I've an ASUS P4B533-E, (an 845 P4 chipset). It has a black peice of plastic arround the cpu socket used to hold the heatsink (close to) the cpu. While removing the heatsink several months ago, I seem to have broken the clip. Is there anyway to replace it/a place to buy a replacement? It seems like a simple 'screw it in' item, 4 (plastic) screw implements keeping it on the MB... advice? Also, I recently replaced the CPU in my current workstation, and had a bit of a problem when initially starting. First time round, it beeped once, graphics didn't come on, and beeped again. and again... Second time, it seemed to be powercycling. I inspected the proc and found two-three small black spots that didn't look encouraging. Third time (current) it worked. In between times, I'd take the proc out, apply thermal paste (again), go through process. Then reapply heatsink, start up. The first two times, ( I beleive), I removed the thermal paste using a lense cleaning wipe. This time I left a (thicker) coat... think that might have something to do with it? Thanks for input

Putting it on to thick can be a bad idea, even if you don’t have there product this is nice info link: http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions_big2.htm As for the broken clip maybe one of these sites could help: http://www.goldmine-elec.com/default.htm http://www.allelectronics.com/ http://www.smcelectronics.com/smcad1.htm Keep the old stuff running