I have a Pentium IV Prescott 3.0GHz with HT technology (478 pin). A while ago I put Artic Silver 5 on it and put the heat sink back on (the original heat sink the computer came with). I found that my CPU was running a bit hot, so I switched to a copper heat sink. Now for the fun! When I pulled out the old heat sink the processor was stuck to it, but I was astonished to find that I had not bent any pins some how. How hard is it on the cpu, pulling it out when it sticks like that? Like I did not even pull that hard. Now for part II of the fun, since I used a ridiculous amount of thermal paste (Artic Silver 5) it was all over the place, on the bottom of the heat sink. When I was separating the processor from the heat sink I accidentally got a little tiny bit on a few of the pins. It is so small that you literally need a magnify glass to see it. Now I did some research and it says that Artic Silver 5 is not “electronically conductive”, so does that mean that it will not short circuit? Anyways I got the CPU back in with the new copper heat sink, booted the computer and it boots fine. But here is my main question; will there be any negative long term effects? A little bit of Artic Silver is still on the CPU. Thank You, Jesse Mooney

I suggest that you remove the parts and start over. There was a fairly long thread here just a week or so ago about how to clean the thermal paste. The consensus seemed to be rubbing alcohol was the preferred solvent.

does the remains of the paste actually connect any of the pins together? if not, then it cant be a problem. And if it is working fine I would not further interfere with it if it was mine as you may well end up causing damage and wish you had not touched it (eg. bending pins in trying to remove the paste). I have come accross this problem of getting the heatsink off the cpu without pulling it out of the socket, sometimes it cant be avoided. I think the problem is the surface on the p4 with the paste on is large compared to say an Athlon XP or a coppermine p3.so there is more surface area 'glued 'together Recently it happened to me and I ended up trying to prise the CPU and heatsink apart in my hand with a screwdriver, suddenly it broke free and the cpu flew 4 feet accross my garage and landed on a dirty concrete floor, by some miracle no pins were bent and it still worked fine.

I have found that once the retainers on the HS are free, slight rotation will break the bond on the paste.

Yes, the system does work fine. So basically I am better to leave it than try to do anything because I will probably do more damage. Is there any chance of long term damage? Like the computer running slower or something?

In response to "OtheHill", yes a slight rotation did get it loose, after of course it was already pulled out. If I did not rotate it, the CPU never would of come off. I have also heard after the fact that if it is warm or hot it is easier to get off.

So I take it you didn't read the artic silver instructions. You're only suppose to put a grain of rice size paste on intel processors.