If you remove a CPU heatsink, do you have to add more thermal paste?

[MichaelD]

Tonight, I'm going to try a lot of things to get my new rig to work again. I'm going to check voltages coming from the power supply, check all plugs going into drives, reseat the memory and reseat the CPU. If I remove the heatsink, do I have to put more thermal paste on? Do I have to scrape off the old stuff? I don't want to scratch the CPU before sending it back to the place I bought it from. Then they'll say "what the hell did you do to it? We're not replacing it!" Please advise. Thanks.

 

[Oyeve]

I normally clean all my CPUs and heatsink/fans every few months. They collect a lot of dust and crap. I usually remove the heatsink/fans, soak the heat sink in hot soapy water for a few minutes (after I take the fan off of course), clean the fan with some alchohol and swabs, and clean off the paste from the cpu with a very soft cloth and a drop of fantastic spray cleaner. Then I just apply a bit of fresh paste and voila! Good as new.

 

[Noriaki]

Just wipe it off with a soft cloth....It's grease, you don't have to "scrape"

But you don't really have to take it off anyhow...be careful you don't put too much on, I cleaned the thermal grease off my heatsink and my tempurate dropped 10 degrees celcius.

 

[MichaelD]

OK. My HSF came with a "peel n stick" thermal paste type deal. Peel off the little sticker, exposing the paste and install HSF. Is that grease too? Will it just "wipe off" as well? Also, does Radio Shack sell thermal paste, and are there different types? Sorry for all the ?'s, I'm getting a crash course in building pc's. Thanks.

Mike D

 

[Mule]

The retail stuff that is the "peel and stick" is thermal tape, not thermal paste. I had a hard time getting that crap off my HSF and CPU. You will probably have to "scrape" that crap off the HSF, but don't fiddle too much with the CPU.

 

[jamarno]

If alcohol won't remove the thermal tape glue, try nonabrasive waterless hand cleaner (lanolin) or mineral spirits. Don't use lacquer thinner or carburetor spray because they can dissolve plastics and almost certainly will remove the markings from the CPU.

Oyeve, there's no need to bother with such a cleaning regimen because just blowing dust off the heatsink and fan are more than enough.

 

[Dan]

MichaelD: It's not so much that you add more thermal paste when you remove your heatsink. Rather, you replace it if needed.

 

[bluesky]

Dan.
WD-40 will remove the above-said thermal stuff from retail box? I remember you were recommending WD-40.
It looks just dried up strawberry bubble gum. It's hard and need some hard stuff to remove. I cleaned this off with soupy hot water, yes scraping hard on hs. But I'm still hesitating to clean it on cpu.
What's the best and safe way?

 

[Oyeve]

"Oyeve, there's no need to bother with such a cleaning regimen because just blowing dust off the heatsink and fan are more than enough."

That is probably true for most people jamarno, but my apartment is over a highway and I have a HIGH dust rate and believe me, just blowing doesnt take the dust off my HS. God knows what my lungs look like!