OK I opened mine up and cleaned all that paste out, I forgot the stuff between the heatsink and the PCB..... shouldnt matter that much on that side.
This thermal paste is like stuffed inbetween the pins of the ASIC's... I couldnt clean it out without getting more aggressive and the last thing I needed is to kill an ASIC so I did my best by gently cleaning it for an hour and using alco wipes and some other SMD tools.
