Safest way to remove bits of styrofoam from CPU pins?

[NoodleTech]

Hello everybody, I just received my pentium 4 CPU in the mail from newegg and upon opening up the box, I found that theres a few bits of styrofoam stuck between the pins of the CPU.

The styrofoam obviously came from the little carton holding the CPU. Whats the safest way to remove the bits from the CPU?

I considered using a toothbrush, but I thought that would be too abrasive. How about compressed air?

 

[swtethan]

air will work fine

 

[Matt2]

Originally posted by: swtethan
air will work fine

 

[coolpurplefan]

vaccum?

lol, if you're dirt poor you can suck real hard

(reminds me of the Woody Allen Bananas movie where the Spanish dudes were saying "suck the poison")

 

[Spikesoldier]

use a needle to pry out the styrofoam in between the rows and columns of pins if you dont have air.

otherwise air would be the method of choice.

 

[Arkaign]

Washing Machine





(preferably just use air!)

 

[Alyx]

Originally posted by: Arkaign
Washing Machine


(preferably just use air!)

Lol! That might void the return policy.

 

[lyssword]

toothpick is fine as long as you don't put too much pressure.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Several good whacks on a hard surface should get those buggers out.

 

[toughwimp11]

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
Several good whacks on a hard surface should get those buggers out.

10 whacks should be enough

no more however, you dont want to overdo it

 

[ss284]

Just blowing on the thing would have worked. A toothbrush would have worked too. Its not like the thing is made out of pure 24k gold.

 

[coolpurplefan]

would a piece of paper cause electrostatic discharge? I used paper once to get foam out of a heatsink.

lol, I had made a complaint to canadacomputers.com about the condition of the box my computer parts came in. Now, every box that is shipped is actually strapped with plastic strips. It's a good thing.