[SOLVED] Thermal paste applied wrong?

[OverheatingLaptop54]

Recently sent my laptop to a repair shop near me to reapply the thermal paste but I think they've applied it wrong, should i wipe all of the paste away with rubbing alcohol then repaste myself?

 

[HerrKaLeu]

You only need a thin layer over the actual core or spreader. Not too much, it only is supposed to displace air from the the little micro-voids. Paste conducts heat worse than metal, but better than air. So if you put a heavy paste on, you have worse heat transfer.

 

[HeathcliffX1]

Now that you have removed the Heat Sink from the PCB, yes, yes you should absolutely change the thermal paste, but in many, cases the Thermal Paste they put on will do the trick for light loads, and assuming that the Thermal Paste is like non-conductive, it probably isn't an issue. However, if it were conductive then that would potentially be a massive issue. If you haven't had a problem yet that this is fine.