[SOLVED] Thermal paste and ArctiClean 1 On CPU pins/ CPU socket

[ochipapo]

Hi there

So yesterday I finished screwing together my first build, using an MSI MPG 570x MoBo and an AMD ryzen 7 3700x CPU etc.

It all went alright hntil I completely messed up at the CPU installation. Tiny bits of thermal paste hit the CPU pins while cleaning it, due to having installed too big of a CPU cooler and having to reinstall the AMD wraith Prism. So i brushed it off with some ArctiClean 1 and a toothbrush, and now comes my mistake, I didnt let it dry long enough and put it in the socket after about 20 Minutes.
The PC didnt recognise my keyboard and mouse and the Powerbutton didnt work after the BIOS setup at first boot but with the second boot it worked perfectly. Today it did its Job fine aswell until I came back home late in the evening and tried to turn it back on. Well the CPU LED on my MoBo turned on , all the fans and LEDs (including the GPUs LED)turned on but no signel on the Hdmi, no signal from mouse or keyboard, nothing. So i took the CPU out again earlier, pretty frustratedly, as I have fought with this build for 9 hours straight yesterday, and tried to clean it, again spilling thermal paste on the pins, this time because i put too mich ArctClean and it seeped down over the edge of the CPU onto the surface I had placed it on. The pins are now halfway full of a mix of thermal paste and ArctiClean. I've accepted the fact that I've ruined my CPU, but can I still use the Mobo/the socket? Ill get a new CPU and a new Case tomorrow in order to install the dark rock pro 4 properly and hopefully get this entire ordeal over with for now. Thank you for your time, I appreciate it

 

[alceryes]

I don't think the thermal paste and cleaner fiasco damaged anything. It seems like there's something else going on. It's pretty easy to clean a PGA CPU but it takes patience and lots of cotton swabs, toothpicks, and other swabs to get in between each of the pins that are fouled up in order to clean them.

With the CPU completely cleaned and all BIOS settings at DEFAULT (reset the CMOS) does your system POST and boot?

 

[ochipapo]

I don't think the thermal paste and cleaner fiasco damaged anything. It seems like there's something else going on. It's pretty easy to clean a PGA CPU but it takes patience and lots of cotton swabs, toothpicks, and other swabs to get in between each of the pins that are fouled up in order to clean them.

With the CPU completely cleaned and all BIOS settings at DEFAULT (reset the CMOS) does your system POST and boot?

Alright so I cleaned everything with some pure Isopropol and put it back in, everything seems to be working fine right niw, exactly as yesterday, I hope it stays this way, I'll update if it stops working again.

What might be interesting is that the red LEDs on the motherboard were turning on sometimes during the initial startup, CPU and DRAM most notably, and Boot once. So do you think anything is broken or am I fine?

 

[alceryes]

Do the lights appear while BIOS still at default?
Don't adjust any overclock settings, voltages, timings, etc. Even if they were 100% stable before.

 

[ochipapo]

Do the lights appear while BIOS still at default?
Don't adjust any overclock settings, voltages, timings, etc. Even if they were 100% stable before.

Ah I didnt pay attention to when exactly they came on, but I think they turned on pretty much from the getgo, ill try it again if it stops working^^ the LEDs turned off, however, and didnt Light up again while it was running and everything worked perfectly. I also tried turning it off and on again this time without issues, only the CPU LED turned red for a brief moment again during startup. I picked up a backup CPU this afternoon and if it stop working will probably replace my current one with that one and see what happens, eventhough it seems to work thus far, I cant wrap my head around why it isnt working when itworks perfectly right after building it.

 

[alceryes]

Those lights could just be part of the POST process.
If you haven't yet opened the new CPU (and can return it) I would think twice before breaking that seal. You could open it and find that you are having the exact same issues.