Too much thermal grease?

[vigilante212]

Ive been having prolems with my comp locking up in games, so I replaced the sound card, power supply, memory, and a new graphics card on order. I read somewhere though that too much thermal grease isnt good, when I had my tower open for upgrades I was cleaning it out. I took the heat sink off and noticed no thermal grease between the chip(silver rectange) and the heat sink, but lots of thermal grease around it. About half the top of the cpu had thermal grease on it. Is there anyway to clean it off or should I even worry?

The reason I ask is because my mb temp is idle at 37C and the chip idle after 24 hours off at 56-58C. and it jumps to 65C when i was playing to cheap 2d games online. I dont remember if the chip ever idled any lower to be honest I only install my asus pc probe every blue moon if I start having problems. My specs below


Asus A7v600 mb
amd athlon XP 2800
1 gb kingston hyper x(new)
geforce fx 5700LE(getting replaced) new card is a pny geforce 6600
thermaltake tr2 dual rail 500w power supply(new)
sound blaster X-FI sound card
front 80mm intake fan
side 80mm intake fan
graphics card fan
heat sink and fan on cpu(cheap)
the power supply has a 120mm intake fan on the bottom(sits right above the cpu)
and a 80mm exaust fan
plus 1 80mm exaust fan on case

 

[weilin]

oh ur fine, you have a older barton built on the 130nm. Those are known to be around high 40s to low 50s idle. thats "normal" you can't compare that with todays 90nm cpus. As for hitting 65 under load, thats also "fine" but slightly high. I would just apply artic silver and move on. if it blows in the next 2 years (highly unlikely) get a faster cooler pc. Bartons are rated for 85 C before anything happens anyways.

 

[vigilante212]

I was saving up to build a nice gaming machine, but ended up spending half of my saved money trying to fix this dumb thing

I want a vista ready comp by next year so at least ill be able to play games for the next few years my current setup is getting outta date fast since its agp still.

 

[sirheck]

weilin is right
i had an xp2800 they run hotter but work great
mine had stock cooler and NO thermalpaste for a year
after that i applied some radio shack paste and overclocked it
from 2.089 <i think> stock to 2355mgz for a couple of months
it had a 9600proagp and 2 512 corsair xms sticks of mem
it is still going today the 9600pro gave up the ghost
about 6 months ago.

but anyway clean it off apply new paste and you should bw good to go

 

[vigilante212]

Should I use kleenex or a microfiber cloth to clean the extra paste off?

 

[sirheck]

sure it is not that big a deal on what you use to clean it off
a tshirt will work. just make sure there are no fibers or what ever
on or around the cpu/heatsink area

probably be more worried about static electricity
but still shouldnt have a problem

 

[weilin]

i just use those medical alcohol wipes from the Dr. Office (love working IT there.. they have so many unique tools i can use..) Just make sure whatever u use dont leave fibers or lint. Thats all. Either would work.

 

[SidVicious]

Should I use kleenex or a microfiber cloth to clean the extra paste off?

Your best bet is to use isopropanol on a q-tip to dissolve and scrub the gunk away then use lintless long fibre paper to polish off any thermal paste leftovers, do that for the HSF contact surface, CPU core and packaging.

Next time you apply thermal paste, be a little less sloppy, a paperthin coat is enough.

 

[sirheck]

yes those alchohol wipes are great too
probably better than alchohol and cotton

 

[ZOldDude]

Should I use kleenex or a microfiber cloth to clean the extra paste off?

Use coffee filters.
1)Use a plastic card to clean as best as you can (NEVER USE METAL!!!).
2)Use Acetone and coffee filter to clean CPU and HS.
3)Use tech grade Alcohol and coffee filter to clean off Acetone residue (both CPU and HS)

*Place a no more than a rice grain size of TIM (heatsink stuff) on the center of the CPU.

*Cover your finger with plastic food wrap,touch the TIM you put in center of CPU (take no more than 1/3 off) and rub area of HS that will contact the CPU 30 times clockwise....rotate the HS and rub another 30 times.

This fills the micro groves/pits in the HS and you should just be able to tell that it has ANYTHING on it.

Now IF your CPU has the metal IHS on it...just set the HS and you good to go. If it does not have the metal IHS use the plastic wraped finger to spread the rest of the TIM around on the top of it.

You want the parts CLEAN even if they are new right out of the box...and just bairly enough TIM to cover. Less is best.

 

[Groveling_Wyrm]

Although I will agree with the use of coffee filters and using a plastic card such as a credit card, I believe that it is not necessary to go to the level of using acetone to clean your processor.

Since you are not lapping, watercooling. or phase-change cooling, it isn't necessary to go that far. Not to mention the availability of acetone and the frequency which you would use it. For an avid user, acetone may be something that is readily available anytime, but the average user won't have a need for it.

Using alcohol to clean it, after wiping completely off, will clean it sufficiently to ensure the TIM will do its's job. After which, as ZOldDude stated, placing just enough TIM on the HSF to cover it, using the philosophy of "Less is more" is your best bet IMHO....

but then...that is my 2 cents....

 

[vigilante212]

ok i have a 50% concentration of iso/distilled water mix. I wouldnt use acetone personally, because as it says its acid and acid is bad . ill do the q tip method since I dont have any lint free cloth available.

As for what zold is talking about please dont use abreviations im a moderate comp noob

 

[Nexxuvas]

[quote="ZOldDude
*Cover your finger with plastic food wrap,touch the TIM you put in center of CPU (take no more than 1/3 off) and rub area of HS that will contact the CPU 30 times clockwise....rotate the HS and rub another 30 times.
[/quote]

Daaaaamn dude, it almost sounds sexually. Geeze put some of that effort into da wife/girlfriend/S.O. wouldcha?

ROFL :tongue:

*thumbs up* though.