I had a problem with my mobo and I was setting it up to be returned today for an RMA. I cleaned off most of the Artic Silver from my CPU and was removing it. But when I was removing the CPU to store it away, some random stray Artic silver 5 that I didn't see, ended up smearing about 3 of the pads on the bottom. It's not a lot, but any I'm sure can/will be a potential problem. Am I officially 100% screwed or is there some way I can clean it off without damaging the pads? Thanks in advance.

When you say pads I am assuming you mean where the pins of the processor are.

I think you are pretty much screwed. Absolutely nothing can get in the pins of the cpu. I am pretty sure the motherboard socket would be damaged as well. Next time use only a very small dot when applying thermal paste.

Use rubbing alcohol and a tissue or microfiber cloth. A Q-tip works well too. 90% Isopropanol is preferred.

I was helping my friend reseat his processor, and Somehow some of the thermal grease got on the underside of the processor. We just wiped as much off as we could using tissues. We could still see some on it, but when we started it up, everything was fine. This was about 2 months ago.

But it would be best to be as safe as possible, and use some rubbing alcohol to help getting it off.

i ran into this problem to on my freinds q6600 processor and i used the artic silver cleaner and it worked amazing. i always used to use rubbing alcohol to clean processors off and it kinda made the top of processors look a little dark like it was still dirty and i got some artic silver cleaner and it made the processor look shinny new again

There was only a very very small amount of it on the pads, and I'm a bit scared to clean it off the pads with alcohol. Where can I get microfiber cloth or 90% isopropanol?

Edit: Also, what's the best way to store the CPU? I have a lot of anti static bags, but I can't find my old CPU cover (Threw it out as I didn't expect to have to remove my CPU ever).

You can get those at most places like WalGreens. They usually have that kind of stuff.

As for holding it, the best thing is if you have some anti-statick foam. Wrap it in that and put it in a small box until you are ready to use it again. Thats what my old systems P4 3.4GHz EE came in(got it off EBay for $150) and I put my P4 3.2GHz that it replaced in.

You're completely screwed. The CPU will no longer work, and will instantly damage any mobo you put it in. I need a paper weight for my desk, so send it to me for free instead of throwing it away.


Just kidding btw. It's fine.

I've used nutrol contact contact cleaner many times.
It dries very fast so, spray it on a lint free cloth and immediatly wipe the pads, turning the cloth over after each wipe.
Repeat as necessary until clean....that's it!