Wrote off thermal paste swaps for 10 years, then a client's Dell in Tucson hit 99C and I ate my words

Nathan Chen · 2026-09-22T12:55:04.627835+00:00

For a decade I told people re-pasting was a waste of time. Just clean the dust and move on. Then a guy brought in a 5 year old XPS from Tucson, said it kept shutting off during Zoom calls. Pulled the heatsink and the factory paste was basically chalk. Swapped it for a $7 tube of MX-4 and his temps dropped 22 degrees. Anyone else find the cheap fixes actually work better than the fancy ones?

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Wrote off thermal paste swaps for 10 years, then a client's Dell in Tucson hit 99C and I ate my words | Computer Technicians - Discusd