Cleaning Thermal Paste PCI Slot

[pittguy578]

Just wondering how to best clean thermal paste out of/on a PCI express thought. I wiped it down with alcohol and am letting it sit overnight. I am afraid to put card in...afraid to short out everything..I am not sure how it got in there..and it wasn't causing any issues..it was up and running and still was running..I just discovered it when I was installing a blu-ray drive and wanted to clean it..Should I be concerned about it? Should I be ok?

 

[cmichael138]

If it was working before you discovered and cleaned it, you should be okay. The alcohol dries quickly so an hour would be enough wait time.

 

[beenthere]

If the TIM is not electrically conductive or inductive you should be OK. If it is, then you'll need to be sure that there is no TIM between the contacts or you will short out the socket/card/mobo.

 

[GreenDutchAlien]

It did run with it you said ? Just leave it then i think, maybe you can try to get it out with a wooden toothpick but maybe you only create a problem that wasn't there before.
I'm really not sure but i can't imagine thermal paste conducts electricity so it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=NA1004 you could try that, dont know if it will help, it may just disperse it a bit.