Copper in the P4 heatspreader, sanding down to it helped improve stability!

[Xtasy]

My p4 1.6 williamette was starting to get unstable at 120mhz fsb, so i decided to relap it. I took 2000 grit paper and sanded for about 10 minutes. Then in the center of the core, i began to saw orange-pinkish colored metal. After more sanding, it was clearly copper! That really surprised me and it took almost 20 more minutes of sanding until 1/4 of the heatspreader was exposing the copper underneath. Instead of as3, i applied as1 instead and i saw no improvement, i will reapply as3 soon. I also have a question about as3, i noticed that the as3 seems to reform when transferring heat, when i took off a heatsink from 2 days of use, i noticed several parts of the cpu heatspreader had no as3 covering it, but the whole cpu heatspreader had as3 covered on it when going in. Can anyone help me on that?

 

[Lizardman]

AS3 is supposed to set in after a couple days of use. Maybe there was not enough pressure from your heatsink and the as3 ran a little. Thats all that I can think of.

 

[Xtasy]

I just lapped the whole heatspreader to expose the copper. So far it seems to be a little cooler. As for my as3 problem, i always thought that the heatsink didn't apply enough pressure. It is a coolermaster iac-002. It uses a unique powerlock to clip onto the retention module. It also came with a backplate that goes on the back of the mobo and changes the way it is installed, but i could not install it because my retention module can't be removed.

 

[Xtasy]

Just to let you know, sanding down to the copper level with 2000 and 1000 grit paper has helped my processor hit 120mhz fsb stable. I am happy and enjoy that copper mirror finish. Just running prime95 right now for 1 hr soo far without errors, b4 it would only hit 15 mins b4 a error.

 

[BuddyAtBzboyz]

Well looks like we are going to see an increase in sandpaper sales soon. Time to buy shares!