Grayish mold on CPU is it burned?

[werewolf16]

my computer cant boot up. when i open my heat sink and i see a grayish mold on top of my cpu. Does that mean my cpu is burned??? Can anyone show me a picture of how a normal and a burned cpu looks like?

 

[joefriday]

greyish mold is more likely thermal grease. What CPU are you using? pentium 4? Core 2? AMD?

 

[saaiello]

All that is is thermal paste . For the heatsink on your cpu to work effectively it needs thermal paste to ensure that the processor can transfer the heat to the heatsink. Since you took the heat sink off you will have to reapply thermal paste to the CPU go google how to apply thermal paste and you will find some websites with detailed instructions on how to go about doing this. If your processor was burnt it would not post or boot up at all.

 

[Raidur]

Make sure you read saaiello's whole post OP.

It is vital you get that mold (thermal paste) back on your cpu! And not the old stuff that was on there.

 

[darkjuggalo2000]

seriously,.. if you dont know what thermal paste is you probabley shouldnt be taking the cpu out of the motherboard.... or removing the heatsink for that matter.... not being an a-hole or anything but you can mess some stuff up!!! those are sensitive electronics and be sure to come on here and ask as many questions as you can before continuing. Here is a tip before you do any further damage. when pulling parts out from the inside of the case be sure to take your free hand and touch the side of your case so you are grounded to the case. Static electricity can screw stuff up! Please be sure to trouble shoot your problems next time before assuming....


with that being said what did you do prior to your computer not booting up? is it posting? details details details....

 

[saaiello]

seriously,.. if you dont know what thermal paste is you probabley shouldnt be taking the cpu out of the motherboard.... or removing the heatsink for that matter.... not being an a-hole or anything but you can mess some stuff up!!! those are sensitive electronics and be sure to come on here and ask as many questions as you can before continuing. Here is a tip before you do any further damage. when pulling parts out from the inside of the case be sure to take your free hand and touch the side of your case so you are grounded to the case. Static electricity can screw stuff up! Please be sure to trouble shoot your problems next time before assuming....


with that being said what did you do prior to your computer not booting up? is it posting? details details details....

Hey man we all learned somewhere how things work and where they go and why. Back when i first got a computer an IBM AT i took that apart to see what it looked like and learn and i had no clue what i was doing. You got to start somewhere but he is rite these are very sensitive electronics your dealing with so do be careful and read up on as much info as you can to understand your system.

 

[werewolf16]

Best answer selected by werewolf16.

 

[jonpaul37]

I would say that more than half of the people here in this community learned about PC's and the components by taking apart a computer, whether it be an old dell or new PC that had an issue. My first experience was with a dell PC that i bought a PSU for and it would not fit into the case... that is, until i broke out the dremel tool and made it fit

 

[darkjuggalo2000]

I wasnt trying to be mean, but even i asked questions before taking things apart my first time.

 

[darkjuggalo2000]

and my first build was from spare parts that my freind had like 6 years ago

 

[saaiello]

I would say that more than half of the people here in this community learned about PC's and the components by taking apart a computer, whether it be an old dell or new PC that had an issue. My first experience was with a dell PC that i bought a PSU for and it would not fit into the case... that is, until i broke out the dremel tool and made it fit

I have been known to take a saw and a drill to a case in a few occasions myself dam dell and gateway case cant do nothing with em.