Arctic Silver 5.. potential problems?
A bit of Arctic silver 5 got strewn over on the chip right near the core. It looks like there are connections there, and the company site says it isn't conductive, but that it could cause problems. Is this just a disclaimer to get them out of potential lawsuits, or would this fry my processor a month down the road.. (it got strewn because i had never handled Arctic Silver before, so I didn't know it'd do that :banghead: Lesson learned..)
If it may cause problems, what do I clean it with? Isopropyl alcohol? (rubbing alcohol, isn't it?)
If it may cause problems, what do I clean it with? Isopropyl alcohol? (rubbing alcohol, isn't it?)
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For safety's sake, you might as well try your best to clean the stuff up. I've never used AS-5 yet, but with AS-3 being conductive, I always tried to be careful not to let it spill/slip on anything.
Equate brand 70% Isopropyl Alcohol does the job... $0.49 CDN for a 500mL bottle from the local Wal-Mart
I got most of it before I posted, but there's still some there (I can tell because it's more grey than the rest of the chip.
I was not able to get this dried grease off with alcohol (it has the consistancy of dried cement). I just removed the grease from the core, left the dried up stuff as is and applied new grease to the core. This was a few weeks ago and have yet to have any problems.
you won't get it all off, it is in the surface.
But this should be good enough.
The capacitance effect will be minimal with such a thin layer.
I don't think that it is a problem anyway.
I have used a copper loaded grease and got it all over stuff. As long as it was very light there is no problem.
after cleaning with acetone sold as strong nail polish
best way is to first gently wipe up the "big" globs without using isopropyl so as to remove most of it without spreading it around. Then use the alcohol to clean it up. I usually take a paper towel and fold it a couple times so I have a nice semi-firm corner/point and with this I can scoop off the paste from the sides of the core. Then all alcohol cleaning is done with motions inwards towards the core so I never spread the paste outwards to the capacitors.
I get AS and Ceramique off of the dies around the core with 91% Isoprophyl, and it works better than Rubbing Alcohol. Trick is to get the crust soaked, let sit 5-10 minutes, no power at all to chip, than wipe junk off. Or, rub off some, use fresh soaked towel place, and rub off more and work down gradually into crust. It is easier, due to the metal heat spreader/pressure spreader plate, to get stuff off a P4 than a Barton die.
John.
Use SPECTRA COOL Polysynthetic thermal grease and you will not have any worry about putting it on. It is electrically nonconductive and noncapacitive yet gets results just as good as AS 5. :usflag:
http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&userid=greatpcstuff
Actually, I soak a disposable lint free rag from my Scott's Rags in Box by holding the folded towel\rag against the open top of bottle of Isoprophyl, and gently wipe the stuff off right after applying with Ceramique. Then I go and wet another area, and wipe off more residue. Typically two to three applications of Iso soaked towel takes off junk around die.
It is then just a thin layer on core if you applied it right and cleaned up right when you applied it.
So, to clean off later, you take soaked place on rag, press gently to get some on gunk on core, and clean off the stuff after 5-10 minutes with a freshly wetted towel place and gentle rubbing. Then you clean off what got wiped elsewhere on die with a freeshly wetted other place, repeat until you can see no discoloration on die. I check with a 3X magnifier, or the 4X lense.
I would not soak the whole CPU enough to loosen the gunk by dipping or dropping in a bowl of Isoprophyl, you can very possibly get a thin film of the stuff all over die. And that is harder to clean up after than by doing it my way. The only thing that might get ruined rapidly are the hardest things to get off-- any surface resistors.
Acetone corrodes plastic unless it is removed right after by using Iso or Zylene, and Zylene is toxic enough that it is a controlled substance in the US in forms pure enough to work for this purpose. The CPU die itself is an epoxy composite, but can have plastic-like coatings on it. the core is something I do not know the real pure composition of, do not know if Acetone would trash it some or not. If you do not believe me, take an old plastic pipe or an old appliance or telephone and soak it in Acetone, then wipe dry-- you will get a nice thin film of plastic coming off on your rag and it will be duller than anything and rougher if you look at it under a magnifier glass. If you use Acetone, do bot soak in abowl of it, work real quick,clean up after real quick with Isoprophyl.
BTW, soak a die in anything after you have unlocked it, you could smeer your liquid trace stuff and partially dissolve it when you go to wipe off the thin film of gunk. So, if you use trace stuff on CPU, please do not dip in anything unless you want to clean it REAL well and then unlock it again.
Zylene is less corrosive and not likely to leave much of a film, but toxic to breathe in concentrated amounts, so you would do best to do it in a very well ventilated area if you use that to clean.
Cool_CPU, please provide test results from a reliable source as to your grease claims. I second that one.
John.
Sorry, but that sounds like blatanting pimping of pure BS, as if it was "Just as good as AS5" then I am sure people would be praising it, they would also have just mentioned it, rather than linking to a specific users eBay auctions, which is not allowed...
:bs: