Is this too much thermal grease? [pics]

[metaverse]

This is a continuation of "i'm guessing I should've worn the wristband" thread that can be found here in the hardware section of the forums ...

After NWPhotog's response I decided I should take a look at my first thermal grease job ...

and after looking at these pics i'm thinking it was too much and my problem might be too much grease instead of the RAM issue ... Could you guys lend me your opinion? and again - after I got rid of the original thermal grease on the CPU and applied the artic 5 silver thermal grease - I ran my cpu at around 100 percent steadily for a good 30min while playing a video game - oh man i think i really cooked my cpu but im only a novice , let me know what you think:

CPU pics - one without flash , one with flash on the camera

heatsink , same thing

 

[ithinkyou5.0]

looks like it man. smothered the cpu

 

[14049752]

It's more than you needed to put on, but it's not enough to cause any problems.

I still think it sounds like your ram isn't seated correctly, especially since that's what changed between 'working' and 'not'. Take a picture of the installed ram and post it (no need to make a new thread!)

 

[Skyhooker]

Read the directions for Arctic Silver - you don't spread it on, you apply a small gob (I believe they say the size of a grain of rice), and the pressure and operating heat spread it out after you clamp down the heat sink. The result will be a very thin layer, which is exactly what is needed to transfer heat from the processor to the sink. More is not better.

 

[14049752]

you don't spread it on, you apply a small gob (I believe they say the size of a grain of rice)

That's incorrect for CPUs without a heatspeader. You are supposed to spread it for exposed core cpus (like in the picture). Instructions: Page 5

For cpus with a heatspreader, you're correct.

 

[metaverse]

Thanks for the help guys ... To be honest I felt like somewhat of a jackass asking if it was too much haha ... I had believed it was but my lack of experience couldn't confirm it for certain.

That was actually the second application - the first one seemed like it was going to be too much - I had squeezed out something about the size of one piece of long grain rice. I actually just now noticed the directions say "half the size of a piece of SHORT grain rice."

wow. such a tiny increment = such a huge difference.

I then reapplied and thought maybe 1/3 of that amount of grease MIGHT slightly spread along the outside like that ... Lesson Learned )

The OLD samsung ram is on the left - and the two new hynix/Crucial ram sticks are to the right.

No Ram Inserted.

Old Samsung RAM inserted but not seated. Ram slides in diagonally ...

Then needs to be pushed down so that the sides sit behind the two metal clips to its left and right and so that the front where the pins are get pushed up into the ram seat when the back of the stick is pushed down.

RAM doesn't jiggle or move at all when pushed down under those clips on the sides of it.

*scratches balding head*

PS. I decided to clean the cpu with the 2 step arctic remover and then reapply thermal grease. After that I put in the old 512 samsung ram stick [which was working 1min. before I put in the new ram for the first time and was then reinserted to no success] I then flipped over lthe aptop and attempted to power up = same thing , light in the power button goes on and absolutely nothing else audible or visable happens ...

 

[Skyhooker]

That's incorrect for CPUs without a heatspeader. You are supposed to spread it for exposed core cpus (like in the picture).

Ah, sorry - I was working from memory (big mistake), and I sit corrected.

 

[NWPhotog]

The idea is for thermal paste to fill any imperfections in the two surfaces. There should be almost no paste on the surfaces when they are mated. There also should be little or no excess squeezed out. If you are getting excess squeezed out you are putting too much paste on to begin with.

 

[metaverse]

Ah I see ... thanks for the clarification ... I didn't realize one of its primary purposes was to fill the imperfections between the surfaces.

I just can't believe that the main issue with my laptops lack of performance is from incorrectly seating the ram. I'm feeling like either i'm a bit mentally handicapped or there is some type of jedi trick to getting these things in properly. I mean - really , HOW MUCH MORE COMPLICATED COULD IT GET!?

I've seated plenty of ram in a couple different desktops , multiple times , its not that much different than a laptop. They both have clips and they both have pins to seat tightly ...

I think i'm going to just break down and bring it into a tech in the next couple of days ...