ArticII silver everywhere on cPU help!

[ozzy0627]

Hi guys My brother was cleaning off the processor and he got artic silverII everywherE!
1) Is artic silver II conductive?
2) the articsilver is touching the 2 resistor on top 103/102 will this hurt them or ground them?
3) How do you cleann this off? I hurd alchol...what happens if i get alchol on the rest of the chip anything?? I dont want to hurt my processor...
4) The core is clean but the rest of the artic silver is all over the top what do I do? Is it ok if I leave it?

Thanks Ron

[eh?]

Artic silver isn't conductive at all. it should just wipe off.

[nikhsub1]

First take a deep breath and relax! The AS will not harm the cpu, but you should get it off. This taken from the AS web site:

Use any of the following cleaners.

Any dish detergent (Dawn, Lux, Palmolive, Etc.)
Do not use soap for an automatic dishwasher to clean a CPU.

WD-40, citrus based grease removers (Goo Gone, Etc.)

Xylene based products (Goof Off, some carburetor cleaners and many brake cleaners)

Mineral spirits. (Be careful to keep the mineral spirits away from the core.)

Once the majority of the compound has been removed from the ceramic, small patches remaining on the ceramic can be 'erased' with a soft eraser.

http://arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm

[flounder43]

I hate that stuff, it is so messy! If I ever needed any more paste, I would buy this stuff that comes in a jar..."GC Electronics Type 44 Heatsink Compound"

Heard about it in this review: http://www.hardocp.com/reviews/cooling/compound/

[Neco]

I've heard of folks frying their video cards with "leaked" AS II applications....


sure sounds consductive to me..

or am I think of Arctic Silver 1 ??


Also, I've heard of people soaking the processor in a small tub of rubbing alcohol or something, and letting it dry off for a day to be sure, and it worked fine..


don't take my word for it tho I never done it myself...

-Neco.

[ozzy0627]

So if I soak my processor in 70 % isoproyl to get all this stuff off and let it sit for day, It should be ok right? since alchol evaportates?

[Colin]

Alcohol will not cut the silicone vehicle that Arctic Silver uses. If you don't want to go out and buy an appropriate solvent, just take take some dishwashing liquid (Dawn, etc.) and toothbursh to your CPU. Be sure to rinse with plenty of water and allow it to dry before installing the CPU in your motherboard.

Arctic Silver is capacitive, not conductive. If you get it on the pins of a GPU or memory chip it may allow the pins to talk to each other at high frequencies and cause errors. Since it cannot pass DC, it will not kill a componant. Simply cleaning Arctic Silver off the pins will restore function to the componant.

[Dissolved]

ive heard a bunch of ppl saying if u get ac2 on ut memory chips on vid cards it will kill that chip.. so why wouldnt it be condicitive then?

[TruckChase!]

Take an ohm-meter to a dab of ASII and you'll find it's definately conductive.

(Never trust someone who's trying to sell you something.) :)

P.S. Bix "Tuff-Job Remover" gets rid of ASII like a charm. I picked my quart jug up at Home Depot for a couple bucks.

[Colin]

Arctic Silver is composed of silicone fluid and silver particles. Since the silver particles are coated in silicone, they cannot touch each other and do not conduct electricity. A conductor (silver) in alternating layers with a dielectric (silicone) does make a capacitor. With a capacitance of around 1 to 2 Pico Farads, Arctic Silver can allow high frequencies to pass and cause bugs in a circuit. It cannot pass direct current, which is what will kill a component. Compuwiz, who sold overclocked CPUs for a while, got lots of supposable dead Athlons back on warranty. Cleaning the slopped Arctic Silver off the processors brought them back to life.

[flounder43]

They claim it is non-conductive. For the most part, it is not, but I would not want that paste connecting pins and bridges on a vid card, processor, or mobo any more than water...

Be careful!

[CrystalMethod]

I usually use lighter fluid (Mineral spirit), to clean my cpu's. But, i have Intels which have aprotective conformal coating. The AMD's are a little harder to clean, because of the porus ceramic, but it does work on them. It just takes a little longer to wipe off all traces of the ASII.

[Colin]

Originally posted by TruckChase!
Take an ohm-meter to a dab of ASII and you'll find it's definately conductive.

(Never trust someone who's trying to sell you something.) :)



Have you actually done this? I have never heard of anyone who could get an Ohm meter to measure anything but infiniti nor have I been able to myself. Also note I do not sell Arctic Silver.

[Oni]

Originally posted by Colin
Arctic Silver is capacitive, not conductive. If you get it on the pins of a GPU or memory chip it may allow the pins to talk to each other at high frequencies and cause errors. Since it cannot pass DC, it will not kill a componant. Simply cleaning Arctic Silver off the pins will restore function to the componant.

I just always thought it was conductive. Thanks for the 411!

[Dissolved]

well wither it is condutive or not, i still wouldnt even get it close to nething like memory leads or mobo chips.. even if if would give off high freq that could case a mobo to not funtion right and it could damage it..

[flounder43]

Originally posted by Dissolved
well wither it is condutive or not, i still wouldnt even get it close to nething like memory leads or mobo chips.. even if if would give off high freq that could case a mobo to not funtion right and it could damage it..
Yep, water isn't conductive either, but once something get dissolved in it, watch out...

[ol' man]

Originally posted by drdingo21
Artic silver isn't conductive at all. it should just wipe off.

Well with it connecting two pins on my 800e slot chip it would not boot. Cleaned it up and blamo it booted. It is definatly conductive enough to wreck something IMHO.

[Dissolved]

Originally posted by ol' man


Well with it connecting two pins on my 800e slot chip it would not boot. Cleaned it up and blamo it booted. It is definatly conductive enough to wreck something IMHO.

well ive like mid level into the whole modding/hardware pc stuff, but no matter what neon says i still think that if ac2 causes a cpu not to bott properly then it should be watched out with.. cuz if it wont boot a cpu then it isnt good for cpu compontents.. im sure it would cause bad problems, if u jizzed it all over ur vid card or something on ur mobo..

[Colin]

Dissolved - All you have to do is follow the instructions. (http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm)

[ozzy0627]

Colin...the articII silver webpage says to use alchol, or nail polish remover on vcore....why woulld this not work...its whate the page said

[TruckChase!]

Originally posted by Colin


Have you actually done this? I have never heard of anyone who could get an Ohm meter to measure anything but infiniti nor have I been able to myself. Also note I do not sell Arctic Silver.

I just did it before I posted. I had to get the lead awfully close together before the current would jump, but it did regardless. Used a standard radio-shack "mini" multimeter.

[Colin]

Ozzy0627 - Alcohol will work on the CPU die but makes a mess on the ceramic. From the Arctic Silver Web Page:

Removal Instructions (From Hardware)
1. Arctic Silver II can easily be removed from hardware using the proper cleaners and tools. For general clean-up, a cloth or paper towel will work well. Intricate cleaning can be accomplished with Q-tip swabs. An old toothbrush can often get the compound out of crevices that other tools cannot reach.
The recommended cleaners are:

CPU Core:

Use isopropyl alcohol or acetone (nail polish remover) and a bit of careful rubbing.
(If you use acetone, do a final cleaning with isopropyl alcohol.)

CPU Ceramic:

Use any of the following cleaners.

Any dish detergent (Dawn, Lux, Palmolive, Etc.)
Do not use soap for an automatic dishwasher to clean a CPU.

WD-40, citrus based grease removers (Goo Gone, Etc.)

Xylene based products (Goof Off, some carburetor cleaners and many brake cleaners)

Mineral spirits. (Be careful to keep the mineral spirits away from the core.)

Once the majority of the compound has been removed from the ceramic, small patches remaining on the ceramic can be 'erased' with a soft eraser.

2. If you use any of the suggested products to remove Arctic Silver II from the CPU ceramic or heatsink base, always do a final cleaning with isopropyl alcohol to remove any residue from the cleaner.

[Colin]

TruckChase! - Of the 22 different forums I read on a regular basis, and the plethora of hardware Sites on the Net, you are the first person that claims to have found Arctic Silver to be conductive with an Ohm meter. I have not been able to do this myself either. My guess is you got the probes close enough to touch. What value did your meter read for resistance?

[ozzy0627]

Welp colin your right! Alchol make a damn mess....I didn't read it well enough.....it spread everywhere...looks like a damn white haze processor now....Im going to school later tonight to see if this stuff is conductive or not

[TruckChase!]

"What value did your meter read for resistance?"

Quite high... in the k/ohms. I guess I could repeat it tonight to verify.

I've had some bad luck in the past with ASII and a GF3. Some ASII leaked onto a couple adjacent pins coming off of a memory module and caused all sorts of problems. I ended up having to exchange the card. I suppose it could be what you mentioned earlier, (capacitive) but after cleaning off the ASII to the best of my ability the damage seemed permanent.

[Katana Man]

Originally posted by flounder43

Yep, water isn't conductive either, but once something get dissolved in it, watch out...

Hehe, water isn't conductive eh? Hehe, feel free to wash your computer components often. You can do it while in your pool during a thunderstorm too! LOL

[AntmanMike]

Water IS NOT CONDUCTIVE in it's pure state, though you almost ever find water in its pure state. Even distilled, RO, or deionized water (or all 3) isnt 100% pure.

[Katana Man]

Hehe, I can see flounder43 and AntmanMike in the pool now washing their computers and with their eyes closed, chanting "water is not conductive... water is not conductive.."

Then AntmanMike flinches as a bolt of lightning streaks across the sky. He resumes with a shakey voice, "water is not conductive.."

LOL

[jazztrumpet216]

Well, if you can figure out a way to get 100% pure water in that pool, I'll drop by during a T-Storm and clean my CPU in there too.

Pure H2O will not conduct water, but the odds of there ever being a pure water molecule anywhere that will stay pure H2O for more than a nanosecond are infintessimal. Come on, I remember that from 9th Grade Physical Science....

Pure water and pool water are not the same... especially since most pools use chlorine in their water... and I would NOT want to get that anywhere near my computer's components.

[AntmanMike]

BAD KATANA BAN KATANA!!! wait, am i still on? Anyways, pure water is NON conductive. Tap water, and city water is. Tap water normally containts iron, which we KNOW is conductive. City water has chloring and flourine. I would never wash my PC with water, especially when its on.

[Katana Man]

Hehe I was just having fun with you guys :) Cracked myself up when I was writing it :p

[AntmanMike]

You are being fined: $500 by the Overclockers.com Law Enforcement committee. Please send a check to...

[Christoph]

If you have about US$1K and want to be the envy of all your OCing friends, you could use 3m Flourinert. It's designed to cool electronic equipment by submersion so it's completely non-conductive, and if you act now, it's only US$500 per gallon!!!
Fill a pool with that, and I'll take a dip with my comp anytime!

[nil_esh]

Is it safe to clean the processor case and/or core with tape-head cleaner? It contains Isopropanol, Ethanol, and Methanol. I also got some nice anti-static lintless swabs..

ASII may or may not be electrically conductive, but it can collect particles that will make it electrically conductive. Quoting ASII web page:

There is a possibility that dust or metal particles and/or shavings carried by the airflow inside the computer case could contaminate the compound and increase its electrical conductivity.

[Diggrr]

Should be just fine.

[Maximus Nickus]

Originally posted by AntmanMike
BAD KATANA BAN KATANA!!! wait, am i still on? Anyways, pure water is NON conductive. Tap water, and city water is. Tap water normally containts iron, which we KNOW is conductive. City water has chloring and flourine. I would never wash my PC with water, especially when its on.

You can clean Electrical components with water as long as they are NOT on and haven't been on for a while, then wash em then wait about 1 week with them on a radiator to try and hey presto it works!!!!

[Silver]

Nail polish remover (without nail conditioner) which if it has no conditioners is pure acetone. One dollar at the doller store and says acetone on the label. This and one old toothbrush cleaned up my 1.4 t-bird nicely. Use the acetone (nailpolish remover) to rinse it, dry it (make sure all traces of acetone are gone and your good to go. I don't remember where but I read an article where in the good fellows told how to apply this to video ram chips while avoiding shorting the legs on the ram chips. Non-conductive? Do as you wish but I would assume that it is conductive until you have possitive proof that it is not. There are many horror stories on video ram being destroyed by arctic silver. The debate as to whether or not it is would be a real reason for me to assume that it is. Take Care.

P.S. Do not soak the cpu in acetone for obvious reasons, just clean up the top, dry it and use it. I would sure hate to have this stuff interlaced with the pins under the cpu.

[AntmanMike]

heh. I also recomend arctic alumina.