Gotthermal paste on gold pins

[Aileron]

Hi everyone, it was my first time building and I accidentally got a tiny bit of thermal paste on 3 of the gold pins, is there any methods you suggest to clean them? There's no display in my monitor so could this be the issue?

I read somewhere you can soak the whole processor in rubbing alcohol for 5 minutes, is this true?

 

[Nuclear101]

I do not recommend using anything on the pins, as the slightest of pressure (as I have personally found out the hard way) will bend them, and if you don't, then even a small speck of dust will break the connection. Sadly, I don't think that you will be able to get the thermal paste out quickly. The only thing I can think of is to maybe use a toothpick and carefully try to clean the thermal paste between the pins. Then let gravity pull the rest of the paste down and clean it up.

 

[hunter315]

Rubbing alcohol will help to dissolve the paste, use 95% or greater, you can pick it up at your local drug store usually, but this is not the stuff you use for cleaning wounds, that is usually only 70% and the high water content will keep it from dissolving the thermal paste well and will leave some residue behind due to impurities.

When you clean thermal paste off the top of a CPU generally you use rubbing alcohol on a Q-tip and it works wonders for dissolving the paste.