Removing silver thermal paste.

[General_B]

Just my 2 cents on how to easily remove silver thermal paste from cpu's. Use a pencil erasure to remove the paste then a cotton swab with rubbing alcohol to fully clean.

[Hardass]

I use just alcohol works fine.

[MrIcee]

Ok..shall I scare you all???

I give my CPU's a bath to clean em....hot water and soap...and an old toothbrush. Give em a good scrubbing and they come out looking like brand new. A good thorough drying and your ready for install:)

Randi :D

[DaGooch]

I use what MrIcee uses, lots of dishwashing soap and an old toothbrush with lots of warm water. It even takes off all the dielectric grease between the pins. :D

[Hardass]

Nice tip, thanks guys!;)

[Neptune5k]

Best stuff for removing AS and the likes that I've found is a citrus cleaner called "Desolvit" This stuff works great.

After you clean it well with that, then i give it a good clean bath like Icee described in order to clean off the Desolvit cleaner.

[General_B]

Hardass

I tried alcohol too... but I after many attempts I found that my cpus like only the expensive stuff.

[septimus]

Well, you dont need to use the bath technique when you have rubbing alcohol and WD-40!

I find that the 70% drug store grade isopropyl works best on the core of the CPU only, and the WD-40 on the ceramic and other components on the surface of the CPU packaging. The WD-40 is a spray-on lubricant, cleaner and general foolery flammable spray. ;) I have no idea what the chemical itself is called...

Does anyone use q-tips to clean their processor? I usually have one for the isopropyl and one for the wd-40. works like a charm every time.

[IFMU]

Kind of curious. I have an XP 1800+ here that Im going to RMA soon. But to be honest, I am not fully convinced its fried, even with thorough testing.
My question here is, if I give it a nice lil bath, that would ruin any chance of an RMA wouldnt it? Ive tried cleaning it very thoroughly with that stuff.. heh, sorry the name eludes me at the moment, Nail polish remover stuff.

[Leo]

Originally posted by IFMU
Kind of curious. I have an XP 1800+ here that Im going to RMA soon. But to be honest, I am not fully convinced its fried, even with thorough testing.
My question here is, if I give it a nice lil bath, that would ruin any chance of an RMA wouldnt it? Ive tried cleaning it very thoroughly with that stuff.. heh, sorry the name eludes me at the moment, Nail polish remover stuff.

Acetone perhaps?

I myself find that automotive brakes part cleaner (supposedly same makeup as electrical contact cleaner) works very well for dielectric grease. For removing some stray thermal paste, I just use some denatured alcohol per OPP's advice, works great.

[IFMU]

Thats it, heh yea thanks~~!

[Smizack]

Originally posted by Hardass
I use just alcohol works fine.

Ever try a belt sander??
















:D :D

[xgman]

Artic Silver reccommends "goof off"

[KnightElite]

Originally posted by MrIcee
Ok..shall I scare you all???

I give my CPU's a bath to clean em....hot water and soap...and an old toothbrush. Give em a good scrubbing and they come out looking like brand new. A good thorough drying and your ready for install:)

Randi :D

How do you dry it? And how long do you actually leave it?

[septimus]

I gave MrIcee's method a shot... I used dilluted sunlight dishwashing liquid soap and an old toothbrush. Scrubbed firmly and made sure I got in between all the teeth :D

My thunderbird never looked so good! I have it a new coat of ASIII and it was off to the races again. I dont think I will use WD-40 or isopropyl again :)

[KnightElite]

How did you dry it septimus?

[septimus]

Originally posted by KnightElite
How did you dry it septimus?

Oh, after rinsing off the CPU I just got a small piece of paper towel and wrapped the CPU up in it... afterwards I checked for water between the pins and the components on the surface and then plopped it back in my mobo.

I dont reccomend using a blow dryer or anything like that, might cause damage, maybe.