Gap in Ryzen 5 Glue... discovered after cleaning chip

baconlord5123

Commendable
Apr 17, 2018
28
0
1,530
So I was cleaning my chip after I took the stock cooler off so I could put on the new heatsink that I bought for it, and the old pre-applied thermal paste kinda went everywhere. It took me a while to clean up all the thermal paste, because it went everywhere, even as far as going on the glue attached to the lid. In the end, I had to take a toothpick and scrape up the remaining thermal paste in the nooks and crannies of all the glue. While cleaning, I discovered a large gap on the left side of the CPU. Is this normal or did I break something? Please let me know, thanks.

Images:
https://imgur.com/DkD2t3g
https://imgur.com/GIK7omR
 


It's there to allow pressure to equalize. I would be careful with too much solvent based cleaners around the CPU because the liquid could be drawn into that area from capillary action and do god knows what.

Just a comment: unless you're using a conductive TIM (which you shouldn't) you REALLY do not have to be picky about cleaning up like that. I have seen more damaged parts due to people cleaning and never seen any damaged from too much paste. It just doesn't make sense to me.

Simply wipe the excess off the heatspreader with a tissue and apply fresh... in reasonable quantity of course. You shouldn't even have to remove the CPU.