Hardware cleaning, Thermal Paste Replacement
Thermal Paste and Computer Cleaning
Here at We Make It Happen, we understand the importance of computer and laptop maintenance. It is essential for keeping your system running smoothly, whether you use it for gaming, high-level programming, video editing, or any other task.
When left untreated, a computer or laptop can undergo various problems due to the accumulation of dirt, dust, and debris. Not only does this result in slow performance, but it can also damage the internal components.
Running your computer without a thermal paste under the CPU and GPU can take a massive toll on your system. A thermal paste is an essential material that fills microscopic gaps between the CPU/GPU and their heat sinks.
Therefore, We Make It Happen, a professional computer repair shop in Cambridge, recommends thermal paste or compound to keep your system’s CPU or GPU cool, allowing you to maintain high performance and speed.
Why Your CPU and GPU needs a Thermal Paste
Generally, computer repair shops use the thermal paste to keep the CPU and GPU cool, ensuring optimal speed and performance. The paste contains metals with excellent heat conduction properties, preventing the CPU and GPU from overheating.
However, not everyone can apply the thermal paste under the CPU and GPU because it requires careful operation and application. We Make It Happen has professional technicians with years of experience to ensure your computer or laptop does not reach a harmful heat level by applying the thermal paste correctly.
That way, the heat sink accurately expels the heat from the hardware and keeps the processor cool, allowing it to process different applications without slowing down your computer or laptop.
CPU throttling is a significant problem for laptop users who play high-graphics video games or run video editing software applications. The throttling occurs when the processor overheats. If the CPU is not cool, it will not run to its maximum capacity and throttle and cause damages to the system.
Although many users use performance monitoring software, cooling pads, and processes like under-voting and under-clocking, to prevent throttling, applying thermal paste to the CPU is the best way to maintain its efficiency.
We Provide Quality Thermal Paste Services
We Make It Happen is an experienced company with skilled professionals who can apply thermal paste to the CPU and GPU when installing or replacing these components into the motherboard. We ensure everything goes smoothly without damaging the CPU and GPU. The purpose is to ensure your computer or laptop runs efficiently without any issues.
Here at We Make it Happen, we ensure the dab is smaller enough, such as the size of a pea, to avoid damages to these expensive components of your system. Our expert rubs the heat sink against the CPU or GPU in slow and uniform movements to spread the compound properly without causing air bubbles.
Unlike low-quality products, We Make It Happen uses high-end thermal paste products to maintain the optimal performance of an overclocked CPU. That way, the CPU and GPU remain cool for a long even if you run high-graphics games and applications that require increased CPU resources.
If you have a regular laptop or computer, make sure you bring it to We Make It Happen at least once a year or every two years. Likewise, if you have a gaming laptop, we recommend applying the thermal paste to the CPU and GPU at least once a year.
Remember, this is not a DIY task because disassembling the system and assembling it back recovers the expertise of a professional who uses the right tools to get the job done adequately.
Computer Cleaning and Maintenance Services
Laptop cleaning and maintenance services provided by We Make It Happen, a reputable computer repair and refurbishment shop in Cambridge, ensure your system runs at its peak. You may not know, but lint, dirt, and fuzz can trap air in the system, leading to elevated temperature levels that translate to degraded performance.
Here at We Make It Happen, we believe that cleaning and maintaining your laptop is essential for its efficient operation, aesthetic value, and productivity. We recommend cleaning your laptop every six to twelve months to ensure higher efficiency and increased equipment lifespan.
See what we find inside, watch short videos and read real before-and-after temperature tests:
Laptops Desktop PCs Before & after tests Test reports
Applying fresh thermal paste to a MacBook Pro A2141 to restore optimal cooling and performance. Just in time before the CPU and GPU got cooked
Beyond the Dust: Why Thermal Interface Material is Your System’s Lifeblood
Many users believe that a loud fan or a hot chassis just needs a quick blast of compressed air to clear out dust. While airflow is essential, it is only half the battle. The most critical part of your cooling system happens at a microscopic level, where your processor meets your heatsink.
The “Invisible Barrier” Problem
Even the most high-end processors and heatsinks have microscopic ridges and valleys on their surfaces. When these two metal parts are pressed together, they don’t actually make full contact; instead, they trap thousands of tiny pockets of air.
Air is a powerful insulator—the same thing used in double-glazed windows to keep heat in. Without a high-quality “thermal bridge” like paste or liquid metal, your CPU and GPU effectively become insulated, trapping heat until the system is forced to slow down (thermal throttling) or shut down entirely to prevent permanent damage.
Why Removing Dust Isn’t Always the Fix
If your thermal paste has dried out, it becomes a hard, brittle barrier that no longer transfers heat. In this state:
Airflow is useless: It doesn’t matter how clean your fans are if the heat can’t actually get out of the silicon chip and into the heatsink in the first place.
Hidden Heat: Your fans may be spinning at maximum speed, but your processor is still “cooking” because the thermal bridge is broken.
Thermal Paste vs. Liquid Metal: Choosing the Right Shield
At We Make IT Happen, we offer two levels of thermal restoration depending on your device’s needs:
Premium Thermal Paste: Ideal for standard laptops and office PCs. It is reliable, safe, and effective at filling microscopic gaps to restore factory-level cooling.
Professional Liquid Metal: The ultimate upgrade for gaming laptops, the PS5, and high-performance workstations. Liquid metal offers thermal conductivity up to 10 times higher than standard paste (typically ~73 W/mK vs. 5-8 W/mK). This can drop operating temperatures by 10°C to 20°C, allowing your hardware to maintain maximum performance for longer.
Why Professional Application is Critical
While liquid metal offers unparalleled cooling, it is also highly conductive of electricity. A single misplaced droplet can cause an immediate short-circuit, permanently destroying your motherboard. It also reacts chemically with certain metals, like aluminum, requiring expert knowledge of your specific hardware’s materials.
Laptops and desktops: what we find inside
Real photos from our workshops in Cambridge and Dagenham. Dust, blocked heatsinks and dried-out thermal paste are the most common reasons for a hot, loud or slow computer.
Laptops
A laptop has very little room for cooling. The fan, the heat pipes and the thin metal fins clog with dust, and the thermal paste between the processor and the heatsink dries out after a few years. The heat cannot escape, so the fan runs flat out and the laptop slows itself down to stay safe. Gaming laptops are the hardest: many use liquid metal on the processor and graphics chip instead of paste, and the memory and power parts around them sit on thermal pads. Both are replaced, not just cleaned.
We open the laptop, clean every fan and heatsink fin, remove the old paste and worn pads and fit fresh premium thermal paste or new pads. On suitable gaming laptops we can also use liquid metal.
Signs your laptop needs cleaning
- A loud fan that never calms down
- A hot keyboard or a hot underside
- It slows down or stutters when you work or play
- It shuts down or restarts by itself
- Only weak, warm air from the vents
Desktop PCs
Desktops collect dust on the filters, the case fans, the CPU cooler, the liquid-cooler radiator and the graphics card fans. The processor paste also dries out over time. We clean the whole system, refit the cooler properly and check the airflow through the case.
When the graphics card runs hot we can clean it as well and renew its paste or pads. Every job ends with a temperature test.
Signs your PC needs cleaning
- The fans are louder than they used to be
- Games or programs slow down after a while
- The PC restarts or shuts down under load
- Visible dust inside the case or behind the filters
- Hot air blowing out of the case
Before and after: we measure the temperatures
Before and after every job we run special tests, so you can see the real result in numbers – not just a cleaner computer.
Test before
We run a stress test and record the CPU and graphics temperatures, the fan speed and any heat slow-down (throttling) with monitoring software such as HWiNFO64. This is your starting point.
Clean and renew the paste
Dust is removed from the fans, heatsinks and radiators. The old paste is cleaned off and fresh paste or pads are fitted, with the cooler mounted evenly.
Test again and compare
The same test again. We compare the temperatures, fan speed and throttling with the first test and put the result in your report. For PCs we can also run long stability tests such as OCCT and MemTest86.
Every computer is different. Sometimes the temperatures drop by a few degrees, sometimes by much more, and sometimes the test shows that the paste was not the problem. We write down what we measure, good or bad, and we tell you honestly.
Real results from our test reports
Reports from real jobs, with customer details and prices removed. Each one has the full before-and-after test data.
Laptop: before-and-after test
Acer Swift Go 14 · deep clean and new MX-7 thermal paste
- Heat slow-down at full load: 99% → 61% of the readings
- Hottest SSD reading: 86°C → 70°C
- Emergency slow-down signal (PROCHOT): 54 readings → none
The two test runs were not identical, and the report says the heat limiting is reduced, not gone.
Desktop PC: before-and-after test
Ryzen 7 desktop · deep clean and new MX-7 CPU paste
- CPU chiplet, average at full load: 73.4°C → 69.6°C
- CPU die: 73.4°C → 71.4°C
- No heat throttling before or after
Interim update of 7 October. The report calls it a modest, measurable drop and says it cannot be put down to the paste alone.
Same desktop PC: 12-hour test
Final report of 8 October · cooling and stability
- OCCT Platinum certificate after a 12-hour stress test
- CPU average 61°C, no thermal throttling
- NVMe SSD heatsinks and thermal pads fitted
Includes the full temperature log and the OCCT certificates from before and after the repair.
Laptop or PC too hot, loud or slow?
Message Jacob with the model and what you notice, and we will tell you what we think.
Moreover, laptop cleaning is directly proportional to improved airflow, preventing the system from overheating. Remember, cleaning a laptop thoroughly is not a DIY task. You need a professional technician with years of experience to carry out the process adequately. Otherwise, you may cause irreparable damage to your laptop.
Furthermore, gaming laptops have high-performance parts, including CPUs and GPUs crammed up in smaller chassis. Although the smaller chassis ensure portability, it can cause disruptions to proper airflow. The accumulated dirt and dust can clog exhaust vents and reduce the airflow.
So, bringing your laptop to We Make It Happen, Cambridge can save time and money. Because a gaming laptop is an expensive system, cleaning or maintaining it yourself can avoid the warranty. Purchasing a new system can break the bank if you are on a budget.
Therefore, let the professionals at “We Make It Happen” handle your system. We follow a step-by-step approach to tear apart your laptop in a professional manner, clean all components and even hard-to-reach areas.
We have years of experience, skills, and the right tools on hand to carry out the task quickly and efficiently. Whether you need to maintain your CPU and GPU or overall laptop cleaning, you can trust We Make It Happen computer repairs in Cambridge.
Our customer left us a laptop after a year of usage - it was heating too much - over 80 degrees without a load (should be no more than 55-60) Your laptop fans and inside should be cleaned at least once a year depending on usage
And this is how thermal paste - completely hard doesn`t transmit any heat between the CPU and GPU to the heatsinks. Causing damage to the CPU and affecting performance.
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