Intel NUC shutting off repair/fan replacement

A common problem and solution with the Intel NUCs when the computer shuts off itself then you are not able to turn it on again for a short period of time which is mostly cause by a thermal pads or thermal paste which will need to be replaced.
Do you want us to handle the repair for you? Go to www.comptechnyc.com and fill up the "contact us" form.

[@Newnewcaribou]

Thank you! Your video got me out of a serious jam. I pulled one of these apart to replace the fan and had to wait about a week for the replacement. I forgot to do a disassembly chart and by the time I got the new fan I couldn't remember how to put it back together! This video saved my bacon. 😂

[@andrewsloane2064]

Thanx for this. Been looking for ages on how to take apart this exact model.

[@marcwa5067]

What thermal pads are you using? What brand and thickness?

[@ralphclark]

You've connected that thick black cable - the one with the JSON code label - to the header meant for the thinner hard drive cable.

[@ralphclark]

The one thing everybody needed from you was the correct thickness and type of thermal pads to use, and you didn’t include that information 😭

[@kingrofty]

Great video, now I know exactly what to do! My Intel NUC8i3 is becoming a bit noisy, and I want to clean the fan and replace the thermal paste and pads.

[@brianhauk8136]

Cleaning the fan may not fix your noise issue. Let's hope it does!

[@luiscmg21]

thanks for this.

[@Wachtel0889]

Thank you! You're a life saver!

[@dave_r]

Hello. Someone asked in an earlier comment what thickness of thermal pad you used, and I didn't see a response. I'd like to know. Thanks

[@brianhauk8136]

I also need to know this as my NUC8i3BEK CPU Core Temp is 66 degrees Celsius even with very low CPU utilization.

[@usertech.3575]

Спасибо тебе, только благодаря твоему видео понял как разбирать свои нуки.

[@veganath]

Still being appreciated thank you

[@ClaytonBelcher]

Suuuuper helpful, thank you!

[@ClaytonBelcher]

Well, it booted once, but then on the next attempt to reboot, no luck. 😭Redid the thermal paste and pads again, disconnected CMOS, left overnight... still no luck. I guess it's just fried. :(

[@ronen658]

What is the recommended period for cleaning the fan?

[@michgolov]

hello! congrats for the video and thank you for the info. I didn't get why you have to apply thermal paste only to the middle one and pads to the rest. If it is possible with careful work to apply thermal paste to the all three of them is there going to be a problem?

[@ralphclark]

There certainly is going to be a problem. The copper heat spreader is recessed over those smaller chips to accommodate the thickness of a pad. If you try to use paste there you will get no contact over those chips.

[@TheDesertsweeper]

Good info and thank you for sharing - what thickness are the thermal pads you are using here - I see 1.5mm in your example but you say it is "thinner"?

[@brianhauk8136]

I also need to know this as my NUC8i3BEK CPU Core Temp is 66 degrees Celsius even with very low CPU utilization.

[@giridhart]

How thick are thermal pads?

[@user-rz9bf9xt7h]

thanks for the advice! i can go fix it now

[@RDeLoach]

Thanks a million for this! Great job, and the video helped me immensely!

[@jtcber]

I have a 2016 NUC. Recently the fan is making a loud noise at startup. It lasts about 20 seconds and then it quiet down. Is it from the fan? If it is, what fan do I use?

[@-iIIiiiiiIiiiiIIIiiIi-]

Good work man!

[@johnhill7454]

whatwas the thickness of the replacement thermal pads please

[@anduelanduel1425]

Warum genau ist es jetzt besser die originalen Pads zu entfernen und diese verdreckten Lappen da einzubauen?

[@Armani7885]

What thickness of the pads?? 1mm? 0.5mm?

[@GroovVictim]

Hi @Comptechnyc, I have exact problem but the same nuc can run in safe mode without shutting down, could your solution work for me?

[@stevenmishos]

I did the same thing with one of the screws at the end :)

[@hartononugroho9401]

how thick is the thermal paste should be?

[@thierrychambon8110]

Attention, il est Indispensable de changer la pâte thermique d'origine malgré la difficulté liée au démontage du NUC 8. Pâte d'origine sèche au bout d'un an. Des pointes à 100° C par coeur et un thermal throttle empéchant d'avoir des performances correctes. Sur ce type de machine le dépoussièrage est aussi nécessaire sous peine de flinguer sa machine au bout de 2 ans. C'est ce qui m'est arrivé : un Sav au bout de 18 mois.

[@guillermocama5509]

Excelent. Thanks

[@nordee_rust_exploits]

I suggest to record videos without annoying background noise.

[@WillHung]

For sure. Might be quality content here, but I barely listened for 5 seconds. Guess I'll never find out.

[@andrewsloane2064]

@@WillHung You could have turned on the closed captions

[@TheDesertsweeper]

I have come to the conclusion that the 8th-Gen Core i7 NuC is just a badly designed heater. I changed the fan although it was fine. I re-pasted with MX4, I even put it in a cold-room of 18c. The moment you push this paper-weight it spikes to the upper limits - hitting 100c regularly. And if you go google - you will find many forums talking about this particular Intel NuC junk model. The ONLY way I can get it to remain within acceptable limits is to go into the BIOS and change the fan from "balanced" to "cool" (welcome now to a noisy-nuc) AND to disable turbo-boost. Which effectively cripples it to a fraction of its potential. Just buy the i5 - I have two of those and they run fine

[@ragesmirk]

if it jumps to 100C then you have to replace the thermal paste

[@undead9786]

I have similar issues with the i5 where if I push it too hard it locks up and I have to force reboot, already have turbo boost disabled. I also have this weird issue where sometimes the ethernet port locks up and then it switches to wifi and I have to reconnect the ethernet cable to get it to be wired again AND now I keep hearing the clicking or scraping which I assume is the fan which is why I wanted to see a video of the tear apart before I go in. This model is just trash in terms of casing. Debating on either getting a Akasa Turing FX case or just looking for an AMD nuc since AMD doesn't, on avg, run as hot if the device has 1 more issue.

[@DamienStenson]

@@undead9786 Also looking at the Turing case. I've a 10th gen NUC and it's completely silent