My friend was installing his new heatsink/fan combo that he bought a while ago. He removed the stock one from his computer, and cleaned it up. He then put some arctic silver on it then I watched as he put the heatsink/fan onto the processor.

We fire up the computer and it climbs to 80C+, within the first minute... not too good. His temperature monitor, probed in between the pins of the processor, like before, reads that 80+. Before it would give a good reading of arround 37-50C.

Is there some sort of a wait time when changing the heatsink and adding a thermal compound?

Whenever I assemble a computer, I always do that first, then hook up the mobo into the case, and work on from there... usually an hour or two elapses but the computer is fine... this one worrys me.

So what do you guys think?

Sounds like it may be on backwards, or the fan isn't operating properly.

Sounds like the heatsink surface is doing a pretty bad contact with the core surface.

That's why it's better to install the heatsink with the board outside of the case, even if it doesn't use the munting holes. It'll be easier to see if the heatsink is seated properly.

Well, I figured out that there was no wait time needed, and that fresh thermal compound is actually better.

We will re-investigate today.

Something is seriously wrong with it. We've removed it, cleaned up the thermal compound, and re-applied. We put it back on, turn on, and its still going high temperatures. What are we doing wrong? The heatsink is on right, the fan is spinning in the correct direction...

The CPU temp is now at 55C, and slowly working its way up at idle.

The 55C is with a different thermal compound, not Arctic Silver...

I'm pretty sure that I've used enough, alot, and a little bit for every situation.

What could I possibly be doing wrong? I'm using the Vantec AeroFlow on his and I've used it on numerous computers, it actually helps. But in this situation, the CPU cooler was upgraded from stock to this one, there are lots of problems.

Are you sure you're not putting too much thermal paste ?

You should only apply a thin coating & evenly spread it on the core.

You might want to apply some on the heatsink, spread it & wipe it off with a dry cloth. If the heatsink has a greyish coloration after wiping off the paste with the cloth, it means there are tiny cavities that have been filled with the paste, which is what you want to do.

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm

Yeah, thanks Rick... but that wasn't the case. I know what you're talkin about though.