Cleaning old 2500+ ?

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xtox

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 8, 2004
Messages
242
Ok, I have an old Athlon 2500+ Barton which I want to clean for use. Just going to use it for a cheap practise computer for college.

Any idea how I can clean the old compound off it? And how would I go about it, because its not like the new CPUs that are covered by the metal plate all over, the core is visible.

Cheers.
 
Q-tips and rubbing alchahol. Don't be alarmed that it doesn't have a heat spreader on it, they dont break from cleaning.
 
I heard rubbing alcohol is always a no no? (probably being an idiot, but in a cisco test i took I failed a question because I though rubbing alch DID NOT contaminate computer parts but they said it does)

Anyway, we don't really have such thing in this country as it is an american term..?
 
91% isopropyl alcohol is used quite frequently.

I soak an old toothbrush with it, and scrub away at the top, to remove old heatsink compound. Some of those old-style phase change pads take a good bit of effort.
 
If you have access to it... the Arcti-Clean product made by Arctic Silver is a wonderful product. The cleaner is citrus based and cleans almost anything... the surface prep solution clears away all traces of cleaner and dries almost instantly.

I used to use alcohol and other cleaners, but once I tried Arcti-Clean, I find nothing else does the job as well.
 
I use paint thinner and q-tips to thin out the compund then i wash the processor with some warm water and dish soap. Then i dry it. I t works really well for me.
 
i cleaned a cpu with 91%....

it had arctic silver on it and i heard that its conductive...

well some way or other i have an athlon 1.33 that like...the board its in boots it but tryin to install windows, it reboots, tryin to install *nix i get kernel panic cpu error...

and since i dont have any other socket a chips to swap around and test with, meh...i think i did in the cpu while cleaning it and put too much alcohol on the chip, or the conductive paste borked the chip
 
Since your around a college, Pure Grain Alcohol (PGA) should be abundant. It will work just fine!
:D
 
I use 91-95% Isopropyl. There aren't enough impurities in it to cause problems.

Arctic Silver is not conductive, BTW.
 
Rabid Badger said:
I use 91-95% Isopropyl. There aren't enough impurities in it to cause problems.

Arctic Silver is not conductive, BTW.
Click to expand...


Would the 91-95% Iso you mention above work as well on a A64 X2 s939 ? I want to get
rid of the melted transfer pad off it from the retail sink and put AS5 on it,then re mount with
a Arctic Cooling 64 PRO
 
Manny Calavera said:
Would the 91-95% Iso you mention above work as well on a A64 X2 s939 ? I want to get
rid of the melted transfer pad off it from the retail sink and put AS5 on it,then re mount with
a Arctic Cooling 64 PRO
Click to expand...
91% IPA works for anything, unless you need a stronger solvent. Not likely in computer land.
 
i used to use a rag with plain old water and lots of scrubbing to clean off my old 2500 :)

sure, it might not be as effective as using alcohol, BUT, I was able to clock my 2500 to 2.8ghz, so I musta been doing SOMETHING right :D

goddamn! that 2500 was the best processor I have EVER owned.... that little fucker lasted *forever*! (and I'd still be using it today if I didn't destroy it when I fried my motherboard doing something *stupid*)

I bet a million bucks that my 2.8ghz Barton would be more than enough to play anything out today when paired with a decent vid card (I remember I used to run FEAR very smoothly on it with a 6800GT)

wow, I went OT.... so what I'm trying to say is: awesome proc :) Clean it up and stick it in something, b/c that fucker will last you *forever*
 
P3N1X0R said:
i cleaned a cpu with 91%....

it had arctic silver on it and i heard that its conductive...
Click to expand...

Arctic Silver is non-conductive. It does, however, remain slightly capacitative.

well some way or other i have an athlon 1.33 that like...the board its in boots it but tryin to install windows, it reboots, tryin to install *nix i get kernel panic cpu error...
Click to expand...

Is this one of the old Thunderbird chips? You may want to take a look-see at the chip top, to make sure that the core isn't crushed / cracked. Those CPU's were prone to cracking, if I recall correctly.
 
mwarps said:
91% IPA works for anything, unless you need a stronger solvent. Not likely in computer land.
Click to expand...

In those cases, xylenes work well, but you should still use 91% isopropyl alcohol as a final cleanup stage.
 
Unabomber said:
Is this one of the old Thunderbird chips? You may want to take a look-see at the chip top, to make sure that the core isn't crushed / cracked. Those CPU's were prone to cracking, if I recall correctly.
Click to expand...

yes it is a thunderbird :)

if the core were prone to cracking...it would still boot up though? weird i wouldnt expect it to even post
 
P3N1X0R said:
yes it is a thunderbird :)

if the core were prone to cracking...it would still boot up though? weird i wouldnt expect it to even post
Click to expand...

In many cases, yes, it can still boot; you just won't get it to go through the whole booting sequence, most of the time.

I did that with my old Thunderbird 1200 MHz CPU. The fan that came with the retail boxed processor was dying, so I went to a local store, and asked for a Socket A heatsink / cooling fan combo.

Lo and behold, I didn't realize that those old T-birds had a core that was ever so slightly taller than their Intel counterparts. After I had put the heatsink on, I heard a creaking noise, and thought nothing of it, believing that maybe I stressed the plastic retention areas, or something similarly trivial.

Well, after I had installed the new heat sink, I kept getting weird error messages, and even CPU failure messages, and the system eventually wouldn't even boot anymore. I called AMD, and asked them what to do, and they said that since I had installed a 3rd party heatsink on it, and not a direct replacement, they wouldn't honor the 3 year guarantee.

Just for giggles, though, the support guy asked me to clean off the CPU top, and tell me what I saw, and sure enough, I saw a few hairline cracks on the side of the chip. When he said "Your CPU core is crushed," I learned my lesson.

I'm not mad at them for this; it was my own fault for trusting the ignorant local merchant, and using a Socket 370 heatsink that was not really good for the older Socket A CPU's.

Besides, it gave me the perfect excuse to buy an Athlon XP 1700+. Much happier with that CPU's performance!
 
mzs_biteme said:
One word..kinda...: WD40.... ;)
Click to expand...

hehe NO!!!!!!

But that did get me thinking of other spray solvents like Tricloroethane (spelling), ya know that 1,1,1 stuff?
 
I think he means WD40.
Its a thin spray oil that is widely used to displace water and give immediate lubrication.
 
I use Isopropyl Alcohol. The highest grade from CVS or Walgreens. I can't remember the exact amount. I've been using that with qtips for years. I also use Alcohol pads or chem pads. Those are nice.
 
xtox said:
No.. We have WD-40 here.. :p

I meant the term rubbing alcohol.
Click to expand...

Standard "rubbing alcohol" is 70% isopropyl alcohol. It should be very cheaply available in any civilized nation. Check your local pharmacies for this.

70% isopropyl alcohol works OK, but when working with CPU's, I prefer to use something more anhydrous, in this case, 91% isopropyl alcohol. Again, your local pharmacies / apothecaries should have this.

I discourage the use of WD-40. It's mostly Stoddard's solvent, and light chain hydrocarbons that are in the same distillation fraction as kerosenes.
 
You can't fry a chip from too much alcohol on it... Unless you start up your computer while it's still wet. Since that stuff dries pretty instantly... this is unlikely to happen.


I got as5 in the pins of my x2. What did I do? I soaked it in alcohol overnight. The entire thing, under about an inch of 91% iso. alcohol.

Woke up, as 5 was laying at the bottom of the margarine container (hehehe, very useful things to have around a workshop). Plucked the chip out let it air dry for 20 minutes... popped it in. Booted beautifully.
 
make sure you get the high grade stuff though... 70% may as well just be water. 91 or higher is the only way to go.
 
Arcygenical said:
You can't fry a chip from too much alcohol on it... Unless you start up your computer while it's still wet. Since that stuff dries pretty instantly... this is unlikely to happen.


I got as5 in the pins of my x2. What did I do? I soaked it in alcohol overnight. The entire thing, under about an inch of 91% iso. alcohol.

Woke up, as 5 was laying at the bottom of the margarine container (hehehe, very useful things to have around a workshop). Plucked the chip out let it air dry for 20 minutes... popped it in. Booted beautifully.
Click to expand...

man, your nuts...
 
Manny Calavera said:
Would the 91-95% Iso you mention above work as well on a A64 X2 s939 ? I want to get
rid of the melted transfer pad off it from the retail sink and put AS5 on it,then re mount with
a Arctic Cooling 64 PRO
Click to expand...

On lidded processors like the X2's I use acetone or brake cleaner. Guaranteed to get ALL of the old compound off.
 
NordicRX8 said:
If you have access to it... the Arcti-Clean product made by Arctic Silver is a wonderful product. The cleaner is citrus based and cleans almost anything... the surface prep solution clears away all traces of cleaner and dries almost instantly.

I used to use alcohol and other cleaners, but once I tried Arcti-Clean, I find nothing else does the job as well.
Click to expand...

QFT

No [H] member should be without the Arcti-Clean set in the toolbag.
 
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