The PC freezes and stops working following a thermal paste replacement.
The PC freezes and stops working following a thermal paste replacement.
The issue you're facing involves your PC freezing after applying a new thermal paste. Despite the paste being 7-8 years old, it seems to be affecting performance. You can access Windows and see the PC freeze in about 2 minutes, with minimal activity in Task Manager and a temperature around 43-50°C. You're concerned about potential damage from the new application and want advice on what to do next.
Welcome to the forums, newcomer!
The thermal "paste" is actually thermal Grease and has been around for 7-8 years.
Could you clarify what kind of thermal paste you're referring to? Since many devices can gain benefits from a fresh paste, it's worth knowing whether you changed it on the GPU or CPU.
Feel free to share photos of your build with the disassembled components to help us understand how the paste is distributed.
Make sure your cooler was installed correctly after replacing the paste.
In about 2 minutes, the PC may freeze and crash.
Do you mean it will restart?
When sharing a troubleshooting thread, it's standard to include your full system specifications. Please list them clearly:
CPU:
GPU:
PSU:
Motherboard:
RAM:
SSD/HDD:
Build details: include the age of the PSU, BIOS version for your motherboard, and any other relevant info.
Are you comfortable staying in BIOS?
Hi, thank you for your prompt response. I wanted to clarify that I didn’t include all the important details. The system specifications are as follows: CPU i5-11400F (2.60 ghz), box cooler included, motherboard MSI B650 Pro-E (BIOS 2023/7/1), RAM Corsair Vengance LPX DDR4-3200MHz-16gb (two 8GB sticks), SSD Samsung 970 EVPNOM NVME M2 1TB, GPU Saphire Pulse Radeon Rx 6600 8GB, power supply EVGA 600 GD (7 months old), and chassis Zalman Z1 Iceberg. Operating system is Windows 10. However, the PC tends to freeze, then displays a Windows error message and restarts. In BIOS everything functions normally—no crashes or freezes, and temperatures stay between 40-50°C.