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CPU stuck to Heatsink

Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 8:11 am
by Strife
Another little diddy that this bugger pulled on me. Whoever installed te cpu put some sort of yellow adhesive on instead of paste... what can I use to break that seal without compromising the chip?

Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 9:43 am
by Top Wop
Very carefully pry it off with a knife. Using a hairdryer to soften the paste could help as well, but dont let the motherboard get too hot.

Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 10:06 am
by Strife
I don't think I'll have a problem with heating up the mobo... The chip is out of it on the heatsink... ie the heatsink is sitting on a table at her house waitin for me to do something with it. None of the pins bent thank god. I tried putting an Iron on the heatsink to warm up the paste... it didn't work. Its not a paste its like a yellow glue almost... Maybe i was just a panzy and didn't get the iron hot enough...

Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 9:18 pm
by Canuck
Sounds like thermal paste. Get some lighter fluid, isopropyl won't hit it much, and soak it around the edges. It really works. Needless to say let the fluid evaporate before firing up the processor. I clean it up with Isopropyl after. Use Arctic Silver for the new paste. Thin is in with thermal paste.

Careful that silicone is toxic. Don't let pets lick your hand after handling, eat or smoke, etc. Wash your hands well with soap and water. Rinse well.

Never pry. Also firing it into the freezer in an antistatic bag for a couple of hours helps break the bond on some glues if someone used a heatsink paste/glue.

Some handy tricks.

Re:

Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 10:54 pm
by MD-2389
Canuck wrote:Never pry. Also firing it into the freezer in an antistatic bag for a couple of hours helps break the bond on some glues if someone used a heatsink paste/glue.
I've personally done this to remove a heatsink off of an old Geforce3. About half an hour was more than enough to do the job. However, I would recommend a gentle twisting motion to remove the heatsink from the processor. You don't want to damage it anymore than it probably already is. Its a miracle you haven't broken any pins after smacking it out of the socket with that hard drive. (You folks didn't get the whole story. He explained the whole thing in kali.)

Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 11:00 pm
by fliptw
is this like a 386 or something? like in what situation do you need to use a hard drive(how is the HD doing, btw?) to remove a CPU?

Re:

Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 11:02 pm
by MD-2389
fliptw wrote:is this like a 386 or something? like in what situation do you need to use a hard drive(how is the HD doing, btw?) to remove a CPU?
It was a pre-built machine from Staples that his girlfriend bought some time ago. From what I gather, the internals are kinda like those really small HP mini-towers where you have to take half the computer apart just to even glance at anything on the motherboard.

Strife, the next time you get the notion to transfer anything from one hard drive to another....either use a longer ribbon cable, or network them together with a switch or cross-over cable.

Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 1:14 am
by Grendel
Bare chip or capped w/ an ICU ? If the latter, get out the crowbar :) If the former, well, after something like whacking it really good the chip is most likely damaged already. Best softener I found so far for that wax based thermal crap is whatever Arctic uses in their \"ArcticCleaner I\". Smells like GooBeGone (orangy).

Re:

Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 8:04 am
by Strife
MD-2389 wrote:
fliptw wrote:is this like a 386 or something? like in what situation do you need to use a hard drive(how is the HD doing, btw?) to remove a CPU?
It was a pre-built machine from Staples that his girlfriend bought some time ago. From what I gather, the internals are kinda like those really small HP mini-towers where you have to take half the computer apart just to even glance at anything on the motherboard.

Strife, the next time you get the notion to transfer anything from one hard drive to another....either use a longer ribbon cable, or network them together with a switch or cross-over cable.
Yeah :P Like I said in Kali... Hindsight is 20/20. Shes a neat freak though so I was trying to put the drive in so I could use it after. I'll mess around with it tonight. Oh and I didn't hit the processor or heatsink on anything... It just came straight out with the heatsink when I was trying to move it to put the drive in. Either way... No excuses... Live and learn! I appreciate getting told by 5 different people never to touch a computer again... and to actually get off the one I was on at that time before I f'ed it all up :P

Re:

Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 6:42 pm
by Canuck
MD-2389 wrote:
Canuck wrote:Never pry. Also firing it into the freezer in an antistatic bag for a couple of hours helps break the bond on some glues if someone used a heatsink paste/glue.
I've personally done this to remove a heatsink off of an old Geforce3. About half an hour was more than enough to do the job. However, I would recommend a gentle twisting motion to remove the heatsink from the processor. You don't want to damage it anymore than it probably already is. Its a miracle you haven't broken any pins after smacking it out of the socket with that hard drive. (You folks didn't get the whole story. He explained the whole thing in kali.)
Oh then I should have suggested a larger ball-pean-hammer, or a bigger hard drive.