Too much thermal paste on CPU

Hey guys. I dont know if this has happened to you all before. I just bought a new i7 920 cpu and an asus p6t deluxe motherboard. While installing the coolermaster v8 cooler, I applied WAYYY to much thermal paste on the cpu. I think I used about the entire tube that came with the cooler. I feel like an idiot, especially after I realized that I only needed a thin layer of the thermal paste. But after I assembled everything, the system would not boot. All I would get is about a second of fan movement and lights blinking and then everything shuts off. I called the asus tech and they told me to remove all the components but the motherboard and power supply. I think while I was removing the cooler and the cpu, there was so much silver that a little bit of it actually got on the pins of the cpu slot on the motherboard and OTHER side of the cpu, the side you're not supposed to touch. Not sure what its called. Freaking out, I went out and got some rubbing alcohol and cotton swabs and tried to swab the thermal paste off. So anyways, long story short, the motherboard still doesn't work, even after I removed the cpu. The Asus tech guy said it was a bad motherboard so I'm going to RMA it. But right now I don't even know if the cpu works after me trying to clean it with cotton swabs and alcohol, and I have no way to test it because I don't have a motherboard. I am wondering if anyone has done the same thing and the cpu still worked after all that... Does anyone know how damaging thermal paste is for the cpu? Will it still work after all i've done to it? Will newegg even RMA a cpu like that, if it doesn't work? Please let me know.

I think it may be more damaging to the motherboard but thats only my opinion, anyways if you removed all the evidence of the thermal paste maybe they wont know why it doesnt work and replace it fingers crossed

AS5 certainly DOES conduct electricity! That is a sly marketing lie AS uses, where they say it wont conduct if applied properly just like all thermal paste. All silver based thermal paste will, in fact, conduct electricity. This is because they have small particles of silver and copper in the paste, as small as the minerals in drinking water which also conducts electricity. The only thermal pastes on the market that are not electrically conductive are the non-metal types such as Arctic Cooling MX-2, Tuniq TX-2, or OCZ Freeze. They also outperform Arctic Silver 5 and generally tie for the best cooling. I recommend the Arctic Cooling MX-2 because out of all 4 mentioned thermal pastes I find the MX-2 both the best performance wise and easiest to spread.

You likely fried your motherboard, not the CPU. However if the new motherboard does not arrive before the latest time you can send back the CPU then send it back anyway just in case.

Getting AS5 on the CPU pins/contacts and/or the CPU socket and trying to start the machine does not always cause an immediate kill job on the CPU and or MB. The system will short out and fail, but will not automatically 'fry' the CPU/MB. Try using Isoprphyl alcohol and cotton swabs with a magnifying glass and clean 'all' the AS5 from the CPU and socket. It's a tedious job. I've done it before and the system is still running years later. On another occasion, Gigabyte sent an RMA replacement MB with silver paste slopped all over the CPU socket. Smeared everywhere. I spent hours cleaning it like I described and got it working. I was mad and emailed Gigabyte support and complained and returned the board explaing how sloppy they were with the board.

Core i7 ownage must be off the chart at 5611.23

holy crap! that sucks! Well I already RMA'd the motherboard. Guess I'll RMA the CPU too. My other components should still be ok right? The first time I turned on the mobo I had my ram, HD, and GPU all plugged in there. If the motherboard fries, does that affect my other hardware?

I wonder why people still buy AS5...

I mean TX-2 is cheaper and non-conductive... I recommend TX-2 because it tends to be a few dollars cheaper than the rest and performs about the same.

lol maybe cuz most people read how to use thermal paste before they put it on. not to be mean, but i blame timw86 for his loss not AS5. you REALLY have to try to burn out your CPU with a conductive thermal paste. i love my AS5.

its hard to say... i would like to think mobo providers build their architecture surrounding the possibility that the user can make errors such as short circuiting but you never know bro. i highly doubt your GPU was effected but your RAM might be a different story. who knows until you try it though!