Clean thermal paste from touch contact points on the underside of the CPU

Posted by Karolinger on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Karolinger
Published on 2014-06-01T00:22:18Z Indexed on 2014/06/01 21:39 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 359

Filed under:

cpu

|

cleaning

|

intel-core2

|

thermal-paste

|

dirty

I bought an used CPU (Intel "Core 2" E4700) on eBay and it came with the underside dirty with something that seems it´s thermal paste.

Before I send it back, I wonder if it could it still work without cleaning this dirt because the seller supposedly "tested" it to be fully working.

Final, is there a way to clean this dirt without damaging the CPU? Or, is it too risky (or too much work) to do so?

This is the CPU:

Dirty CPU

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about cpu

Speedstep and Intel x5570?

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Hi, My new server has 2 x X5570 CPUs. Now here is the output of grep -i hz /proc/cpuinfo model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X5570 @ 2.93GHz cpu MHz : 1600.231 model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X5570 @ 2.93GHz cpu MHz : 1600.231 model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU … >>> More
VMware ESXi - varying CPU time (CPU reservation)

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Hello! I'm running FreeBSD 7.2 under VMware ESXi 3.5. Host has 2 physical CPUs and the BSD box is currently the only running VM. Only one virtual CPU is assigned to the VM. When measuring CPU time of a specific program, I get very different results from time to time. Processor usage is reported… >>> More
How to calculate CPU % based on raw CPU ticks in SNMP

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
According to http://net-snmp.sourceforge.net/docs/mibs/ucdavis.html#scalar_notcurrent ssCpuUser, ssCpuSystem, ssCpuIdle, etc are deprecated in favor of the raw variants (ssCpuRawUser, etc). The former values (which don't cover things like nice, wait, kernel, interrupt, etc) returned a percentage… >>> More
disparity between `top`'s given CPU % and process CPU usage total

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I've noticed that there are sometimes (large) differences between the reported total CPU usage and a summation of the per-process CPU utilization given by apps like top and wmtop. As an example: I recently ran a git filter-branch --index-filter on a fairly large repo, with the index-filter command… >>> More
How to read oom-killer syslog messages?

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have a Ubuntu 12.04 server which sometimes dies completely - no SSH, no ping, nothing until it is physically rebooted. After the reboot, I see in syslog that the oom-killer killed, well, pretty much everything. There's a lot of detailed memory usage information in them. How do I read these logs… >>> More

Related posts about cleaning

Cleaning up a folder structure from Visual Studio artifacts from the shell

as seen on Dot net Slackers - Search for 'Dot net Slackers'
A few years ago I wrote a post that showed how to write a NAnt script to clean a folder structure from the artifacts folders used by Visual Studio. Today what I wanted to show you is a way that doesnt require NAnt installed on your computer, but that uses just a very simple command for Windows shell… >>> More
Tutorial: Linux Howto: Cleaning up Your GRUB 2 Menu (part 2)

as seen on Internet.com - Search for 'Internet.com'
The GRUB 2 boot menu is long, confusing, and ugly. Akkana Pecks reveals undocumented features and shows us how to weed out bogus entries, and make it look nicer and more readable. >>> More
Potentially The World’s Filthiest PC [Video]

as seen on How to geek - Search for 'How to geek'
We’re confident we’ve seen some dusty PC cases in our day, but nothing we’ve ever cleaned produced the sheer volume of smoke-bomb like dust this neglected tower spews out. That noise you hear, about 1:15 into the video, is the sound of the compressor motor kicking back on to top… >>> More
Ask The Readers: How Do You Camouflage Your Tech?

as seen on How to geek - Search for 'How to geek'
We love having a technology-packed house as much as the next geek, but not all our gizmos, gadgets, and peripherals are exactly Home and Garden approved. How do you enjoy all your tech without your living room and office looking like an electronics store? Image courtesy of Weekly Geek’s DIY… >>> More
What You Said: Your Tech Spring Cleaning Routines

as seen on How to geek - Search for 'How to geek'
Earlier this week we asked you to share your tech spring cleaning routine; now we’re back to highlight your tips, tricks, and techniques. What tools rule the spring cleaning roost? Compressed air and microfiber cloths are the tools of choice by a wide margin. D^Angelo highlights the software and physicals… >>> More