Thermal paste in the socket..

[AZReDWiNG]

So I picked up a new HSF a couple of days ago (Thermaltake Silent 939 K8) and used its stock thermal paste. Yesterday, I realized that the thermal paste we had lying around the house that we picked up at Fry's a while back was not generic thermal paste but Arctic Alumina. I figured, "Hey! That stuff is sure to get my temps lower than they are now!" (And it is.) So I removed the HSF, and I got totally shock/awed.

There was thermal paste in the socket. Mind you, it's a very small amount, and the stuff is actually inside only two or three pinholes.

How did this happen? Eh, I guess I went a little too happy with the previous thermal paste, and as I was taking off the HSF the paste already on the CPU dribbled over. On removing the CPU, the dripping paste got onto the socket. I put the CPU back into the socket and closed it, then removed it. Amazingly, there was no thermal paste on any of the pins! Cool. That particular computer (Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe, Athlon 64 X2 4200+ @ 2.53MHz) is currently running Prime95, and I've yet to find an incident that I could blame on getting the paste into the socket.

I realize that since it's not damaging the socket or the CPU it should probably just stay there. But how would I go about removing this?

(I thought about taking a Q-Tip with ArctiCleaner Thermal Material Remover, but I wanted some opinions.)

Thanks for the help.

 

[Markbnj]

Well, was it running? If so then the pins have connectivity, or the pins are just grounds. Either way, you can probably clean it out with some alchohol if you are careful.

Thermal paste should be used in _very_ small quantities. The makers of Arctic Silver, for example, recommend a single dab, the size of a grain of rice, placed where the CPU and HSF contact.