Need help removing thermal greese

[honor]

Just got a new cpu and i am still geting high temps on it.
going to try to redo the thermal greese. is there a safe way to remove the thermal paste without harming the cpu.... also how thin should the layer be

 

[nhobo]

Rubbing alcohol, and a little dab'l do ya. I put a spot on and "seat" the heat sink, then pull it off to see if it's too much (squished out around the edges) or too little (covering < 80-90%). Good idea to check all the heat sinks - Northbridge, GPU, etc. - as OEMs routinely gob the stuff on.

 

[dragonsprayer]

alcohol (rubbing)

pure-er the better -- 99%

i use the premade wipes

 

[honor]

would a q tip and some water work also lol

 

[honor]

also my thermla greese gets put on with a prush m using the zalman 9700 nt how thin should the layer be

 

[MU_Engineer]

Just got a new cpu and i am still geting high temps on it.
going to try to redo the thermal greese. is there a safe way to remove the thermal paste without harming the cpu.... also how thin should the layer be

You need to first get the CPU and heatsink good and warm to make the thermal paste soft. Otherwise, you may end up with the heatsink pulling the CPU out of the socket with the lock lever/bail still shut and be welded to the bottom of your heatsink, which is bad news. Next, get yourself some organic solvent to dissolve the thermal compound, go outside or near an open door, then wipe the thermal compound off with a soft lint-free cloth dipped in the solvent. I personally recommend xylene for the purpose as it dissolves the thermal compound almost instantly, does not harm anything else, and does not evaporate instantly. The non-instant evaporation time allows for you to easily wipe up the dissolved thermal compound while it is still dissolved. You can buy xylene rather readily at the hardware store. It's in the section with paint thiner and is called xylol or sometimes simply xylene. Goof-Off is primarily xylene as well. I use Goof-Off as it comes in 4 and 12-ounce cans rather than quart or gallon jugs and has a nice small-hole cap that makes dripping some of it on a cloth easier than pouring from a gallon jug.

Other chemicals can dissolve thermal compound as well. Benzene and toluene, which are closely related to xylene and also available in some hardware stores will work well. Many people here like high-strength isopropanol, but I personally do not like it as much. One, it's hard to find the strong stuff (90%+) and the common 70% "rubbing alcohol" at the drugstore is a terrible thermal compound solvent. Two, it is much more volatile than xylene and evaporates more quickly, making getting all of the thermal compound off before the solvent evaporates more difficult. You can use 190+ proof ethanol or the similar denatured alcohol as well. I've never used it as I have xylene sitting around instead, but I have heard others have gotten it to work okay.

 

[nhobo]

70% rubbing alcohol works fine and is *not* in the same MSDS category as xylene, benzene and toluene. Moonshine should work very well if you have access to any. Personally, I try to stay far away from the really toxic stuff.

 

[jimmysmitty]

I do it with alcohol. It works great and gets most off without any problems and evaporates so you don't have to worry about any residue.

As per reapplying it, I use artic silver 5 put a little dab and then spread it around the entire CPU with a small fine brush and make sure it is thin. Then apply the heatsink and its all good. The brush helps with application instead of it only covering only a round area, it will cover the entire area and since you spread it out you have less of a chance of it being too much. Helps with heat dissipariton as the contact to the heatsink via thermal paste is all over insteas of the round area it spreads to.

Then again I am crazy.

 

[MU_Engineer]

70% rubbing alcohol works fine and is *not* in the same MSDS category as xylene, benzene and toluene. Moonshine should work very well if you have access to any. Personally, I try to stay far away from the really toxic stuff.

I've used 70% rubbing alcohol once and it worked about as hard as a government employee during a holiday. I think the rag rubbing at the CPU die (it was a mobile CPU) and heatsink took off most of the thermal compound that was removed, and there was still some residue left after a quarter bottle of rubbing alcohol and an hour of scrubbing. Yes, the aromatics like benzene, toluene, and xylene are not pretty chemicals to be around a lot, but if you only use them occasionally, wear gloves, and use them in well-ventilated areas, you will be fine. I've worked with chemicals far worse than those in labs with similar protective measures and this fine by environmental health and safety and OSHA guidelines.

 

[nvalhalla]

I use 91% iso from the pharmacy at the local grocery store and q tips. just did it today in fact. to reapply, I usually put a dab in the center of the cpu and spread it with the edge of a credit card. not too thick, the cpu and hs should be touching pretty tightly so the grease just fills in small imperfections. I would say a coating about as thick as construction paper. today I did it the lazy way and put a ball about the size of a pea in the center and put the hs on, counting on it to spead the paste. it worked fine, load temps on my e2140 at 2.8 are low 50s with stock hs/fan.

 

[systemlord]

also my thermla greese gets put on with a prush m using the zalman 9700 nt how thin should the layer be

The thickness depends on how flat the two mating surfaces are, Intel processers are concaved in the center and high around the sides/corners. When you put heatsink on top of CPU twist CPU cooler very little left to right and if you hear/feel any metal rubbing together then apply a little more thermal paste.

O yeah clean you finger good and dry it well then use your finger it much easier. Then spead out away from center because when you apply pressure to the CPU cooler it will spread the paste outward.