GX531GM Uneven Core Temperature (i7-8750H)

[peperon321]

Hi, I'm seeking advice/opinion/help here regarding uneven temperatures on different cores of my mobile CPU: i7-8750H.

Currently using Asus Zephyrus S GX531GM (GTX1060 variant, 2018 model).

Problem: Core #1 and #3 have higher temperatures as compared to others. Core #1 is around 94 degrees Celsius while Core #4 stays cool at 70 degrees Celsius.

A short Prime95 stress test with AVX turned off:
Before testing I have tried using Throttlestop to:
1. Undervolt (-175.8 mV core, -125.0mV cache)
2. Capped Turbo Ratio to 38
3. Set PL1: 40; PL2: 45

And the laptop was repasted by an Asus Certified Serice Centre just 6 months ago.

Has anyone encountered this before? If so what did you do? Did you go back to the service centre and request a repasting or did you buy your own paste and did it yourself? Thanks.

[fbajjar]

Well first let's talk first about the nightmare i have seen when i opened the laptop.....No wonder the thing was severely overheating, the thermal paste application by the so called "ASUS qualified engineer" is ABSOLUTE GARBAGE The whole thing was a disgusting puke of cheap thermal paste and thermal putty. The guy who repasted my laptop obviously knows NOTHING about thermal paste and ASUS isn't doing themselves any favor by using seriously lame thermal paste, its the same kind used by cheap shops in my country and while it "conducts heat" (otherwise the name thermal paste would be a scam) it has garbage lifespan and garbage reliability.
So anyways i repasted my laptop with kryonaut for CPU+GPU and used 0.2mm Thermal grizzly minus pads for the things used to be covered with thermal putty (and that thermal putty was seriously disgusting to clean, i still have a chunk of it stuck between components.
Results on the CPU are currently IMPRESSIVE. A throttle stop TS Bench used to send this thing flying into the 90s now its 59-63C, a massive 30C difference. Furmark combined CPU+GPU load used to send the CPU flying beyond 95C with the CPU severely dropping its wattage from 54W to 39W. Now? It hovers between 84-93C and NEVER thermal throttles. Again keep in mind this is a continuous 100% stress test that you will NEVER encounter in any game whatsoever.
As for the GPU, not that huge of a difference just 5-3C but again the paste didn't degrade on the GPU side since it never went over 85C anyway which is where most pastes especially the cheap ones start to degrade so it is performing well as usual.
Now i heard a lot of laptops experience a thermal paste dry out (due to uneven heatsink) so these results might not last long term. But they are light years ahead of stock thermal paste when i first took my laptop from the service center.

[peperon321]

Dear @fbajjar,

Wow, that's very impressive! Congrats and your effort surely paid off 🙂 This makes me wanna change mine ASAP. May I know what tools did you use? Like was anti-static gloves required at all? Or being careful is already enough? And is alcohol + cotton buds enough to clean those putty? Thanks

[fbajjar]

Honestly you don't need anti static wrist gloves as long as you are in a humid area and try your best to not touch the motherboard. My country is quite humid so the chances of static energy build up here are quite low but if you are in a dry area then I recommend you stay on the safe side and get one.
As for cleaning, i simply used tissues and kept wiping and it came off on its own. And gave the CPU and GPU another wipe with a microfiber cloth to make sure its really clean then simply applied thermal grizzly kryonaut on the CPU and GPU (as for how much imagine a pea that covers the whole die when you squeeze it with the heatsink) and put thermal grizzly minus pad 8 0.2mm on everything that had thermal putty (and to get their size perfectly I simply aligned the thermal pads on the components, traced on them with a whiteboard marker then cut them with scissors, removed their protective film and finally put them on)
An important note: ASUS's infinite wisdom decided to put Loctite on random screws so make sure you have the correct screwdriver (it should grip on the screw really well, I found flatheads to grip much better because the screws aren't hollow enough for their intended Philips screwdriver) and if even after much grip the screw wouldn't give that means you need to heat it until the screw burns your finger when you try to touch it. I don't like the idea of exposing the laptop to heat either but sadly these screws wouldn't ever budge without it and you do not want to go too hard on them or they get stripped quite easily. A hair dryer in my case did the job well. Patience, research and organization is key and it should be an awesome repaste. Good luck 🙂

[peperon321]

Dear @fbajjar,

I can't wait to update this thread as the results were shockingly good. Just finished repasting half an hour ago. Problem ULTIMATELY fixed. 2.8 GHz fixed of gaming (TDP around 33W) (about 2-3 mins to test things out) now hovers at only 65 degree Celsius MAX. Thank you for your updates which motivated me to do the same 🙂

Thank you again, Asus, for being as helpful and as professional as always. I will update this thread once more to share my results and findings.

Also, are you using Sonic Studio III? If so, there might be an underlying problem: namely Nahimic service. After disabling it via services.msc, my chrome opens instantaneously. Before this, it usually took about half a minute. A similar problem happens in other apps too.

[fbajjar]

peperon321 wrote:
Dear @fbajjar,

I can't wait to update this thread as the results were shockingly good. Just finished repasting half an hour ago. Problem ULTIMATELY fixed. 2.8 GHz fixed of gaming (TDP around 33W) (about 2-3 mins to test things out) now hovers at only 65 degree Celsius MAX. Thank you for your updates which motivated me to do the same 🙂

Thank you again, Asus, for being as helpful and as professional as always. I will update this thread once more to share my results and findings.

Also, are you using Sonic Studio III? If so, there might be an underlying problem: namely Nahimic service. After disabling it via services.msc, my chrome opens instantaneously. Before this, it usually took about half a minute. A similar problem happens in other apps too.

Nahimic APO isn't causing an issue for my chrome at all here. Maybe you are using an older version of it? Install instructions: Download the latest audio driver here that comes with nahimic included (thanks to mokichu for providing it) https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?117596-DRIVERS-Realtek-Audio-(MB-Intel-2xx-3xx-4xx-5xx-amp... Download DDU from here: https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html Turn off your internet connection so windows update doesn't update it with some corrupted audio driver. Then use DDU to clean up the old driver ---select device type--- Audio ---Select device--- Realtek (WIP) then click clean and restart. Now simply open the audio driver archive you have downloaded and run the Install.cmd inside as admin.