My dad's 1998 Compaq finally made me get it about thermal paste

My old man was cleaning out his garage and pulled out this ancient Compaq Presario from 1998. He told me he never once replaced thermal paste on it and it still runs fine. I gave him the whole spiel about how it degrades and needs replacing every few years. He just shrugged and said 'then why is my 27 year old computer still working and you're on your third motherboard in 5 years?' Honestly stung a bit. Any of you techs ever had a customer with a crusty old PC that just refuses to quit?

3 comments

3 Comments

ivan_murphy806d ago

You ever pop that heat sink off and find powder where paste should be?

the_thomas6d ago

Last time I pulled my old Phenom II cooler off, I swear I found more dust bunny remains than actual thermal paste. Guess I’ve been running a space heater disguised as a CPU.

jasonf356d ago

Wait, did you see any scorch marks on the CPU die itself? I'm curious if that dust was blocking enough airflow to actually cook the thing.