Smeared Thermal Paste

spenceju

Reputable
Jan 23, 2015
3
0
4,510
As you know, the stock cooler has three distinct strips of paste on it. I placed the cooler on the cpu to see how it should go, and then I took it off and rotated it and put it back on. I then looked at the paste and saw I had smeared it so that there weren't really three distinct lines anymore- also some of it had come off onto the cpu
 
Solution
Rule of thumb: if you remove the cpu cooler from the cpu, for any reason, clean them both properly, then repaste, properly. All it takes is 1 small airbubble preventing heat dissipation to apply enough heat to a single, minute area of the core to burn it out. Correct pasting is absolutely necessary. 100% coverage of the core areas. 99% will get you a burned out core, the temp sensors at a core level do not necessarily cover an entire core, and the 4-5 seconds of heat buildup required to radiate that heat to the sensor will be damaging at the center, basically right below the airbubble.

Repaste. It's cheap insurance vrs an iffy 'well you should be ok'
I don't really know what you are asking. You should really reapply the paste as now when you seat the cooler it will have air bubbles in it. You can just try it like it is, just keep an eye on your temperature and if its way too high just reseat the cooler with new paste.
 
thanks for the reply.

sorry, yeah i meant to ask whether or not it was a big deal how the paste went on, since it smears anyway.





 
it probably won't hurt anything but as stated, keep an eye on your cpu temps for a while to be sure. the paste spreads out under pressure anyway so it does not stay in these neat lines once in use. more than likely it is ok but be prepared anyway in case.

watch the temps and re apply if needed.
 
Rule of thumb: if you remove the cpu cooler from the cpu, for any reason, clean them both properly, then repaste, properly. All it takes is 1 small airbubble preventing heat dissipation to apply enough heat to a single, minute area of the core to burn it out. Correct pasting is absolutely necessary. 100% coverage of the core areas. 99% will get you a burned out core, the temp sensors at a core level do not necessarily cover an entire core, and the 4-5 seconds of heat buildup required to radiate that heat to the sensor will be damaging at the center, basically right below the airbubble.

Repaste. It's cheap insurance vrs an iffy 'well you should be ok'
 
Solution