I'm helping a friend who built his own PC, and he accidentally got thermal paste on the AM5 socket. I've checked it out, and now I'm wondering if this is something that can be fixed without too much trouble.
3 Answers
You might be able to fix this! The pins on that socket are really delicate, so steer clear of using any tissues or rough materials. Your best move is to grab some isopropyl alcohol and gently try to dissolve the thermal paste. Just make sure those pins don’t move at all to keep contact with the CPU intact.
Take care while cleaning! You could also check out this video by LTT where they showed a crazy case of using way too much paste, and it still booted. Just remember, the pins are smaller on newer sockets, so cleaning it properly is definitely safer!
Yes, you can definitely salvage this! Thermal paste isn’t conductive, so as long as you didn't use liquid metal, which I doubt since you mentioned being new to this, you should be fine. Just use 99% isopropyl alcohol with some Q-Tips and clean it off carefully. The success will depend on how much paste got on the socket, though.
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