Post-cleaning issues with the CPU thermal paste
Post-cleaning issues with the CPU thermal paste
Hi. I was working on my R5 3600 with a B450 motherboard to replace the thermal paste. I didn’t take the CPU out of the motherboard to prevent damage or bending the pins, so I just wiped alcohol right on the CPU surface. I didn’t realize it seeped into the sockets. After applying thermal paste and installing the heatsink, I did the same for the GPU. I reassembled everything, but it won’t turn on. When I removed the CPU entirely, I found dark spots on it and the socket was wet. Did both the CPU and motherboard get damaged? When I took the CPU out, the fans didn’t start up either.
"And did not notice that cpu went in the sockets" do you mean alcohol went into the socket? you don't need alcohol to clean paste off a CPU most of the time. a paper towel on its own should work fine. Or just put a little on the paper towel and wipe it, Don;t pour it on the cpu from the bottle. If you let it all dry and there is no thermal paste in the socket then it should work after all the alcohol has evaporated if it was ISO
Some thermal paste offers electrical conductivity. It might have caused damage if a piece of it entered the socket. Rubbing alcohol is entirely non-conductive and dries out rapidly. I don’t think that would have been the cause. Could it be that you unintentionally bent some pins together?
Use contact cleaner instead of ethyl next time. A small amount of thermal paste can be conductive, possibly damaging your CPU or motherboard. The 70% ethyl concentration might not have been sufficient. Some moisture could remain. Possible fixes: test your CPU on a different board, try your motherboard with another CPU.
Do you understand how certain gadgets activate before they stop working? In your case, there was no cooling fan before failure—so could the motherboard be the reason?