I discovered mercury on your PC case. I’m curious about how it arrived and its origin.
I discovered mercury on your PC case. I’m curious about how it arrived and its origin.
I planned to perform a standard PC cleanup, opened the side panel and found something slipped on the table—it behaved like mercury, though not completely sure. Upon inspecting the panel, I noticed a small piece on it. I’ve attached some pictures for reference. It’s also worth mentioning that a few tiny fragments appear damaged, and yesterday my CPU temperature spiked. There’s a block in front of the panel, not the motherboard or power supply, and the storage drives seem affected. I’m really concerned something might have exploded.
Make sure the mercury doesn’t keep contacting it! It seems to be thermal paste or a thermal pad, possibly even a graphene layer. The PC is still functioning properly.
It's not mercury because it would be liquid and create beads, which isn't possible in modern consumer devices. The residue you'd see is likely gallium, which appears malleable if the machine used liquid metal as a thermal interface material. It's not hazardous and doesn't resemble a typical machine component.
It seems to be a blend of gallium and indium, similar to the material used in Conductonaut. However, I have no clue about its leakage properties.
I thought I sounded silly, but I looked at my thermal paste and realized I hadn’t changed it—I used the same color. That must be why the false alarm happened. It seems the temperature rise was likely due to the heat in my area, so I should get a new CPU air cooler. Thanks everyone!
Once more, thank you all. I’ll address these questions while it’s still in progress. It seems some details were missed during setup—likely related to thermal performance. The temperature rise on the CPU probably comes from ambient heat plus the stock fan. This place is great; your insights and quick replies are really appreciated. Thanks for keeping everything clear and efficient!
Take ice cubes from the fridge, chill them, and use a paper towel to lift the container.
Make sure to inspect your CPU, GPU, and other components thoroughly. If leakage occurs, it could damage your PC due to conductivity. I strongly advise against using liquid metal in this situation.