Hello,

I am glad I decided to investigate why the DreamPC from 2006 failed to work..

It's motherboard was replaced some time ago with a backup motherboard and it had little usage. A couple of days ago it failed to boot and started beeping non stop.

Today I investigated thoroughly and broke down the entire PC and I made a discovery:

Artic Silver 5 leaked from the processor heatspread onto the motherboard.

This could potentially be the problem and could potentially be causing a short circuit. Maybe it's also the cause of the strange smell (maybe artic silver 5 causing short circuit on PCB and smell is from PCB/hotspot), though I believe the smell might be coming from slightly open capacitators.

I have made a quick little video about it so you can see it with your own eyes, plus some pictures.

Let me know your thoughts on this discovery:

Some further questions:

1. How to best clean Artic Silver 5 from the motherboard/PCB ?

2. Do you believe the motherboard will work again ?

(The processor still has to be further investigated/the heatsink removed to see if there is more artic silver 5 leakage. Potentially the CPU might be dead because of it.)

3. I believed Artic Silver 5 was non-conductive ?! I am wrong, is it conductive ?!?

4. Can Artic Silver 5 become conductive if it heats up a lot ?

5. Can Artic Silver 5 become conductive over time ? Maybe contaminated ?! Or structure changed because of heat ?

6. Does Artic Silver 5 have an experiration date ?

(One optional question: New CPU cooler from Noctua comes with it's own thermal paste interface material, any idea if it's any good ?)

Youtube Video Link:
https://youtu.be/ZkGKNMIm9E0

Picture Folder Link:
http://skybuck.org/Hardware/DreamPC2006/ArticSilver5Leakage2023/

Best Picture Link:

http://skybuck.org/Hardware/DreamPC2006/ArticSilver5Leakage2023/DreamPC2006ArticSilver5Leakage0BestPicture.JPG

Some dark spots can be seen on the artic silver 5, it looks burned.

Glad I did not touch that part (to keep evidence), on the left side I did touch it, little finger bulge/cave visible.

Bye for now,
Skybuck.

I suspect the electricity/electric field flowing across/through these PCB lines may have played a role in this failure.

Perhaps these electro magnetic fields change the substance of the Artic Silver 5 somehow and make it conductive ?!?

Or perhaps I am jumping the gun and need to investigate processor further/first ! ;)

Bye for now,
Skybuck.

Nice screw driver trick to remove Scythe Cooler safely:

Video link to screwdriver trick:

https://youtu.be/zuSj1uFdU4I

Use screwdriver, place it horizontally on the metal spring holding the metal clip on the plastic.

Then push down the screw driver gently to give way for the clip to come off..

(Slight warning, after detaching one side, (as I was filming this trick to explain it, right after filming) the cpu cooler spring upwards and de-tached itself automatically, because of the weight of the cooler on one side it fell to that side, kind of funny, hopefully no damage to cpu ! ;))

Bye for now,
Skybuck.

P.S.: I think I used this trick before but completely forgot about it ! ;) Very good trick ! ;)

Thanks for the advice.

Cleaning of paste did not help, the computer keeps beeping.

There was some paste near processor pins.

It's also possible the cpu metal holding the gold cpu pins started oxidizing creating short circuits on cpu.

For now hypotheses:

1. Perhaps something wrong with power supply;
1.1 After recent thunder storm
or
1.2 Living room light short circuits/wolfram.

2. Motherboard partially damaged/malfunctioning;
2.1 Short circuit tiny components due to paste/artic silver 5
2.2 Evaporated condensators
2.3 Cooking due to heat

3. CPU partially damaged/malfunctioning
3.1 Short circuits
3.2 Heat damage
3.3 Paste creeping inside

I can and will try older/other motherboard.

Bye for now,
Skybuck.