My heat sink and fan on top of my processor was covered with dust so I pulled it off to clean it..?

Question

When I pulled the heat sink off the socketit the processor was still attached to the heat sink with that factory applied thermal grease. When I put it back in ( socket 478 ) and fired it up I got nothing. I later read that thermal grease has to be reapplied after you do what I did. I have since cleaned the surface of the processor and heat sink and am ready to put it back together, but lack the thermal grease. Do you know if there is something I can use ( maybe white grease ) just to see if this is going to fire up and work before I spend money on thermal grease. I personally think I wrecked something when I pulled it off the socket. Please advise? Thanks

Answer 1

The lack of thermal grease does not effect the work of CPU. Are you sure that you did not pull out any other wires while torturing the cooler?

And the thermal grease is available in any self-respecting PC shop, costs pennies. I would not recommend using any other substance in attempt to replace it.