I cleaned my heatsink with a cosmetic cleaner for skin cleaning of the face and wiped it off with napkins, which I now know is a fatal mistake. Now my processor overheats as if there is no heatsink. Is there any way to fix this or should I buy a new heatsink? Will getting isopropyl alcholoh 99.9% and a fiber cloth solve the problem?

 

Hello,

When you cleaned the chip and heatsink, there is likely no thermal grease between them.
Then there will me air trapped between the chip and heatsink:

Read this page for more info:
http://sound.whsites.net/heatsinks.htm

Bertus

 

Did you remove the processor from the heatsink when cleaning it?
If so then it may be that the interface between the processor and heatsink is the problem. There should be something between the two - a special rubber pad or heatsink compound - to help the heat conduction between the two. Also make sure there isn't some debris in between which would stop the two coming into close contact.

 

Are we talking about the surface that mates to the processor, or the other surfaces?

You haven't mentioned thermal paste. You need it!

 

I applied 3 types of thermal paste in all ways possible, its not the thermal paste, after cleaning the processor surface, now there isnt a good contact between the thermal paste and the heatsink, if I put a higher degree thermal paste the overheating gets worst, because the temperature goes from the paste to the air, instead of the heatsink is what I believe? Or perhaps the sink is defective if it gets too hot?

 

now there isnt a good contact between the thermal paste and the heatsink

Why isn't there a good contact?

I fail to understand how cleaning could significantly affect the efficiency of the heatsink.
Did you reassemble the heatsink and processor with a thin film of thermal paste between the processor and heatsink.
It should be no thicker than needed to just fill in the tiny air gaps between the processor and heatsink. The compound has a lower thermal resistance than air but a higher thermal resistance than metal.

 

I'm fairly sure you haven't seated your heat sink properly. What processor is it and what model/brand of heat sink?

A good quality thermal compound is needed, as previously stated, and you don't need a lot. One or two "blobs" the size of a grain of rice spread very thinly with something like a credit card is all that's needed.

 

The thermal paste is applied properly, the heatsink is seated properly, but there may be oxidation, some chemical reaction and parts left from the paper napkin.

 

Something is off here . . . in a bit of a rush here (gotta board a flight soon) but:

What type of computer do you have? Is it a desktop, or a laptop? If it's a commercial rig, what is the brand and model? If custom, what type of motherboard and processor are you using? The answers to these questions will assist others in troubleshooting your issue.

If you are using a proper thermal paste applied correctly, have properly re-positioned the heat sink onto the processor, and made sure the heatsink cooling fan (if present) is running, there is no way you should be suffering a sudden overheating condition. If all that was done correctly, than there is another issue present.

Some generic suggestions if this is a desktop computer:

Remove the heatsink from the motherboard, exposing the processor. Remove the heatsink fan (if there is one) and set it aside. Clean the heatsink with hot, soapy water like you would a dish (dish soap is perfect for this, by the way). Rinse well and then let the heat sink dry. When it's dry clean the mating surface of the heatsink with isopropyl alcohol . . . taking care when finished not to touch that surface of the heatsink when done.

Very carefully clean the top of the processor with isopropyl alcohol (just moisten a paper towel with the alcohol, don't soak it). Clean the top of the processor till you can no longer see any thermal paste residue. As with the heatsink, take care not to touch the top of the processor with your fingers . . . body oils can inhibit heat transfer from the processor to the heatsink.

Once the alcohol has evaporated, apply a thermal media approved for your type of processor. If a paste type (and they usually are) an amount equal to a grain of rice right in the center of the processor is generally enough. If it's a thermal pad, just center the pad on top of the processor. It's important not to let the paste or pad get on anything but the top of the processor . . . some thermal material can be conductive.

Reset the heatsink on the processor, making sure it is properly seated . . . you can test this (once whatever fastening scheme the heatsink has is attached to your satisfaction) by gently trying to turn the heatsink clockwise and then counter clockwise. If it moves easily, there is something not positioned correctly.

Have to shut down - sorry for any spelling errors. Like I said before, giving more information on the type of computer you have would go a long way in getting this issue squared away.

 

Ok, thank you for this I might try it when I can, here is the info I can give you:

Laptop Asus X55VD, dual core B980 processor, 6GB RAM, 750GB HDD, generic heatsink over the CPU and GPU, I think over the chipset there is only a plastic cover with thermal paste under it.
http://ark.intel.com/products/69669/Intel-Pentium-Processor-B980-2M-Cache-2_40-GHz

Thermal paste: Arctic silver MX-2 recommended, MX-4 used, Cooler master mastergel maker at 11W used, Manhatten at 0.95W used and this one works the best.

There are sudden spikes in the temperature of 10 degrees, the laptop runs at 80 degrees with load, it can even reach 85, but I dont load it much, because the maximum Tjunction is 85 C.

There is pretty much no difference between running with a sink and without a sink, since the lowest wattage thermal paste works, I am guessing that the better one takes the temperature out but since it meats air it gets stuck in the paste and that leads to overheating.

This whole problem happened after reaplying thermal paste, I had overheating before, but not so much and there were no spikes in the temperature.

I belive the fan fried also because it can no longer work a maximum RPM, it changes the RPM but not like before,

 

Why did you decide to do all this "cleaning"?

 

Like I said, I had overheating before, but it was not so bad. now its much worst.
I cleaned the fan of dust and reaplied thermal paste and the overheating got worst. The heatsink is the only option I can think of.

 

Can you power it up with case disassembled? Is it heating up at that time? OR...is it overheating when you fully re-assemble?

 

I cleaned the fan of dust and reaplied thermal paste

How much thermal paste did you use?
It needs to be a very thin layer.

 

I'd also check your fan rpm. Maybe you're losing your fan and overheating is just a symptom.

 

The fan died because it was working on max RPM I guess, but the problem is the heatsink by my opinion, there should be something between the paste and the heatsink that's blocking the heat flow, or maybe the sensor is just dead, I can't disassemble it because the battery must be there, but I did overheat it and disassemble it immediately and the sink was hot, even my keyboard got hot.

 

Do you have a hair dryer that has an air only setting? Or compressed air source?

 

Does this laptop use a heat pipe as part of the heat-sinking arrangements?

 

I dont have a hair dryed (why do I need it, I might buy on one later), it has a heatpipe that leads to the fan.

 

it has a heatpipe that leads to the fan.

Maybe you damaged the heat pipe when when dismantling/cleaning/reassembling.
https://hardforum.com/threads/do-heatpipes-ever-go-bad-laptop-heatsink.1663389/