Heatsink issues

[LeapFrog]

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OK. How should I go about cleaning whats left of the old dried up stuff from heatsink and processor?

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Rubbing alcohol + q-tip. You will be amazed.

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Certainly the way to go for removal, I can testify it works great.

OP, I am guessing that this is some issue with contact from the heatsink. I would give it one more shot. Use the Q-tip, rubbing alcohol method to clean both the CPU and heatsink. Make sure they are both completely cleaned.

Take a plastic bag and put a tiny bit of artic silver on it, then rub the bag over the bottom of the heatsink (ie where it mates with the proc). Rub very vigoriously -- basicaly you are not looking to leave much if any AS on the heat sink, you are just trying to fill in some of 'crevasses' in the metal.

Ok, next take a credit card and begin applying AS to the processor. You are looking for total coverage as shown in the pic below. Yes, it is a gpu and yes it looks like the guy probably used a bit too much, but it gives you an idea of what you are shooting for -- a thin layer covering the top of the cpu.

Read again the instructions for properly seating the heatsink and lock it down and pray [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] If you are still having trouble I might try a better heat sink, such as a thermaltake. Dunno, this problem could be indicative of some processor/board issue as the stock heat sink should work fine for standard voltage. Speaking of which, you might want to make sure that the proc is running at standard voltage (if your bios even allows you to change this). Something like sisoft sandra will display voltage.