I wanted to provide an update on my progress. I removed the heatsink from CPU B and applied some Cooler Master Nano thermal paste, which cost around $20. Thankfully, this completely resolved the flashing red light issue. The “Relative to ProcHot” value returned to normal, and my fans began functioning properly again.
I suspect the original problem stemmed from insufficient thermal paste, which led the processor to frequently reach its temperature limits. This situation triggered the motherboard’s emergency mode, causing the fans to run at maximum capacity even during idle periods after the temperatures stabilized. Fixing the red light and restoring normal fan operation have been significant improvements for my daily use. The system is now much quieter, with only the GTX 980 Ti making noise, which I still need to address.
I also noticed an improvement in Geekbench performance with the new thermal paste. Just to be thorough, I applied the same thermal compound to CPU A, as I didn’t want to overlook that component. The next issue I encountered involved Slot 6 of my RAM, which was not being recognized and displayed a red LED on the motherboard. I decided to purchase a new RAM stick from OWC to replace the faulty one, but that did not resolve the issue.
After removing CPU B again to check for potential mistakes, I discovered that a gold “cap” from the CPU had fallen off and was lodged in the base pins. I managed to remove the trapped piece but struggled to realign the base pins without using a magnifying glass and a sewing needle. Despite this challenge, the system still boots up and achieves an impressive Geekbench score of 23,000. I installed 3 sticks of 16GB RAM in Slots 1, 2, 3, and 5, packaged everything back up, and called it a day for now.
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