Can thermal paste expire or go bad?

[Motox20]

I've torn my Xbox 360 apart and am ready to put it back together but the Artic Silver 5 I have is a little over 2 years old and I'm concerned it could hinder the heat dissipation. When I put the first dab on the CPU it just seemed to have a different texture than I remember after I started to spread it around. It's hard to explain how but it just didn't look or feel right, I cleaned it off and decided to see if it could be bad or not. For only a few bucks it's probably worth it to pick up a new tube.

Also I noticed that the Xbox repair service that was done on it previously seemed a little shoddy, they used phillips head screws instead of hex bolts and they were so tight I almost stripped them getting them off. Seemed like overkill and I'm hoping they didn't screw something up. I think too that I will wait to get a heat gun to run over the underside of the GPU and CPU as well.

Thanks

 

[scbjmshpv]

they don't expire but they do go bad, the good news it's life spam is about 15-20 years in which first 11-12 years they only loose like 2-5% of functionality which honestly you won't notice.

 

[StrangleHold]

I've torn my Xbox 360 apart and am ready to put it back together but the Artic Silver 5 I have is a little over 2 years old and I'm concerned it could hinder the heat dissipation. When I put the first dab on the CPU it just seemed to have a different texture than I remember after I started to spread it around. It's hard to explain how but it just didn't look or feel right, I cleaned it off and decided to see if it could be bad or not. For only a few bucks it's probably worth it to pick up a new tube.


Thanks

Sometimes if it has been opened before, alittle bit in the end of the tube spout might be dried up alittle. Just push some out to get whats underneath.

 

[linkin]

If it's a cheap silicon based one then yes it can indeed dry out or stop working. Using higher quality pastes, the chances are you'll replace it because you're changing hardware before it even needs replacing at all. But if applied correctly it can last many many years. What stuff do you intend to use? I use Arctic Silver 5 or IC Diamond 7, or if I'm out of those, whatever comes with the CPU cooler I have at the time.

 

[Motox20]

Thanks, nice to know it's still good. I'll start to put it back together, it was opened about 2 years ago but I didn't think to not use the first little bit because it could be a little dried out, thanks for that.

It's no biggie if I can't get this Xbox working again but when I order my new computer parts I wanted to make sure the Artic Silver 5 would still be good.

Thanks again