Arctic Silver conductivity

[Technonut]

A strange thing happened when I replaced my Alpha 7125 with an Arctic Circle that I had around to see how it would do with the Arctic Silver grease, since my Delta black labels are pretty loud on my Alpha (but cool to a couple of degrees above case temp) Anyway, I put the heatsinks on the cache chips with a little silicone on the edges in case I wanted to remove them, and applied the Arctic Silver. Some of the grease got in between the pins of the cache chips, and I could not get it out even with a straight pin, so I thought that it is not that conductive, and should be fine.

I ran it for a few days just fine, then all of a sudden the system rebooted and would not go past the memory check. I reseated the Athlon a few times, checked all the usual suspects, no go. Threw in another Athlon, fired right up. DAMN I was pissed. I checked the core, no damage. After I knew that nothing else could be checked, I looked at the grease between the cache chip pins, and tried to remove it with no luck. Well, I had nothing to lose, so I filled up a small tray with straight rubbing alcohol and gave the Athlon a bath with a soft tooth brush. Got the grease out, dried it with canned air, put my heatplate and Alpha back on, and IT WORKED! Been running great for the last couple of days.. I still use the Arctic Silver, just more carefully.

Sorry for the lengthy post, just letting everyone know to be careful not to get that grease between the cache chip pins. I don't see anything else it could have been.

 

[Eug]

Interesting. Not supposed to be conductive (even though it's silver).

I guess I'll be very careful when I apply the grease to some of my schtuff.

 

[Yoshi]

I don't really think you can make a conductive material unconductive unless you make it into another material. Think about it.

 

[kursplat]

you should e-mail nevin about it . he takes this stuff very serious

 

[Nevin]

Arctic Silver is electrically non-conductive except in an very thin layer under extreme compression.

When not under compression, the carrier is designed to keep the microscopic silver particles separated and fully insulated.

That is why the computer had no problem running for a few days with the compound between the pins on the cache chips.

My experienced guess would be that the Arctic Circle was on a little too tight and the CPU PCB was flexed. After a few days of thermal changes under tension, the PCB assumed enough of a bend to affect the contact with the slot. (We have seen this before more than once.)

The fix was not that you removed the Arctic Silver from the cache chip pins, but that you changed coolers.

Backing each of the Arctic Circle's bolts off about 1/8 to 1/4 turn would also have fixed the problem.

Nevin

 

[Technonut]

I have installed a few Arctic Circles, and have never had that problem. I guess that it may have been a little too tight, and flexed as you said, since I did not try to back off the bolts. There did not appear to be any flex that was noticeable, but I suppose a small amount would have been enough to cause the problem, even when reseating the CPU into the slot. Very interesting solution to a problem that was difficult to explain other than the grease. It is good that others will be aware of this if it occurs. I just may give the Arctic Circle another shot, since it was doing very well with cooling when teamed with the Arctic Silver grease (and quiet). Thanks!

 

[Nevin]

Technonut,

It is a chain of circumstances problem. The cooler on a little too tight + the slot a little too loose + the PCB not perfectly flat to begin with.

We have worked with people where their CPU/cooler would work fine in one board and not another until they slightly loosened the bolts.

Of course, the other extreme is where people leave he bolts so loose that the cooler is hanging off the core and wonder why the CPU is running hot.

We've seen that one too.

My favorite though, is the nastygram we got from a young man claiming that once he installed the Arctic Circle and put his computer back together that it would not boot at all. No video, no nothing. Had to borrow his dad's laptop to cuss at us.

Then he noticed that his processor, with the Arctic Circle so perfectly mounted, was still laying on his desk.

Nevin

 

[Eug]

lol

 

[Venomous]

A good way of cleaning spilled grease from contacts is Isopropyl Alcohol and a toothbrush. Dip the brush in the alc, and scrub away.

 

[dl]

besides 2cool, where else can i get this greese, 2cool's out..

 

[Chooie]

How about right from Nevin? http://www.coolingstore.com/. That's where I got mine

 

[dl]

yup, ordered an hour ago

 

[JJHendrix]

hey, what's the difference between Arctic Silver for small and large contact areas?