Heatsink fell off memory on geForce 3.... what can I use from home to reattach?

[Ponyboy25]

I was wondering if there was something that I could use from around the house to put the heatsink back on, like maybe super glue??? Or is that a dumb and risky idea on a $300+ card?? Should I just wait and look for something better at a computer shop? Any advice is appreciated.

 

[GrumpyMan]

Get some Artic Silver II adhesive.

 

[Slacker]

Just curious, who is the manufacturer of your card?

It is possible that it just wasnt attached as firmly as it should have been, you could press it back on firmly and use a couple of rubber bands to keep it from dropping on the card below it if it falls off again.

Hot glue is a good non permanent solution, a dab at each corner should do it.

Wait and see if anyone else has anything to say about using hot glue, I have never used it on computer components.

 

[Ponyboy25]

It's a Visiontek. It happened during shipping, but I'm not going to mess around with sending it back if I can easily put the heatsink back on and get it to work fine.

 

[dkozloski]

Clean the chip and heatsink as best you can. I use a single edge razor blade for the big stuff and a suitable solvent like acetone for the rest. I put a dab of generic heat sink compound in the middle of the chip and a small drop of super glue on each corner. Hold the heatsink in position for a few seconds and Bob's your uncle.

 

[jeremy806]

Assuming that the surfaces are close enough to flat, use superglue and be done with it.

Or exchange the card under the warranty.

I would use superglue, as I have used superglue to put a HSF on my GTS core.

jeremy806

 

[Ponyboy25]

So superglue alone could do the trick, huh? I was searching around and found that several people have used the combination of superglue and thermal grease, but I figured that as long as I cleaned the old glue good enough off of the heatsink and memory chips, I would be able to just superglue the heatsink back on. I figured that as long as the chips and heatsink are making contact, then there shouldn't be a real big problem with little to no overclocking.

 

[Wingznut]

Either get some Arctic Silver adhesive, or go with dkozloski's idea. (Although I don't have an Uncle Bob.)

 

[salman327]

If you're super glue it, is there anyway to take it off if you need to again?

 

[Ponyboy25]

Why would you take off the heatsinks? I plan on keeping them on my video card.

BTW, does anyone know what stores sell that Artic stuff online, maybe even offer overnight shipping?

 

[Wingznut]

2CoolTek has some, and they are an excellent place to buy such things.

 

[salman327]

Let's say for example you have a blue blorb (or orb whatever it is), and you want to switch it out w/ Millisec's heatsink for your gpu, then you would have to take the old one off.

 

[JoeDaddy]

I highly doubt that many people leave the HSF stock, but just remember that once you do anything, including Artic Silver Epoxy your warranty is gone. So if you use Artic Silver Epoxy and your GF3 burns up a week later because you had the memory at 575mhz then you SOL. Did you purchase it online? If not then I would just return it and ask for a replacement. If you did buy it online, they might be willing to foot the bill to pay for shipping it back and maybe, just maybe you could get them to send you a new one overnight. But it all depends on where you bought it from.

HTH

JD