Is Thermal Paste on Motherboard CPU Socket Pins All Right?

[Evenodd]

Should I clean it off? If so, how?

I tried using alcohol with cotton balls and q-tips but their fibers kept getting clung onto the pins, so I stopped.

The thermal pasted there is from Cooler Master, called Thermal Fusion 400. The container it comes in says that it:
*has high thermal conductivity with low thermal resistance
*is non-curing
*has non-electrical conductive traits
*is non-corrosive

Please don't tell me I need to get a new motherboard. 🙁

 

[Beezy]

you are lucky its non conductive, else you would probably ruin the socket/CPU. I would try with ISO alcohol (90% or higher) and use coffee filters instead of q-tips (no toilet paper, no paper towels.) Coffee filters are designed to not leave fibers behind, so that tends to work best..Be very careful not to bend the pins in the process!

 

[NerdyComputerGuy]

You're are basically screwed. Follow the guidance by Beezy if you can.

 

[Evenodd]

Beezy, the coffee filter was a good idea, but I can't get it to pick up or carve off any paste. Since I can't trust myself to be diligent enough to not twerk any pins as I brush between them, I'm just going to leave all of this alone and hope that the anti-electric-conductivity of the paste does its job well enough so that my system won't kindle or explode or become a malevolent sentient being... idk T_T

Thanks every one.

 

[Evenodd]

Apparently, everything seems to be working fine!

 

[Beezy]

nice, glad to hear it