Does thermal grease conduct electricity?

[JEDI]

i installed a new k7s5a pro/xp2400+ from fry's. it wasnt a returned box.

i got a coolmaster x-dream hsf. i put the thermal grease on the cpu, but a little spilled over and touched some of the transitors on the chip.

the mobo will not post. My thread on not posting

just wondering if it's the thermal grease?

THX

 

[Soulkeeper]

i've found that artic silver 2 and 3 do not conduct electricity at all
infact i've used a volt meter to measure the resistance between just a hair's width of the stuff and it is much less conductive than even human skin
i've smeared the stuff all over cpu bridges and vid card smd's and memory traces
never had any problem

i havn't checked the thermal epoxy tho but i doubt it conducts either

any other cheap silicon thermal grease won't conduct either because silicon unless under certain special conditions is a insulator

there might be some thermal compound out there that conducts if it don't have silicon in it but AS definately don't conduct electricity

 

[pspada]

Wrong!!! From the Artic Silver web site:

"Arctic Silver 3 was formulated to conduct heat, not electricity. It is only electrically conductive in a thin layer under extreme compression. (While much safer than electrically conductive silver and copper greases, Arctic Silver 3 should be kept away from electrical traces, pins, and leads. While it is not electrically conductive, the compound is slightly capacitive and could potentially cause problems if it bridges two close-proximity electrical paths.)"

 

[Shimmishim]

Originally posted by: pspada
Wrong!!! From the Artic Silver web site:

"Arctic Silver 3 was formulated to conduct heat, not electricity. It is only electrically conductive in a thin layer under extreme compression. (While much safer than electrically conductive silver and copper greases, Arctic Silver 3 should be kept away from electrical traces, pins, and leads. While it is not electrically conductive, the compound is slightly capacitive and could potentially cause problems if it bridges two close-proximity electrical paths.)"

okay, let's try to be a little nicer...

and quoting the site like you said... "under extreme compression"

so if you got it on the bridges or resistors or transistors or whatever components on the cpu... then you should just remove the gunk then install it...

but like soulkeeper said, i NEVER had a problem with a cpu not posting because i got too much AS 3 on the processor.. or an overspill of it..

 

[stevejst]

i've found that artic silver 2 and 3 do not conduct electricity at all

Right but original AS was conductive, and quite a few people had a problem with that. Not long ago there was on sale everywhere. Antec still sells some of that stuff.

 

[Jeff7181]

The immitation AS3 (the stuff in the same kinda tube but with a red cap) probably is.

 

[batmang]

Originally posted by: Soulkeeper
i've found that artic silver 2 and 3 do not conduct electricity at all
infact i've used a volt meter to measure the resistance between just a hair's width of the stuff and it is much less conductive than even human skin
i've smeared the stuff all over cpu bridges and vid card smd's and memory traces
never had any problem

i havn't checked the thermal epoxy tho but i doubt it conducts either

any other cheap silicon thermal grease won't conduct either because silicon unless under certain special conditions is a insulator

there might be some thermal compound out there that conducts if it don't have silicon in it but AS definately don't conduct electricity

lol? ...... artic silver is conductive as hell. ceramique is the only artice silver product that isnt conductive.

i've had two friends who have fried 3 chips from artice silver overuse.

 

[Soulkeeper]

i'm no chemist but here is my guess on why as2 or as3 have not conducted electricity in my experience:
the only way i can see as2 or as3 conducting electricity is if you compress it enough to make the silver molecules touch each other without the silicon that they are suspended in coating them
it is also possible that if you subject Hi amounts of current to the stuff that it could act as some kinda semi conductor
*** theories done

if this is true then to do this you would prob need several pounds per square inch i would assume

 

[Soulkeeper]

ok i just conducted a littled test

i opened up my psu and noticed that at a certain point i had 80 volts running through it
so i put a drop of as3 on there and touched the top of the drop with my voltage reader and it measured between .4v and .1v
so yes it does conduct electricity just not very well

and if components are connected with it you need only worry if they are extremely close and have high amounts of voltage running through them

compressing the stuff between two conductive areas (flat smooth metal plates maybe) would probably yeild a lot higher amounts of conductivity tho

 

[xbassman]

Originally posted by: JEDI
i installed a new k7s5a pro/xp2400+ from fry's. it wasnt a returned box.

i got a coolmaster x-dream hsf. i put the thermal grease on the cpu, but a little spilled over and touched some of the transitors on the chip.

the mobo will not post. My thread on not posting

just wondering if it's the thermal grease?

THX

Well, I had that exact problem 2 weeks ago using Artic Silver 3.
Once I removed my processor and cleaned it really well all was good.
Actually i have never had that happen before with AS2 or the white stuff even way back when slopping the stuff on there...

 

[SinfulWeeper]

Does thermal grease conduct electricity?

Some does, some doesn't. When you decide on a brand, just check the manufactures web site.