too much thermal grease?

[eletrium]

Can you put on too much thermal paste?

I am trying to get a Duron 1.2GHz system running, and it won't post (ECS k7s5a). I popped the Heat sink off, and the thermal paste is on not only the main CPU chip, but also two other things sticking up on the chip. I may have shorted it out (?).

What bad things can this do? Is there a fix other than an RMA. Hey, it may just be a dead mobo.

[Intrepid]

When you put it on, pot on like 2 or 3 drops from the tube on the center of the core, than smear that around with a cottonm swab,m razor blade, or something small till it's covering the entier core. do not get it inbetween the jumpers, it can mess up a cpu if you have so much that it covers those and might damage the cpu. tho i've never had a problem with that, i've been lucky.

[Monaco]

most of the time you can't put too much paste on- the heatsink clamps so tightly that it squeezes out any extra. like you found out :D

but if you got paste on one of the surface components, there may be problem. What type of paste was it? The cheapo white silicon paste is not conductive, so if you used that it should be ok.

[eletrium]

Um, sh-t. I bought the good stuff, Arctic Silver. And ALL of the surface components are connected with it now.

What are the chances that fried it?

Or can I clean it off using alcohol?

[roYal]

I use as3. As3 has soemtimes gotten on the cpu chip itself on i didn't clean if off and it runs fine. Eventually i cleaned it off though because i was thinking of selling it. Just clean it off with a lint-free cloth, or even an alcohol swab, but make sure it evaporates before you turn it on again of course.

[looktall]

Originally posted by eletrium
Um, sh-t. I bought the good stuff, Arctic Silver. And ALL of the surface components are connected with it now.

What are the chances that fried it?

Or can I clean it off using alcohol?
yes, you can use alcohol to clean it off.

once you've cleaned it all off, reapply it correctly to the die, and try booting again.
there are instruction on how to apply it on the arctic silver website.

www.arcticsilver.com/instructions.htm

[djb23]

Two questions:

Has anyone else ever done that?

How sensitive is the core to being scratched?

[roYal]

i always use a plastic knife to spread the as3. Works like a charm.

[looktall]

Originally posted by djb23
Two questions:

Has anyone else ever done that?

How sensitive is the core to being scratched?

plenty of people have done it. :D
i've heard of people shorting out their vid cards as well.

as for the core being sensitive to scratches, i don't know, i've never scratched one. :D
i'd advise not scratching it though, as it is likely to affect your temps. the scratch being harder to fill with thermal paste and increasing the chance of an airpocket. (airpocket = bad.)

[roYal]

if you strach it, you can lap it though.

[looktall]

yes. good point. lol.

i haven't lapped a cpu since i had a PPGA celeron. i didn't like how fragile the chip looked on coppermines, and i've only had my tualatin for about a month.
so lapping the cpu never even entered my mind as suggestion. :p

[djb23]

"lapping" a CPU?

So I guess the solution is to clean it off using alcohol and it will work fine (?).

Thanks for the help. I'll re-post after I try to see if that works in a few hours. (after work)

[Intrepid]

rubbin alchahol and cotton balls work great with my AthlonXP.

[Monaco]

Lapping is a term we use to mean sanding something (usually a heatsink) until is perfectly flat and as smooth as possible. Chkout the Cooling forum, there is always lots of discussion on lapping :D

How sensitive is the core to being scratched?

Very, very sensitive. AMD chips are notorious for being super fragile. Even the tiniest of chips or scratches can kill one, sometimes. Although I have seen some that are really chipped up work fine. It's all about luck I guess.

If you got the thermal grease on all the top of the chip, yes, you probably killed it. AS is conductive enough to have shorted everything out. Sucks!:mad:

[djb23]

Yeah, its dead or the mobo is dead. I'm RMAing them a SECOND time to newegg. Hope they don't mind.