How to clean processor correctly 【step by step】 ⭐️

If you are looking for a guide on how to clean the processor correctly, you are in luck. We present our tips on how to clean and remove all the dirt from your CPU.

When we have to change a heatsink or perform extensive maintenance on all our hardware, one of the essential tasks is to clean the processor. The thermal paste has a limited useful life, and must be replaced over time. Therefore, we tell you how to properly clean the processor.

Index of contents

Tools needed

Before getting down to work, you have to gather at home certain tools that are not difficult to get and that we have talked a lot about in the Professional Review tutorials.

If you do not have the tool in question, read carefully because we propose other substitutes.

Screwdriver

It is a classic that should never be missing in any cleaning that we do to any of our components because always (do not ask me why) you have to unscrew, extract, disengage, etc.

In this case, we will only need a small-end Phillips screwdriver. We always recommend having a universal screwdriver to which the bits or heads can be interchanged.

If you don't have a screwdriver at home, you can use small scissors whose tips match the size of the screw notch. Be careful when using them because you can damage the notch and not be able to remove it.

In an extreme case in which the screw does not have a notch because it is very damaged, we will have to use pliers to loosen it.

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Kitchen paper or wipes

The kitchen paper is essential to dry or to drag the thermal paste from our chip. When we say kitchen paper, any derivative serves us, such as napkins, handkerchiefs or toilet paper. If you don't have that either, use wet wipes.

The ideal would be one of those pads that bring the heatsinks that we buy, which are perfect for cleaning the processor. Although I already warn you that, if you do not have any of the above, you have to go shopping sooner or later, right?

Alcohol

We will use the typical alcohol that we have in the medicine cabinets because it does not leave residues in the processor and because it serves to disinfect it. We will not pour this liquid directly into the heatsink, don't worry. We will combine it with the rods to apply it in the safest way.

We warn you that alcohol is an essential and safe element, so buy a little if you do not have it at home. Water won't do much good because it doesn't get along very well with electrical components.

Rods

These utensils help us to apply the alcohol in the processor, once we have cleaned it before. We will put the rods in the alcohol bottle to impregnate them with this disinfecting liquid and we will scrub them through the processor.

As you can see, it is not a complex process at all.

Thermal paste

Thermal paste is ESSENTIAL to carry out the work because we need to transmit the heat from the processor to the heatsink so that the latter expels it to the outside with its fans.

Think that first we are going to clean the processor and then we have to mount it again, so we have to replace the thermal paste.

Remove heatsink

With the tools at our disposal, let's start by opening the PC case and removing the heatsink. We recommend removing the entire motherboard to work more comfortably, but there is no problem in just releasing the heatsink and working inside the box.

Clean processor

Step 09

It is time to clean the processor, so we will do it as follows:

1. Take kitchen paper, toilet paper or napkins and pass them over the processor. Try to remove all the thermal paste. The processor has to be perfectly clean. Surely, you will not be able to withdraw it all. Take a stick and put its tip into the alcohol bottle. We want to moisten it, we do not want it to drip and leave everything lost. Make light passes with the swab dipping alcohol into the processor to moisten it. Then grab some paper and remove the remains of thermal paste. When everything is clean, pass paper to dry it well.

In the event that the processor has some thermal paste on the bottom (by the pins), carefully pass the same stick to clean it.

Put thermal paste

With everything dry and clean, we can only put the thermal paste on top. We know that some of you get involved with the way to apply the thermal paste, but don't go crazy: put a point like the size of a pea or lentil.

It's proven to be the safest and cleanest way to do it because other ways cause us to spill thermal paste everywhere.

Although for AMD Ryzen processors or LGA 2066 socketa a cross is better to reach all the cores.

Install heatsink

Put the heatsink on top carefully, we screw in the order of the photo above so that we do not lose the heatsink and we will have finished.

Try to put the heatsink with care and care so that the thermal paste spreads all over the chip. It is silly, but this helps us not to encounter strange things later.

Once you have installed everything back in the box, turn on the PC and monitor the temperatures to check that everything is fine.

10 minutes after we started the session:

• Let it rest without doing anything. Open some software to monitor the temperature, such as HWMonitor or the program of your motherboard. Check that there are no temperature jumps, for example, sudden 30 to 45 degrees. The temperature should not jump so big, it would have to be constant, unless we are making it work a lot.

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The tutorial has come to an end. With these 4 steps we would have finished this little guide to clean the processor. I hope you liked and helped. If you have any questions, see you below! Have you ever cleaned the processor? What are your experiences?