Cleaning cpu fan/heatsink.

hpi

hpi

banned
Well I have to clean mine and was wondering how exactly hard it is to clean? Ive never done it yet and im worried il mess something up.

Also for the thermal paste or pad. Not sure what's on there right now, but do I have to replace it or can it wait?
 
Typically I just remove the fan and scrap the dust off with my finger. Compressed air works well too. But I don't bother removing the whole unit... Eh, at least not unless you want to reapply the thermal paste.
 
The_Other_One pretty much hit the nail on the head. The easiest way is to just unscrew the fan itself off leaving the metal base still attached and either get a can of air and spray the dust out or use a very light thin brush. If your temps are fine theres no real reason to re-thermal it.
 
Actually if you want to remove thermal paste, the best thing I've found(beleive it or not) are oxy pads! The alcohol and textured surface works very well. :o
 
Bradan said:
oxy pads have skin lubricant
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So it's nice and slick :rolleyes: Haha, yeah, probably not the best, but it does work quite well. I do wipe off when I'm done with a paper towel... But for that really stuck on stuff, they work quite well. I used them on my laptop...well the heatsink. The CPU was actually clean.
 
I wanna stop that damn revving sound and it looks very dirty. The cpu fan revs like mad I think because of that.
 
Well I took out the heatsink/cpu fan and jesus christ was there alot of dust on there. My fan still revvs though so Im thinking it might be a normal thing to do.

My cpu idle is between 40c-45c and I think it stays like that underload from what I can see.

I also heard I have a hot running cpu so that can be it.
 
well if i were you (not discarding information previously said) i would remove the heatsink (metal bit) and fan fully clean the heatsink and fan either using compressed air or by cotten wool buds (good for getting in the nooks and crannys,) reapply thermal paste and then reattach the heatsink make sure you have full ventilation in your case otherwise this will be almost pointless.
 
Christian Darrall said:
well if i were you (not discarding information previously said) i would remove the heatsink (metal bit) and fan fully clean the heatsink and fan either using compressed air or by cotten wool buds (good for getting in the nooks and crannys,) reapply thermal paste and then reattach the heatsink make sure you have full ventilation in your case otherwise this will be almost pointless.
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Ya I did all that. I used the compressed air cans and I took the fan off the heatsink and cleaned it all.
 
Yes the NetBurst architecture is very heat-producing, my uncle as a Sony VAIO with an old 478 Prescott in and pretty much from boot the fan is whining away. I've heard they can go to searing temperatures without failing unlike the Core 2 Duo's. Some Arctic Silver 5 wouldn't go a miss though.
 
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