Project eMachines T-3256 restoration (3)

The heat sink was loose when I opened the case upon delivery. I am hoping that it came loose during transit, but the only way to find out is to test by booting. Before I do that I have to clean off the old thermal paste from the cpu and the bottom of the heat sink and clean out 10 years of dust from the fan and heat sink.

This is the cpu with the heat sink off. The old thermal paste is the "gunk" on top of the pink surface of the cpu.

This is the underside of the heat sink. There is a thin "pad" that covers around the cpu. I have to clean off the old paste from this surface also.

I removed the fan from the heat sink to expose 10 years of ultrafine dust/dirt that has been collected by the fan action inside the case. There is no easy or clean way to do this.

This is the cleaned cpu. I used q-tips saturated in isopropyl alcohol.

This is the cleaned heat sink and fan ready for reassembly.