. Thanks for clearing up some things with me.
Do you think it would have affected my TP-Link Wireless Adapter card also?
Likely no
How hard is it to take the 212+ cpu cooler off of the processor(which I suppose that's still good)?
No, easy still good
For the next CPU clean the 212+ off with q tips coffee filters soaked in 99% isopropyl until they come away 100% clean then be really studious about your next TIM application. We always tell guys who had temperature problems to pay extra attention to that CPU cooler install and put just the right amount of TIM in there. Have you watched 'how thermal compound spreads' on youtube? I think you installed it fine and got a flake motherboard but lets cover all bases so next build works and you can just go play call of duty
By the way, what board, cpu and memory do you have?
Its in my sig"
2600K 4800Mhz
Maximus 4 Extreme
8GB Ripjaws 1600
150GB Raptor
120GB 510SSD
GTX 580
Xonar STX
Corsair 500R
Noctua NHD14
HX850 PSU
Various brands of fan.
It hasn't been telling you warnings for the same reason that your Sony Xplode deck doesn't tell you when your tire pops. They're not connected in that way. The bios and windows aren't really 'chatting' in that sense. Windows won't say 'hey buddy your voltage for X sucks did ya know?'
The likely reason is that SO many boards and cpus and kinds of RAM can run windows that to have a resource of what the avg's are for everyone and pop up little warnings would cost a lot to make, and annoy users.
Example- 1.5V is a HIGH voltage for a 2500K but for an AMD 955BE it's not that high. Meanwhile, on a Pentium 4, 1.5 is like STOCK. Go figure. So what's it gonna do figure out which you have and either warn you or not? It gets too complex thats why it isn't in there
. CPUs did once need 2V+ to run. Very long ago. Now you're more likely to get a pop and fizz at that voltage. Things have changed. At almost 3v... I mean... that's like sci fi. My guess is it only SPIKES to 2.7V here and there otherwise the CPU would have had a suicide run by now for sure. Regardless that is one wild defect.
Lovely outside for drive to Microcenter? Hmm?