I had to remove the heatsink from my Sempron.. now what?

MDesigner

Platinum Member
Apr 3, 2001
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When I build PCs, I always buy Athlon.. retail box. And I just stick the CPU into the socket, snap the heatsink on, and away I go. I don't bother with Arctic Silver anymore, because I figure hey.. AMD knows what they're doing. They supply a heatsink in their retail boxes with a thermal pad already on it. And it works just fine.. I have a machine I built a few years ago that is still running perfectly.

Now, the problem is this: I built a new PC recently, just a budget PC with a Sempron CPU.. Socket 754 I believe. The m/b is an ASUS K8N. Anyway, I put everything together.. and it didn't work. With almost 100% certainty, it's the motherboard that's failing.. no POST beeps, no display, nothing. So I took everything apart and am sending the m/b into ASUS for a replacement. Obviously, I had to take the CPU & heatsink off. So now what? When I get the replacement motherboard, can I just put the CPU in the socket and reattach the heatsink? Or do I have to go through some annoying & time consuming process of cleaning off the thermal pad, cleaning the CPU, and applying Arctic Silver? NewEgg offers some special heatsink & CPU cleaner by the Arctic Silver guys.. I could use that. I just would rather not hassle with any of this if I don't have to. If I can just put the heatsink back on the CPU again, let me know. Otherwise, I'll take suggestions as to other ways to get this thing up & running.

Thanks.
 

TheStu

Moderator<br>Mobile Devices & Gadgets
Moderator
Sep 15, 2004
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I have always used 90%+ Isopropyl alcohol with a soft cloth to wipe it off with... i have never had any problems... so for half the price of that arctic cleaner stuff you can get a big honkin bottle of isopropyl alcohol at your local pharmacy and youll be set for a while. Plus the rubbing alcohol has many more uses althoug most of it involves cleaning gunk off of stuff