Question Is it normal for CPU temps to rise initially after replacing thermal paste?

[Sunyata]

I swapped the thermal paste on my CPU for the first time after several years, and after booting it back up it seems like the average idle temperature rose a few degrees. I had some issues cleaning up the old paste, I had definitely applied too much/too close to the edge of the face when I built it and it came over the edge of the chip. Got all over my fingertips while I was trying to wipe it up, even got a little bit in a few of the pins at one point.

I worried at first that I should take it back apart and see if perhaps it failed to spread across the entire chip when seating the heatsink this time, but given that it is working and how difficult it was to clean up the first time, I figured maybe I shouldn't press my luck. I was just wondering if it's normal at all to see a slight rise in the average temperature for a period while the paste 'settles' or some such.

It's perhaps 2-4 degrees difference while idling, I tried running cinebench multi-core and it was only up to about 76 or 77C at the highest. I've read that Ryzens (it's an R5 3600x) can safely go up to about 95C at most, so unless there's some reason to be concerned I figure I should probably not risk even worse issues.

 

[Ralston18]

A difference of 2-4 degrees could simply be the "margin of error" + or - in the temperarture sensors, etc..

And it could be that the new paste also affected things.

What brand paste and how was it applied?

For the most part I would simply leave "well enough alone" and keep a close eye on temperartures - just in case something else is going on.

AKA - "don't press my luck".

Just my thoughts on the matter.

 

[Zerk2012]

Some paste has a burn in time to get the full ability out of it some don't. Either way I would not stress it 2C or so could be just the way it was applied or needs time but it's not going to matter much at all.

I tried running cinebench multi-core and it was only up to about 76 or 77C

Looks fine to me.

 

[Sunyata]

A difference of 2-4 degrees could simply be the "margin of error" + or - in the temperarture sensors, etc..

And it could be that the new paste also affected things.

What brand paste and how was it applied?

For the most part I would simply leave "well enough alone" and keep a close eye on temperartures - just in case something else is going on.

AKA - "don't press my luck".

Just my thoughts on the matter.

Arctic, MX-6, I just used a dot in the center. Probably still put too much on, everywhere I look I see people say that spreading can create small pockets of air but I wonder how that compares to having too much on there.

 

[Sunyata]

I keep seeing the CPU spike to about 50 while sitting idled with the screen off... Is there any way that could derive from the paste? It's intermittent, not a slow climb, so it seems like it's coming from some kind of background activity, but it's also hovering around 46 now, which is about 5 degrees higher overall than before swapping the paste. =(

 

[Ralston18]

If the computer is spiking while "sitting idle" the computer may actually be doing something or trying to do something in the background.

Use Task Manager, Resource Monitor, and Process Explorer (Microsoft, free) to take a look.

Use all three tools but only one tool at a time.

FYI:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

 

[Bob.B]

I swapped the thermal paste on my CPU for the first time after several years, and after booting it back up it seems like the average idle temperature rose a few degrees. I had some issues cleaning up the old paste, I had definitely applied too much/too close to the edge of the face when I built it and it came over the edge of the chip. Got all over my fingertips while I was trying to wipe it up, even got a little bit in a few of the pins at one point.

I worried at first that I should take it back apart and see if perhaps it failed to spread across the entire chip when seating the heatsink this time, but given that it is working and how difficult it was to clean up the first time, I figured maybe I shouldn't press my luck. I was just wondering if it's normal at all to see a slight rise in the average temperature for a period while the paste 'settles' or some such.

It's perhaps 2-4 degrees difference while idling, I tried running cinebench multi-core and it was only up to about 76 or 77C at the highest. I've read that Ryzens (it's an R5 3600x) can safely go up to about 95C at most, so unless there's some reason to be concerned I figure I should probably not risk even worse issues.

Go through a few heating and cooling cycles and watch the temps.
See if the temps come down a little as the paste starts to fill the little voids.

 

[Sunyata]

Thank you guys for the help sorting this out. It was pretty much just HWinfo causing the spikes, it came just from having some graphs open. It seemed like too much of an increase from such minimal activity, and even in between the spikes to 50+ from the graph activity I was seeing regular rises of several degrees almost constantly.
I went ahead and redid the paste, tried spreading this time and I can already see an improvement after several days, idling as low as 39C now. Really appreciate all the help!