I put new thermal paste on my CPU and now it runs hotter...

[Rami7007]

I was running BF1942 on my computer and it started crashing, I tryed HL2 also, and it crashed. I thought maybe the heatsink didn't have much or any thermal paste in it because I thought I remembered that it did, but I wasn't sure. If it didn't the temperature could have been causing it to freeze.

I opened up my case, took out my heatsink and processor and there WAS enough thermal paste on there already. However, in the instructions to my AMD processor, it said if you take out the heatsink, reapply new thermal compound. Well, it just so happens that my chaintech motherboard had some compound with it so I scraped off the old thermal paste off of only the heatsink, but not the processor, and applied the paste found in my motherboard box.

My computer booted fine but the temperature was up by around 5 degrees (to 45 idle on an AMD 64 4000+). I think that maybe I didn't put enough on, in some places it was streaking, and I could faintly see the heatsink metal through the thin layer of paste.

My questions are:
Is this ok?

Should I try to do the same process over again with new compound and a better understanding of how much to put on?

Did I put enough paste on?

Do you think my temperature is fine? Under load do you think it will go above 60 degrees or so?

Thanks

 

[Cook1]

Ok, so you left the old thermal compound on the cpu? Or did you take it off both the cpu and the heatsink? How did you take it off?

 

[stevty2889]

You need to clean the paste off of both the CPU and heatsink. You do not wan to use much, use a very thing layer. The recomended amount to use is about the size of a bb. Too much paste will cause higher temps. I'm not sure heat issues were causing your crashes in the first place. Usualy if the CPU is running too hot, it will throtal down, or if it's too hot, shut down the PC, rather than causing lock ups or crashing.

 

[Garlic]

Definitly not a heat issue.....

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: Garlic
Definitly not a heat issue.....

Doesn't sound like it.

Still, you wanna clean the paste completely from both the heatsink and the CPU, then reapply a very thin layer to the CPU.
Use a razor or something similar to apply the layer.

Oh and use something like acetone or something to remove the old paste.