I made a cringeworthy mistake a few days ago. I built my Ryzen system a fortnight ago, a Ryzen 1700 on Asus Strix X370-F. The Wraith Spire cooler my CPU came with had more than usual amount of thermal paste on it. So, two days ago, when I tried to replace the thermal paste, I saw that it had oozed on the sides of the socket. I took a cotton swab, dabbed it in some IPA and cleaned it off. Unfortunately, I didn't see a thin strand of paste that was on the side of the socket. And, as luck would have it, just when i took the CPU out of the socket, it got on one of the pins. So I took out one of my new painting brush with the finest bristles, dabbed it in IPA and cleaned the pin. When I was done, it was clean. I couldn't see any more paste even with a magnifying glass. A tiny blob of paste also fell on the motherboard just above the socket, so I cleaned that as well with a very fine pin. I reseated the CPU, cleaned the cooler, applied a fresh layer of thermal compound, and it ran fine.
But, since then, I have noticed a change while monitoring the voltages. Like I said, I use an Asus Strix X370-F motherboard with latest BIOS. I had the VDDCR CPU Voltage set to 1.175V. It has always run at that voltage since I've been using it. I have not overclocked my system yet. Anyway, before the thermal paste spill, in HWMonitor, I used to see CPU VCore voltage drop to about .875V sometimes. But the maximum was close to 1.175V. Sometimes it crossed 1.175V by just a bit, like 1.188V, but the thing is, when the system was idle, the voltage always dropped down.
In other words, it treated the manually set VDDCR as the upper threshold.
Now, after the thermal paste covfefe, the CPU VCore refuses to drop down. It's always at 1.177V, even at idle. The CPU clock speeds drop down, as usual. I have toggled the EPU Power Savings Settings, as well as Global C-State Control in BIOS, and changing the power plan in Windows, but the VCore remains the same no matter what. I have also used Ryzen Master to check the voltage, and it reports the same thing.
I would also like to mention that, when VDDCR CPU Voltage is set to Auto in BIOS, the voltage does fluctuate normally, but shoots up way too much for my taste. It goes upto about 1.419V sometimes.
Also, the CPU VDD remains the same at all instances. It just refuses to drop down. The VID voltages, however fluctuate over a wide range.
Here, the voltage was set to 1.175V. Ignore the 0.589V minimum VCore. That's a glitch by HWMonitor. This was my system at idle.
This was while running IFME, a x265 encoder which heavily uses AVX2 instruction set. It is only when AVX2 IS is run that the voltage droops a little.
Does this mean the thermal paste has partially damaged the pins of the CPU or the motherboard socket?
Feel free to ask me to run any test or benchmark and report back.
Any help would be appreciated. Really, it's a 14 day old system, and I don't want it to be messed up.
But, since then, I have noticed a change while monitoring the voltages. Like I said, I use an Asus Strix X370-F motherboard with latest BIOS. I had the VDDCR CPU Voltage set to 1.175V. It has always run at that voltage since I've been using it. I have not overclocked my system yet. Anyway, before the thermal paste spill, in HWMonitor, I used to see CPU VCore voltage drop to about .875V sometimes. But the maximum was close to 1.175V. Sometimes it crossed 1.175V by just a bit, like 1.188V, but the thing is, when the system was idle, the voltage always dropped down.
In other words, it treated the manually set VDDCR as the upper threshold.
Now, after the thermal paste covfefe, the CPU VCore refuses to drop down. It's always at 1.177V, even at idle. The CPU clock speeds drop down, as usual. I have toggled the EPU Power Savings Settings, as well as Global C-State Control in BIOS, and changing the power plan in Windows, but the VCore remains the same no matter what. I have also used Ryzen Master to check the voltage, and it reports the same thing.
I would also like to mention that, when VDDCR CPU Voltage is set to Auto in BIOS, the voltage does fluctuate normally, but shoots up way too much for my taste. It goes upto about 1.419V sometimes.
Also, the CPU VDD remains the same at all instances. It just refuses to drop down. The VID voltages, however fluctuate over a wide range.
Here, the voltage was set to 1.175V. Ignore the 0.589V minimum VCore. That's a glitch by HWMonitor. This was my system at idle.
This was while running IFME, a x265 encoder which heavily uses AVX2 instruction set. It is only when AVX2 IS is run that the voltage droops a little.
Does this mean the thermal paste has partially damaged the pins of the CPU or the motherboard socket?
Feel free to ask me to run any test or benchmark and report back.
Any help would be appreciated. Really, it's a 14 day old system, and I don't want it to be messed up.
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