Question How to safely remove thermal paste from CPU pins?

[slicedchicken480]

How do I safely remove thermal paste from CPU pins without damaging the CPU? The CPU is an AM4 CPU.

 

[boju]

Isopropyl spray and gently clean with cotton swabs.

 

[BFG-9000]

Normally like dissolves like, so highly polar solvents such as water or alcohols like methanol or ethanol should have no effect on silicone grease. The more nonpolar structures there are on the alcohol the better it will work on light oils, so isopropyl is slightly better than those but worse than say, isobutyl. Isopropyl is normally used to clean rosin flux (which is pine pitch) after soldering, but silicone grease is just too thick for it.

However you don't actually have to use silicone oil as any hydrocarbon solvent is also nonpolar so will dissolve silicone greases. Such solvents can often leave behind a light oily residue which can be flushed off with plenty of alcohol or even soap and water. The trick is of course many hydrocarbon solvents such as acetone will aggressively attack plastics and PCBs, so it's best to choose a spray electronics cleaner or MAF cleaner and stay far away from anything not intended to clean plastics such as brake cleaner.

Soap cleans both water and oil soluble stains... because one end is polar and the other is not. In water the nonpolar parts all come together to form a micelle around the oil particle. Just be aware things like dish soap contain a whole lot of electrically conductive salt so be sure to rinse well.

 

[Gururu]

70-90% IPA, cotton or soft tooth brush and light touch. rinse with ipa and let it air dry

 

[punkncat]

Arctic's cleaning solution is actually an 'orange cleaner' much like goof off. Something along those lines with a very soft bristle brush will clean that. The second part of their solution is alcohol. I will mention that if you use something like the "pro strength" Goof Off, it dries your hands out severely. It also eats through rubber gloves.

I would also bet, as mentioned above, that some soap and water alongside physical manipulation (like a toothbrush) will likely do just fine.