cleaning off thermal paste

[Petebert]

is it ok to use rubbing alcohol on a q-tip to clean thermal past off my celeron? any day now my fop38 should be coming and hopefully my 633 will make it to 950

[Mr B]

Yes. That's how I did all of mine....

Mr B

[Door Knob]

Yeah, I think the instructions for my alpha suggested that as an option. I used finger nail polish. I think as long as its strong enough to get the job done and not so bad that it starts eroding the chip than it should work pretty good. Some will tell you the only good way is to lap it though.

[William]

i used 1-1-1 trichloroethane. Its great stuff. Rubbing alcohol was so slow, this was fast! the stuff just kinda dissolved in this solution.

[surlyjoe]

The all time best arctic silver or anty paste remover is "Gumout" brand carb and choke cleaner ,. I have been using this stuff a long time and have not found anything works as well,or is as caustic as this stuff

[OpenFriday]

I just use the Rubbing alcohol and q tip, cheap and effective, may not be as good as others but its readily availible.

[Mr B]

surlyjoe (Apr 11, 2001 02:17 p.m.):
The all time best arctic silver or anty paste remover is "Gumout" brand carb and choke cleaner ,. I have been using this stuff a long time and have not found anything works as well,or is as caustic as this stuff

Silly me..I've got CANS of Gumout kicking around....

(almost ashamed to call self mechanic now....)

Great tip, surlyjoe!

Mr B

[William]

oh i forgot, wd40 is really good too. Gumout huh? I will have to try that!

[!-=sky=-!]

isn't WD-40 for lubbing stuff??

[[OC]_SR20DE]

Oh! WD-40 does work? I think I will try that.. yah

[Spode]

really? wd-40? mmm

i've always just used meths - is that wrng?

[Phil]

meths is probabally fine as long as you don't get tempted to drink it, I use my mums nail polish remover but she's starting to notice it running out quicker

[[OC]_SR20DE]

Phil (Apr 12, 2001 03:39 p.m.):
meths is probabally fine as long as you don't get tempted to drink it, I use my mums nail polish remover but she's starting to notice it running out quicker


Hahahahahahaaaaa...... =0

[gav]

I just use tissue, I managed to remove all mine fine, just you need a lot.

[DocClock aka MadClocker]

gav (Apr 12, 2001 05:25 p.m.):
I just use tissue, I managed to remove all mine fine, just you need a lot.

Me too, that and a little alcohol...but to remove the thermal tape..I use "Goo Gone"....it stinks though, and you will still smell it till it gets warmed up in the mobo..Naptha works pretty good, but goo gone is just wizbang and you're done

[outhouse]

There was a nice article on this site about removing compound and rubbing alcohol will work fine but lapping really is the best as it gets the material out of the pores, if you don't some of your old material will be left and if you upgrade to say arctic silver the you will not be getting all that you can out of arctic silver resulting in a cpu tempature that is maybe a few degrees higher, if your not upgrading compound no problem :)

[Phil]

you really do need to use some kind of spirit that will break down the compound and then evaporate, just wiping off with a tissue won't get it all off and also will probabally leave bit's of tissue on the surface, this can really impact cooling, even a finger print left on the compound becasue you used your fingers to soread it can make a couple of degrees differance, some people even insist that you need to lap the surface too because alchohol doesn't get it all off but I think this is going a little too far as the differance would be miniscule (probabally not even measurable by the device used to measure your temp)