I put A LOT of thermal grease on my CPU

[forumposter32]

OK, I finally placed my Athlon 3400+ in my computer but I got this weird white paste stuff that came with my Gigabyte Neon Cooler 8. I started putting it on and it was really thick and heavy so I just took a health care card (didn't seem totally flat) and scraped the top until I got it down to like half a milimeter thick. Still, that's a little thick. But, if it does start to run down the sides, is there any danger?

You know what I find amazing? I cannot believe how cool the temperature coming out of my case was.

I'll get temperatures later because I'm still not in the Internet with that machine. Heh.

 

[stevty2889]

Too much paste=bad, it insulates the cpu, trapping in the heat, rather than helping it to make good contact with the heatsink..

 

[Fenuxx]

It could also ooze out and short out contacts on the mobo. That could lead to a serious disaster. Never use more than a 2-3mm dab of paste, as that's all that's needed .

 

[Sentry2]

I think I would start over just to be safe...a dab in the center is all you need...you'd be surprised how much it will spread out when you put on the heatsink...might drop your temps even more.

 

[seiyafan]

Even though the package itself is about 4 cm by 4 cm, the die located beneath the metal cover is only 1 cm by 1 cm, so a small dab is more than enough.

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: geforcetony
It could also ooze out and short out contacts on the mobo. That could lead to a serious disaster. Never use more than a 2-3mm dab of paste, as that's all that's needed .

*Whips out his measuring tape*

 

[TheStu]

no for these measurements you would need a highly tuned caliper!

 

[forumposter32]

Ok, I could see through the thermal grease at some points, not others. (The healthcare card was not very flat I guess.)

Would it be a bad idea to just remove the damn thing and scrape it one more time with the card to remove more of the thermal grease?

Would I need to use rubbing alcohol instead and remove all of it and re-do it? Because I don't have any extra thermal grease right now.

 

[TheStu]

hmm... you have no more thermal grease at all? that is unfortunate.... if you have a pc repair store in toen get some from there and redo... you will want to use 90% or better isopropyl alcohol to remove the paste... and then apply a very small amount to the processor.. you want to have to work to get the paste to cover the whole heat spreader.

 

[CraKaJaX]

Read before you do it, these forums are a good start.

 

[forumposter32]

Is there any danger that white thermal grease from Gigabyte with BOND to my CPU and just stick to it while I'm trying to remove it?
I think I can only budge like 1' each way to twist it.

 

[GRAFiZ]

Originally posted by: geforcetony
It could also ooze out and short out contacts on the mobo. That could lead to a serious disaster. Never use more than a 2-3mm dab of paste, as that's all that's needed .

It shouldnt as from what I can find the themal paste that ships with this cooler is your typical run of the mill white junk, and generally thermal paste is not conductive in any way. This has changed now as Arctic Silver and the like use flakes of metal in their paste which can indeed short out a product.

But, as this paste shouldnt contain any think like that, there is no chance of that occuring.

However, it is possible his temps will suffer from too much paste.

 

[GRAFiZ]

Originally posted by: forumposter32
Is there any danger that white thermal grease from Gigabyte with BOND to my CPU and just stick to it while I'm trying to remove it?
I think I can only budge like 1' each way to twist it.

It wont bond, however, as with any paste, if it sits flush enough against the two surfaces there will be no air allowed in between thus creating a suction which will make seperating the two very difficult.

Best bet is, turn on your computer, run prime95 for a few hours, that will warm up the cpu and the heatsink making the paste much more pliable.

Then, turn everything off, unplug it all and remove your heatsink, it should be much easier after that.

Good luck!

 

[forumposter32]

Well, thanks for the information. Does gaming heat up the CPU as much as Prime95?

Also, there was a little static in the sound in UT2004. Would that possibly be linked to too much thermal grease? Because the desktop also went back to 16 bit color after I stopped playing.

It might be the fact that I did not install the Nvidia chipset drivers yet.

 

[MobiusPizza]

Originally posted by: forumposter32
Well, thanks for the information. Does gaming heat up the CPU as much as Prime95?

Also, there was a little static in the sound in UT2004. Would that possibly be linked to too much thermal grease? Because the desktop also went back to 16 bit color after I stopped playing.

It might be the fact that I did not install the Nvidia chipset drivers yet.

Yes, nearly all 3D games uses 100% CPU

 

[Concillian]

Originally posted by: geforcetony
It could also ooze out and short out contacts on the mobo.

The 'white' paste that he probably got with his cooler is alumina paste. It's not electrically conductive, it will not short out anything.

If you get oozing out the sides, there is no serious issue. You may have too much paste and it will hinder performance over an optimal installation, it will still be much better than no paste at all. With the forces most modern coolers are installed with, it shouldn't be a huge issue having too much paste.

If you are using arctic silver, I think that is conductive, and you could run into shorting issues. But using whatever paste comes with a heatsink, it's not going to be conductive.

 

[forumposter32]

Would any thermal grease harden over time and make it more difficult to remove the heatsink? I read on the Arctic Silver web site that AS5 is not adhesive yet I think some people said here it was more difficult to remove a heatsink with AS5 applied then Arctic Silver Ceramique.

 

[GRAFiZ]

Originally posted by: forumposter32
Well, thanks for the information. Does gaming heat up the CPU as much as Prime95?

Also, there was a little static in the sound in UT2004. Would that possibly be linked to too much thermal grease? Because the desktop also went back to 16 bit color after I stopped playing.

It might be the fact that I did not install the Nvidia chipset drivers yet.

Yep, go ahead and game your heart out, that'll warm it almost just as well.

As for the static, thats probably because you are using on board sound. They are well known for being poorly insulated and it's quite common to get static in the backround.

You'll probably find it's more noisy when the CPU is being used as there is more electrical discharge.

It has nothing to do with the thermal paste, if it bothers you, just pop in a sound blaster live or something simular, that'll take care of it.

 

[GRAFiZ]

Originally posted by: forumposter32
Would any thermal grease harden over time and make it more difficult to remove the heatsink? I read on the Arctic Silver web site that AS5 is not adhesive yet I think some people said here it was more difficult to remove a heatsink with AS5 applied then Arctic Silver Ceramique.

Not really, thermal paste can break down and become chalky, but it doesnt really harden.

What you read about is what I refered to in a previous post.

Basically, if the cpu and the heatsink form a nice tight bond it will grip very tightly as no air will be allowed in between the two surfaces.

That is to say it creates a vacuum and until that bond is broken the two surfaces will refuse to let go.

As I said, if you can warm your surfaces and thus warm the thermal paste before you attempt to remove it, you will find it will be easier to do so. As if the paste is warm and more pliable it's going to be easier to expose a gap allowing air to come between the two surfaces.

You'll be fine, just be nice a slow.

 

[Concillian]

If grease hardens over time, it's actually easier to get apart, not more difficult. The difficulty in getting them apart is that they are in such good contact that they almost become one thing. When it dries out, it allows air or other contaminants in, and then it becomes easier to pull apart.

You will not glue your CPU to your HSF accidentally. If it happened with any regularity it would be all over this (and other) forums, but it isn't.

 

[forumposter32]

Hey, is 44'C bad while gaming? LOL, I thought I saw a review somewhere on the Thermalright XP-90 and with a Newcastle 3400+ 2.4 GHz like mine it was 51'C under load. That doesn't seem to make sense though for a nice hsf like that.

 

[Concillian]

44C is fine.

The motherboard thermal sensors are not really calibrated to a standard. The 51C in the review you read and the 44C on your motherboard could easily be pretty much the same temperature. It's more important as a stability verification tool like when you're overclocking and know that you'll lose stability when it gets over xxC. I think most of the A64s are rated to 70C or so, so temperature isn't generally a concern unless overclocking, and then it's only a large concern when you are adding lots of voltage. In the AthlonXP days, ~60C was generally around the threshold of concern. I think with the A64 it's even a little higher than that.

 

[forumposter32]

Yeah, I thought I read that the XP 2100+ had a max of 85C though.

Anywhoo, I updated the driver for the sound, no static now.
I also found the freakin' driver for the Ethernet. It was included in the Nvidia chipset driver.

Strange, Sisoft Sandra told me my CPU fan had failed. I looked at it through my window and it was running fine.

 

[wchou]

put as much grease as you like it doesn't matter really, hey it's your computer you experimenting with! good luck thought...

 

[cougar78]

While we are talking about this, I got a bit too much on my cpu. Anway cleaning it off I got a ver little bit on the pins on the cpu itself. What is the best way to try to clean them off without damaging the cpu??