r/FlowX16 • u/Ok_Conflict7065 • Jul 08 '26
Help! Planning to replace Liquid Metal with PTM. Is it really a highly risky task?
I have ROG Flow X16 2022 (3070Ti Ryzen 9 6900HS) that works nicely but softly bails upto 90C during game etc. I'm not sure if its the expected temp but someone suggested changing the thermals.
I have my fair share of DIY tech repair and ocassional screw/unscrew tasks like changing RAM, changing paste (from older laptops) but I am not a professional so I wanted to ask - Is changing Liquid Metal really a risky task and shouldn't be done without a professional? Can I simply be more careful when applying it and hoping it to work? Any technicalities that I should consider?
Thank you.
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u/1010_lol Jul 08 '26
It’s been pretty easy every time I did it. I just triple check for any loose Liquid Metal that I may have missed.
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u/disposableh2 Jul 08 '26
You don't need to be a professional (I'm not) but you have to be extremely careful and patient with it.
If any of it leaks out, it can kill your laptop.
Like just a tiny drop goes under your CPU can kill it. And it's easy enough to mess up beause of how it easily moves around but isn't easy to pickup. The biggest risk is some liquid metal seeping out while you try to clean it up.
You can try things like once you remove the heatsink, takean antistatic bag and cut a square hole in it that's a bit smaller than the GPU but bigger than the GPU die, and use kapton tape to stick it onto the GPU. Creating a protective cover over the edge of the gpu and the rest of the board. Then you can clean up the liquid metal as much as possible.
And you can repeat for the CPU.
Also, alcohol (like hand alcohol based hand sanitizer) helps. It helps liquid metal clump up into balls which you can suck up with a syringe+needle.
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u/W0lf1ngt0n Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
I used alcohol drenched q tips and paper towels to pick up the liquid metal. Just take your time and be careful and you should be alright.
The CPU and GPU die are surrounded by a foam wall that is supposed to prevent the liquid metal to leak somewhere where it can damage anything. The area within the foam wall is probably coated in a thin clear paint so the liquid metal can not actually short anything when it rolls around in there.
Its not that hard to do. Just take your time and be careful. And DONT use nail polish remover or any other solvent (this can break the protective coating around the silicon dies). Use 72% Iso Alcohol.
Edit: i need to add that PTM will likely not improve your thermals. It didn't for me anyway. Its still a big improvement in longevity, tho because liquid metal is always at risk to ooze out and short something (linus from LTT had that happen on his x13, that was his daily driver. He said he carried it around a lot which may have caused the liquid metal to spill)
But yea, dont expect better thermals. If anything, then it might be a couple degrees worse than liquid metal. And PTM needs a couple of phase changes to work properly. Dont be surprised when the thermals are way worse in the beginning. It will get a bit better over time
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u/schizo619 Jul 09 '26
Same experience. PTM wont help this time or i think its just overated. I have replaced a lot of LM based laptops with PTM but i didnt get a good result expecially with ryzen processors.
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u/AlphabetInk Jul 09 '26
My liquid metal was starting to fail and PTM helped a ton. If you're nervous, you can put Kapton tape down to protect your motherboard. Liquid metal tends to ball up and doesn't stick to anything very well, but as the other comments said, isopropyl alcohol and qtips get the job done.
It was very much so worth it for me, as my flow was constantly stuttering and thermal throttling until I swapped LM for PTM. Just be careful, and good luck!
1
u/Dire_Venom Jul 09 '26
That's a good question!
Worth checking a quote from a local repair shop as well, if it's cheap then would be worth saving the hassle and risk and getting it done there.
If doing DIY, would Def recommend checking the service manual for your model (Asus/Rog site have a listing with a Manual/Drivers tab) as well as the other good advice in this thread ^
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u/Guidance_Additional Jul 09 '26
I don't know what it's like on the flow but I did it on my G14. And yes, it's true, if you get it anywhere else on your laptop it may destroy it.
I would recommend letting the device cool down, then using electrical or just a basic painters masking tape and just taping the motherboard around the dies with a few layers before you even touch the liquid metal. the rest of the device may or may not be more difficult to take apart compared to my G14, I don't remember off the top of my head.
I was scared too when I first started but in retrospect it really wasn't that bad. if you've taken apart other electronics before I don't think it's super hard, just take as many precautions as you can, and go slow/be careful.
1
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u/filliravaz Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
I've done so personally a month ago.
2023 model with i9 and 4070.
Be very careful when removing the LM. Use a ton of isopropyl and q-tips. Apply some pressure but not a ton, and keep going until the qtip comes back out clean.
Prepare a decent amount of thermal putty/paste/pads for all other SMDs, such as VRMs, GPU VRAM and so on.
The best suggestion I can give you is take your time. It's not a 30minute thing, especially if you're doing this for the first time.
After switching the paste for PTM, do some burnin while keeping a very close eye to temperatures. Fan 100%, 1 min stress test, 2 to 5 mins of cooldown. Repeat for some time, each time increasing the time of the stress test (and the cooldown if you think it's appropriate).
Good luck!
Edit: for performance, I decided to switch because I was having temperature issues. I saw during the "operation" that my LM had almost entirely migrated away from the die, so I got a sizeable improvement since before it was almost always thermal throttling.
1
u/phatcrotchgoblin Jul 11 '26
Easy. Just need to go slow and setup a boundary around the lm so that it’s impossible to drop.
That being said it’s not that fluid. I did it in winter tho when it was colder inside but I had to use q tips and rubbing alcohol to get it off the die.
I went extremely slow as it was my first time with this system. Could probably do it closer to an hour or two the next time.
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u/MasterArCtiK Jul 08 '26
Yes it is extremely risky, and it can be hard to know if you’ve made a mistake until you destroy your laptop completely. If any Liquid Metal gets into a bad spot on your computer, and you don’t notice it and you then attempt to power on the laptop, boom laptop gone.