Heat Sink Removal

[jjsbasmt]

I've been given a Dell 4300 to work on but I'm unable to remove the cpu from the heatsink. I've tried to pry them apart, but I'm not sure why the two act as if bonded togeather with something more than a pad or paste. Has anyone any experience with using solvents to soften up the bonding material?

 

[RebateMonger]

First thing to try is to heat up the compound. Run the PC for a while, turn off the power, wiggle and pull.

Beyond that, rubbing alcohol is usually what you use to clean up heatsink compound. I have no idea how to safely use it in your case, though.

 

[jkresh]

artic silver makes some solvents that do a good job with removing thermal pads and if heating doesn't work you could try applying some to the edges. Rubbing alcohol also probably will work and since it evaporates fairly quickly it should be safe even if you spill some.

 

[ch33zw1z]

use a flat head screwdriver to pry them apart. rubbing alcohol and qtips never did me wrong. :thumbsup:

 

[jjsbasmt]

Thanks I have used alcohol previously to clean up paste after separating the components in other systems. I failed to mention that with this system the cpu/hs are already out of the system. Would it hurt to soak the cpu/hs in the alcohol solution?

 

[ch33zw1z]

Try a hair dryer first, I'm not sure if soaking it would cause problems.

 

[PottedMeat]

I had to remove a heatsink attached with thermal epoxy off a geforce3. Finally got it off by sticking the card in a bag and then into a freezer for ~2 hrs. Then stuck a screwdriver between the heatsink and the chip - popped right off with no damage.

 

[jjsbasmt]

Soaked for about 5 min, with success. Thanks everyone.