Is my thermal paste too old?

Well now that you've removed the cooler, exposed it to air and dust you don't have a choice .

Well, now that you have your cpu cooler off, you'll HAVE to replace it. Rubbing alcohol and a paper towel to get the old stuff off.

^What greens said. I use Arctic Silver 5 (Im old school).

change it and use mx2 or mx4 they do not need cure time .

Don't use papertowels or rubbing alcohol.

Don't use rubbing alcohol, it is denatured and for use on humans in massage -_- it has water and often fragrences, etc in it. Just get some straight Isopropyl alcohol at the store.

Don't use papertowels, they are absolutely FULL of lint - they are absorbent, it is part of how and why they work. Terrible choice.

the cheapest most readily available lint free wipe would be a coffee filter.

Honestly, nothing but elbow grease is usually more than enough, i have done both chemically cleaned and lapped CPU Heatsinks, as well as just wiping it off and reapplying with very, very, little difference in actual performance.

Just rubbing it clean is probably more than enough for your purposes.

Bah sure, just use whatever solvent you have on hand, as long as it doesn't smell like flowers or have color it will be fine i'm sure. Just make sure its very very dry before applying paste.

Just for information's sake, rubbing alcohol IS Isopropyl alcohol. Try to use 80% or better. Isopropyl alcohol naturally breaks down into water, so, please, school yourself. Also, what happens to a paper towel when wet? Does lint somehow magically dry and appear? I've been building computers for 26 years and ya know what? I've used rubbing alcohol and a paper towel every time to clean off heatsink paste. Do you know how many times I've had a failure due to this method. 0 times. Don't spout knowledge that's dribble. Alcohol and a paper towel will work just fine. Ask AMD or Intel. They say the same thing.

Dribble? Really? Almost every OC enthusiast recommends coffee filters because they are lint free.
Crumple up a paper towel in the sun, you can see all the lint and fibers falling off - at least some of that lint is going to remain on the CPU and cooler, limiting the thermal interface. Does it matter? No. But we should always try to use our best practices in everything we do.

Your rubbing alcohol may very well be isopropanol, but often times it is ethanol with methyethylketone and some other solvents added to prevent it from being consumed, otherwise, because it is ethanol people would drink it. Would it work? yeah, of course, its still a reasonably effective solvent, but it isn't the ideal recommendation. Vodka would work too, doesn't mean you'll ever see me suggest using it. We want Denatured Alcohol - Isopopanol. Isopropyl alochol doesn't need any methols added at all - it will kill you all on its own. It is the more pure, and therefore superior product.

This is also an international site, something like "rubbing alcohol" may not be the same in India, or the UK, or France, but Isopropyl Alcohol is the same no matter what corner of the globe you are in.

Fingernail polish remover is acetone, but its a whole lot more than acetone too, same deal here.

It breaks down into water? An organic hydrocarbon breaks down into water? Oxygen isn't even in the chemical structure. The only way your getting water from an organic hydrocarbon is through combustion.

At the end of the day, none of it really matters. I have re used old thermal paste without issue too, doesn't mean i would EVER recommend it. I do a lot of things i don't recommend on this site, or even mention, because when we put something out there, for all to see, it is our responsibility to make sure it is as correct and accurate as possible.

Please, post more, a lot more. If you have so much knowledge and experience - post. Earn badges, have fun on the site, but don't come at experts and spout about how many years of experience you have or how other people's opinions are dribble. That isn't what we want here.

Isopropyl alcohol = C3H8O or C3H7OH or CH3CHOHCH3. See the O? I do. See the H? I do. See someone with a red face?

I'm not trying to ruffle your feathers, Greens. I should have stated that you won't have problems with the paper towel when wetted with the alcohol because of the capillary action's effect on the loose fibers. Yes, a coffee filter is better, but, that's one less pot of coffee!!!

coffee filter are cheap at dollar store and for the alcool any drug store have it even wal-mart .

no for linted clotch and cotton swabs .