Can WD40 cause a cpu to overheat/short circuit?

[Harry-Plopper]

The WD40 likely ruined the thermal paste between the HSF and CPU. So the CPU is over heating causing the mobo to shut down the computer. So your CPU may not be fried.

Try cleaning the WD40 off of the CPU and HSF and use new thermal paste to reseat the HSF. As for the CPU socket, you can let the WD40 evaporate. I doubt you can clean it safely. Hopefully the dried WD40 won't do anything.

Just in case, here are some other things you shouldn't do:

■Do not pick your nose with a carrot peeler!
■Do not stick metalic objects (like paper clips) into electrical outlets! 😱

Oh and press ANY key means any key on the keyboard..

Go and buy a mac as even you cant mess than one up..

Do not play the electric guitar in the bath

do not hold fire works because your hard enough

you cant open budwieser bottles with your teeth.

when a girl says do you fancy a quickie, its not a cigarette

 

[rubix_1011]

New fan= cheaper than new MB+CPU

 

[TechnologyCoordinator]

New fan= cheaper than new MB+CPU

ROFL. Yeah, they're like 6-8 bucks.

 

[mickrick]

Lol.

Anyway I have a spray bottle of isopropanol fluid here. I'll try cleaning the cpu and flushing the socket with that. The pc does boot up to the desktop incidentally.

 

[rallyimprezive]

Eh, thats not so bad, I saw some idiots that filled an acrylic computer case with vegetable oil, and the dang thing actually worked! 😉

I dont see how a little WD40 could do so much damage...

unless he sprayed the entire motherboard with the stuff so that the data would go faster....

EDIT: NOWHERE on the WD-40 website do they say it can be used on electrical parts...
http://www.wd40.com/uses-tips/

 

[clay12340]

If it's posting and booting, then you've not likely shorted it out.

Chances are that either the thermal paste has been compromised as was already stated or you've insulated your heat sink and it can't properly cool which was again already stated.

Are you sure the fan on the heat sink isn't simply dead? I wouldn't expect WD40 to hurt it, but who knows. A lot of the fans aren't really built to last.

Remove the heatsink and clean the CPUs heat spreader with some sort of thermal paste remover and then remove the fan etc from the metal base and clean it with something. I'm sure the alcohol would work or even some sort of degreaser and then the alcohol. The heat sinks is pretty much just a chunk of metal and I'd expect it to be reasonably hard to damage with cleaners, though of course enter at your own risk.

Good luck and nice move 😉

 

[rubix_1011]

Anyway I have a spray bottle of isopropanol fluid here. I'll try cleaning the cpu and flushing the socket with that. The pc does boot up to the desktop incidentally.

LOL...the WD40 is causing the OS to slide off.

 

[Steven Bancroft]

EDIT: NOWHERE on the WD-40 website do they say it can be used on electrical parts...
http://www.wd40.com/uses-tips/

LOL, does it say anywhere it CANNOT be used on electronics? I'm kidding. But seriously it sounds like the thermal grease is ruined, causing it to overheat and turn off for safety reasons. Probably better off rebuilding from scratch than going through the trouble of searching component by component.

 

[coldneutron]

Eh, thats not so bad, I saw some idiots that filled an acrylic computer case with vegetable oil, and the dang thing actually worked! 😉

I dont see how a little WD40 could do so much damage...

unless he sprayed the entire motherboard with the stuff so that the data would go faster....

EDIT: NOWHERE on the WD-40 website do they say it can be used on electrical parts...
http://www.wd40.com/uses-tips/

2. DISPLACES MOISTURE: Because WD-40 displaces moisture, it quickly dries out electrical systems to eliminate moisture-induced short circuits.

quoted directly off the FAQ on their website.

 

[DXRick]

Lol.

Anyway I have a spray bottle of isopropanol fluid here. I'll try cleaning the cpu and flushing the socket with that. The pc does boot up to the desktop incidentally.

NO! You do not need to flush the socket with it. You only need to fix that which you broke, which in this case is the thermal paste between the CPU and HSF. You just need to clean the top of the CPU and bottom of the HSF with alcohol to ensure that there is no residual WD40 that will mess with the new thermal paste.

Don't feel so bad. How would we really know what is and is not possible if there weren't people out there willing to question basic common sense? Many people risk their lives (and the lives of others) every year doing this. Some become contenders for the coveted Darwin award (http://www.darwinawards.com/)

A few years ago, I risked my life to learn why one should not stand on the very top of a ladder.

Good luck!

 

[mickrick]

But surely if there's WD40 on the pins, and it acts as an insulator, it will stop the pins from connecting properly in the socket???

 

[evilshuriken]

Yeah, but I'd bet that a lot of people here have made some big, bad mistakes in their days of learning about computers as well, including myself. OK, I never tried WD40 on anything electrical.

I don't know about you guys. But even as a newbie I never did anything like this to my PC. The worst mistake I ever made as I was learning about PCs was forgetting to plug my cpu cooler fan in and not noticing the problem until I booted into the OS and the temperature went up so high it broke my thermal monitoring utility(showed 999C). However a quick forced shutdown meant no harm was done, and I learned to always make sure I plug that back in before I boot up a computer.

So yeah... do not spray WD40 into your PC.

 

[Vertigon]

"The worst mistake I ever made as I was learning about PCs was forgetting to plug my cpu cooler fan in and not noticing the problem until I booted into the OS and the temperature went up so high it broke my thermal monitoring utility(showed 999C)"

I don't which is worse, I think I'd rather the WD40.

Oh and how about an update, did the computer work? What did you do to get it working again?

 

[endyen]

But surely if there's WD40 on the pins, and it acts as an insulator, it will stop the pins from connecting properly in the socket???

WD40 is non-conductive. It is however a solvent, and dust magnet.
Once the dust in in solution, it becomes the conductor.
The longer you leave the WD40, and the more times you heat it, the more like past it becomes.
BTW, you can clean a mobo in the bath, or sink. It is important to make sure there is no water left behind.
Interestingly enough, pure water is not a conductor either, but is a weak solvent.
I have cleaned a variety of computer parts in the sink. Keyboards, add in cards etc. The key is to make sure there is no residue.
I use dish detergent rather than laundry, because it is less caustic.
Once I am sure they are dry, I brush them with isopropl alcohol, and dry with a can of air.

 

[Steven Bancroft]

I have cleaned a variety of computer parts in the sink. Keyboards, add in cards etc. The key is to make sure there is no residue.
I use dish detergent rather than laundry, because it is less caustic.
Once I am sure they are dry, I brush them with isopropl alcohol, and dry with a can of air.

I would never attempt such a thing! The very thought of running water over my motherboard or videocard makes me cringe. Even is it does work or is "safe", I could never bring myself to do it.

 

[sailer]

I don't know about you guys. But even as a newbie I never did anything like this to my PC. The worst mistake I ever made as I was learning about PCs was forgetting to plug my cpu cooler fan in and not noticing the problem until I booted into the OS and the temperature went up so high it broke my thermal monitoring utility(showed 999C). However a quick forced shutdown meant no harm was done, and I learned to always make sure I plug that back in before I boot up a computer.

So yeah... do not spray WD40 into your PC.

What can be said? Some people get through the learning process easier than others. I've seen a CPU smoke, my kid lost a computer when a heatsink fell loose and touched the graphics card, lists can go on with different stories from various people.

 

[mickrick]

Well I did what was suggested by a few people here (I think), I cleaned the heatsink and cpu with alcohol and then, after allowing them to dry thoroughly, applied a thin layer of thermal paste to the cpu. Before putting the cpu/hsf back together, I used alcohol to clean the board, video card etc. I also used an air can to clean the cpu socket out. Finally, I put the whole lot back together and booted up. Using ai booster (the Asus overclocking/monitoring sw) I could see that the cpu was idling around 48c, the cpu fan was running at 1541 rpm and the system was running at 35c. As the cpu was being stressed the temp was rising and falling accordingly. Everything was looking stable enough.

I then ran a video in MediaPlayer Classic and this caused the cpu temp to rise to around 75c and the pc turned off.

So does it look like the cpu is damaged, or the board or both?

 

[B-Unit]

hmm, 35C as your ambient case temp, I wouldnt be surprised if thats the problem. I know my Opteron loves to heat up if the case goes over 30.

 

[TechnologyCoordinator]

I'm guessing you still have some kind of thermal dissapation issue.

 

[snixorcek]

Ok, this is what I did... We had a stuck CPU to a Heatsink. The thermal paste was so strong we were unable to put them apart. So a few searches through google and found out, that WD-40 will help me get them apart. IT DID! Yey! Now what? How to clean the WD-40? I went to the pharmacy to buy some etanol (etil alcohol) and cleaned most of WD-40 off the cpu.

Now i have some thermal issues' but i think with time everything will be ok..

Computer boots up corrctly i just got a report in the evnt long that CPU is running above normal temperature..


Good luck guys, and thank you for all the help I found in this forum

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey