Yes, I cringed hard when I saw that picture, and it looks like you already put it in the motherboard, so I'm really not sure how to proceed from here. I'm reading/seeing it could cause a short out. I see suggestions how to clean the paste off the pins, but I don't how you could clean it out of the CPU socket.
The paste is help transfer heat from the processor (the flat side) to the heat sink on the CPU fan. The pins, which you applied the paste to, connect the CPU to the Mobo they are not involved with the heat transfer.
Here are a couple videos about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYwHB2P6GmM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hNgFNH7zhQ
IMO you might want to post the picture and that you already mounted it to the Mobo on a bigger forum like https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/. Maybe someone will be able to advise better.
Thank you man, I really appreciate your concern and advise.
That's why I think it's time to say.....
That I really got my use out of a fried CPU that I got from work. ;)
lmao! Thank God man!
I honestly considered it could be a troll post, but you never know!
Were the other commenters in on it or were they really like, yeah okay, this is normal?
Or maybe they just didn't fall for it.
Uh oh, are you sure?