Question Gaming performance reduces after applying thermal paste on CPU

[Sachindj]

I applied thermal paste on CPU. After few days PC restarts and cabinet & CPU becomes too HOT.
This happens in the middle of game Fifa 20(I only play fifa).
Everything just works fine pc restarts only during gaming due to overheating.
When I take out processor I found some paste spread over pins of CPU.
Those pins and pins contact area became brown in color also heatsink fins color became dark black.
Please advise why sudden overheating issue started.
Did I broke CPU ?
I have AMD processor and Nvidia 1060 GPU.

 

[Eximo]

Not very specific on the processor, but sounds like you created a short that was enough to draw current but not trip the over current protection on anything in the system. Direct heating can cause discoloration, certainly.

Clean everything off this time, put it back together and if it still works, consider yourself lucky.

 

[Sachindj]

Not very specific on the processor, but sounds like you created a short that was enough to draw current but not trip the over current protection on anything in the system. Direct heating can cause discoloration, certainly.

Clean everything off this time, put it back together and if it still works, consider yourself lucky.

Hello Eximo,

I cleaned processor , heat sink and CPU casing using soft cloth and tried playing fifa again but result is same, my PC restarts after overheating.
Normal use is absolutely fine no restarts .
I am wondering why suddenly this started since this is not the case before applying thermal paste.

 

[Eximo]

Heat damage to the CPU is certainly a possibility.

I still don't know what CPU you have, but it is very likely it has a heat spreader. If it got really hot, it could have popped off and the CPU die is no longer in proper contact with it. On more recent AMD chips, that means solder has failed, which is pretty hard to fix. Some of the low end chips use thermal compound under there, which is easier to fix, but still requires de-lidding the CPU.

Or the CPU or CPU cooler has warped enough that the CPU cooler no longer properly makes contact. Check the thermal paste and see if it evenly distributed and looks like it was making good contact.

Only so much expertise I can transfer over a forum. This is likely a physical or simply hardware issue that isn't easily solved.

I would write it off and look at a new CPU cooler, CPU, and motherboard just to be sure.

If that isn't an option, do some research on de-lidding for your specific processor. It will be a small investment and there is the possibility of breaking the CPU entirely. And this would only be a diagnostic test, essentially. The actual CPU could still be permanently damaged.

 

[vMax]

I would retry mounting the Cooler with fresh thermal paste and making sure it is on properly. The fact that it still boots and works before shutting down maybe be down to a bad mounting. Also do a bare bones boot by clearing the CMOS, and just one stick of ram, your primary SSD and your GPU only and see if you have the same issue to rule out RAM as Ryzen is always finicky on RAM...

Also it would be good to know your exact setup with make and model...CPU, motherboard, RAM, GPU and power supply...

 

[mdd1963]

Paste does not just self-migrate into the pins, short of using twice as much paste as needed, and having half of it ooze over the sides and, upon removing the CPU, into the socket...

Thermal compound should be spread quite thinly/evenly....(less is better!) ; some don't even spread it, using only a few rice-sized droplets and letting it spread itself when locking down the heat sink....

Some folks (not saying it applies here, of course) have even left the clear protective sheet of plastic on the sink/pump, applying paste on top of the plastic sheet (not good!)

Make sure your sink is locked down/even secured at all four corners...

what temps and clock speeds are you seeing under a load?

 

[Sachindj]

I think heatsink is the problem it is not dissipating heat properly.
I am using stock cooler came along with AMD FX 8300.
GPU is Nvidia 1060.
RAM is 8GB
512 GB SSD
1 TB HDD
450W Corsair PSU.

My concern is earlier also I used to play FIFA but overheating wasn't there nor even sudden restart because FIFA don't consume more CPU.