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I removed E6600 CPU a while ago to apply new
artic silver 5 that was on the way, I cleaned up
good with high purity isopropyl alcohol...

A month has passed until I have the opportunity to
reasemble PC and now Im looking at a dark finger print
in one side of stock heatsink fan, I cleaned again but
it wont come out... Im using same cleaning
solution with a lint free coffee filter and as I rub and
rub filter is comes out spotless, no sign of old stock thermal paste
but finger print remains... will that have some effect
on temperature? print looks like it has penetrated heatsink,
do I have to scrub it with something else or just leave it?

I dont want to burn CPU, what should I do?

Thanks in advance!

I don't think that the finger print would affect the performance much, if at all, as the thermal paste should cover it all if on the bottom. I don't know what cleaner to use on it, since I don't want to see what happens if you mix cleaning chemicals and heat .

Thats pretty weird, as cfitzarl said you should be ok. What purity isopropyl are you using?

Thinking back to college chemistry, it seems like an oil-based solution should remove any kind of fingerprint smudge (since its probably just oil from your skin). Alcohol and oil don't mix very well, so it would make sense that the rubbing alcohol isn't working. I wouldn't put anything besides thermal paste on a cpu/heatsink, though, and I really doubt that its gonna affect temperature that much. Maybe a quarter or half degree C?

use electronics degreaser available at any good electronics shop.
let it DRY completely before applying any thermal paste back on.

I don't think that the finger print would affect performance of the heatsink... and you wouldn't ever see it since it's on the part that would connect to the CPU... so I don't see why you should bother to remove it. To each his/her own though

You guys do realise that Copper oxide is black? o.O

Its probably oxidised, fingerprints have all sorts of crap on it. And since its copper oxide, you won't be able to remove it via any sort of degreaser.

But its just a theory :P

In terms of performance, probably won't see much difference.

If its copper oxide (which i seriously, seriously doubt, if I remember right copper takes a while to oxidize, especially using just finger sweat and air), then give it a really light cleaning with concentrated vinegar - you'd have to be careful, though, vinegar seems like it would damage stuff if it came into contact with anything besides the top copper surface of the CPU.

I don't know if thats a good idea, cos at the moment it shouldn't be a huge thermal difference. Micro corrosion from the acid..... I can't really remember what happens to copper in acid, I know its a damn slow reaction if there's any reaction at all....

Either way, its a fingerprint. No biggie.

My suggestion from experience would be to just leave it alone. You will probably end up doing more damage then if you just left it alone in the first place. But I don't think that you will have any issue with the performance of your CPU.

Exactly what I was saying....