How do you remove heat sink goop?

[Byte]

I have the really hard stuff on some of my cooler master and volcano heatsinks. It's really hard to take off, it's almost exactly like gum. What should i use to take that stuff off?

 

[John]

Try licking it off.

 

[greeneagle79]

I used car gasoline.

 

[DoOLiE11]

wd-40 works well

 

[Beau]

Take the majority of it off with a nylon scraper (shouldn't harm the copper/aluminum HSF) then use a little elbow grease and some rubbing alcohol and a cotton cloth. Shouldn't take too long to get it nice and clean.


Edit: I wouldn't use any petrol-based solvents, as they will leave a residue behind.

 

[vaporware]

a dishwashing liquid and water mixture works wonders on artic silver ....

 

[BChico]

I use rubbing alchohol, works good for me. If you dont have any of that use nail polish remover.

 

[Byte]

those solvents don't work on teh thick, hard, pink, gummy stuff....

 

[John]

goof off

 

[flood]

lighter fluid

 

[JohnnyPC]

I scrape it off with a razor blade being VERY careful not to gouge the aluminum/copper and clean it up further with a cotton ball with alchohol...voila`

 

[Colt45]

i use a razor blade for the big stuff, and then clean it up with isopropanol

 

[thorin]

I just use those Alcohol pads they use to clean an area before giving an injection. (Medical Alcohol Swab/Pad)

Thorin

 

[compuser]

is it necessary to remove this black gunk? i have a volcano 6 cu and haven't yet removed it but the temps are still: case=~22c and cpu=~33c

would it help and is it necessary with this HS/fan?

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

I just did it myself... I carefully scraped off with a razor blade, then cleaned with mineral spirits, then cleaned again with isopropyl alcohol. it was pretty cean wen I was done but you can still see the are where the gum was.

-Ice

 

[spamsk8r]

What I do is I take some 91% isopropyl rubbing alcohol (not the wimpy 70% stuff, that sucks) and put it on a paper towel and woooosh comes right off

 

[rickn]

use carb cleaner or bug and tar remover. they work great as disolving glues and thermal adhesives/compounds (artic silver, thermal epoxy, etc) but they will not harm the chipset or anything. after you got all the glue off, do a final touch up clean up with some isopropyl alcohol

 

[BigFatCow]

i just took the pink stuff off of my Cooler Master a few days ago, i used a razor blade for the big stuff and then i got Goo Gone and rubbed it down.

actually


<< Clean the mating surfaces completely with a low residual solvent (High-purity isopropyl alcohol or acetone will work) and a LINT FREE cloth. (i.e. lens cleaning cloth) If another thermal compound has previously been applied to the heatsink, the mounting surface should be thoroughly scrubbed and cleaned with a xylene based cleaner, (Goof Off and some carburetor cleaners) acetone, MEK, mineral spirits, or 99% pure isopropyl alcohol. It is important to keep the surfaces free of foreign materials and NOT to touch the surfaces (a hair, piece of lint, and even dead skin cells can significantly affect the thermal interfaces performance, especially on modern small core CPUs as the surface area is already severely limited). In addition, oils from your fingers can adversely affect the performance by preventing the micronized silver fill from directly contacting the metal surface. (Fingerprints can be as thick as 0.005") >>



directly from www.arcticsilver.com