Another cooling idea. Would like input. - Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I have been reading a few other threads and have a different idea. I have some small sheets of copper, and would like to incorporate them as a heatsink. This is really a two part mod. First, the N7. Second, the case. Lets start with the N7.
My idea is pretty simple and cheap. I will lay out the process as i visualize it, then ask for advice on the specifics. First, i need to cut the sheet of copper to fit over the cpu and gpu. Now, here is where the questions start.
1. Would it be best to remove the original foil that is covering it now, or use the new sheet in addition?
2. Best way to adhere it? If original foil removed, could we simply use normal heatsink paste? If not, then how?
The second part on the device itself is the back cover. I think it would be ideal to drill small holes directly over where the cpu gpu sits. I would recommend getting an extra back.
The holes lead to the case. When seated in the case, i want to modify with a hole directly behind the cpu location and our new holes on the n7 backing. Over this large hole would sit a fan. A small one with a usb power source would be perfect. That would require an otg, but needed to get away from external power source.
1. Would it be best to suck hot air away from the unit, or cooler air at it. Most likely the first, but im not sure.
Ill post pics of the areas i am talking about later. Xda app is being cranky right now.
Skyrocket on AOKP by R4ins

Related

Little Cap covering Car Antenna Connector missing,suggestions?

Don't know how it happened, but just looked at the back of my Tytn, and it is missing that little plastic/rubber cap that goes over the Car Angenna Connector (that's what they call it in the manual). Can anyone suggest how I could get/buy a new/used one ? I haven't seen any posts of this type of thing happening to anyone else..not sure why? I now realize that it must be a removeable cap. I am surprised that nobody else, seems to lose theirs. Anyways, any suggestions are appreciated. It certainly shouldn't cost a fortune for such a puny thing!..
see if you can find it here..
good luck.
If all else fails, try the end cap from a Bic Stic ballpoint pen -- the little plastic bit plugging the non-writing end of the pen's barrel. Should be pretty close to the right size.
Thank you for your suggestions
Will try your link,, and try your Bic suggestions.
One thing you could also do is use a piece of black electrical tape to cover the antenna hole underneath the battery door. When you put the battery door back on, it will look just as it did before as the tape will be underneath it.
I think I found an almost perfect substitute
I went to the Home Depot and bought a package of Self-Adhesive Foam and Vinyl Pads. Different sizes, but the one that I bought had black ones, different sizes. I just had to trim ,make a smaller circle out of any of the black ones, to slightly ,but barely overcover the hole, then I placed back the back cover on top of it. You should make sure that the pad isn't too thick. Mine were fine. I suppose, instead of even taking off the back, you could approach it by keeping the back on, cutting a round piece that would fit snuggly into the hole. Too boot, the sticky part, should more or less adhere to the exposed bits that are in the hole. I prefered the other way, because it adhered to the actual back of the phone,near the hole a lot better. Hopefully I helped those people find a better way, than using bic pens blunt end. I tried that , but not nearly as good as my method.

[MOD] Better heat dissipation for TEGRA chip

Hello Atrix owners,
(jump to "The ideas" if you dont want to hear my story! )
Got my Atrix at&t last friday, still tweaking it to my likings, but when I started playing Apparatus, emulators, AirAttackHD, and other games to test the power of the TEGRA chip, I felt the phone becoming warmer and warmer.
EDIT: Played 1 lap on Riptide, went to check on the processor temp: 61 degrees celsius.
I opened the back case. The bottom area, specially above the microSD card, was very hot (based on motorola defy's temps, my previous android phone)
The battery itself wasn't even warm, except for the region near the bottom left.
I was scared I had gotten a defective unit, so I came to xda forums, and most of the topics related to temps came to the same conclusion: that was the normal operating temps under load from the dual core processor.
Still, it worries me because of the position in which they've placed the microSD port. My card's max. operating temps are 60 celsius, and my processor was doing 52 within 5-10 minutes of gaming.
Also, I'm a little obsessed with computer components getting too hot. I've seen lots of motherboards leaving this world because of that.
The ideas:
Since I had recently bought a ICDiamond thermal paste, I started thinking about modding the atrix's case to dissipate more heat, someway.
This page shows a teardown of our phone: http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Motorola-Atrix-4G-Teardown/4964/2
You can see in the board's pictures that the NVIDIA CPU/GPU chip along with the 1gb memory its exactly above the microSD slot - marked in yellow in STEP 10
I was thinking about removing the metal plate covering the chip itself, apply some thermal paste there that would transfer heat to the metal plate. (see picture)
Then, above the metal plate, on the plastic cover shown in this picture, maybe put a small copper sheet (or other heat conducting material) on the inside, to spread the heat to a larger area.
Maybe drill some holes on the plastic cover to expose this metal to the area just under back cover.
One concern (also shown in the picture and in the website) is the magnetic compass, marked blue on the attached pic. Would the metal sheet cause any kind of interference? I could use some help on this from someone with more knowledge on magnetic physics and eletronic compasses.
I haven't done any sorts of thermal modding on computers, graphics cards, etc., so I would like some help, insights, and improves on my initial ideas, so we can have cooler dual core smartphones
Nice post! I'm curious to see some reviews after some other brave souls try this... In theory it should help. As for the magnetic compass.... maybe try using aluminum foil... non magnetic, and will dissipate some heat... probably not as much as the copper, but hey....
This mod would be spreading out the heat from the CPU to about an inch away, but still in the phone, so what's the plan after that? Even without this mod, after maybe 10 minutes the bottom half of the phone is nice and warm under CPU-stressful activities anyway, there doesn't seem to be much need for more heat spreading ability... The heat spreads out fine, the real problem is getting heat away from the phone itself, not from the CPU.
Nice concept.
Drilling some small holes in the cover could help heat get out, but without active cooling, I doubt much will dissipate through there. If you were to drill holes, I would do them on a small CNC mill if you have one available so you get a nice even hole pattern, and minimize a drill wandering and butchering the cover. You could also cut a small piece out of the cover, then put some wire mesh like the speaker cover over it to get more air in/out.
You will be fine using metal sheeting if you do not use anything magnetic. But then the materials available will probably not conduct heat very well.
In all reality, as I previously said, without any kind of active cooling, you may pull a few degrees of heat away from the CPU/GPU, but then it has nowhere to go from there, so I doubt you will gain much.
Only one way to find out for sure though!
Hello WolfFX, my fellow atrix owner,
Nice idea indeed. I would probably prefer to stick a very thin layer of copper on top of the current one and apply the paste between the two copper. If the results seem to better than stock, i would use correct sandpaper to create more space in the housing, so i could put a thicker copper plate. Thicker copper means better heat spreading and cooling.
I had 2 defy's myself. The reason for the defy spreading heat better cause its internal design isn't as complicated as atrix plus its thicker. Generally, the singlecore cpu's can also get very hot if they're used in a thin housing IMO.
I use some on the base of a small fan that hooks up to my micro usb port for active. If you've read this far I am kidding and its not possible because the usb port is not.powered.
On another not cutting out approximately 1-1.5 square inches in lower part of the back cover and replacing with copper might help. Cutting out a hole/holes in the back of tpu case would help hold copper plate and let heat dissipate. It would be ghetto fabulous but the question is would it dissipate enough heat to make it worth the trouble.
I voided my warranty and your mum.
Dual core machines have to work harder in an environment designed for single core like Android. If the app you are running is optimised for dual core it should run cooler. ICS will be multi-core optimised. Dual core naturally run hotter than single.
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium
dragon_76 said:
Dual core machines have to work harder in an environment designed for single core like Android. If the app you are running is optimised for dual core it should run cooler. ICS will be multi-core optimised. Dual core naturally run hotter than single.
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Kinda funny that the idiots on Engaget constantly crave for quad-core, when we are struggling as it is on dual-core technology with single core FW...
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App
palmboy5 said:
This mod would be spreading out the heat from the CPU to about an inch away, but still in the phone, so what's the plan after that? Even without this mod, after maybe 10 minutes the bottom half of the phone is nice and warm under CPU-stressful activities anyway, there doesn't seem to be much need for more heat spreading ability... The heat spreads out fine, the real problem is getting heat away from the phone itself, not from the CPU.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tought about that, and you are right, it will still be warm.
But if the copper works, the processor temperature readings will be lower, while the warmth will have more area to be dissipated.
It will still be passive, but better than the actual state.
Does anybody have knowledge about motorola's warranty on the Atrix?
Supposing I would open the phone to put the copper and thermal paste, (but dont drill the case, that would be irreversible), would that void any warranty stickers or something like that?
I got my phone last friday, haven't unlocked bootloader or anything because I'd like to keep my warranty for a while...
ccrows said:
Kinda funny that the idiots on Engaget constantly crave for quad-core, when we are struggling as it is on dual-core technology with single core FW...
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If people were satisfied with what exists, there would be no innovation.
Not saying increasing core count is innovative, but its far better than being stagnant nonetheless.
WolfFX said:
I tought about that, and you are right, it will still be warm.
But if the copper works, the processor temperature readings will be lower, while the warmth will have more area to be dissipated.
It will still be passive, but better than the actual state.
Does anybody have knowledge about motorola's warranty on the Atrix?
Supposing I would open the phone to put the copper and thermal paste, (but dont drill the case, that would be irreversible), would that void any warranty stickers or something like that?
I got my phone last friday, haven't unlocked bootloader or anything because I'd like to keep my warranty for a while...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what do you think? would you want to honor a warranty after making hardware changes like that? if you really want to try, buy a phone off craigslist with a broken screen or something and do the mod and see what happens.
pukemon said:
what do you think? would you want to honor a warranty after making hardware changes like that? if you really want to try, buy a phone off craigslist with a broken screen or something and do the mod and see what happens.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If someday I move from Brazil to United States I can think about your suggestions.
The damn taxes on my country make the carrier free phone cost equivalent to 1250 dollars.
The broken screen phone here probably will cost the same as a new one on US...
Whatever, soon I will lose my extreme-obsessive-care-for-new-gadget and unlock the bootloader, void the warranty, and test this mod.
If anyone has the courage to do it, please take some pics and post them here, along with comments
If you ever do it, I suggest slotting/drilling the back cover first and seeing what gains you.
I voided my warranty and your mum.
palmboy5 said:
If people were satisfied with what exists, there would be no innovation.
Not saying increasing core count is innovative, but its far better than being stagnant nonetheless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand the need to innovate but...
IMO we are not at the point with CPUs where we can "comfortably" put 4 cores on phones yet.
Can it be done? yes, but it would be dumb to do IMHO. We need smaller transistors on chips, an OS that can handle multi-core, and devs that can write Apps properly for that.
Otherwise you're wasting money on an oven that happens to make calls...
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App
pukemon said:
If you ever do it, I suggest slotting/drilling the back cover first and seeing what gains you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By back cover you mean the one with torx screws, or the outer one?
To do it on the external cover I would need some fine tools, since any mistakes would screw even more the visual appeal of the phone
I saw on another topic here on the forums where someone was asking if there was something such as a metal back cover. That could help on the heat issue. But all the answers were negative. The flexibility of the plastic seems to be what allows it to be opened in the first place
ccrows said:
I understand the need to innovate but...
IMO we are not at the point with CPUs where we can "comfortably" put 4 cores on phones yet.
Can it be done? yes, but it would be dumb to do IMHO. We need smaller transistors on chips, an OS that can handle multi-core, and devs that can write Apps properly for that.
Otherwise you're wasting money on an oven that happens to make calls...
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That and the fact you would need a much larger battery to make it a day, or stay with the thin is in but haved a wired cell phone because you wont go anywhere for long with a dead cell phone.
I voided my warranty and your mum.
like CaelanT said, without active cooling (read: a fan), there really will not be much benefit. the entire casing is made of plastic so even if heat were to be dissipated under that area, it would still be trapped there.
dLo GSR said:
like CaelanT said, without active cooling (read: a fan), there really will not be much benefit. the entire casing is made of plastic so even if heat were to be dissipated under that area, it would still be trapped there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wont dissipate too much, but the fact that we can feel the warmth outside means heat is coming through. I'll wait my tests week to be over so I can buy some tools and still need to find out where to buy the copper or aluminum sheet.
WolfFX said:
Wont dissipate too much, but the fact that we can feel the warmth outside means heat is coming through. I'll wait my tests week to be over so I can buy some tools and still need to find out where to buy the copper or aluminum sheet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
heat is coming through but it has nothing to remove it. we can heat sink it to another part of the phone but without a HUGE piece of heat conductive metal to take it, it will simply stay hot. there is no fan/active element to remove the heat from the device and so we are stuck with how it is. that's the problem with microelectronics and ICs that don't allow for fans, and it's up to the software and its use of the CPU to minimize the load on the processors.
i know the effort is valiant but i honestly, from an EE standpoint, don't see you getting much noticeable difference without cramping something else up (i.e. messing with reception because of rogue metal plates or transferring that heat to other parts / ICs of the phone which are not as heat resistant)
yes im sure this definetly voids warrenty (fyi lol i voided mine )
unlocked bootloader att. atrix. honeycomb rom. faux oc kernal

Feasibility of a DIY heatsink

I've seen a couple of threads in the past where people have asked about creating heatsinks for improving the cooling efficiency of their devices. Under normal circumstances a heatsink wouldn't be necessary, but recently with Clemsyn and other kernel devs starting to push the physical limits of the Tegra 3, heat dissipation becomes a major concern at 1.8Ghz and higher. I'm starting to wonder if there might be a way to get creative with some copper foil and a few old laptop heatsinks I've got lying around, just to give the chips a bit of relief from all of the mean and terrible things I do to them. But having never taken my Nexus apart, I have no idea what kind of room is available for heat pipes or foil.
Anybody ever tried making a heatsink for a tablet or phone? This isn't meant to be wholly a serious discussion, and I fully expect to get a lot of flack about battery usage and melting plastic. I just think it would be cool to mod the device into being able to maintain these ridiculous clock speeds and not have it burn my hands.
using the clemsyn 2ghz kernel in front of the a/c works out well
There's very little empty space inside the Nexus 7, so there's no chance of adding additional cooling without more major modding.
I've been looking in to exactly this. I find my Tegra 3 gets to 60 C even before overclocking. If you study the teardown photos you can get an idea of how it might work. I turns out the main SoC chip's headspreader is nicely accessible.
The back pops off the Nexus 7 so easily we can easily take a peak.
My first idea would be to put a little thermal paste in each layer on the SoC's heat spreader, this is covered by a copper RF shield/heat spreader on the chip, and another copper layer on the back cover. Just a tiny dab would do, and it will be smooshed out over an area when the cover goes on. Could get a bit messy though.
There's exactly zero room to work with, it's all very tightly packed and a nicely engineered tablet.
But the back cover is so replaceable you could cut in to it.
If I was going to do it myself I would cut through all layers and have a heatsink directly on the tegra's heatspreader with an adhesive thermal pad. Any more than about something like 1-2mm and it would not be flush with the rear cover.
Alternately some perforation in the plastic on the rear around the area may help.
If i can scrounge some replacement parts I might have a crack at doing stuff.
Whoa whoa whoa, 2GHZ?
BRB !!
Mungulz said:
Whoa whoa whoa, 2GHZ?
BRB !!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, for those people who want to fry their Nexus 7s.
I've only OC'd to 1.4 GHz..not so sure I'll go much farther than that.

[FIX] Wi-Fi/Bluetooth error - 10 minute fix - NO SOLDERING REQUIRED

This is the way I fixed the wifi\bluetooth error with continuous rebooting on my Atrix.
I did not come up with it, and I do not guarantee it will work in your device, I'm simply sharing this because it's information that's hard to find and understand. I fixed my device in this way, so have others. I do not take responsability for any damage you might make to your device attempting this fix, and I do not claim it will work forever - it's been two days for me and still great!
For completeness sake, if you guys want to check other proposed fixes and some reasons why they might or might not work, here is this great post by mvniekerk, a person more far more knowlegble then me when it comes to these technological issues:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1655071
I'd also like to thank John-aurelio, junior member, who initially posted about this fix here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1655071&page=4
All credit goes to him!
So, what did I do?
1) I cut out two rectagular pieces of plastic from a pill tin, glued them on top of each other with scotch tape. I think any thin piece of plastic should do.
2) Opened up my Atrix by removing screws with a T5 Torx screwdriver. If you don't know how to do this check out this teardown by ifixit: http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Motorola+Atrix+4G+Teardown/4964/1
3) Slightly raised the motherboard and placed the plastic rectangle under it, with a little bit sticking out into the battery compartment.
To my amazement it worked, it is still working.
I wanted to tell you guys why, but I don't know. Perhaps one of you guys wants to experiment applying pressure to each component separately to find out the culprit?
Also, I'm curious to know if this will work for all of you, or just some of you.
Here are the pics:
This last one is the piece of tin\plastic with tape, side by side with a pencil for scale. Its not the tin I used, but its basically the same, but the one I used has white paint, I don't know if should make a difference. If you're worried about shorts just cover the whole thing in tape or cut plastic from a bottle or something.
The first two are how its supposed to look in the end.
[EDIT]: Here are some more pics:
This is the piece of plastic I used. It doesn't show, but it is very thin, one milimiter thick, if even.
These are of the open device. In the last one the plastic piece is a little eschewed, but you get the idea.
Cheerios
Huh. This is similar to the fix some people did with the digitizer problem. Seems like the the connectors on this phone tend to come loose, to where pressure in the right direction will fix it.
Sent from my MB860 using xda app-developers app
Newbleeto said:
This is the way I fixed the wifi\bluetooth error with continuous rebooting on my Atrix.
I did not come up with it, and I do not guarantee it will work in your device, I'm simply sharing this because it's information that's hard to find and understand. I fixed my device in this way, so have others. I do not take responsability for any damage you might make to your device attempting this fix, and I do not claim it will work forever - it's been two days for me and still great!
For completeness sake, if you guys want to check other proposed fixes and some reasons why they might or might not work, here is this great post by mvniekerk, a person more far more knowlegble then me when it comes to these technological issues:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1655071
I'd also like to thank John-aurelio, junior member, who initially posted about this fix here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1655071&page=4
All credit goes to him!
So, what did I do?
1) I cut out two rectagular pieces of plastic from a pill tin, glued them on top of each other with scotch tape. I think any thin piece of plastic should do.
2) Opened up my Atrix by removing screws with a T5 Torx screwdriver.
3) Slightly raised the motherboard and placed the plastic rectangle under it, with a little bit sticking out into the battery compartment.
To my amazement it worked, it is still working.
I wanted to tell you guys why, but I don't know. Perhaps one of you guys wants to experiment applying pressure to each component separately to find out the culprit?
Also, I'm curious to know if this will work for all of you, or just some of you.
Here are the pics:
This last one is the piece of tin\plastic with tape, side by side with a pencil for scale. Its not the tin I used, but its basically the same, but the one I used has white paint, I don't know if should make a difference. If you're worried about shorts just cover the whole thing in tape or cut plastic from a bottle or something.
The first two are how its supposed to look in the end.
Sorry for no open device pics, I did this yesterday and don't really feel like opening my phone, but if you guys think its needed I'll do it later.
Cheerios
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A detailed How To to show us what to do exactly, we can do much ourselves with just this pics. :/
EDIT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYz_RiuFVRk had anyone seen this?
Will try this with my wifi broken atrix tomorrow.
guidoido004 said:
A detailed How To to show us what to do exactly, we can do much ourselves with just this pics. :/
EDIT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYz_RiuFVRk had anyone seen this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's literally as simple as opening the atrix and placing the plastic under the motherboard, I don't think it gets any easier then that. But I'll try to take more photos.
As for that video, there are reports of people killing their mobiles by breaking the piece holding the battery or killing the nearby ICs trying that. That guy is just too rough. Also, it doesn't show the battery actually being replaced. If you wanna try to replace the battery, better do it gently and stay clear of that video
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
If the solution is to apply pressure to certain parts of the board then it's likely similar to the infamous nVidia issues from around 2008 where the chips were getting hot enough to expand and brake the solder connection or in some cases, rip some of the pads from the board. If that is the case, be careful, as flexing the board the wrong way could eventually lead to making it worse over time.
I can't believe this actually worked. Been using my Atrix for the whole weekend on WIFI. Also finally been able to use my Lapdock properly.
Thanks so much for such a simple fix.
If its any help to anyone, I ended up using an old debit card, as its seems the perfect height to give enough pressure on the board.
It did take a few goes, but as long as you persist with it, it works really well. Plus no more over heating too.
Thanks again
holy crap. 5 minutes and its fixed! thank you
Cause found??
Hi everybody,
I might have an idea what causes the wifi errors. As the wifi gets fixed by changing the motherboard's position, the motherboard is not fastened properly. This might be caused by the vibration function that is located on the part of the motherboard you would need to move up.(see the location of the vibrationfuction in the attachment.)
If so, should this function be less used then?
Thanks Newbleeto! I was so frustrated with this issue. I was initially trying based that youtube video link by someone else which never worked for me. I later decided to try your solution and it worked for me the very first time Appreciate your help!
Thanks, seems to work!
What an interesting tweak. There some validity to this. The Atrix 4G is notorious for wifi, bluetooth, and GPS dropout. This is largely due to kernel and rom. However I have seem plenty of Atrix4Gs with loose antenna clamps. Usually I apply a little pressure in the outside of the clamp to reform it slightly so it will maintain hold on the reciever socket. Second thing I look at is the shielding around the mainboard. This acts as a heatsink and guard. If depressed in anyway will cause massive heating along with grounding. The antenna clusters are not well separated from RF interference from one another to begin with. Metal in general will restricted RF signals considerably depending on its frequency. The greater the frequency the lower it's ability to perpetrate materials.
From the looks of it your directing RF crossover and bounce back away from each antenna. This is a good thing. It also means as long as the phone is not held on its edge towards any receiving end it won't effect talk and data very much.
My experiments with the Atrix4G always had a bit of unpredictable outcome when it came to pressure on the ribbon connections. This would result in the screen blacking out, digitizer over sensitive or non responsive, failure to boot and so on. Pressure is a big deal with these phones so be careful.
Happy tinkering
IT WORKS
after nearly 4 months of this bug i finally had the guts to open up my phone and do this fix.
and it is working , my wifi is back thank you OP. :highfive::highfive::highfive::highfive::highfive::highfive::highfive::highfive::highfive::highfive::highfive::highfive::victory::victory:
This method works wonderfully. Thanks, OP!
sangyum said:
This method works wonderfully. Thanks, OP!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Spoke too soon. This fix stopped working after two days.... Back to Wifi Error and boot loop. :crying:
I got my wifi to work again, there are two snap on connectors on the same side of the phone. I put 2x pieces of toilet paper cardboard between the frame of the phone and the connector, pushing the connector tighter to the other side.
I'd like to confrm that it works to me !
Thank you, I spent dozens of hours to try solve it.
Newbleeto said:
This is the way I fixed the wifi\bluetooth error with continuous rebooting on my Atrix.
I did not come up with it, and I do not guarantee it will work in your device, I'm simply sharing this because it's information that's hard to find and understand. I fixed my device in this way, so have others. I do not take responsability for any damage you might make to your device attempting this fix, and I do not claim it will work forever - it's been two days for me and still great!
For completeness sake, if you guys want to check other proposed fixes and some reasons why they might or might not work, here is this great post by mvniekerk, a person more far more knowlegble then me when it comes to these technological issues:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1655071
I'd also like to thank John-aurelio, junior member, who initially posted about this fix here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1655071&page=4
All credit goes to him!
So, what did I do?
1) I cut out two rectagular pieces of plastic from a pill tin, glued them on top of each other with scotch tape. I think any thin piece of plastic should do.
2) Opened up my Atrix by removing screws with a T5 Torx screwdriver. If you don't know how to do this check out this teardown by ifixit: http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Motorola+Atrix+4G+Teardown/4964/1
3) Slightly raised the motherboard and placed the plastic rectangle under it, with a little bit sticking out into the battery compartment.
To my amazement it worked, it is still working.
...
Cheerios
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did this as well, and it's been working perfectly for over a week now. Battery life has tripled to 24h (back where it used to be, what a relief) and the wifi is back to being perfect.
In my case, I cut a small piece out of an old credit card and inserted into the section highlighted in the attached picture, inside to out (from the battery bay towards the side). There are flat cables/strips underneath and you probably don't want to insert your spacer material from the outside in. Make sure that the plastic strip fits completely underneath the board, otherwise you won't be able to properly close the back.
Thanks!
To add some data to this can all of you confirm the kernel and rom you are useing before and after this mod. Would help all of us in the future for reference. Thanks.
Cab121 said:
To add some data to this can all of you confirm the kernel and rom you are useing before and after this mod. Would help all of us in the future for reference. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure, no problem!
Atrix 4G (Bell Canada)
Unlocked and rooted by yours truly (don't ask how, I'm still not sure I know what I did)
CynaogenMod 10.1 from epinter: Megathread or linuxmobile.org site, builds 2013-08-07 + hporch32 kernel (before and after mod) & 2013-08-26 + hporch32 kernel (after mod)
Radio: Telstra N_01.87.00R

Adding a heat sink?

Sorry for the noob question, but I have this new "core board" in the attached picture.
Do I just need to glue a heat sink to the silver part, obviously moving the cord out of the way?
Is it that simple, or are there certain spots to avoid?
I wonder if this drilled plate can be removed just to check its alignment to chip. Having just a fan above this (attached to HU's walls) might turn better solution.
ste2002 said:
I wonder if this drilled plate can be removed just to check its alignment to chip. Having just a fan above this (attached to HU's walls) might turn better solution.
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So just remove the screws and see what is under there?
Yes. Some of us report that thermal paste is missing/no contact with plate etc. Such setup as in your photo - I've never seen yet though, but it is good to make sure the contact is properly arranged - then additional heatsink makes sense.
So if something is not touching the top part, a heat sink will do nothing?
I took the heat sink off mine. It did appear to have good contact with all the chips, but before replacing it, I spread the heatsink compound evenly across all the chips.
Then I added extra heatsinks on top with thermal adhesive, and added fan to top cover. See main heatsink thread for details, and read from beginning. Here's my post. https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=75274018&postcount=154
CadillacMike said:
So if something is not touching the top part, a heat sink will do nothing?
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Even "better": it will block available vent holes. IMHO if there is no proper contact *and* no way it can be restored/arranged, then fan can do the cooling job via vent holes.
pwood999 said:
I took the heat sink off mine. It did appear to have good contact with all the chips, but before replacing it, I spread the heatsink compound evenly across all the chips.
Then I added extra heatsinks on top with thermal adhesive, and added fan to top cover. See main heatsink thread for details, and read from beginning. Here's my post. https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=75274018&postcount=154
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Click to collapse
It also acts to suppress RFI and acts as a heat spreader.
For my PX5 Android 6, I replaced the thermal compound on the heat spreader, added a heatsink and fan. Bonded using thermal adhesive, all parts repurposed from old laptop. Includes connectors, supply sourced from unit switched 5v which is powered off on sleep. Simple resistive voltage drop added results in cool temps and barely audible fan.
I have further modified the case top section to add a grill and filter medium.
ste2002 said:
I wonder if this drilled plate can be removed just to check its alignment to chip. Having just a fan above this (attached to HU's walls) might turn better solution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree. Replace thermal compound and a fan either pulling hot air from or blowing cool air onto the SOM heat spreader and sourced externally should keep things cool.

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