Oily stains on brand new MAXIMUS XII APEX VRM heatsinks

[weztmarch]

Installed new i9-10900K processor into new ASUS ROG MAXIMUS XII APEX Z490 motherboard and immediately after I finish putting everything together (prior to first attempt to boot) I notice a significant amount of oily staining between the extended VRM heatsinks around the LGA socket... Attempted to clean with 99% isopropyl alcohol the best I could and I succeeded in removing most of it, but I didn't have time to remove the heatsink itself and examine closely yet because I needed to get back to work. As best I could tell from inspecting the front of the board I didn't notice any bulging or leaking capacitors, but I can't be sure with the heatsinks obstructing my view. So far everything is OK and I see nothing obviously wrong Windows 10 installed and PC behaves normally so far. Should I be more or less worried? Any insights into what this is? Electrolyte fluid, oil from a thermal pad, excess flux? Gonna remove the heatsinks later today when I find time, but this is a concern right now for the risk to my components.

Photos taken after cleaning with 99% iso
https://imgur.com/a/SG0lAF7

[howxcore]

Installed new i9-10900K processor into new ASUS ROG MAXIMUS XII APEX Z490 motherboard and immediately after I finish putting everything together (prior to first attempt to boot) I notice a significant amount of oily staining between the extended VRM heatsinks around the LGA socket... Attempted to clean with 99% isopropyl alcohol the best I could and I succeeded in removing most of it, but I didn't have time to remove the heatsink itself and examine closely yet because I needed to get back to work. As best I could tell from inspecting the front of the board I didn't notice any bulging or leaking capacitors, but I can't be sure with the heatsinks obstructing my view. So far everything is OK and I see nothing obviously wrong Windows 10 installed and PC behaves normally so far. Should I be more or less worried? Any insights into what this is? Electrolyte fluid, oil from a thermal pad, excess flux? Gonna remove the heatsinks later today when I find time, but this is a concern right now for the risk to my components.

Photos taken after cleaning with 99% iso
https://imgur.com/a/SG0lAF7

sounds like a case of someone eating fried chicken over at asus manufacturing, and forgot to wash their hands before assembling your mobo :-P

[weztmarch]

sounds like a case of someone eating fried chicken over at asus manufacturing, and forgot to wash their hands before assembling your mobo :-P

No I don't think so.... ASUS motherboards are made in a fully automated machine assembly process.

[bscool]

No I don't think so.... ASUS motherboards are made in a fully automated machine assembly process.

It is from the thermal pads I would imagine as most of them do that. It is normal. Look at he back on many GPUs and you can see that. https://forums.evga.com/Oil-on-GPU-m2952345.aspx

[XYchromosone]

luckily it's the thermal pads, the silicone based oil that separates from the thermal pads is non conductive so it shouldn't effect any electronic or electrical components/circuitry. However, one would prefer that this leakage of silicone oil onto the motherboard/heatsinks etc. not to occur in the first place.

[Chaz69allen1]

Hey all, little late to the party but my maximus 7 hero leaked grease onto my 1080ftw and fried it last night. Be careful out there.