# ASUS Vivobook S200, X202E, Q200 overheating / thermal throttling SOLVED



## ElZilcho (Aug 22, 2014)

Hello folks,

I wanted to share a great experience with my trusty Asus Vivobook X202e.

This laptop I've had for a year now and used it for light work and play, but recently I wanted to start Starcraft 2 and found that it was unplayably slow, even though the Core i3 3217 and the Intel HD 4000 graphics should run it on low-visuals just fine.

However, I found the reason for the poor performance was THERMAL THROTTLING - the CPU was heating up to around 90 degrees centigrade under heavy load and then throttling back to 1 Ghz for a few seconds to cool down.

So I analyzsed this a little and found the CPU idle temperature was about 60°C, and it rose very fast to high 80's °C when pushed a little.

This does not damage the chip, but it makes it useless for games or other intensive work.

Therefore I decided to do a little thermal engineering and fitted extra heat sinks to the existing, rather weak heat transfer pad.

This is not that easy in a laptop, especially an ultrabook design where everything is squeezed in.

See the pictures and description; the result is that idle temp is now in the high 40's °C, the heavy-load temp is in the mid 70's °C, and there is NO thermal throttling when playing StarCraft 2. It runs just fine for hours with 30+ framerate.



*1.*
Prepare your gear; I bought a selection of tiny heat sinks from modDIY.com, but the only really useful stuff for this job was these:

Sticky thernal pads (0.5mm)
3M-467 Thermally Conductive Adhesive Transfer Tapes - modDIY.com

Ultra-thin heat sinks (pack of 6)
3M 8810 Thermally Conductive Adhesive 2mm Ultra-Thin Heatsink (6 Pack) - modDIY.com











*2.*
Take the back panal off the laptop











*3.*
Identify inadequate standard heat-sink and fan, ready for pimping up











*4.*
Gently remove any dust on the fan housing with a light vacuum or brush











*5.*
Apply thermal stick pads to chip-square section. These guys squish quite a lot so you can go over the bumps a little











*6.*
Add two heat sinks in line (so the air can flow in one direction over them)











*7.*
Apply thermal sticky pads to the adjacent section. You will have to cut them to size and shape I expect.











*8.*
Apply three heat sinks in line











*9.*
Admire your work!


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## AtomicPumpkin (Sep 6, 2014)

Thanks a lot for this! This mod is a lot more aesthetically pleasing than other ones that I've come across.

The only thing that I'm not clear on is the heat sinks themselves. It looks like they already have a thermal adhesive on them. Do you keep it on and have a dual layer of adhesive or do you remove it for a single layer?

I'm going to pull the trigger on this soon. My S200E idles between 60-70C and starts throttling quickly when watching videos.

Thanks again!


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## ElZilcho (Aug 22, 2014)

AtomicPumpkin said:


> ... The only thing that I'm not clear on is the heat sinks themselves. It looks like they already have a thermal adhesive on them. Do you keep it on and have a dual layer of adhesive or do you remove it for a single layer?


Hey AP,

Yes the heat sinks already have a very thin thermal adhesive on; I used a dual layer.

The thermal pads I bought are very squishy, so they are perfect to go over and around the little imperfections and bumps on the original heat sink above the chip.

The name of the game is to make contact with as much surface area as possible - I did this by cutting and positioning the thermal pads over the area, and then laying the heat sinks across the top.

It's quite obvious when you look at it I think, if I didn't use the pads then the heat sinks would not make much contact.

I did not remove the adhesive, I just stuck them together 


A few other observations from the last month or so;

* The *gaming performance* - without any thermal throttling since applying the fix - is about 2x better by frame rate. 
That still does not make this little laptop a decent rig, but if you want to play StarCraft II, Portal 2 or any games from around 2010 they are actually decently playable now. Same goes for HD video.

* The *core temperature* is about 15 degrees C (50F) lower now on average
idle: 48-50 °C
light work/surfing: 55-60 °C
gaming: 68-74 °

* *Get a cooling pad!*
With the heat sinks touching the metal reinforced part of the back panel it does get hot! I have found a laptop cooling pad really does help for this.

This one is cheap and works great for me
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002Q8X3L2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


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## AtomicPumpkin (Sep 6, 2014)

Thanks for the quick response! I will consider the laptop cooler option, as well - thanks for the suggestion. 

The links no longer work in your original post so here are updated ones:

Sticky thermal pads (0.5mm)
3M-467 Thermally Conductive Adhesive Transfer Tapes - modDIY.com

Ultra-thin heat sinks (pack of 6)
3M 8810 Thermally Conductive Adhesive 2mm Ultra-Thin Heatsink (6 Pack) - modDIY.com


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## AtomicPumpkin (Sep 6, 2014)

Well, it appears that the links that I posted above don't work anymore, either - not sure why. At any rate, you can find the parts by going to modDIY.com and searching for the part numbers from the links.


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## Panther063 (Jul 13, 2009)

AtomicPumpkin said:


> Well, it appears that the links that I posted above don't work anymore, either - not sure why. At any rate, you can find the parts by going to modDIY.com and searching for the part numbers from the links.


Both of those links work fine. :thumb:


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## Panther063 (Jul 13, 2009)

AtomicPumpkin said:


> The links no longer work in your original post so here are updated ones:


These links work fine also.
It seems your system may be having the issue.


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## kaliduss (Sep 24, 2017)

HI! im truly sorry for the necro, but i desperately need the images from here, its the best mod i´ve found around for this laptop temp problem. Does anyone have them? I want to be certain of what im doing. i even have the pads mentioned, but i dont know what exactly is the position and direction of the heatsinks, and one or 2 more things. please!


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## kaliduss (Sep 24, 2017)

update: im so so sorry, just realized that even if the images are not available in the post, if u go to tattersall4 photobucket profile they are still there. again, i beg forgiveness. oh and this guy deserves an award for this.

if anyone is interested:
tattersall4's Library | Photobucket


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