CPU overheating after cleanup and thermal paste application

[mfrboga]

Hi, I've recently took the side panel of my desktop to clean up all the dust build ups inside the box and cleaned the heatsink of my CPU as well. What I didn't know was that I had to reapply thermal paste whenever I take the heatsink out. My computer overheated and came to a shutdown. After finding out that problem, I got some thermal paste (Arctic MX-4), cleaned off the old paste that was on the heatsink and the CPU with rubbing alcohol and cotton swabs, and reapplied the thermal paste back on it as recommended. The temperature of the CPU went down by a lot when running idle, but it's still overheating and shutting down whenever I play games or use a program that uses a lot of CPU usage. Even facebook games causes my CPU to reach high temps. I'm not sure what seems to be causing the issue. Even taking the side panel off my desktop doesn't help lower the temps either, so it's not an airflow problem. Could it be because my CPU got damaged from the first shutdown?

 

[Karsten75]

You most likely did not install the heatsink correctly and it isn't making tight contact with the processor.

 

[mfrboga]

The heatsink is tightly secured onto my CPU.