Arctic Silver....woops!

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AntRam

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I bet you've never heard this one before.
I'm so sloppy with my parts. Yesterday I took my processor out and put my heatsink face up on the motherboard so the fan side was down. By accident I hit the heatsink and it the side with the arctic silver on it hit my CPU socket. The cpu socket got some of the Arctic Silver on it covering some of the holes. Now I'm worried that when I install my new CPU it will fry it. Does anybody happen to know what will happen in this situation?
 
Arctic Silver is actually very conductive, so if it were to bridge a connection between two pins on the CPU it is quite likely that something would fry. Try to clean it up as much as you can, and as long as it's not connecting two different pins you should be alright.
 
I'm worried...my new processor comes on friday and now I think i ruined my socket :(
 
I would think if you cleaned it out thouroughly enough it should be alright. Maybe get something very thin and carefully clean out each of the holes in the socket and make sure there's none left on the outside. As long as it's not going to bridge a connection between two of the pins, I can't see it being a problem.
 
use a toothbrush and a slightly damp cloth and you might be ok. look lively man!
 
You can also buy a good electronic contact cleanear with no residue and clean your contacts. A tooth brush does not have long enough hair. Try a paint brush with fairly coarse hair which you can trim to adjust rigidity. If you cannot find any contact cleaner, use isopropyl alcohol.
All this should be done in a static free environment, in other words ground yourself before physically touching your mother board. Touching your sink metal water tap will do the trick if you're doing this at home.
finish clean up with a dry cloth (use cotton, not wool as it generates a lot of static electricity)
If possible, get compressed air (in a can) and air dry your socket. This will also blow away any arctic silver which might be plugging your socket.
With a magnifying glass, inspect your work area to ensure that you did not blow any arctic silver between other components leads, if so, clean the area as mentionned above.
At work, we do this on a daily basis but we are well equipped with ionizer and static mats, bracelets etc... (micro miniature repairs)
If you know somebody who works in a similar place, ask him. If your doing it at home, just take your time and inspect your work carefully.
Once it is all cleaned up, insert your old CPU in and remove it. Inspect its contacts and the CPU socket for any arctic silver.
If you find any, repeat cleaning process.
Once satisfied with your cleaning, booth up your computer with the OLD CPU in. If you have no problems, then install your new CPU and there shouldn't be any problems.

Hope this helps
 
Ok, I seemed to have got a good amount of the thermal grease out of the socket holes by using a pin. I stuck the pin in each hole that there was thermal grease in, and twisted around until I got all of it out. I'm sure I didnt get every single trace of thermal grease out of it, but I definatley got alot of it out. I just have to clean the remaining grease off the top of the socket. I'm still hesitant wheather or not I should go and install my new CPU into the socket. Last thing I want is to fry my new CPU and not be able to return it.
 
getting artic silver into a cpu socket is a terrible thing to do! I personal would never try posting a CPU in it after this has happened, unless it's a junk CPU. If you are buying a new CPU to use with this MTB, then I'd say RMA the MTB if you can. Clean off the compound from the socket, then take it back and call it a no post.


If this doesn't work and you are serious about repairing it, about the only option i can think of, and this may make things worse, is to flush the socket while it's in the open position with some sort of alcohol based cleaner. this will evaporate much faster than water based cleaners. what you need to do is get all of that compound out of the MTB, then let it sit for a day or so and dry out. Even after this use an old CPU if you can, just to post the MTB.
 
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