Effects of thermal compound on CPU pins?

paradoxer411

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Mar 12, 2014
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I currently have an AMD FX-8320 in an Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 Motherboard..I purchased the H80i a few months ago, and ever since I installed it I noticed that my temps were really high, even under a normal overclock. While playing games my PC would shut down because of overheating. I finally got fed up and took my CPU off to clean it and put my stock CPU heatsink back on, and everything is back to normal. It stopped overheating, and my temps are somewhere like 30 degress lower. But while I was cleaning off my CPU, I noticed a dried chunk of thermal paste between two pins on my CPU. Could this have been causing my overheating, or is the pump on my h80i faulty? On corsair link it said my pump was working, and my fans were working just as they should. Could the piece of thermal paste have been causing my overheating? Thanks guys!
 
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Poprin

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Dec 13, 2012
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It's unlikely that the thermal compound on the pins would have caused an overheating problem. If you can very carefully remove it though that would be advisable!

Overheating like the way you suggest is down to either the heatsink of the H80i not fully making contact with the CPU, either due to clip not being in place properly or it being mis-aligned / damaged or the pump not working correctly to pump the water around the closed loop. Different thermal pastes at best will cause a variance of 1-5 degrees, skyrocketing temperatures and shut downs is something not fitting right or not working.
 

paradoxer411

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Mar 12, 2014
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I tried to reseat it twice, and i got the same results each time. Corsair link said that the pump is working. I removed the paste before seating the stock heatsink after removing the H80i
 


Just because the Corsair Link gives you an RPM, that is not a definite indication that the pump is working. You could have internal pump problems, like a slipping impeller or an impeller that has come off the shaft and you would still have the "good" RPM indication from the drive motor.

You have proved that the CPU overheats with the H80i, despite your best efforts, and works normally with the stock HSF. I would contact Corsair about an RMA for the H80i and let them sort it out.

Yogi

 
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