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I am using a AMD Phenom II X4 965. I was replacing the stock heatsink with an aftermark Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 7 Rev. 2. When I unlatched the stock heatsink and pulled it from the motherboard, the themal paste stayed on the CPU and pulled it out of the socket. I removed the CPU from the heatsink without touching the bottom and meticulously checked the pins for any defects and found none with my naked eye. I cleaned the leftover paste off the top of the CPU and reapplied new paste (with a pea-sized dab in the middle) and attached the new cooler. I am running the CPU now and everything seems to be working fine. My CPU temp in bios was 40 degrees Celcius. Are there any problems I can expect to come up in the near or far future? Is there anything I can do to see if the CPU was damaged in some way? The CPU is new so I am not too familiar with how it should be acting normally.

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    Note that the thermal paste on a heat sink will produce a lot of force if you pull straight up. You need to wiggle the heat sink a little as you remove it. Feb 26, 2012 at 14:45

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The CPU is designed to be easily fitted and removed. On most motherboards there's a lever which actually locks it into place.

The fact that the machine booted and appears to be working is a good sign. If you'd done any damage to the pins/connectors it'd be more likely that it wouldn't work at all.

A temperature of 40oC is about right.

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  • See my issue was that I pulled it out while the tension lever was down. I did pull it as straight as I could and the CPU just came right out with the Heatsink.
    – EC-
    Jun 26, 2010 at 18:55
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    @EC- I'm sure I've seen designs where the latch connects with the heatsink, but my main point still stands. Any damage to the CPU and/or pins is more likely to stop it working altogether than allow the machine to boot and fail in subtle ways.
    – ChrisF
    Jun 26, 2010 at 19:08

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