[mjd420nova]

Just a quick thing that passed through when you mentioned the USB ports. I have seen users get the plugin little connectors, two USB port headers got reversed and a dis-assembly solved the fault. The ASUS manual should have the pinouts and voltages for each. Sometimes these voltage differences didn't affect anything until a jump drive or such was inserted. Ouch, three jump drives later and the user thought something was wrong. Expensive mistake. When you get the new board, put a new CMOS battery on it and Artic Silver 5 is the best for the thermal paste. The paste has two jobs, one is to electrically isolate the two devices(heatsink and CPU top substrate) but thermally couple them, passing as much heat from the CPU to the heatsink. This only requires a very thin film of the paste when the CPU and heatsink are properly mounted.

[LiveBrianD]

Paste is mostly used for eliminating the tiny gaps caused by imperfections by metal. It doesn't conduct heat as well as metal-to-metal contact does, but it's a lot better than air.

[blukatz92]

So the stock heatsink that came with my CPU had a thermal compound already applied. I've seen around that rubbing alcohol or something similar is often needed to remove the old paste, although some people are saying you can simply wipe it off with a lint-free cloth or cotton swab. Would you say that should be good enough? How important is it that I remove every bit of the old paste? I'm getting a little tight on money, and I'd prefer having to avoid buying more than I really need, especially since the paste is like $10.

Edit- I do have a can of compressed air, if that might work for this

This post has been edited by blukatz92: 22 January 2013 - 10:14 PM

[waldojim]

For 99% of the people out there, simply wiping it off is often enough. Get it as clean as possible. Though it is always recommended that you clean it off entirely with alcohol to be sure.

[blukatz92]

In the interest of keeping this topic alive, I'm just updating that ASUS is in the process of sending my replacement board, not sure when it'll come in, but I assume sometime in the next week or so. Not sure about the board rules on keeping topics alive, but I'd like to avoid retyping everything on the off chance that the replacement board doesn't fix my issue.

[LiveBrianD]

Topics don't get closed around here, so it shouldn't be a problem.

[blukatz92]

Haha, two weeks later I finally get my replacement board in the mail, along with some newly purchased Arctic Silver 5. Will most likely do the replacement work on Friday. Crossing my fingers that this does the trick!

[waldojim]

Best of luck to you!

[banpreetkaur]

great knowledge shared
thanks

[blukatz92]

Okay, so the replacement went pretty smooth, after putting in the new board, powered it up and it came on as usual. Been playing around with it, no issues so far, even with newer games. Just started ACIII with settings all cranked up to max, aside from the occasional framerate dip, it's been running strong. Coretemp says it's sitting around 54-56C, during games, so that's good. (Actually, the Coretemp readings were taken with my case fans turned to quiet mode, I usually have those at medium or max cooling when gaming, so yay Arctic Silver!) I have gone this long before without incident, but my system does feel a bit stronger, as in it seems like I get less stutter. So far so good!

[waldojim]

That is great news! Hope it stays that way for you.

[blukatz92]

Okay, it's been about two weeks, and not a single crash. That must have been it, then! Bad motherboard. New one works like a charm! Learned a lot from this, thanks for your help everyone!