Only supply of spares is state side, by the time paid duties, taxes and collection fees to the UK makes replacement expensive.

i seem to remember something about old Dells had an issue with degassing on their gx series

It's a HP T730 . With external fan to keep the Nvidia gt730 from cooking (waiting for a cheap GT1030)

weedeewee wrote on 2021-09-18, 09:22:

Have you tried looking up a replacement for the brand&model of your mini pc? You didn't mention either and only shown us stock […]
Show full quote

Have you tried looking up a replacement for the brand&model of your mini pc?
You didn't mention either and only shown us stock photos.

Though there can be a difference in construction,
some heatpipes have what looks like a porous layer on the inside of the pipe,
which when cracked, just adding a little bend in the heatpipe can cause a crack,
will cause the heatpipe to malfunction.

Yeah I'd be suspicious that that material has got a break in it, or some has broken off and the "rubble" is valving in one of the corners. If it were my machine I'd remove pipe, hold it by the loop of the U and shake it downwards, hoping to "G force" any stray material to either end of the pipe where it would be less trouble than in the middle.

edit: but being super careful to not subject it to sharp shocks or knocks that could break up the material further.

BitWrangler wrote on 2021-09-18, 12:12:

weedeewee wrote on 2021-09-18, 09:22:

Have you tried looking up a replacement for the brand&model of your mini pc? You didn't mention either and only shown us stock […]
Show full quote

Have you tried looking up a replacement for the brand&model of your mini pc?
You didn't mention either and only shown us stock photos.

Though there can be a difference in construction,
some heatpipes have what looks like a porous layer on the inside of the pipe,
which when cracked, just adding a little bend in the heatpipe can cause a crack,
will cause the heatpipe to malfunction.

Yeah I'd be suspicious that that material has got a break in it, or some has broken off and the "rubble" is valving in one of the corners. If it were my machine I'd remove pipe, hold it by the loop of the U and shake it downwards, hoping to "G force" any stray material to either end of the pipe where it would be less trouble than in the middle.

edit: but being super careful to not subject it to sharp shocks or knocks that could break up the material further.

shaking the material one way or the other doesn't work, the break is there, the wicking action is interrupted, the heatpipe is broken .

I remember a notebook a friend of mine handed me down when mine was stolen. The fan unit wasn't working smoothly and the notebook would crash under load even though the fan was spinning.
I replaced the fan (not the rest of the cooler) and all issue went away.

Since you said cooling isn't good in either position but really bad upright: Is it possible the bearings in your fan are damaged and work better in one orientation?

weedeewee wrote on 2021-09-18, 12:38:

BitWrangler wrote on 2021-09-18, 12:12:

weedeewee wrote on 2021-09-18, 09:22:

Have you tried looking up a replacement for the brand&model of your mini pc? You didn't mention either and only shown us stock […]
Show full quote

Have you tried looking up a replacement for the brand&model of your mini pc?
You didn't mention either and only shown us stock photos.

Though there can be a difference in construction,
some heatpipes have what looks like a porous layer on the inside of the pipe,
which when cracked, just adding a little bend in the heatpipe can cause a crack,
will cause the heatpipe to malfunction.

Yeah I'd be suspicious that that material has got a break in it, or some has broken off and the "rubble" is valving in one of the corners. If it were my machine I'd remove pipe, hold it by the loop of the U and shake it downwards, hoping to "G force" any stray material to either end of the pipe where it would be less trouble than in the middle.

edit: but being super careful to not subject it to sharp shocks or knocks that could break up the material further.

shaking the material one way or the other doesn't work, the break is there, the wicking action is interrupted, the heatpipe is broken .

If it's cracked right round in a ring, then yeah, might not wick, if a chunk fell out of one side, it may cope at a percent of full capacity.

Just done a hi power run up to 98 Deg @ 27% @ 3195mhz out of the box.

Pad and pipe where it's in contact with the pad was burny hot, rest of the pipe was cold.

Definitely not carrying heat away.

too bad, so sad. busted heat pipe.

Any body got a 12inch square heat sink???

what are the hole dimensions? size, distance between, screw size, thread pitch ... ? 😀

If you don't mind just leaving a heatsink sitting on top of the cpu would work, not ideal though, one thump and you might short something out, but for a test it will work .
you could insulate the part of the heatsink that doesn't need contact with the cpu with some electrical tape, or just some scotch tape to limit any potential short circuit situation
ymmv

kinda wonder how hot the north?south?bridge will get, or is that perhaps a vga controller?

About 37mm along the flats 55mm diagonally, bridge heatsinks 10 a penny.

Entire boards 210mm X 210mm

Extracted the retaining bracket, so can be fastened on from the other side of the board. Couple of copper risers to clear the other components??

They were soldered together when assembling the heat pipe to various items to make a complete assembly before putting into computers, etc.

I did solder a heatsink to improve the loose fins. I used aluminum flux to solder fins back onto copper fins with lead solder.

Cheers,

You can also find a solder sold as radiator repair solder at auto stores that claims to work on aluminum.

mmmh,

possibility...

remove the dead heatpipe from the two ? whatchamacallit ? the squares that get screwed to the chips.

get two new working heatpipes
solder one end to the squares
drill two holes in case
stick mainboard in case
solder heatsinks to other end of heatpipes.

profit ?
😀

Radiator falling apart heat pipe holding it together, think I'm going to fit a Arctic alpine 12 or am4 heatsink, think I can re-drill the the block to the smaller chip. And build a custom case to accommodate.

Oh one thing that turns up with some regularity on the local classifieds here, is broken/parted out All In On (built into monitor) computers and parts, which also use heatpipes. Looking for that sort of thing might find a replacement, but it might need to poke out of the case or be tweaked or rebuilt.

You could scrounge heat pipes from a suitable old donor i7 laptop or similar possibly.

Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-09-19, 19:12:

You could scrounge heat pipes from a suitable old donor i7 laptop or similar possibly.

Or even better, find a Pentium 4 based system with a heatpipe and put said system out of its misery before scavenging it for anything of value . 😉

darry wrote on 2021-09-19, 19:59:

Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-09-19, 19:12:

You could scrounge heat pipes from a suitable old donor i7 laptop or similar possibly.

Or even better, find a Pentium 4 based system with a heatpipe and put said system out of its misery before scavenging it for anything of value . 😉

Sharing is caring....😉

Going Old Skool!, putting a passive heatsinks through the casing, for the CPU and North bridge, just got to cut straight and square. no pipes, no fans, may be a well ventilated wood slatted case?

our local tip not helpful get chased if you touch anything, so much for local council's reuse, reclaim and recycle policy. flea bay dismantlers can be a bit pricy, scotland seems kinda anti reuse, don't get junk shops, even the charities shy away from electricals as they need to get them tested so they can't be charged over injury of a customer, we all to risk adverse these days.

off topic a bit, can I run a 0.8w 0.5A waterpump from the fan output of a Nvidia gt 730 burn out or 5v? main system fans 5v so can't use.

Northbridge sorted, will need trimmed to clear main heatsink