always replace the paste on any used office machine before I even boot it up. Anyone else do this or do you just trust the old stuff?
2 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In2 Comments
rivershah1mo ago
I get what you're saying but I think you might be overdoing it a bit. Those OptiPlex 7040s are pretty well built and the factory paste usually lasts a few years at least. I've worked on maybe 50 OptiPlex 7040s from different schools and only had one with bad paste. You hit 95C which is hot but most modern CPUs can handle that for a while without damage. Why replace paste on every single one when you can just run a quick temp check first and only do the ones that need it?
6
leo6031mo ago
Nah rivershah I gotta disagree, that 95C is a warning sign not something to just shrug off. On a school batch where you're already doing the work, it's way easier to just hit them all with fresh paste than play detective with each one.
6