There’s your problem!

[EnderW]

Oops

 

[chameleoneel]

Personally never done it. And can't imagine myself ever doing it------but I hear about it fairly often

 

[GoldenTiger]

Personally never done it. And can't imagine myself ever doing it------but I hear about it fairly often

Ditto. Nice diagnostic work, though, OP.

 

[xDiVolatilX]

Lmao the generous helping of thermal paste you slathered on top of the plastic film makes it the literal icing on the proverbial cake hah!

 

[Nobu]

I don't see the problem. OP clearly lapped the heatsink until it was very smooth, should work great!

 

[EnderW]

Personally never done it. And can't imagine myself ever doing it------but I hear about it fairly often

I would have said the same thing last week. Been building PCs for 21 years. First time. This one has been running for over a year too.

In my defense I always use Noctua heatsinks the last several years (except this time) which don’t have a plastic peel.

 

[Randy6309]

Having made more then enough blunders in my rig building projects over the years all I can do when I see this is smile.

 

[chameleoneel]

I would have said the same thing last week. Been building PCs for 21 years. First time. This one has been running for over a year too.

In my defense I always use Noctua heatsinks the last several years (except this time) which don’t have a plastic peel.

I always alcohol the heatsink before install. Even when brand new

 

[doyll]

It happens to the best!!
Used to be 1st thing peeps posted when someone posted they were overheating.
I did it once assembling a system when I should have been in bed.
Cost me better part of a day's work before I pulled cooler.

 

[bluestang]

At least now your don't have to fight to clean the paste off that heatsink. Should just peel right off

 

[Hash_Immutable_1337x]

At least now your don't have to fight to clean the paste off that heatsink. Should just peel right off

Just say you wanted to test the heatsink first.. and left the plastic film on purpose so the paste would be easy to clean off for the first round of testing..
Believable, yeah?