applying too much thermal paste on cpu

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cougarsoccer

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i just installed a new heatsink and fan on my computer. after it runs for about 30 min i can start to smell something. i have come to the conclusion that i have put too much thermal transfer paste on the heatsink. i turned my computer off. will this mess up my cpu or anything else or is this normal. or do i need to take some of the paste off?
 
cougarsoccer said:
i just installed a new heatsink and fan on my computer. after it runs for about 30 min i can start to smell something. i have come to the conclusion that i have put too much thermal transfer paste on the heatsink. i turned my computer off. will this mess up my cpu or anything else or is this normal. or do i need to take some of the paste off?
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Just try to apply a thin layer(as thin as u can). I mean if you smell something burning - its deff. not a good sign.
 
it depends what thermal paste your talking about as to weather or not you fried something, some are electricly conductive like AS5 in which case you dont want to get it on ANYTHING, some are not conductive. most people say to put a dab in the center of the CPU about the size of a BB/large grain of rice and spread it out thin with a razor or credit card, i dont spread it out, when you mush it from the center it gets all the air out at once and it gets spread out on its own and forced into all the little places. but theres an art to this way, if you dont put enough paste on, or if you put way too much paste on can cause problems.
 
I'd also add that with AC5 its much harder to get it off your cpu.
Not hijacking, just trying to educate myself... - is AC any better than thermal paste?(in term of heat reduction)
 
ok here is the deal. i think i am just smelling the paste burning cause when i checked my cpu temps they were 10 degree C lower than with the stock heatsink and fan. i am using the thermal paste that came with my zalman 9500 fan.
 
cougarsoccer said:
ok here is the deal. i think i am just smelling the paste burning cause when i checked my cpu temps they were 10 degree C lower than with the stock heatsink and fan. i am using the thermal paste that came with my zalman 9500 fan.
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I may be wrong, but if you can smell your thermal paste burning, than i guess your HSF isn't attached propperly. - otherwise it wouldnt be burning:confused:
 
I try to rub it in and keep it thin, especially with something like AS5, thats conductive. Make sure you have something like goof-off around, and keep it off electrical contacts.

Thinner is waaayyyy better.

If you ever used AS5 epoxy, and removed the heat sinks, you can tell what is too much and was just right, you will get air bubbles in it if you use a lot.
 
ghost6303 said:
it depends what thermal paste your talking about as to weather or not you fried something, some are electricly conductive like AS5 in which case you dont want to get it on ANYTHING, some are not conductive. most people say to put a dab in the center of the CPU about the size of a BB/large grain of rice and spread it out thin with a razor or credit card, i dont spread it out, when you mush it from the center it gets all the air out at once and it gets spread out on its own and forced into all the little places. but theres an art to this way, if you dont put enough paste on, or if you put way too much paste on can cause problems.
Click to expand...

I think the word is capacitive, not conductive


As for the burning, there's no way you'd burn thermal compound unless you didn't have the heatsink mounted well. And even then, today's cpu's throttle before they get that hot, so I can't even imagine that being the case. Something definitely went real wrong.
 
ziddey said:
I think the word is capacitive, not conductive


As for the burning, there's no way you'd burn thermal compound unless you didn't have the heatsink mounted well. And even then, today's cpu's throttle before they get that hot, so I can't even imagine that being the case. Something definitely went real wrong.
Click to expand...

To much paste = keeping heatsink from seating properly = thermal barrier\trapped heat into the thermal grease = high temps on the thermal grease = fumes from substance being burned. ;)
 
S0m30n3 said:
To much paste = keeping heatsink from seating properly = thermal barrier\trapped heat into the thermal grease = high temps on the thermal grease = fumes from substance being burned. ;)
Click to expand...

Even still, today's cpu's should throttle way before then. The only time I've had a cpu get way too hot was when I was using a fried motherboard to try to run a c2d. I let it run with stock heatsink for 20 minutes, and there was a burning metal smell. Other than that, running heatsink less on a properly throttling cpu would never let it get that hot.

As for too much paste in there, I've put insane amounts on my c2d before too when I was doing testing. It didn't make all too big of a difference. Once you hit a certain point, excess will get squeezed out and collect around the socket.

If indeed this was what happened, and as5 was used, then perhaps it could have done something, yes. But saying that too much compound was used, causing a barrier, causing the compound to cook doesn't happen. If you've got some extra paste to spare and some spare time, you can give it a shot for yourself. If you want to play it safe, use asc or something similar instead of as5.
 
Personally, i put a small amount in the middle of the CPU. Then i spread it over the heatspreader using a small latex finger-glove ;) It always worked perfectly that way for me. Some will say that im to meticulous but ...well... yeah... i might be lol
 
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