Found out thermal paste can go bad sitting in a drawer for 5 years

I was troubleshooting a client's old PC that kept overheating, and after trying everything I grabbed a new tube of Arctic MX-4 instead of the 5-year-old one I had stashed. The temp dropped 15 degrees C just from swapping the paste. Has anyone else seen old paste turn crusty like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

claire9581mo ago

Opened up my 6 year old tube of paste and it looked like dried playdough, definitely learned my lesson about hoarding hardware supplies. Slapped some fresh stuff on an old Phenom II build and it stopped thermal throttling entirely, feels like I dodged a bullet. Course now I've got a drawer full of crusty thermal paste tubes that I'm too sentimental to throw away.

lindahunt1mo ago

My uncle kept a tube of thermal paste in his garage for like a decade next to some old paint cans. He finally used it on a build and the cpu hit 90c in bios before he shut it off. Said it smelled like burning plastic and regret. Now I just buy the little single use packs whenever I need some, no more mystery paste in my life.