Brown sludge on motherboard?

[Shazdough]

I'm cleaning up my gaming pc and noticed brown sludge on my motherboard and was wondering what it was and if I could wipe it off or how to properly clean it? You can see it in these photos here:

https://ibb.co/nceZbQ
https://ibb.co/hbVJ35

 

[Deniedstingray]

I'm cleaning up my gaming pc and noticed brown sludge on my motherboard and was wondering what it was and if I could wipe it off or how to properly clean it? You can see it in these photos here:

https://ibb.co/nceZbQ
https://ibb.co/hbVJ35

It kindof looks like a weird type of thermal paste. Do you recall ever messing up a CPU installation?

Thats the only thing i can think of.

 

[Scottray]

Clean it off with isopropyl alcohol and q-tip.

 

[Susquehannock]

Excess thermal paste or leaking heat pipes. What CPU heat sink is that?

 

[Shazdough]

@Susquehannock It's a Zalman heatsink: https://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?p=FAN-9900LD&c=fr&hash=1ceaj6oeEkyo77iF1BskSq1P63PP1lfdmlDCBcF4UFIZpTEskFxDiGeWSQT1n2pt6657daHIO1LU1TIjKaj4m%2F1O03D%2F%2BXYIXtsTnr56yqQdIYvx97jaOgfmw8WG&gclid=Cj0KEQjwxbDIBRCL99Wls-nLicoBEiQAWroh6rqy0rzs6ySsNpPtCLkBWA03iPDMyL9ILaB5f9wcv9EaAqup8P8HAQ

@Deniedstingyray No I don't recall messing up on the thermal paste.

@Scottray I cleaned up most of it with your method, thanks.

 

[Susquehannock]

^^ then my vote goes toward leaking heat pipes.