Well... it's hard to tell what it is; the photo's very blurry. Gotta have the camera autofocus on the connector a bit more.

Looks abnormal for sure, though. For starters, you could try dipping some cotton swabs/Q-Tips in 99% isopropyl alcohol to see if you can scrape some of it off.

Old toothbrush is best for this. Cotton swabs leave fibers everywhere.

Cobra42898 wrote:

This in a gateway 2000 essential, 440bx motherboard. Powers on, LEDs on, but no beeps at all. No video at all, with 2 different known working video cards.

So I got curious and pulled the CPU. What's this white junk on it? The weird thing is, there's no sign of any of it anywhere else except the slot/CPU interface. Not on the card, not on the outside of the slot, no signs of it dripping out from inside, not even a questionable cap in sight. Nothing.

This was a freebie computer. No hard feelings if it's junk. Are there any tests I can perform to see if the CPU is ok? Maybe something inside overheated and bit the dust?

A better pic would definitely help. It kinda does look like TIM, I've seen TIM on all kinds of weird places and it can get everywhere (but usually somewhat around the CPU socket).
That there's nothing on the board might only indicate the mess was on this CPU and a board this CPU occupied previously.

You'd better hope the white stuff is just cooling paste, or else your CPU might be fucked 🤣