About 2 weeks ago I decided to clean out my PC, without knowing I took off the stock Intel heat sink and fan off and dusted it out then placed it back on without reapplying thermal paste. I noticed very high temperatures so I ordered some Arctic Silver 5, and it arrived this morning. I cleaned the CPU and heat sink with some isopropyl and coffee filters then applied the paste by placing a pea sized dot in the middle of the CPU. I pressed the heat sink down to make sure it spread and then checked my temperatures. The temperatures before messing everything up were about 40c idle, now they are 60c idle and with any program running they shoot up to 80-95c range. Does anyone know what the problem could be I thought I did everything correctly but the temperature results say different, any help is appreciated.
Very high temperatures after reapplying thermal paste
- Thread starter retrop3
- Start date
Solution
- Jul 18, 2014
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It sounds like when you placed the cooler down it didn't spread the paste evenly. I typically apply a pea sized drop but instead of pushing the cooler down I use a credit card (or something similar) to evenly spread the paste across the entire cpu before mounting the cooler, try that and see if it helps.
Calculagator
Admirable
- Nov 18, 2014
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You need to reapply the thermal paste. Perhaps you didn't get the cooler all the way on or didn't press it down evenly. It's clearly not working as it should. Make sure you clean both the CPU and heatsink down to bare metal before applying more thermal paste. You need very little paste for a good connection.
If you changed anything else, however, the problem could be elsewhere. My advice above assumes that you didn't plug a fan into the wrong header or change the fan speed or gum the fan up.
I think when you take the cooler off again, you will be able to see your problem.
If you changed anything else, however, the problem could be elsewhere. My advice above assumes that you didn't plug a fan into the wrong header or change the fan speed or gum the fan up.
I think when you take the cooler off again, you will be able to see your problem.
Solandri
Glorious
- Jan 4, 2012
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First thing is to check to make sure the fans are working properly.
Contrary to the marketing by thermal paste manufacturers (which is oft repeated by many DIY builders), the vast majority of the heat transfer from the CPU to the heatsink is via metal-on-metal contact. I'm talking like 98%-99% of the heat transfer. In fact for the most part the CPU will run just fine without any thermal paste.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAr2wKZ_nes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX6AN4vWZP0
The only role of thermal paste is to fill microscopic air gaps between the two metal surfaces. Thermal paste has two orders of magnitude better heat conductivity than air, but three orders of magnitude worse conductivity than metal on metal. So thermal paste can make a small improvement when applied correctly, but can make things a lot worse when applied incorrectly.
You used a pea-sized dot, so you got that part right (I'd actually suggest a half pea). When you press the heat sink down though, it's not to make sure the paste is spread evenly (although you do what that). It's to squeeze the paste out of any areas where metal would contact metal if there were no paste. If you've got a layer of paste sitting between the CPU and heatsink like a layer of mayonnaise, you've actually made things a lot worse. I squeeze and slide the heatsink around until I feel metal scraping on metal and I'm sure there's no excess paste, then clamp it down. The spring-loaded clamps make sure any paste that was squeezed out stays out, as well as compresses and deforms the tips of any metal ridges slightly increasing contact metal surface area.
Contrary to the marketing by thermal paste manufacturers (which is oft repeated by many DIY builders), the vast majority of the heat transfer from the CPU to the heatsink is via metal-on-metal contact. I'm talking like 98%-99% of the heat transfer. In fact for the most part the CPU will run just fine without any thermal paste.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAr2wKZ_nes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX6AN4vWZP0
The only role of thermal paste is to fill microscopic air gaps between the two metal surfaces. Thermal paste has two orders of magnitude better heat conductivity than air, but three orders of magnitude worse conductivity than metal on metal. So thermal paste can make a small improvement when applied correctly, but can make things a lot worse when applied incorrectly.
You used a pea-sized dot, so you got that part right (I'd actually suggest a half pea). When you press the heat sink down though, it's not to make sure the paste is spread evenly (although you do what that). It's to squeeze the paste out of any areas where metal would contact metal if there were no paste. If you've got a layer of paste sitting between the CPU and heatsink like a layer of mayonnaise, you've actually made things a lot worse. I squeeze and slide the heatsink around until I feel metal scraping on metal and I'm sure there's no excess paste, then clamp it down. The spring-loaded clamps make sure any paste that was squeezed out stays out, as well as compresses and deforms the tips of any metal ridges slightly increasing contact metal surface area.
When I took the cooler off all i see is a small dot in the middle of the CPU, the thermal compound did not spread whatsoever im not sure why. The Arctic silver website says that i need to apply the paste in a vertical line for my i5 system so maybe that will help it? But do you have any idea why it just decided not to spread? Do you think i waited to long to put the heatsink on?
http://www.arcticsilver.com/intel_application_method.html#
No Spreading at all: http://imgur.com/a/KGCL4
Calculagator
Admirable
- Nov 18, 2014
- 2,508
- 1
- 8,960
It looks like you never got the clips in correctly so that the heatsink was barely touching the cpu. You may have to push pretty hard on them to get them to pop into place.
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