Intel quad core 2 advice

[boymonkey1974]

Hello all
I opened up my PC the other day to give it a clean and I noticed that the fan was very dirty so I thought I would try and take it off and give it a clean, I turned all the plastic pins but it wouldn't fully come off, so i just gave the fans a air clean.
I then put the pins back (hard grrr) and rebooted.
I checked my intel monitoring program to see if they have cooled but they have gone up to 50-60 degrees or so (Idle) and when I have played a game my machine has powered down (Overheating cpu) which it didnt do before I tried to clean it.
So my question is have I disturbed the thermal grease etc? and is it a good idea to get the fan heatsink off and replace the thermal grease?
Also any tips on getting the fan off would help because I didn't want to pull it to hard incase I broke it.

Help me Tomi one your my only hope

 

[jsc]

Turn the computer on and play a game for 10 or 15 minutes. The heat from the CPU should soften the thermal compound.

Turn off the computer (yes, that is obvious, but you would be surprised), pop the push pins, and gently twist the heatsink. It should come right off.

Use isopropyl alcohol and a piece of coffee filter or lint free rag (I do not drink coffee so I use a really old T-shirt) to remove the old thermal compound.

You can use any good thermal compound. There's little significant difference between the brands. Although there are some brands that work a little better, I am still using AS5 because I have some left over. A little tube goes a long way.

I use this to reapply new compound:
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=170&Itemid=1&limit=1&limitstart=0