system
A chat on subreddit /r/pcmasterrace
human
That's wild that the paste got under the CPU.  How is that even possible?
gpt
It's not wild at all. CPUs do not form some magical water tight seal when they're placed in the socket. There is plenty of space for small amounts of liquid to be squeezed into, and a small amount is all that's needed to prevent good contact between the two. It's not like the entire bottom was coated in paste, it was just a handful of pins along one side. But that's enough to cause a boot failure due to poor contact.