That time a client taught me about thermal paste application

I had a guy come into my shop in Omaha last spring with a custom build that kept overheating. He insisted I was wrong about using a pea-sized dot, said he'd been doing it the same way since 2008. Showed me photos of his old CPU and there was paste everywhere, even on the socket pins. Has anyone else run into customers who swear by outdated methods even when the evidence is right there?

2 comments

2 Comments

ninal911mo ago

Paste on the actual socket pins? That's a special kind of crazy, I'm amazed the board didn't just fry on the spot.

dylan4131mo ago

Took it a step further and tried to clean it off with isopropyl, probably made a puddle in the socket. I've seen people use way too much thermal paste and think it's fine because the temps drop for a few hours, then it spreads everywhere when the cooler gets seated. The worst one I dealt with was a guy who used a credit card to spread it like butter on toast, ended up with paste in the memory slots somehow. Having it on the socket pins is next level though, that board was basically a lost cause unless you had a ton of contact cleaner and patience.