how to remove thermal paste?

[rizzo56]

have an old duron cpu from a pal, top of the core is clean but the sides of it have lots of old thermal paste and it is rock hard. how do i remove it? repeated attempts with isoprop alcohol? should i just ignore it, slap on some paste on top of the core, and call it a day?

 

[dennisjai215]

maybe try like 91%+ iso alcohol

 

[DaNorthface]

ignore it if you can - that's if it doesn't get in the way of the heatsink.. But if you really want to get rid of it, get a mechanical pencil with a medal tip and scrap it off.. That's what i did on my athlon

 

[Lonyo]

I used a cocktail stick to scoop some of it off when I had a smiliar issue. Worked fairly well.

 

[igblack]

take a q-tip and soak it in alcohol and rub it all over the thermal past and then use like an old credit card or something and that scrape it off. that worked good for me.

 

[ZoNtO]

You want to use isopropyl alcohol whatever you do. Simply scraping off the excess still leaves minute particles on there from the previous grease/paste/whatever else. Even when using iso alc and a q-tip (above) for instance, you are still going to have particles left. But that's probably as good as you can get it, and it's most likely not noticeable anyway.

 

[pirred908]

Um...Don't use a f^&*ing pencil to clean your heatsink. Thats terrible. Go to a hardware store and buy pure asetone. Don' t listen to them. Asetone is so strong you won't need moms credit card to scrap it off or cocktail sticks. christ.

 

[ZoNtO]

Thought it was Acetone, but I might be wrong. I guess that would work if you want to see how long it takes for your chip to disintegrate.... And who takes the Lord's name in vain over something as trivial as thermal paste bro, c'mon!

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: pirred908
Um...Don't use a f^&*ing pencil to clean your heatsink. Thats terrible. Go to a hardware store and buy pure asetone. Don' t listen to them. Asetone is so strong you won't need moms credit card to scrap it off or cocktail sticks. christ.

Acetone leaves a residue... if you do use it, do a final cleaning with isopropyl alcohol. You shouldn't need to use acetone though... the alcohol will slowly soften the stuff. Just keep gently rubbing a soaked cotton swab over the stuff until it starts to break away. In my experience, it won't dissolve, so don't wait for it to, it will just eventually release from the core in chunks.

 

[pirred908]

Alright sorry man, didn't mean to offend you or your "LORD". I forgot about the residue part, thanks for reminding me.

 

[Sokratz]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181

Originally posted by: pirred908
Um...Don't use a f^&*ing pencil to clean your heatsink. Thats terrible. Go to a hardware store and buy pure asetone. Don' t listen to them. Asetone is so strong you won't need moms credit card to scrap it off or cocktail sticks. christ.

Acetone leaves a residue... if you do use it, do a final cleaning with isopropyl alcohol. You shouldn't need to use acetone though... the alcohol will slowly soften the stuff. Just keep gently rubbing a soaked cotton swab over the stuff until it starts to break away. In my experience, it won't dissolve, so don't wait for it to, it will just eventually release from the core in chunks.

Wait a second, isn't that backwards? I've always heard that isopropyl leaves a residue..

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: Sokratz

Originally posted by: Jeff7181

Originally posted by: pirred908
Um...Don't use a f^&*ing pencil to clean your heatsink. Thats terrible. Go to a hardware store and buy pure asetone. Don' t listen to them. Asetone is so strong you won't need moms credit card to scrap it off or cocktail sticks. christ.

Acetone leaves a residue... if you do use it, do a final cleaning with isopropyl alcohol. You shouldn't need to use acetone though... the alcohol will slowly soften the stuff. Just keep gently rubbing a soaked cotton swab over the stuff until it starts to break away. In my experience, it won't dissolve, so don't wait for it to, it will just eventually release from the core in chunks.

Wait a second, isn't that backwards? I've always heard that isopropyl leaves a residue..

No... isopropyl completely evaporates. If you heard isopropyl leaves a residue, either you misunderstood, or whatever you read/heard was wrong.