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Paste on Pins - Help!

Dirk Diggler

Dirk Diggler

Dirk Diggler

Soldato
Joined
6 Jan 2013
Posts
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I just installed a 3600 and it wouldn't boot, I took it out to have a look and I've accidently got some paste on the pins.

Is it dead?
Any suggestions for recovery? :(

UyEmsAZ.jpg
 
Should be fine as long as none is caked into the socket.

Use some 99% IPA and maybe a soft toothbrush and/or q-tip, be very gentle as you don't want to risk bending the pins.

Being on the outside as it is it shouldn't be a problem to get off.
 
the paste in not conductive so wont hurt the CPU at all, Alcohol and fine brush you can remove it if your worried, i dont think it would result in a no boot though.
 
I've put the original 1300x back in and it's booted into BIOS no issues, so the socket is OK. I've just recently bought the 3600 CPU so assuming it's the paste that's causing the no boot issue as I've never actually seen it working.

I'll get some tooling bought after Christmas and see if I can salvage it. Out of interest, does AMD do RMA based on serial number i.e. no requirement for invoice?
 
Last edited:
Dirk Diggler said:
I've put the original 1300x back in and it's booted into BIOS no issues, so the socket is OK. I've just recently bought the 3600 CPU so assuming it's the paste that's causing the no boot issue as I've never actually seen it working.

I'll get some tooling bought after Christmas and see if I can salvage it. Out of interest, does AMD do RMA based on serial number i.e. no requirement for invoice?
Click to expand...

Some paste on the CPU pins will not cause CPU failure, make sure your bios is upto date on your motherboard and then try the CPU again.
 
It's a b450m MSI Bazooka V2 and I flashed the BIOS to the latest stable which was dated June 2020. I'll need to double check the CPU support details as it may be a BIOS issue after all.

Edit: actually, the BIOS I installed was 7A38vPB which was showing as the latest on the download page, but now I'm looking at the compatibility page it's showing 7A38vP5 for the 3600.
 
vapor matt said:
the paste in not conductive so wont hurt the CPU at all, Alcohol and fine brush you can remove it if your worried, i dont think it would result in a no boot though.
Click to expand...

Did I miss where the OP told us what paste it is? How do you know it's a non-conductive one? Some Thermal Grizzly compounds and Arctic Silver are two conductive ones that spring instantly to mind; and there are certainly others.
 
Dirk Diggler said:
It's Arctic Silver I've used, but it might also be the stock paste from the AMD heatsink that was fitted to the previous CPU.

I bought from the MM so hoping AMD do easy RMA if the worst comes to the worst.
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The stock paste is usually pretty solid so it wouldn't be that. Arctic silver is conductive that's for sure but I doubt it would be that that causes it not to boot. I e had it on pins from it being on my finger and didn't notice.

Hopefully it's just bios related
 
As others have said, some isopropyl alcohol and a soft brush to clean it off and it will be fine, just make sure the alcohol has fully evaporated before installing. I've had this several times (normally happens when I'm removing the CPU) and never been issue.

When you reinstall the CPU try pulling the CMOS battery and leaving it out for a minute and the see if it boots with just defaults.
 
I made a right mess of my 3900X once when I pulled the water block off and it got ripped out of the socket with the block, anyway, trying to remove it off the block got paste all over the pins, I threw it into a small plastic box and completely submerged the whole cpu overnight in IPA, just make sure if you are going to do this, when you take it out you leave it an hour or so for the IPA to completely evaporate.
 
It's all sorted. I didn't need to use the IPA as when I broke the paste away with a cocktail stick it all came off in one piece. I rolled back the BIOS to the version that was listed on the CPU support page and now it's fired up with no issues. :)

I actually think it was the BIOS causing the boot failure, which is strange because I had installed the latest version.

Anyway, all good now and thanks for the help.
 
Same CPU as you, I also had the same problem ( tiny bits of paste on my pins )
Luckily, before-hand I bought some Noctua CPU Cleaning wipes and my CPU works fine.

I think Isopropyl alcohol would do the trick, just make sure not to get any microfibres inside the pins
 
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