Removing thermal paste - nail varnish remover? lens cleaner?

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deadman_uk

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jun 30, 2003
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I'm upgrading the motherboard and other parts of my PC soon and was wondering what would be best to remove old thermal paste.

I know people have said use isopropyl alcohol but I want to try and save money and use something I have at home if I can.

I have nail varnish remover (with conditioner) and in the ingredients it mentions acetone.

I also have a bottle of lens cleaning solution (for VHS tapes) This has 60% isopropyl alcohol and 40% water.

Would any of these 2 be any good for removing the old artic silver paste? If not, I will have to get some isopropyl alcohol but where is the best place? What one do I buy? 70%? 99%?

thanks for any help
 
I will let other people chime in on using the other items, but the alcohol is cheap, like $0.99 at any grocery or pharmacy. 80% higher should be good. I usually see 75 to 99%, depends on the store.
 
I have used acetone before, but isopropyl alchohol works better, I had to scrub really hard with the acetone. I have a bottle of 70% iso and it seems to do the job ok. As far as nail varnish, that might work, but I'm not sure if it has anything in it that could potentially damage components or not. If you're careful, you could probably get away with it. Don't just take my word for it though, anyone else?
 
I've only used isopropyl alcohal. Like the good concentrated stuff. The lense cleaner with 60% might work, I'm not sure. I wouldn't mess with anything with acetone though. Just too scary for me.
 
Baby wipe, then; isopropyl or brake cleaner with MEK or plain acetone nail varnish remover. Plain rubbing alcohol contains chlorates for sterilizing wounds... the same chlorates react with metal and leave salts behind.
 
Mineral spirits worked really well for me, took off the paste in a matter of seconds.
 
Thanks for the replies, I wont use lens cleaner or nail vanisher remover.

MD_Willington said:
Baby wipe, then; isopropyl or brake cleaner with MEK or plain acetone nail varnish remover. Plain rubbing alcohol contains chlorates for sterilizing wounds... the same chlorates react with metal and leave salts behind.
Click to expand...
Baby wipes work? really? My mum has some of them, are you sure they will be ok?
 
the lens cleaner should be OK. There's a small chance that the water in it might leave some residue, but probably not as much as the conditioner in the nail polish remover.
 
I think I'm going to play it safe and go down my local chemist to ask for a bottle of isopropyl alcohol (70% +).

Thanks all for the replies, if you have any other working alternatives, then please let me know. I am also interested in knowing if baby wipes will do the job.
 
I use Goof-Off for cleaning cores/metal items, and it's super efficient. Just... don't breathe. :) Isopropyl alcohol is my second choice, and I use it in situations with plastics (Goof-Off destroys a lot of plastics). I have 70% at home that I used last time, but next time I'm going to try to find some 99%.
 
I don't use any chemicals, just cutips and kleenex work great for me.
 
Yep, I used Q-tips and water. It took a little more effort than isopropyl, but in the end it worked 95% as well and hell, do you really need to get every last bit of residue off if you're just going to smack more thermal paste on there in a minute?
 
do what a do
its the simplest
just get paper towel and wipe that crap off
have it 99.9% clean makes no damn difference
then my 90%

the film coat i leave on the HSF or CPU is actually GOOD
since it fills in microcracks

and you know why i dont clean now more?
ever years of doing it, i dont see no damn difference again.

dont use baby wipes like what people would say, or in fact any of those wipes.
alot of those things have oil bases in them. they leave residues

my 2cents
people say i might be dumb
but i laugh at them when my opteron 170 runs at 2.8ghz and idles at 20c loads at 33c
 
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