Removal of AVC CPU fan

Hey guys I recently decided to take a look at my computer because it was making a whole lot of noise. So I realized the noise was coming from my CPU fan, which I began to disassemble. But I had no idea how to do it... Eventually I accidently took apart the entire cooling system, which exposed my CPU. This is bad because I don't have any thermal paste.

Another thing I noticed is that the thermal paste on the CPU doesn't distribute evenly across the CPU (this computer is like 5 years old btw). I took some pictures to show you, but to me it's pretty clear that pretty much none of the metal has been touching each other because the layer of thermal paste is so thick?

Well I just bought some thermal paste myself now so it's good and I plan to apply it when it arrives, but I will need to use my computer a bit before that.

So would it be better to leave the thermal paste as it is now, or should I just remove it entirely and replace it with a temporary solution like butter, toothpaste or ketchup? And if so do I have to use alchohol to remove the thermal paste?

Link to images: http://imgur.com/a/Canlo

 

Remove the paste. DO NOT attempt to use any temporary solution. There is no good substitute. If you attempt to substitute you'll quite possibly end up frying the CPU. It is not worth the risk. Keep the computer off until you get the proper paste.

 

Okay so I decided to apply some butter to the cooling system and reassemble it to the CPU (I didn't remove the previous thermal paste). When I restarted my computer it worked just fine... In fact better (Obviously this was because I had already cleaned the dust from the cooling system which was causing trouble). Then I ran a program called Speedfan to monitor the temperature of my CPU and it showed 42-43 degrees celsius.

I tried playing a performance heavy game (Planetside 2) to see if anything would happen and it got up at around 55 degrees celsius. Nothing to worry about I think.

So far the results have been nothing but positive, but I assume the butter will evaporate or dissapear at some point, so I'll make sure to fix that when I can. Either way thanks for the advice I guess

 

Remember, kids, DO NOT try this at home... or anyplace else.

 

:foolish:foolish:foolish:foolish:foolish:foolish

You do realize salted butter will conduct current?

Just for fun I Googled "butter thermal conductivity"...

http://www.csbe-scgab.ca/docs/journal/17/17_2_68_raw.pdf

 

How much salt contains "salted butter"? The butter I was using had about 1% salt, so I wouldn't worry about electrical conductivity.

Also butter seems to be a pretty good thermal conductor so I don't see why it's a problem...

 

Because butter is nowhere near as viscous as polysynthetic thermal paste. It's a fair bet that it's surface tension will allow it to leach beyond the heat sink. Even too much silver paste can damage nearby circuitry if you use too much.

The salt is also not good no matter what. It may cause corrosion of the copper or aluminum of the heat sink.

It's just not a good idea, and we have thermal paste for a reason.

You may luck out, you may not...

 

Alright thanks guys I'll use thermal paste next time.