Z170 Pro4S ATX - dropped CPU while removing it, a sliver of thermal paste fell in socket, tried fix

[VirtualLarry]

Well, I done goofed up, for the first time in a while. Wasn't 100% careful, removing a CPU for an upgrade to a G4560. Dropped the G4400 CPU into the socket. While no pins looked bent, it looked like a sliver of thermal paste, dropped onto the lower right / bottom corner, aligned vertically, near the edge.

I haven't taken a picture, nor looked up what pins those are. I scraped at it, and got some of it up, while tearing up some of the pins just slightly. (More like, "aggravating" the pins, so they weren't perfectly aligned, but they weren't broken, either.)

So, I prayed, and plugged in the G4560 CPU, put on thermal paste and a heatsink, and RAM, and fired it up. (Using a SATA SSD.)

It posted, so I plugged in my Win10 install USB, and it installed Win10 64-bit fine.

It's running now, and I'm listening to internet radio, and using the onboard HDMI video output, at 4K30.

Am I good/lucky? Good to go? Safe to sell this rig? Haven't tried plugging in a PCI-E x16 video card, that's the next step. Hopefully, those were just Gnd pins, and not the PCI-E interface pins.

 

[pcgeek11]

IMO if it posted and installed Win 10 and is not showing any signs or abnormal errors etc you should be good to go. I might worry if I were using a conductive paste, but most are not.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I think that it was MX-4, which I think is non-conductive. Unless I'm mistaken.

 

[UsandThem]

If you can use it for a couple days without any weird crashes or odd behavior, I'd say it is good to go.

 

[VirtualLarry]

If you can use it for a couple days without any weird crashes or odd behavior, I'd say it is good to go.

Yeah. I hope so. Gave myself quite a scare, that I would have to ditch a mobo. Would be the third mobo that I can think of, that I screwed up due to my own mistakes. (First two were OCing mishaps, early in my career.)

Still, a little concerned about the CPU's PCI-E lanes. Have to install a video card soon.

Edit: Assuming that I sell this rig, I would be offering a warranty. (Unless, Craigslist, then maybe not.)

 

[VirtualLarry]

Ok, I pulled out a GTX950 2GB card, and popped it into the primary (CPU lanes) PCI-E x16 slot on my Z170 Pro4S ATX board.

It installed just fine (Although, the UEFI wasn't in 4K for some reason, on my 4K monitor with HDMI2.0), and after the Windows 10 drivers got installed, my Windows Desktop was at 4K. I had to manually go in and change the monitor's refresh rate from 30 to 60 though. That fixed the choppy scrolling / tearing while scrolling in the web browser.

So far so good with the video card.

 

[pcgeek11]

:thumbsup: