Did I damage my CPU while removing heatsink?

[John Doe]

If you do a little research, you will find everyone agrees with me
that using WD-40 might be okay if you use another cleaner to remove
the WD-40 residue afterwards.

 

[kony]

If you do a little research, you will find everyone agrees with me
that using WD-40 might be okay if you use another cleaner to remove
the WD-40 residue afterwards.

Actually if you do a little searching you will find zero
reports of anyone who used WD-40, wiped it off thoroughly
w/o further solvents, and then had a problem because of it.

 

[John Doe]

http://www.articsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm

Never use any oil or petroleum based cleaners (WD-40, citrus oil
based cleaners and many automotive degreasers) on the base of a
heatsink. The oil, which is engineered to not evaporate, will fill
in the microscopic valleys in the metal and significantly reduce the
effectiveness of any subsequently applied thermal compound.

Message-ID: <s7ceau89vsqhdehgpppf7fiv6q800veuva tribal.zidane>

I'm not sure about grease, but I did a No No and used WD-40 to clean
the thermal pad off my heatsink so I could use Arctic Silver. I
didn't find out about the WD-40 no-no until after I'd installed
two CPU's that way. The thing is, WD-40 never evaporates, and it
sinks into the pores of the heatsink.

Message-ID: <3c43112d$0$15428$45beb828 newscene.com>

and apply paste.I am also emphatic on not using WD 40 etc. for
cleaning thermal pad off heatsink.

I don't have problem with using WD-40 on the heatsink, as long as a degreasing
agent is used to thoroughly clean the WD-40 off afterward. WD-40 is great at
dissolving stubborn adhesives.

Message-ID: <a4ovds$1qc0s$1 ID-130449.news.dfncis.de>

Then, use another tissue with some isopropyl alcohol to clean the
WD-40 off.








Troll

 

[spodosaurus]

What brand of caps?

Go to the rubbish tip and dig it out.

Just having capacitor problems is not necessarily caused by
the often referenced taiwanese defective capacitors.

It was, it's not hard to check for bulging/leaking caps. I didn't expect
to find them on a board of that age, but I did. Australian PC User
magazine just did an article on them even more recently, like a couple
of months ago, as there are boards that aren't that old still dying from
this problem.

If one takes "most" motherboards that would run for several
years, puts them in a case with insufficient airflow,
especially with an overclocked or higher-heat CPU, that
alone may kill it.

Come to think of it, I've seen one of that model where
Gigabyte or some 3rd party (hired by Gigabyte) had replaced
the 3 caps near the audio jacks and it looked suspiciously
like one of the mosfets had heated up till it melted the
solder and slid down the board a few mm.

My cases always have good airflow and adequate or more than adequate
fannage. The caps were from different areas on the board, two different
types, and they were either bulging, leaking, or both. I've seen several
boards with bad caps on them recently, and they're pretty easy to spot.
Your information about it being an 'early socket A' problem is incorrect.

Ari


--
spammage trappage: remove the underscores to reply

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/

 

[spodosaurus]

Acetone would certainly do it brute-force, but be very
careful with it as it will melt far more types of plastics
than other options... and the outer coating on a CPU is
plastic, as well as sleeves on capacitors, the socket
itself, the fan, wires, etc.

Using a petroleum based cleaner will damage plastic, too, and more
readilly. Plastic comes from petroleum (for those reading this who
weren't aware that there aren't plastic farms with plastic trees). You
don't poor the cleaner on the CPU, just a little bit on a clean rag will
do. It's not brute force, unlike mineral turps.

Ari

--
spammage trappage: remove the underscores to reply

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/

 

[spodosaurus]

Yes it cleans very well, but it leaves a residue.

Hence my use of acetone followed by alcohol wipes: no residue. Volatile
compounds are fun!



--
spammage trappage: remove the underscores to reply

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/

 

[kony]

My cases always have good airflow and adequate or more than adequate
fannage. The caps were from different areas on the board, two different
types, and they were either bulging, leaking, or both. I've seen several
boards with bad caps on them recently, and they're pretty easy to spot.
Your information about it being an 'early socket A' problem is incorrect.

You are still failing to grasp a distinction here, that the
former problem was different, only having same result. IN
the former case the caps would even vent if one just hooked
a battery up and left them sitting, while in the latter it
always seems to be design-based, the amount of ripple the
particular cap is subject to.

 

[kony]

Using a petroleum based cleaner will damage plastic, too, and more
readilly.

You have no idea. Try it. Acetone will immediate begin
melting quite a few plastics in a PC.

Plastic comes from petroleum (for those reading this who
weren't aware that there aren't plastic farms with plastic trees).

"Come from" doesn't mean anything in particular.
Maple syrup "comes up" trees but it's not good for building
a fire.

You
don't poor the cleaner on the CPU, just a little bit on a clean rag will
do. It's not brute force, unlike mineral turps.

Yes, same with any cleaner, you don't pour it on.
Acetone is far more dangerous to use on many plastic
surfaces. I use it regularly for cleaning (things like
PCBs, after photoetching) and it is easy to demonstrate it's
damage to a variety of plastics in the short -term, mere
contact with them not lengthly soaking.

 

[kony]

http://www.articsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm

Never use any oil or petroleum based cleaners (WD-40, citrus oil
based cleaners and many automotive degreasers) on the base of a
heatsink. The oil, which is engineered to not evaporate, will fill
in the microscopic valleys in the metal and significantly reduce the
effectiveness of any subsequently applied thermal compound.

Yes they wrote "effectiveness", which as I and others have
demonstrated is not significant, that if a dry towel is used
to wipe off the vast majority of it, whatever remains has
been shown to not effect temp enough to measure.

I suppose you will forever remain ignorant because you just
never actually try anything you're built up a supersticion
against. That's fine, but doesn't change the fact that
those who have done it, have no ill consequences as a
result.

 

[spodosaurus]

You have no idea. Try it. Acetone will immediate begin
melting quite a few plastics in a PC.

I have, obviously, and if you had any readong comprhension skills you'd
have discerned that.

"Come from" doesn't mean anything in particular.
Maple syrup "comes up" trees but it's not good for building
a fire.

yap yap yap, if you can't stay on topic, why post?

 

[spodosaurus]

You are still failing to grasp a distinction here, that the
former problem was different, only having same result. IN
the former case the caps would even vent if one just hooked
a battery up and left them sitting, while in the latter it
always seems to be design-based, the amount of ripple the
particular cap is subject to.

you're misinformed, and snipping the previous text so this comes out of
context won't hide that fact.

 

[John Doe]

"Come from" doesn't mean anything in particular. Maple syrup
"comes up" trees but it's not good for building a fire.

Nice semantics, lousy counter argument.

Apparently you're just too proud to accept correction and too lazy
to defend yourself.

 

[kony]

you're misinformed, and snipping the previous text so this comes out of
context won't hide that fact.

Believe whatever you want then, but you couldn't even manage
to remember the brand of caps so I hardly think you are
paying attention to the particulars of the situation... I
can name the vast majority of the brands that ARE actually
defective, because it is in fact only a few.

Fact is, if you take even the best 'lytic cap made and use
it wrong, it's likely to fail. That doesn't necessarily
make the cap itself defective or faulty, it's just doing
what was expected.

 

[kony]

Nice semantics, lousy counter argument.

Apparently you're just too proud to accept correction and too lazy
to defend yourself.

Go ahead and damage parts with acetone if you like... since
I don't use it on CPUs I am not certain it would damage
them, only advising caution, but it will most definitely
damage a lot of plastics in a PC.

 

[Guest]

John Doe wrote:

Hence my use of acetone followed by alcohol wipes: no residue. Volatile
compounds are fun!

Acetone damages some of the plastics used on circuit boards, such as
the vinyl shrink wrap on some capacitors. Alcohol won't.

 

[spodosaurus]

Acetone damages some of the plastics used on circuit boards, such as
the vinyl shrink wrap on some capacitors. Alcohol won't.

Why the hell would you pour acetone on the circuit board when cleaning
goop off the CPU?

 

[kony]

Why the hell would you pour acetone on the circuit board when cleaning
goop off the CPU?

It seems unlikely, but there are several other areas that
acetone may damage. For example,

Seller product sticker (necessary for initial warranty) on
OEM parts.

Plastic fan frame on the heatsink, many people apparently
don't take the fan off first. This includes both the fan
frame and (when present) a mounting frame.

Fan wires, fan connector.

CPU foam heatsink cushion pads- those that come on some
CPUs, as well as those that come with some heatsinks.

Heat spreader bonding agent- Do we have any guarantees Intel
or AMD will always use something acetone tolerant if they
had never suggested using Acetone?

_IF_ the sealing agent on the CPU is indeed resistant to
acetone, _and_ stays that way, I can see how a very careful
technician might use it effectively. On the other hand
there are lots of things someone can do ok if they're "very
careful" which don't work well as a general practice. In
that regard it might be best to always try alcohol first and
only move on to more aggressive solvents if necessary.

 

[Norm De Plume]

On Sun, 22 Jan 2006 13:50:08 +0800, spodosaurus


It seems unlikely, but there are several other areas that
acetone may damage. For example,

Seller product sticker (necessary for initial warranty) on OEM parts.
Plastic fan frame on the heatsink,
Fan wires, fan connector.
CPU foam heatsink cushion pads-
Heat spreader bonding agent-

All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education,
wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public
health, what have the Romans ever done for us?

 

[kony]

All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education,
wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public
health, what have the Romans ever done for us?

Demonstrated that sometimes it's ok to feed someone to the
lions.

 

[John Doe]

Demonstrated that sometimes it's ok to feed someone to the
lions.

That's purely subjective.