Thermal Paste on CPU Pins :(

danceforfreedom

danceforfreedom

danceforfreedom

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Think I had a small accident...

as In I used a bit too much CPU paste and after fitting heatsink and removing to check to see if thermal paste had spread evenly I noticed a little to much.

Some, and only a little has gone over the edges and theres a smigden inbetween a traingle of 3 pins one edge and a tad on a single pin on 2 other edges?

Read around, google'd, but always feel more assured by checking this trusted forum...

Im thinkin of doing a delicate clean with some solvent. I just really wana make sure someones tried this, also noticed the Artic solvents for around a tenner, also wondering if theres any domestic stuff I might find lying the garage.

Would appreciate any help, not sure if any ones had this problem but as im sure your aware wouldn't want to make a mistake!
 
What thermal paste was it? The cheapy silicone stuff is non-conductive so is safer to use, but some of the more expensive ones have bits of metal in meaning they can be conductive or capacitive... If it was cheapy silicone based paste then you'll probably just be able to get the excess off with a tissue and not have any problems. If it was the other kind, removing it will be a little more involved...
 
You should be ok. Even the silver based high performance paste should be non-conductive, apart from the extreme ones like the coollaboratory liquid pro. The pins are extremely fragile, assuming we're talking about lga775/1156/1366? In which case any attempt to clean it is just going to render the whole mobo useless.
 
Arctic MX2 and its a Phenom 940 BE, socket am3.

Its non conductive, but sticky as can be, without solvent its not coming off with tissue, both the bathroom and kitchen kind. It pulls part of the tissue off which then sticks to the CPU.

Im thinking that if I add solvent this will disolve the thermal paste so I can take it off, so I assume to use a solvent is safe, its basically my handling that I have to be careful of?
 
Last edited:
MX2:

Non-Electrical Conductive
Non-Capacitive

Nice, even if paste is bridging pins then you should be ok in theory... but it will act as an insulator so it could stop things working but it shouldn't cause any damage.

As for solvent, just use whatever people use to clean paste from the top of the CPU. I use nail polish remover myself, it works if you don't mind having your computer having a feminine smell! :p
 
Worked a treat guys, thanks. Didn't want to wait for tomorrow so used what was around the house.

Found some nail polish, didn't have a toothbrush so found some card and folded tissue around so I had a thin, slighty stiff double sided piece of tissue to slide between the pins. Fitted nicely, worked.

Only now after this and an a hour worth of changing parts damn mobo (bought from auction site) wont post. All components work with old mobo fine... its a DFI Lanparty and I dont get a particular error debug code on LED, just most lights on...

:(

Heres with trail and error and the process of error elimination.!!
 
Socket A Lanparty?

If so then these are pretty flakey especially the older ones as the capacitors tend to get worse after a year of so... Even so, do the usual, whip battery out, reset CMOS, and if it still won't post try holding down the Insert key while turning the power on.
 
Socket 940 AM2+

Lan Party JR 790GX-M2RS

http://www.dfi.com.tw/portal/CM/cmp...sWindow?action=e&windowstate=normal&mode=view

Getting the 88 post error code now, and the pdf i got the dfi website indicates this to be outside of known errors like memory, cpu and what not. Only advice to this is CMOS clear, done this a few times, theres a jumper along with battery... Im going to take it all completely apart I think, give a good once over, (make sure no thermal paste went on the board :) then try again...

Im not hugely hopeful it was only £30 from auction site and came with a Sempron 1.8 aswell, so no huge expense but im still trying...
 
It would be nice to get it working weather it's an i7 or a Pentium 200MMX!

88 may not actually be an error code, it's it's one of those 7 segment displays then 88 could just be what is displayed when it's powered on with no signal!

I'm not really familiar with the DFI socket 940 boards, but with my Socket A board it had a habit of corrupting the BIOS when overclocking.... So I ended up using another socket A board to hotflash the BIOS from the DFI board.... I have no idea if this happens with the newer boards however...
 
Yeah would be nice, expensive board new.

Just tried to narrow down the search and I tried this...

Set up the system with just cpu, ram, harddrive and fans (has onboard gpu)...

Then when I switched on without Ram it detected this and showed right error code for this, and shows the right error code when I replace the ram and take out cpu. So it can detect whats wrong, just when I have all the parts in place wont post!

Don't know if I have another friend with an Award Bios chip on a socket 940 so im not seeing as being able to flash it as an option, i've just seen a replacement Bios chip available for it for a tenner, im going to order one in cos im out of options with this baby, worth then £10 gamble!
 
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