So I got the Ryzen 5 5600 installed. And I didn’t even expect to get this done this evening. I’ve been waiting for Cave to get back from his vacation to ask for his help, and I was planning to do it next week. But, Jero of all people offered to help me. Out of the blue, he asked me “How did the CPU install go”. Thought to myself “definitely appreciate him thinking about the upgrade I was gonna do, but it’s just pretty ironic how he’s asking now.” Because he’s done this before. As he told me before, if he’s not familiar with how to do something, he won’t want to steer me in the wrong direction (which is
understandable).
If he wasn’t having to work back then when I wanted to do a second case swap, he would’ve offered to help me. That or maybe he felt guilty.
–
But he really, really wanted me to get this going. It’s like dealing with my mother, if she was more tech savvy. How she loves getting things done right then and there. Honestly kind of bugged me as I didn’t really feel like doing it. But I forced myself when I saw him say he was willing to guide me. And I could use the guidance.. if I wasn’t so damn lazy that I could had simply looked up YouTube videos on how to swap out a Ryzen CPU with another one.
Note: I don’t have any pictures as the entire process was done through the help
of Jero (and Cave, will explain why I needed his help as well).
STAGE 0: Preparing
Got everything I needed on the bed: new CPU, new RAM, new SSD, new SATA cables, screwdrivers, Q-Tips, paper towels, a bottle of 91% Isopropyl (Rubbing) Alcohol, and a few Ziploc bags (one to put the thermal paste-covered cloths in, and the other to put my old RAM in).
I was thankful to myself for coming up with a plan before doing all of this. After calling Jero I turned my computer off, unplugged everything and put it on my bed, then opened up the side panel.
STAGE 1: Getting the old CPU Cooler off
Hoo boy. Little did I know I would be dealing with the CPU Cooler from HELL. But first off I needed to remove the old RAM. I didn’t really expect to have to do this so early, but it was the only way to properly access the cooler. I just placed all four sticks (for
then) carefully on my bed. Good thing too.
Then took a manual screwdriver and started unscrewing the screws in that ‘X’ pattern (to evenly release the pressure on the CPU). Once I started hearing the sound of a spring skipping, the screw was freed… or so we thought.
Then it was the time to very gently, but also tightly grip the housing of the CPU fan and start twisting back and forth over and over. Yet it seemed it was still screwed into the board. And no matter how much more I tried untightening the screws, it seemed it
was ‘cemented’ to the CPU. Like.. fuck that’s some strong thermal compound!!
Jero then suggested the unthinkable to me: actually turn the computer on without the cooler plugged in to warm up the CPU. He’s thinking the paste needs to liquify in order to be removed. …After much backlash on my end, I reluctantly agreed. Jero, this is
my BABY. You want me to harm my life, my pride and joy?! But he assured me
the CPU will be perfectly OK (as long as I react fast).
So I did what he suggested: putting my fingers on the fins with the computer ‘dead’ with no RAM installed. Waited 5 or so minutes. Started feeling heat on my fingers and then twisted the cooler again… and again nothing. It would NOT budge!
This is when I had to get Cave into the call, and he thankfully agreed to help. He was in for so much fun, with me ‘stuck in the middle’ with a cooler that refused to let go of its CPU.
I was forced to do so much, that extended past my dinnertime (I did eat at my normal time by the way, enforced by myself);
-Put RAM in and try to get into Windows (FAIL, until both of them realized they were in the wrong slots. After I fixed that problem it was successful).
-In Windows, try to twist the cooler off as the CPU temp was showing 65c (FAIL, still firmly on there).
-They wanted me to run FurMark.. purposely causing a thermal throttle to put more heat on the CPU to loosen up the paste more (I argued with them this wouldn’t work as it’s already hot enough).
…On top of this, apparently I ‘lied’ to my mother when she asked me if “I was happy”, and I said I was. But she never asked me if I was planning to upgrade any time soon. She assumed by me saying yes that I also said yes to this. …She should had been paying attention when I told her I “got my new RAM” and “new CPU”.
She has to pay the bills by the 20th, and she needs my internet connection (connected to my computer) to do so. Cave and Jero both told me the CPU is safe, my computer is
safe, and my files are safe. That if I wasn’t able to get the cooler off, I could screw it back in and everything would be good for the 20th, and I told her this. She’s happy.
—
Back to the problem at hand: they were running out of options. Jero then told me to try to untighten the screws again. And again I did. Three of the four screws were making
the multiple ‘click’ sounds.. which made me wonder if this screw is the reason. I focused on unscrewing the fuck out of this screw, then tried again. This time I began to see some movement on the heat sink, but I wasn’t absolutely sure. It felt.. different than before. So I tried it again, still seeing the same movement, pulling up slightly while tightening, hoping I was actually seeing this.
Without warning… *POP*, it came off! Ho-ly. fucking. shit.. FINALLY!! And the CPU’s still in the socket! Thank. goodness. My voice cracked when I screamed “I GOT IT OFF!!” I
was SO happy.
Now, I can finally continue with the tasks.
STAGE 3: Thermal Paste Removal of the old Heatsink and CPU
According to them, the paste was “eww” when I showed them. They said it was dried
out, which really made me question them, referring them to the stress tests I did after I finally get the new graphics card in (and updating BIOS). And has been like this.. for three years now. “If the paste has dried out, wouldn’t the temps show this!?” I questioned in retort.
They knew I wasn’t lying to them, but Jero said “that’s thermal paste for you. It’s a mystery!” ..hmm. *shrug* Truly is, it seems. My RX 580 was overheating, though I’ve had that card for a few years longer than the CPU. Maybe in a few years time, the temps wouldn’t be so cool? Hmm. Maybe? *shrug* Who knows. But I cleaned off the old paste anyway. By then, it was Cave’s dinnertime and he left the call. He felt I had this under control now with Jero here to guide me.
Soon I felt I removed all the paste off of the heatsink, and knew I needed to wipe it off (but also knowing this had a 70% chance of exposing my fingers to thermal paste). *Cue ‘nam flashbacks of removing the paste off of my old FX 9590.. uuughhh*
But, I was lucky when I wrapped up one paper towel sheet into a compact square, and
got ZERO paste on my fingers. Also, removing the paste off of my 2600 (while it’s still in the socket) was actually easier than I thought it would be. The paste had spread past
the IHS, but I was able to very carefully wipe it off and just store the Q-Tip in the bag. And once again when I assumed I had gotten it all off, I used the paper towel into a square thing, adding a very light coating of rubbing alcohol to it, and then rubbing the rest of the paste off. Infact I seemed to have done such a good job removing the paste off via
the Q-Tips, that it was pretty clean and ready to be removed from the socket.
Overall, stage completed successfully. Got no paste on me. Didn’t freak out. Went better than I expected. 🙂
STAGE 4: CPU Swapping / Adding new CPU Cooler
This is one of the most critical stages that patience (and steady fingers) is key. ..My left thumb, several times wanted to sabotage this stage, shaking the CPU almost free from my grasp during these critical steps.. as one bent pin will end this entire thing. Oy.
But despite my shaky left thumb nearly fucking me over a few times, I was able to get past this stage.
After I got this done, I grabbed my electric blower and attempted to remove the
ugly caked-on looking dust where the old cooler was. Now it looks better. Hopefully this means cooler temps.
–
The second part of the stage was getting on the new CPU Cooler.. which turned into another living nightmare. Aka: AMD Wraith Stealth Cooler Shenanigans Part 2!
The first part reminds me of that one Ed, Edd and Eddy episode where Edd wants Eddy
to ‘spin it, and learn!’ ..I was confused when I was holding the new cooler in my hands, not remembering if I need to scrape off the circle to expose the thermal paste.. I didn’t have
to.
*facepalm with thermal paste on my fingers* ..FUCK. However, getting it off was thankfully easy to do. Just went to the bathroom with the bottle of rubbing alcohol in my hands. Took some toilet paper and dipped it in alcohol, and it came off pretty quickly!
Very happy with this. Now that I knew (at least for now), I carefully placed the cooler ontop of the new CPU.
—
But there was yet another problem. I could not screw it into the motherboard for the life of me. Jero had the answer, but I didn’t listen. He said I might have to take off the maintenance panel and see if the CPU backplate was still attached, but to me (at the
time), I thought “no, no. That can’t be it. The screws just won’t go in, Jero. They aren’t springing, and I’m using all of my force to get them in” (I say while trying to do so, and
the freakin’ cooler sliding all over the place, coating the CPU in paste). Had to
get Cave back into the call at this point.
But knowing it was the only thing I haven’t tried yet, I did so. And the plate fell out. Cave’s all “that’s it!”, like this is my problem. I was annoyed but confused why this is
important.. until I saw that the backplate, provides. the screws. with screw holes. Oh, my god. I’m an IDIOT FOR FORGETTING THIS!! Three years and I’ve already forgotten how to properly build a PC! I really need to play PC Building Simulator again, to re-learn this shit.
*sighs* Whatever. I very carefully tried to put the backplate back on (with all the messy cables around).. then I realized I would need a 3rd hand. One to hold the backplate in place, one to place the cooler, and one to hold the screwdriver. But what I wasn’t thinking about is.. the backplate was on backwards. I did see the mounting screw holes, but they weren’t all in. And this didn’t hit me ’till later, when I tried and saw all four of them poking through the motherboard. NOW we’re talking!!
Jero had suggested a way I would only need two hands, to use the box the CPU came in as a hand. With the backplate now rotated the right way, I was able to get the cooler finally
in (once again doing the ‘X’ pattern to apply equal pressure. One twist of the
screwdriver, move to the next screw, and repeat). Except it seemed it was taking
forever, and I asked them “how do I know when the cooler is properly mounted?”, Cave said “when you feel the screw not able to turn anymore”. And no sooner than 10 seconds later, one of them actually does fully attach. So I keep doing the ‘X’ pattern over and
over, feeling more and more of them biting in. Finally I had the cooler mounted on. Now all I need to do is add the new RAM, then add the new SSD and I’m done.
STEP 5: RAM and SSD installation
Getting the RAM in seems almost like an art, despite everyone claiming it’s ‘the easiest thing to install’. Personally (to me) the graphics card is the easiest. Because nomatter how I placed it in, I had to use a lot of force to make sure those locking arms go up with
a loud *click* to know it’s properly installed.
The SSD install would prove to be problematic. First off.. there were no mounting screws for the SSD! What the fuck. Cave suggested I use two of the screws of the boot drive to mount the SSD to the plate, as SSDs have no moving parts.
Second, the new SATA cables that Cave picked for me… don’t work with this case. There was nothing wrong with the length, but the 90* bend.. the case won’t allow me to fit it into one of the SATA ports on the motherboard. Thankfully for me, my old motherboard (that has my FX 4350 still installed) has some spare SATA cables that still work.
STAGE 6: 🙏 (Please boot, computer! Please boot!!) 😨
New CPU installed, new RAM installed, new SSD installed. I–I guess I’m ready to close up the case, put the computer on my table, plug in the essentials (keyboard/mouse/monitors/Power Cable)… and pray it boots.
Getting the maintenance panel back on is always an adventure (of patience and determination) due to the ‘excellent’ cable management I did. 😜 And again I managed to cram everything in and get the panel back on. Though I left the side panel off just incase I’d have to work inside the case again.
With the essentials plugged in (Jero was asleep at the time), I turned it on and prayed. First started very not promising (keyboard wouldn’t turn on).. then 15 seconds later I saw it come on. Secondary monitor comes to life shortly after, and I’m saying “come on, baby. Come on. Boot for me”. Monitor kept flashing over and over, keyboard turning itself off and back on again. Cave said “it’s likely refreshing the BIOS, getting the data from the
new CPU and RAM,” then I saw a few lines of code pop up on the secondary
monitor, possibly showing CPU and RAM info to let me know BIOS is accepting it. After some more nervous moments of black screens and the keyboard turning itself off and on again, I saw the POST screen come up. Oh my god.. come on! COME ON!! Work!!
Primary monitor comes to life, loading Windows. Then I see the desktop. I’m nearly squealing like a pig with excitement, sitting down in my chair. IT WORKS!!! 😄
Only problem is the case fans were on full blast again. Cave believes the settings got reset with the new CPU.
STEP 7: Everything else
I check System Information, and there she be!! Ryzen 5 5600, with 32GB! Cave has me go into Device Manager, as he wanted to know the version of the new SSD I installed. Then I realized I had to go into Disk Management to get it going. Cave helped me through this. And now the new ‘F’ drive is ready to move the contents of the HDDs off of it, when I need to.
I then got into Speccy for Cave to give him the SSD info. With that done it was time to go into BIOS and set the case fans back to ‘PWM Mode’. Around this time is when Jero woke up. Cave then had me set a few other settings (mainly for the graphics card). With that all set, I did the dreaded ‘save and reboot’ and covering my eyes. A bit later I asked “can I open my eyes now…?”, Cave said I could and did, and saw I was in Windows. PHEW. Still fixed.
…However, this is when I noticed a real problem. Heard the case fans ramping up and told them “that doesn’t sound normal”. Cave told me it is normal, so I checked HWMonitor and it showed the CPU at 50c. They said this is “normal”, while I’m remembering the sloppy job trying to get the cooler properly mounted. Cave had me go into Task Manager and check the CPU’s base clock, explaining it’s normal the 5600 “runs hotter than
your 2600” as the clock shows 4.30 GHz. He also said “they also say to get a 3rd party cooler, but that’s mainly for overclocking since I’m sure you don’t want to do that,” and he’s not wrong there. No I don’t want to overclock.
Then I said “right, time for a CPU stability test” and brought up FurMark. Cave wasn’t sure if this would be a good test as it’s not “a systematic test”, but I went with it anyway and asked them how long should I run the test, told them I did it for 10 minutes before. They both agreed that 5 minutes would be enough to tell if there’s a problem, so I looked at the clock over my monitor, waited for the seconds to hit 00, and started the test.
Five minutes later I stopped it. Hottest it got was 80.6c, and Cave said “this is good. Others have reported seeing 80c. Just make sure it doesn’t hit 90c.”
So I guess all of that fail with the cooler was able to apply an even layer of paste on
the CPU and heatsink. I’m surprised, but very happy I didn’t fuck up with that at least.
But I’m still not really liking the increased hum of the case fans (and hearing the sound of vibrations in the case, that according to Cave weren’t being picked up on my phone’s mic).
So, despite my phone overheating several times, failing to plop the new CPU in the
socket (but it still did it) because of my spazzing left thumb.. oh yeah. The arrow you’re supposed to line the CPU to the motherboard? The one on the chip was so freakin’ tiny compared to my 2600, but I am glad I remembered that video I watched back then on how to install a CPU.
I also was (accidentally touching of the back of my motherboard several times (even touching the back of the CPU socket). Yet, somehow, this computer still lives.
Love that it’s ‘BenieProof”. Please continue to do so, PC hardware. 👍 I picked the right time to get into PC Building, according to both Jero and Cave. As back in the 90’s, it was a lot more dangerous.
.
All there’s left to do now, is use my computer like normal. Play games. Check the temps. And hope my computer remains stable. That’s the true test.
Jero hopes I will see better performance with VRChat (in VR) now. Maybe. I dunno.