[phaseshift]

As I was installing my EK 240 AIO I forgot to remove the plastic piece that covers the CPU coldplate on the EK block. Only found out because I was installing a new GPU and decided to put new thermal paste on the CPU. To my surprise I forgot to remove the plastic piece. It's been like this for 4 days and the only person using it was my wife doing HW on excel and regular browsing. Nothing that would tax the CPU but I'm still worried that I might have damaged it. Best way to find out if I messed it up?

 

[The Pook]

by using it and seeing if it's "messed up" ?

if you didn't disable thermal throttling I can't imagine how you'd realistically damage anything. if throttling lowers temperatures to a normal range then it's irrelevant, and if thermal throttling doesn't get temps down the machine would shut off. if it didn't then I'd imagine you're fine.

 

[kairi_zeroblade]

That screw driver bit can "MESS" up your board badly..

 

[phaseshift]

That screw driver bit can "MESS" up your board badly..

Lol yeah I hate when the bit comes off while screwing things...

 

[kairi_zeroblade]

Lol yeah I hate when the bit comes off while screwing things...

the CPU should be safe..given the pictures you posted..there seemed to be no melted plastic or was there one??

 

[phaseshift]

the CPU should be safe..given the pictures you posted..there seemed to be no melted plastic or was there one??

No melted plastic at all, I don't even think the PC restarted. I'm up and running right now, going to run some stress test to make sure temps are okay.

 

[HiLuckyB]

My brother-in-law had a i7 9700k with the stock cooler where only 3 of the 4 pins where pushed into the motherboard all the way, And on top of that only like 2 where locked in. That cpu was lagging in game's which is why I went to look at it. It was probably this way for 3 or 4 months, And it somehow was still fine. I just tighten the cooler up properly so it was gaming at 50-60c and not sitting at like 100c 1.2ghz

 

[0451]

No melted plastic at all, I don't even think the PC restarted. I'm up and running right now, going to run some stress test to make sure temps are okay.

Don’t even bother, it’s fine. Even with the plastic, temps were probably better than an air cooler. Your CPU will automatically throttle when temps get too high and will shut itself down if throttling doesn’t reduce temps.

 

[dagget3450]

Imagine if this happened in the days of the Athlon XP/Duron days lol.

 

[SmOgER]

Lol yeah I hate when the bit comes off while screwing things...

It's not a good thing though if your mobo still has some residual power (you didn't hold power button once disconnected from AC).

Other than that, as others pointed out CPU thermally protects itself from critical overheating before there can be any damage.

 

[s1rrah]

Now that's a killer mod! LOL ... jk ... hope it's okay.

 

[trailer park boy]

oops

 

[amder]

Its fine. PC parts aren't as fragile as you think. Clean it off and go use it.

 

[mouacyk]

Even if the plastic did melt and mold onto the CPU, nothing a little sanding/lapping can't fix.

 

[JustinThyme]

Every one screws the pooch at some point. I’ve not done this because I don’t use AIOs but I have been like ***? This block is supposed to kick a$$ and it’s sucking bawlz! Pull it and forgot to take off the protective paper on the face it the block. Pull, remove paper and temps dropped 20C.

 

[Robilar]

As noted it should be fine.

Now back in the day bending pins on a CPU when installing them... That was a huge PITA...

 

[littledonny]

Imagine if this happened in the days of the Athlon XP/Duron days lol.

I killed about 3 of those things

 

[Sleepycat]

Your CPU will be fine. The thermal protection on them work very well now, unlike back in the old days of the Athlon/Duron. Haha, and that is if we didn't chip off the edge of the silicon trying to clip on a Dragon Orb or Thermalright SK6 onto the socket.

 

[JustinThyme]

I killed about 3 of those things

I only managed to fry one. Had built one for my sister and she ships it to me to see whats up with it. Air cooled. Replaced the fan and blew the dust out of the heat sink when what I should have done was pull it off and repaste. Fired it up after the new fan and blow out of dust, one poof of smoke and that was that. Pulled the heat sink off after, all the past that was left was hard as a rock and burn marks on the die.