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Can't get heatsink off

Slickone

Diamond Member
I've got a 6 year old Compaq PC w/ an AMD K6 or K6-2 that I can't get the heatsink off. I tried twisting, and prying it off with medium force. Any tips?
 
Try heat and cold. Put it in an anti-static bag and stick it in the freezer for a few hours. Then try again. If that doesn't work, heat it up with a hairdryer, and try again. Generally heat and cold will weaken the epoxy stuff OEM's use. I have used the freezer method to remove OEM graphics card coolers that were epoxied on.
 
So you're saying to remove the heatsink and CPU from the motherboard and put them both in the freezer. That won't hurt the CPU? Also if I remove it, there's nothing to pry on. Right now, I can use something else mounted in the case as a fulcrum, prying up on the heatsink (not touching the CPU). But it starts to pull the CPU from the ZIF socket.

And if I can't get it off, is it hard to put the CPU back in the socket w/ the heatsink on?
 
It won't damage the CPU to be in the freezer. There are people who run phase-change coolers that keep their CPUs at -40C (or colder) while running. Just make sure any condensate is evaporated before you put it back.

Is the heatsink blocking the ZIF lever?
 
pull up the hs with the proc. it should come out pretty good out of the socket with enuff force then spray engine degreaser all over the hs and proc. to loosen the suction on the proc
 
Tried the freezer thing, but still wouldn't budge. Gonna try prime95 later, once I get it on the PC (wont fit on a floppy). But either way, any force will be against the CPU's pins. I'm afraid they'll bend or break.
What if it's got a thermal pad on it?
 
Originally posted by: Slickone
Tried the freezer thing, but still wouldn't budge. Gonna try prime95 later, once I get it on the PC (wont fit on a floppy). But either way, any force will be against the CPU's pins. I'm afraid they'll bend or break.
What if it's got a TIM on it?

If it didn't have TIM on it the CPU would probably have died by now 😛
 
Originally posted by: Slickone
Tried the freezer thing, but still wouldn't budge. Gonna try prime95 later, once I get it on the PC (wont fit on a floppy). But either way, any force will be against the CPU's pins. I'm afraid they'll bend or break.
What if it's got a TIM on it?

Whatever you do don`t resort to using WD40....

 
It's probably dried up silicone paste. Just pry the thing off with a flathead screwdriver. You won't hurt anything because the K6-2s had heatspreaders.
 
FYI, it came off pretty easy after getting it hot. Just old silicone.

Originally posted by: thescreensavers
buy a new cPU and heatsink should not be so much money. I bought a 500MHZ celeron for $3 OEM on a site (not from ebay).
I'm curious, where?
 
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