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removing Athlon XP thermal...stuff?

B

bionic

n00b
Joined
Nov 17, 2003
Messages
39
I have an Athlon XP2100, and I recently had to remove the stock heatsink for the first time since installing it.

There's some nasty light pink hard waxy substance that was used as the original heat conductor, but I can't get it off now without chipping it off with my fingernails, which isn't very efficient. And I'm not about to try that on my CPU core...

I've tried isopropyl alcohol and it doesn't come off with that either. Does anyone know what you're supposed to use to get this stuff off? (sorry if this has been covered before, but the search function doesn't work)
 
Well, the last time I had to deal with those thermal pads I heated the heatsink with a hairdryer to melt the wax pad before removing the heatsink and then I just quickly mopped up the liquid mess with some q-tips. Then I finished that off with some 99% Isopropyl. However, since you already popped the heatsink off, you could...um...clean it off with some stuff...or maybe put it back on and heat it....yeah, I'll just shut up now and let someone else suggest something... :D
 
Well, that kind of sucks, especially since you dont have a heat spreader on the proc to just make it more efficient at removing without to much worries of just scratching the hell outa your core. I would try to just chip it away though if the Alcohol doesnt work. Maybe if you have a tool that could do it faster?? I would be careful when doing that though. As far as chemicals go I wouldnt try to much because it might remove it, but also damage your CPU. Yeah, I am not much help I would wait for another reply before you listen to me... Sorry I cant help much, but that would be what I would do.
 
I would just try a razor blade and work VERY slowly. Nail polish remover should take care of the rest.
 
I used toothpicks. May have been different stuff, but it was hard and brittle.

I was gonna suggest what petra said, warm it up with a hairdryer first gently. Then scrape away.
 
Get your hands on some Goof Off. That stuff can take anything off of anything. I wouldn't use it on the core, though.

On the core, just use >90% pure isopropyl alcohol and a microbrush (or a q-tip if you're fresh outta microbrushes :p)
 
Run 30 mins or so of prime95 and then shut down immediately and scrape asap.. let the chip heat the stuff up
 
Yeah, the thing is that I'm not worried about the heatsink (I can scrape it off that without damaging anything important)...I'm more worried about the CPU core.

I'm gonna try heating it up with a hairdryer and seeing if it'll melt this wax crap off. Is there anything to worry about overheating the CPU core with the hairdryer? I don't wanna be melting the plastic packaging around it or anything....
 
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