HELP! Having to re-install CPU/heatsink

[iamkraz]

I am getting a new motherboard because my computer keeps freezing up on me, so I had to remove my Athlon 900mhz from the board. It came with a HUGE heatsink from AMD (retail version of chip). The heatsink had some thermal tape on the bottom. Now that I have removed the heatsink, the thermal tape is all over the CPU. I have never had to do this before.

Do I need to clean the CPU and/or the heatsink before replacing? How would I go about that? Do I just put the heatsink back on and do nothing even though there is a huge area of thermal tape that is missing from the heatsink and is all over the CPU now? Will the thermal tape that is still on the CPU make good enough contact with the heatsink to be sufficient?

I don't want to screw up my new CPU! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[aventari]

if it were me, i would clean off both the heatsink and the cpu (use rubbing alcohol) and put some thermal grease on it.

Make sure you dont touch the surfaces after you clean them w/ the alcohol cuz oil from your skin contaminates it

aventari

 

[iamkraz]

So the rubbing alcohol won't hurt the CPU?

 

[Dyflam]

Alcohol should be OK. Make sure both surfaces are clean and apply a thin layer of thermal grease. It will probably be more efficient than it was before.