[HELP] Used non-acetone nail polish to remove thermal paste from a GPU and pins, did I kill it?

Xickle

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Apr 12, 2013
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First time opening up the graphics card, everything went well, until I saw the thermal paste that was applied on it. It was all over the pins of the GPU, and I decided to try and use non-acetone nail polish remover. It removed some of the paste, but I'm worried that I might have done a mistake using the polish. Sadly I didn't make sure what I can use to remove the thermal paste, before I started.

Ingredients: ethyl acetate, alcohol denat., aqua, capric triglyceride, parfum, octocrylene, butylmethoxydibenzoylmethane, linalool, limonene, ci 16035

I haven't attached a cooler to the graphics card yet, it's still opened, and I have swabbed the polish off with a dry Q-tip, but not all of it can be swapped off, as there is some left between the paste covered pins.
 

Xickle

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Apr 12, 2013
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I will do that, but I am more worried that I might have damaged the plastic or pins with the polish. I don't want to do anything until I am sure I'm doing the right thing now.

Also thinking of wiping all of it again with 70-90% alcohol, once I buy some.
 

Gaidax

Distinguished
If it works don't fix it... I killed my motherboard with this unnecessary cleaning sometime ago. Simply ended up breaking some pins.

Just leave it as it is, the more you tamper with it the more the chance you will break something. Reapply fresh paste, put it back together and run it. If you see issues - do some more cleaning otherwise don't touch it.
 

Xickle

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Apr 12, 2013
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Well the problem in my case is, that I don't know if it works, as I didn't put it back together yet. It smells nice, which makes me a bit uncomfortable with leaving it like it is.
 

Alanthor

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Mar 17, 2014
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Why on earth did you use non-acetone polisher?... It's the Acetone you want. Im pretty sure that you havent damaged your CPU, I think its pretty hard to actually damage a CPU, even the pins.. Atleast I have never ever managed to do that, and I think this forum would class me as CPU careless, hehe.

Btw, I just gotta ask.. Didnt the word "Aqua" and "Parfume" think ''maybe this is not a good idea'', hehe?