How Risky is Skipping Thermal Compound?
Jeff34Buff
Lakewood, CO
I can't get a POST because the video signal isn't making it. The MOBO is stripped down to CPU, fan, 1 512 stick of ram. CMOS resets done properly. Keyboard & Mouse on and off. (I been working this since yesterday). The ASUS tech says it's got to be the video card. There's no onboard video so I'd have to move everything over to a similar MOBO & see if the card is truly the culprit.
I hate moving CPU's & am worried about my processor because I'm out of thermal paste for the heatsink/CPU fan.
Can I run a P4 530 for 60 - 90 seconds without frying the CPU?
They can't heat up that fast - can they?
Jeff
It's out of the case on a phone book, 1 ram stick, keyboard, mouse, Video, and power will be the only components attached.
I hate moving CPU's & am worried about my processor because I'm out of thermal paste for the heatsink/CPU fan.
Can I run a P4 530 for 60 - 90 seconds without frying the CPU?
They can't heat up that fast - can they?
Jeff
It's out of the case on a phone book, 1 ram stick, keyboard, mouse, Video, and power will be the only components attached.
0
Comments
I agree, too risky with a proc as hot running as a Pressie.
Why not just try the vid card itself in another rig?
if its bare, then yeh, your gonna get a griddle real fast.
but i think it should be able to handle little to no thermal compound with no load. heat transfer wouldnt be that great, but it would be there as long as there is good contact. It's a risk you might be willing to take, or not.
I personally dont think i could bring myself to do it, seein as im POOR and cant afford to buy another processor, If I were to bet on if it would fry or not, id say not. just get a little warm.
All the local computer stores closed about 5 mins ago. No biggie, I'll just go to the Brand New Comp AMERICA opening in my neighborhood at 8AM tommorow. If I play it right I can get my picture taken as their first customer.
One Tube Artic Silver 5 please. Won't they be proud?
In the meantime I think I'll call the Wal-Mart electronics department just down the street & ask "How much are you asking for a medium-size tube of thermal compound?" "Oh, by the way do you still carry it in the 8 oz cans?"
I may have already fried a nice X700Pro video card (see post in emergency forum for the story).
I will not yeild to the sirens call. Impatience is the enemy of wanna-be tech's like me.
If I was a guy at the local Blue Shirt store (a real pro) I'd go for it!
Thanks to all you who helped me in my moment of madness!
I hope the best for you -
PS. Sorry about the card.
Nuff said!
R
not entirely true, I've ran a p4 1.7 willy with no heat sink for about a week, it clocked itself down to like 150MHz lol
and i a processor with no compund is not the same thing as a car with no oil., a car with no oil will die within a minute or so. a process and hsf with no compound will only run hotter than normal.
The trick is to make sure that you clean all the residue of with some rubbing alcohole. because once that residue gets a gummy and crappy, the heat transfer goes to pot. Thats why you need to reapply compound everytime you take the heat sink off.
Like someone said above, all the compound is their for is to fill in the gaps, because if you could get the heatsink and the processor to COMPLETELY touch each other without a single gap anyware, not even the smallest, it would transfer heat so much better than haveing to use an interface, because everytime a step is added in a process, it looses efficency. so if you get the heat sink seated on their good, it should be fine, like mackanz said, pressure is important.
He isnt saying without a HSF. Just without thermal paste.
Good gawd he is talking for 90 seconds. You can run any cpu with a functioning HSF for way over that with no thermal compound just to test if it boots.
Should he go gaming? No. to test if he gets video on boot up? Uhhh... yes thats fine with a HSF and no thermal paste.
Tex
I didn't read the whole thing either and got carried away too. Still, I just never would have considered it. No experience with that.
I don't live on the edge with PCs, don't have a lot of bucks to risk and the thought with burner-hot Intels still makes me nervous.
Do I still think it is risky? Yes - especially if he hasn't cleaned or checked his surfaces for problems- some of which may not be obvious- and is possibly inexperienced with the procedure and fail to seat it right (seen that result recently- said it was over real fast. Nearly $600 adios. But paste don't matter much then).
To you been-on-the-edge gentlemen, thank you, I've learned something new. But on one point I see we are still all agreed - be careful.
I thought since I had to go to Comp USA to get the paste, I might as well take the card along with me and let them test it. Only fair, I thought, because I did buy it there.
At first they wanted to charge me $20 for a "diagnostic fee". But one of the guys remembered me from before and waived the fee, telling me it might take a while.
No problem with me I did some errands and got back about 2 hours later. He told me he was real sorry but he didn't notice it was a PCI-Express card.
"We don't have the equipment to check those, I'm awful sorry". "We haven't been open that long & our service department isn't completely set up yet".
I don't know if they're liars or morons - after all what difference does it make? But I didn't feel like buying the thermal paste, blank CD-R's (on sale for $0.12 each).
Got some paste at Best Buy. They don't carry Artic Silver - "Dynex" will have to do.
I'm pretty disgusted, They can't fix anything, nor do they carry supplies and equipment so that people can do it themselves.
If you own stock in these companies I reccomend SELLING! Their long term outlook is not good. Throw in the fact that they take their customers for granted & I'd give them 5 maybe 10 years before all they do is sell.......?
At least Best Buy will have Washers and Dryers to peddle when their computer division goes belly up.
:banghead:
The ASUS tech is full of it dude. When its the MB the main set of symptoms is that the fans all come on etc.. and it doesnt post. Just like the problem you are having. It does not HAVE to be the video card. There is almost no way a tech on the phone can tell you what it definately is either.
Did this ever work? Or is this a new build or what?
Disconnect the psu from the motherboard. Pull the battery for 30 minutes. Put it back in and try one more time.
You don't have a regular old crappy pci video card to slap in just to test for a second?
Tex
Om another note Dans Data actually tested some common materials as heatsink compounds and TOOTHPASTE (yes toothpaste) was the best as a heatsink compound (slightly better than even Artic Silver). But it dries up rather quickly....
Dans Data: Thermal Transfer Comparison
Is ASUS gonna give me a hard time about an exchange? I'm mentally drained from being bounced back and forth between vendors and manufacturers who keep pointing at the other guy. I'm starting to lose faith in my fellow man. The project has been put to bed for the night.
//and by AMD I mean I am a gigantic moron and can't read. But try it anyways, I have been having issues with newer boards and their PS's.
ASUS is usually pretty good on RMA's.
Tex
The Athlon T'bird 1200 in SM/IC 12 was run for over 2 years with no thermal goop & a stock retail hsf before I rescued it.
Yes things were a little toasty when I found out what was going on, like idleing at around 58c & then temps going up to 70c + under load but the processor was fine & now overclocks quite well.
Just for comparison, when I did put some AS3 on the temps came down by around 15c irc.