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Removing heatsink compound


doug
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I've been and invested in a new mobo as this one goes a bit erratic from time to time OK at the moment as I'm posting. Bought some thermal compound this afternoon and remembered that when I assembled this present one the compound for the CPU was a sort of thick tape. So before I proceed can anyone advise on the best way of cleaning the CPU and heatsink before I re-assemble?

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I normally use petrol type lighter fuel - used to be called Ronsonol. It comes in a rectangular can - yellow with red and black print. The tobacco counter at supermarkets sell it.

If you're removing the tape type of compound, scrape off the excess with an old credit card or something of similar texture so as not to scratch the surfaces.

Avoid using nail varnish remover as some recommend because it often contains oily materials that remain behind after use. If you can get pure acetone that works OK but is less easy to obtain than the Ronsonol type of petroleum spirit I mentioned above.

When you apply the new compound, remember it's a case of "less is more" and you only need the tiniest amount to do the job efficiently.

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Still a couple of items to complete. For example I can't get the floppy working. Same problem as with the old mobo, which persuaded me to change the mobo. On that set up I changed the cable and tried changing the floppy. Will have to go through all the options so any suggestions would be welcome. In summary when I insert a disk and click on it the drive spins and waits for a long time then just gives up. I can hear the head seeking for the disk but no result.

As a side benefit I'm now hoping the BIOS battery will last a lot longer than with the old mobo. A major side benefit was cleaning up the fan and CPU heat sink. CPU now running at 37 C vs 52 before!

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Remember there are four ways that a floppy cable can fit - one correct and three incorrect!

As far as I recall there are no locator keys on floppy cables to indicate whether it's upside down or not and you have to rely on the red stripe matching the #1 pin and there is the possibility of the cable being the wrong way round - motherboard end in the drive.

I've put floppy cables in incorrectly loads of times - fortunately it doesn't seem to do any damage. If you're sure you have it correct then perhaps there is something amiss with the cable itself.

It's a long time since I installed a floppy drive and my, or my son's, machines don't even have one. We do have a USB floppy drive for (very) occasional use.

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