Question Question about ASUS (or any) motherboard's m.2 thermal pads

[Andrew_C1]

I have the ASUS z590-plus wifi motherboard and just recently bought an m.2 so I could have much faster and larger storage. I installed it on my top m.2_1 slot, as the manual suggested and everyone on the internet said it was the fastest spot to install it. I've spent the last 3 days scratching my head trying to figure out why it's not showing up even in my BIOS, despite re-seating it and trying every single troubleshooting step. According to what I'm now seeing others say, the top slot m.2_1 only works for CPU's that are 11th generation and newer, and mine is 10th generation. That's all well and good, and I can move it down to the 2nd m.2 slot, however, my motherboard has heatsink bars that go over the m.2 slots, and they come with thermal pads that have plastic over them saying "remove," which I did when I installed it. Now that I have to move my m.2 to the 2nd slot, I'm worried about if I should a.) leave the thermal pads exposed without the stickers over them now that I don't have them. b.) remove the thermal pads altogether or c.) not even put the heatsink bar back on since I don't have use of the top m.2 slot. This is probably a stupid question but I just want to make sure I don't get thermal goop all over the inside of my pc or remove something I don't need to. Thanks!

 

[Lutfij]

I would replace the sticker peel on the pads and then carry on. If that peel is now in oblivion, you can try and use tweezers to gently pry it off the heatsink and replace it one that has the peel from the factory.

 

[Andrew_C1]

I would replace the sticker peel on the pads and then carry on. If that peel is now in oblivion, you can try and use tweezers to gently pry it off the heatsink and replace it one that has the peel from the factory.

Would it do any harm to my motherboard/pc in general to have the unused heatsink on without the pads until I have something to put there? Do they need the thermal pad if there's nothing to connect it to?