[HW MOD] LG G6(+) Terrible Thermal Throttling Fix

[Jarko01]

Hi All,

I want to share my experience with my LG G6 Plus (model H870DSU, 128GB, Dual SIM, 32 bit Hifi DAC, Android 8) and as the subject is saying, it has (had now) terrible thermal throttling. After some reading here on XDA and on the internet, I have decided to open it and at first just replace the thermal paste. But this solution was still not enough and throttling was not fixed as I expected. So I opened it again and removed the thin copper tape which is sitting on the "SoC housing". Under the tape is also a little and thin grey thermal pad, not sure how good it is ,as the phone was permanently overheating. Then install thin copper plate (15 x 15 x 0.5 mmm) directly on the Snapdragon 821 SoC, which has 15 x 15 mm dimensions.

SoC, copper plate and "in-built" heatpipe, all have been cleaned by IPA (Iso Propyl Alcohol) and AC MX-4 was used between SoC and copper plate and between copper plate and heatpipe.

Then I put everything together and run the "CPU Throttling Test" again, and the results are more than just a great now. And trust me, before the mod, I have tried everything to have such a stable performance, I even put the phone into the fridge, but it has always throttled. Now, after the mod, the phone is fast and smooth again even in heavy tasks with no lags.

Sorry I have forgotten to make pictures during the mod, so I just modified some pictures from the internet for better understanding. But screenshots from "CPU Throttling Test" app are mine.

Copper plate was bought on Ali.

Do not forget, you are doing it on your own risk, as always

J.

 

[opus10]

hey man does it still perform well today? I just read this today and I want to try it when I replace the back glass of my g6

 

[Jarko01]

Hi, yes the phone is still working just fine.

 

[opus10]

Hi, yes the phone is still working just fine.

do games still drop fps after this mod? because gaming on this device is fine until it thermal throttles.

 

[Jarko01]

I have this phone for almost 5 years, but never play any game on it, sorry

Some FPS drops will come, no matter what (its still only passive cooling inside the phone), but it should not be as bad as before the mod. I see benefits of this mod in daily tasks, not benchmarks or games (I have used CPU Thermal Throttling Test, only to show the difference between and after).

Phone is not lagging while browsing a web (Chrome) or switching between apps during higher usage like WhatsApp, Viber, Messenger, GCam. Also temperatures are going down faster after the load, because of better heat dissipation.

Anyway, keep in mind, that this is a Snapdragon 821, which is quite old SoC (6+ years) and if your preference is gaiming, I would probably go for something newer, with better thermal management, like Snapdragon 855 and higher.

J.

 

[opus10]

I have this phone for almost 5 years, but never play any game on it, sorry

Some FPS drops will come, no matter what (its still only passive cooling inside the phone), but it should not be as bad as before the mod. I see benefits of this mod in daily tasks, not benchmarks or games (I have used CPU Thermal Throttling Test, only to show the difference between and after).

Phone is not lagging while browsing a web (Chrome) or switching between apps during higher usage like WhatsApp, Viber, Messenger, GCam. Also temperatures are going down faster after the load, because of better heat dissipation.

Anyway, keep in mind, that this is a Snapdragon 821, which is quite old SoC (6+ years) and if your preference is gaiming, I would probably go for something newer, with better thermal management, like Snapdragon 855 and higher.

J.

do you recommend the lg v50? it goes pretty cheap nowadays.

 

[opus10]

hey @Jarko01 did you remove all of the copper tape? or just the part with the soc?

 

[Jarko01]

do you recommend the lg v50? it goes pretty cheap nowadays.

Yes, it could be fine upgrade if you can find one in good condition, which was never opened, damaged or is not missing any internal parts, like heat-pipe.

hey @Jarko01 did you remove all of the copper tape? or just the part with the soc?

Yes, I did.

J.

 

[XPG207]

Hi, I do not know if I write in the right place but I have one question, I used this mod and when it comes to work it has stabilized a bit but looking at the processor power, it differs significantly from your copy at max and there is also thermal throttling, is it is it a question of a damaged CPU?

 

[tracid1987]

Thank you for this information. I am going to replace battery in a few months because its going to die slowly, i will replace defective fingerprint sensor too (heating and pushing on rear cover does not help). And now i will do this thermal paste replacement too. I have just purchased those metal plates from aliexpress.

Just one question: what is "black copper tape"? is it really copper tape? i did not disassemble it yet, i have just checked a few youtube videos and i see there some kind of black tape but is it really copper? do i have to reapply it after cleaning? or i can discard it?

thank you a lot

 

[Jarko01]

Well, to me it looks like copper tape. I have removed it completely, as it was more useless than useful ... we can see on screenshots "before-after".

Do not forget to check, if your copper plates from aliexpress are perfectly flat, especially on edges. Mine were not, so I had to do some "DIY" at home to make them flat.

J.

 

[tracid1987]

Well, to me it looks like copper tape. I have removed it completely, as it was more useless than useful ... we can see on screenshots "before-after".

Do not forget to check, if your copper plates from aliexpress are perfectly flat, especially on edges. Mine were not, so I had to do some "DIY" at home to make them flat.

J.

my LG G6 is often a bit lagging, i dont know, it might be about apps requiring more and more resources (but on the other hand android should handle this resource issue well) but i am still happy to find out that there is a thermal pad/paste inside which can be renewed and i hope it will help a bit to breath life into my "old" phone. Unfortunately i missed to unlock the bootloader so i hope somebody will save us with a code generator soon

Thank you again for the tip

 

[Jarko01]

When I was on Android 9, the phone was a bit laggy "here and there". Didn't really like it. When I switched back to Android 8, smoothness is everywhere. Tried to switch to Android 9 a few times (allways clean install), but system was a bit laggy, so for my needs, Android 8 is the only way to go.

J.

 

[tracid1987]

When I was on Android 9, the phone was a bit laggy "herea and there". Didn't really like it. When I switched back to Android 8, smoothness is everywhere. Tried to switch to Android 9 a few times (allways clean install), but system was a bit laggy, so for my needs, Android 8 is the only way to go.

J.

Thank you for the information.

Is it possible to downgrade from 9 to 8 if i dont have rooted phone, neither bootloader unlocked?

If yes i would appreciate if you could point me to the thread where i can find instructions. (Also what does clean install mean on an unrooted locked bootloader phone)

Thank you.

 

[kevin_23]

Hi All,

I want to share my experience with my LG G6 Plus (model H870DSU, 128GB, Dual SIM, 32 bit Hifi DAC, Android 8) and as the subject is saying, it has (had now) terrible thermal throttling. After some reading here on XDA and on the internet, I have decided to open it and at first just replace the thermal paste. But this solution was still not enough and throttling was not fixed as I expected. So I opened it again and removed the thin copper tape which is sitting on the "SoC housing". Under the tape is also a little and thin grey thermal pad, not sure how good it is ,as the phone was permanently overheating. Then install thin copper plate (15 x 15 x 0.5 mmm) directly on the Snapdragon 821 SoC, which has 15 x 15 mm dimensions.

SoC, copper plate and "in-built" heatpipe, all have been cleaned by IPA (Iso Propyl Alcohol) and AC MX-4 was used between SoC and copper plate and between copper plate and heatpipe.

Then I put everything together and run the "CPU Throttling Test" again, and the results are more than just a great now. And trust me, before the mod, I have tried everything to have such a stable performance, I even put the phone into the fridge, but it has always throttled. Now, after the mod, the phone is fast and smooth again even in heavy tasks with no lags.

Sorry I have forgotten to make pictures during the mod, so I just modified some pictures from the internet for better understanding. But screenshots from "CPU Throttling Test" app are mine.

Copper plate was bought on Ali.

Do not forget, you are doing it on your own risk, as always

J.

View attachment 5462459View attachment 5462461View attachment 5462475View attachment 5462477

Hello mate, are you still using the lg g6 as your main phone?

 

[Jarko01]

Hi,

yes, the phone is still working fine running Android 8. Android 9 is just too laggy.

J.

 

[DeathBringer_138]

Hello. I have used this mod. I put the copper plate as followed from the instructions, but the result didn't meet expectations even after downgrading to Android 8.

The pre-installation result wasn't uploaded to gdrive before reset, forgot to upload it so it wasn't here

This image shows the result on Android 9, mod applied. 25.11.2022

The second one shows the result on Android 8.
04.12.2022

 

[Jarko01]

Hello,

I did the test again to see if my cooling mod is still working. Even the spike is not the same, stability is OK from my point of view.

J.

 

[tracid1987]

Unfortunately i was too lazy to perform any benchmark, now i am regretting it a bit Yesterday i made a battery/cam glass/fingerprint sensor replacement and i have also performed this thermal stuff upgrade the exact way as you have described (the old paste was almost dry). I dont know if its performing better but i am glad i did it. thank you again for the idea.