Hi, Can too much thermal grease kill a processor? Thanks Sam

If it's a P4, NO. It's thermally protected & cannot overheat & fry. Believe it or not, a P4 will run with NO heatsink installed & it won't burnout (don't try it...lol). http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/editorials/article/1278.8/ As for the paste, you should use only a small dab, about the size of a grain of rice, then spread it out thinly & evenly over the core. Asus A7N8X-X 1800+ @ 8 x 210MHz 768MB PC3200 Asus A9550 128MB/128-bit Gamer Edition WinME/WinXP Pro

Thanks, so that hasnt killed my P4 then. I had gone a little overboard on the grease then read somewhere that it can be bad.

If you're sure you used too much, remove the heatsink & remove the excess paste...then apply a fresh layer, but this time do it correctly. Follow these instructions: http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm Asus A7N8X-X 1800+ @ 8 x 210MHz 768MB PC3200 Asus A9550 128MB/128-bit Gamer Edition WinME/WinXP Pro

If you've used too much Arctic Silver, you can short out pins and bridges on your CPU and MOBO. You CAN kill a CPU with a conductive thermal paste like Arctic Silver.

Already tried cleaning it and reapplying, no joy. It was just cheap silicone based thermal grease, £1.50 a tube. I checked for any on the motherboard and underside of the chip but there was none. What about the grease getting into the hole in the corner of the P4? http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20040201/images/prescott-1.jpg

The silicone based stuff is pretty inert. I use it exclusively but I live close to Dow Corning corporate HQ and I know who else uses it: NASA, military, etc. I don't think that would cook a CPU or MOBO if you slathered all over it.