Thermal paste won't come off GPU

[Alexx_Bk]

Can I leave it like this?

[Levent]

Yes

[erika_123]

9 minutes ago, Alexx_Bk said:

Can I leave it like this?

dont leave it like that put new thermal paste on it

[Somerandomtechyboi]

Pretty normal for thermal paste to stick to things sometimes, you can try some IPA and maybe thatll dissolve it, otherwise mostly not an issue and you can repaste

[da na]

That's totally fine but you can pour alcohol on the sides if it being on the SMDs really bothers you

[OhioYJ]

Ive gotten to where I use soft bristle toothbrushes gently and alcohol.  Like the cheap toothbrushes you get dentist?  Great for cleaning parts.

[Alex Atkin UK]

1 hour ago, OhioYJ said:

Ive gotten to where I use soft bristle toothbrushes gently and alcohol.  Like the cheap toothbrushes you get dentist?  Great for cleaning parts.

I would not recommend that at all, small SMD parts are very easy to rip off and cleaning it all off has no benefit at all.

[LTTFan16538228]

You can definitely leave it like that.

[OhioYJ]

1 hour ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

I would not recommend that at all, small SMD parts are very easy to rip off and cleaning it all off has no benefit at all.

Umm... you should not be scrubbing these parts, I did say gently. I do surface mount soldering, and I use this myself to clean flux off boards. I've even used this technique to get thermal paste out of CPU pins. Again, soft very soft bristle brush, common sense, and be very gentle.

 

If you have parts flying off boards, either you are being way too aggressive, or they weren't properly soldered to begin with. Might not be for everyone, but works well for me.

[Ralphred]

30 minutes ago, OhioYJ said:

I did say gently.

Cheap soft tooth brushes are cool because you can change the head angle with judicious use of a cigarette lighter, use a stanley knife/pliers to remove as many bristles as you don't need, you can make a "cleaning multitool kit" very cheaply/easily, plus they last longer and don't leave bits behind like cotton buds on sticks, and can survive the dishwasher if they get too dirty...

[bartoshka]

I've used an old toothbrush very gently and even gave a bath to my gpu in isopropyl alcohol (in a big cooking pot) - it worked like a charm, though I suppose there is always some risk.

 

EDIT:

Just one question (I've actually made it part of a new thread here, but wanted to make sure, hope it's ok to ask here) - the rows of little silvery thingies around the chip, they are meant to be thermal pasted too right? Jesus, I left mine clean