I bought a new AMD Athlon 3800+ single core and it came with pre-applied thermal paste on the heatsink. I seated the heatsink onto the processor but i had to pull it off and reseat it because it wasnt on properly. Now, was this bad? Do i have to take it off and clean and re-apply thermal paste because i had lifted the HS off? (I haven't booted the computer at all yet so the thermal paste is still fresh)
You could get away with it but id run down to the shops and get some new stuff. I personally would always put my own thermal paste on in the first place. If you hav'nt got any or cant get to the shops you could try and smooth out what is already on there. You dont want any air between your processor and HSF. A bank card with no knicks in the end will do the job nicely. If you do choose to buy some new stuff dont bother buying the expensive stuff. Loads of people will argue that but ive never found the expensive stuff to be worthwhile. Ive always gone for the cheapest coolermaster paste. Also if you get some new stuff you are supposed to clean the old stuff off with alcohol of some kind. This is something ive never bothered doing properly but I did try it a little on the heatsink (i used clinique electric shave primer, costs a bomb!) and far doos it got loads more off. Im getting picky now!
To completely remove thermal pads / paste use as near to 100% alcohol as you can get, Isopropyl Alcohol is meant to be good for that I think.
yeah as Matt said get some Isopropyl Alcohol from your local chemist (you may have to sign the poisons book, just tell them why you want it) you also need some cotton wool buds to help you clean the paste off, then re-apply some new paste (ensuring a correct fit) then leave it to dry for about an hour (i think) then boot as normal
