- Jan 31, 2015
- 2
- 0
- 4,510
Okay so first off, I don't have a lot of experience with computers so I may have made quite a few mistakes.
-Rig-
CPU - Intel Core i5 2500k 3.3Ghz
RAM - 8GB Dual Channel (well, now it's 4 GB single Channel) DDR3
Motherboard - Asus P8Z77-V LX (LGA1155)
Graphics - 4GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
------------------
I recently got my GTX 970 and realized Mass Effect 3 was stuttering every 15 seconds (Mass Effect 3 was the first game I played with my new card and it didn't stutter like that with my GTX 460). I didn't think much of it and just didn't play it again, and didn't really experience problems again until I started playing Shadow of Mordor (about a month after getting my new card) and the game was running smooth at 60fps but about 15 minutes in the game would stutter pretty bad.
I decided to give my temps a look and my CPU was running at 97c. Hoping permanent damage hadn't already been done, I went to Best Buy and got some thermal paste, Antec Formula 7 Nano Diamond to be exact.
I go home, and make my first idiotic mistake - I used canned air to clean the dust out of my computer. I followed the directions and kept it upright and sprayed in short bursts but while trying to clean out my RAM slots and various other parts in the process I angled the can a bit and liquid shot out hitting a bunch of areas, it evaporated quickly but who knows what happened. I continue on and take my heatsink and fan off and clean up the residual thermal paste with rubbing alcohol and screen cleaning towelettes. I reapply the thermal paste, I looked online to see how much to put so I placed a pea-sized dot in the center of my CPU and placed the heatsink on top of it. I ended up putting too much on though and some oozed onto some pins of my CPU, but we'll get to that later.
My friend is the one who first installed my CPU and heatsink but he was unavailable so I decided to do it myself, it seemed simple enough so I just placed the heatsink on top of the CPU and pushed the plastic pins into my motherboard and rotated them into the locking position but it didn't feel secure so I take a look at the plastic pins attached to my heatsink and they are bent and spread open like someone doing the splits. I try and push them together so they can fit in my motherboard's opening but they just keep spreading, frustrated I take a screwdriver (I'm so stupid) and try and push the pin into the opening while the other one is already in, forcing it to comply. It finally does and I boot up my computer only to find that the screen is stuck on "No Signal" and the MemOkay LED is solid red. I press the MemOkay button and it just beeps repeatedly and my computer starts a cycle of turning on and off while beeping.
After switching my RAM in and out I concluded that both my 4GB RAM sticks are fine but the slot closest to the CPU isn't working. I take everything back out and see that the paste got into the CPU a little bit and is covering some of the pins, at least I think they're pins...they're these golden square things. Anyways, I use alcohol to try and clean them up a bit but I probably ended up causing more damage, who knows. I couldn't even get it all out, the cracks are too small to get into.
So I just bought Dying Light and was determined to at least check it out so I put one of my RAM sticks in the good slot which is black (third slot from the CPU) and one in the farthest (forth slot from the CPU) which is blue. Felt like I had nothing to lose and my computer did boot up and Speccy showed that I had 8GB of RAM but only Single Channel at 802MHz. I play some Dying Light and it still stutters but my temps are better - around 60-70c while playing.
Am I completely screwed?
TL;DR - Applied thermal paste, got some inside the CPU. Scratched up my motherboard and got liquid air into some important areas.
Here are some pictures that I took...
-Heatsink-
-CPU-
-Motherboard-
-Entire Rig Running With Both RAMs Installed-
So there's my story, I've been a fool but maybe there is some hope left. What are my options?
-Rig-
CPU - Intel Core i5 2500k 3.3Ghz
RAM - 8GB Dual Channel (well, now it's 4 GB single Channel) DDR3
Motherboard - Asus P8Z77-V LX (LGA1155)
Graphics - 4GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
------------------
I recently got my GTX 970 and realized Mass Effect 3 was stuttering every 15 seconds (Mass Effect 3 was the first game I played with my new card and it didn't stutter like that with my GTX 460). I didn't think much of it and just didn't play it again, and didn't really experience problems again until I started playing Shadow of Mordor (about a month after getting my new card) and the game was running smooth at 60fps but about 15 minutes in the game would stutter pretty bad.
I decided to give my temps a look and my CPU was running at 97c. Hoping permanent damage hadn't already been done, I went to Best Buy and got some thermal paste, Antec Formula 7 Nano Diamond to be exact.
I go home, and make my first idiotic mistake - I used canned air to clean the dust out of my computer. I followed the directions and kept it upright and sprayed in short bursts but while trying to clean out my RAM slots and various other parts in the process I angled the can a bit and liquid shot out hitting a bunch of areas, it evaporated quickly but who knows what happened. I continue on and take my heatsink and fan off and clean up the residual thermal paste with rubbing alcohol and screen cleaning towelettes. I reapply the thermal paste, I looked online to see how much to put so I placed a pea-sized dot in the center of my CPU and placed the heatsink on top of it. I ended up putting too much on though and some oozed onto some pins of my CPU, but we'll get to that later.
My friend is the one who first installed my CPU and heatsink but he was unavailable so I decided to do it myself, it seemed simple enough so I just placed the heatsink on top of the CPU and pushed the plastic pins into my motherboard and rotated them into the locking position but it didn't feel secure so I take a look at the plastic pins attached to my heatsink and they are bent and spread open like someone doing the splits. I try and push them together so they can fit in my motherboard's opening but they just keep spreading, frustrated I take a screwdriver (I'm so stupid) and try and push the pin into the opening while the other one is already in, forcing it to comply. It finally does and I boot up my computer only to find that the screen is stuck on "No Signal" and the MemOkay LED is solid red. I press the MemOkay button and it just beeps repeatedly and my computer starts a cycle of turning on and off while beeping.
After switching my RAM in and out I concluded that both my 4GB RAM sticks are fine but the slot closest to the CPU isn't working. I take everything back out and see that the paste got into the CPU a little bit and is covering some of the pins, at least I think they're pins...they're these golden square things. Anyways, I use alcohol to try and clean them up a bit but I probably ended up causing more damage, who knows. I couldn't even get it all out, the cracks are too small to get into.
So I just bought Dying Light and was determined to at least check it out so I put one of my RAM sticks in the good slot which is black (third slot from the CPU) and one in the farthest (forth slot from the CPU) which is blue. Felt like I had nothing to lose and my computer did boot up and Speccy showed that I had 8GB of RAM but only Single Channel at 802MHz. I play some Dying Light and it still stutters but my temps are better - around 60-70c while playing.
Am I completely screwed?
TL;DR - Applied thermal paste, got some inside the CPU. Scratched up my motherboard and got liquid air into some important areas.
Here are some pictures that I took...
-Heatsink-
-CPU-
-Motherboard-
-Entire Rig Running With Both RAMs Installed-
So there's my story, I've been a fool but maybe there is some hope left. What are my options?
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