What happens when too much thermal paste is used

A client of mine brought in a computer he wanted to get cleaned up, OS reinstall, and had a video card in hand he wanted me to install... no big deal.

So I open up the case and see this...

Wow, right?

I've got most of it cleaned up, its looking great. The only problem area is inside the pin holes on the CPU socket.

I have a risky theory that this thermal paste is non-conductive, which would explain how he went all this time without an incident. Assuming this is true, it shouldn't necessarily matter that a little bit is still in the socket right?

Also, the thermal paste was in fact inside the socket when I first removed the processor.

Thanks for your time!!

Solution 1:

There are different types of thermal pastes, some of which (e.g. silver based pastes) are at least somewhat electrically conductive.

That being said, it seems that the paste in the cpu socket is inside the holes, not between them; so short circuits between pins doesn't seem likely.

What i'd worry about is not about the paste being conductive; but actually, about the paste being non-conductive. The pins on the cpu receive/send signals at very high frequencies. High frequency signals are hard to transfer from place to place. Electronics companies usually employ special electrical engineers whose sole purpose is to transfer signals between system components with as little interference as possible since it requires a lot of planning at these frequencies.

So my worry is about the quality of these signals if the connection between the cpu and the motherboard if the socket has a bunch of non-conductive grease in it.