I noticed some excess thermal paste around the CPU cooler and carefully removed a small amount with a toothpick without removing the cooler. I'm using Arctic MX-6. Could this have created air bubbles or caused any cooling problems?
2 Answers
It should be fine if you only removed paste from the outside edge and didn’t lift or shift the cooler. The mounting pressure will spread the remaining paste, and a tiny amount of trapped air usually isn’t a concern. Just avoid poking underneath the cooler or scraping the CPU and motherboard.
If the cooler was already tightened down, removing a little excess from the edges shouldn’t affect the thermal interface. You would only need to clean and reapply the paste if the cooler was lifted, rotated significantly, or temperatures become unusually high. A few tiny air pockets are normal and generally get compressed during installation.
MX-6 isn’t electrically conductive, so a small amount around the CPU usually won’t cause a short. If the cooler stayed firmly in place, you probably don’t need to redo anything.