How do you get the #$%#$@ heatsink off? Want to put some thermal grease in there

[Spoooon]

Just like the title says...

Heh, the vid card is a TNT2. It seems to be glued on. One of the articles I read said they just pop off. Damn liars...

 

[Oda]

2 schools of thought:

Either:

Put card in the fridge. The coldness will make the glue brittle. Pop the heatsink off with a butter knife. Clean residue glue with nail polish remover/rubbing alcohol.

Or:

Run with card for hours, making the chip hot. The heat will weaken the glue. Again, use a butter knife. Less glue left with this method (I heard).

I have had no cause to take the HS off my TNT2u fyi, so I'm just speaking from what I read.

 

[jeremy806]

Been there.

If it is the stock heat sink, just take a pair of needle nose pliers and grab onto on of the fins. Carefully twist it until the glue breaks. The stock glue breaks with mild shear stress.

Jeremy

 

[lenjack]

Heat it up...knife works.

 

[Spoooon]

Thanks for the advice. I practiced on an old TNT just to be safe. I put it in the freezer for about an hour and the glue wouldn't budge! I'm going to try getting a can of air and freezing the crap out of it. I can't wait to buy a new video card...

 

[Tamdino]

Why do you want to put that stuff on there anyway? If its put on unevenly it can cause hotspots (varying temperatures).

Just my $.02

--Tamdino--

 

[Brian48]

Don't submit the card to such extreme temps with freon or any type of cooling like that. Keep in mind that when you freeze the glue to a point where it's brittle enough to break, you're also freezing the silicon on the card itself. It is extremely easy to damage the card when it's in this state.

 

[jeremy806]

No heat or cool, just a pair of pliers and a nice hard twist, like removing a stubborn bottle cap.

Jeremy

 

[Eug]

I just grabbed the heatsink and twisted. Popped right off (V3). Actually, I was trying to get the fan I glued on off the heatsink and had only grabbed the fan. Whole thing came off. So it seems that a bit of superglue is stronger than thermal epoxy.

Tamdino,

Once I put on the thermal grease, my overclocking ability improved significantly.

 

[kyoshozx]

I just let my card cool, let the AC blow on it a minute and put a flat screwdriver and twist it and it popped right off.

If you feel brave lap the chip while you're at it. I had 2 Nvidia cards and both cards the chip were not flat. They were actually concave.

 

[slpaulson]

Yeah my geforce is accually WORSE now that I put thermal grease on it cause the damn card is concave.

 

[K_Factor]

Spoooon,
Did you ever think about how you are going to attach the heatsink after you put the thermal grease on?

 

[Eug]

I used the crazy glue method. Just dab some glue on the corners (make sure there's no paste there), or a little more along the chip edges if it's a big heatsink. Then just apply the heatsink with even pressure for about a minute. Just make sure that the thermal paste is very thinly applied and you'll be fine. If you're a little uncomfortable with just the super glue, then you can add zip ties.

But I'm taking my apart again soon enough. It's been working great (much better than the old cheap@$$ glue job), but I want to get it to the absolute limit. So I ordered some of that Arctic Silver grease to see if that will get 10 more MHz out of my V3. (Running at 170 right now.) If not, no big deal... I'm only $14 poorer.

 

[DeadlyKnight]

well ditch the stock cooler .its not worth too much put a pentium style cooler on it and some thermal tape its a way better ,cooler and it will do you more justice,oh dont heat or cool it just pop it off with a screw driver mine was that way do it up by the little hole in the board safest place my 2 cents

 

[jamarno]

Don't pry the heatsink with a butter knife or screwdriver or you could tear the chip off the circuit board - I've seen it happen.
You need to drive something thin, like a razor balde, into the edge to crack the glue. Then the heatsink will come off rather easily.

Save yourself a future headache and forget about using epoxy or krazy glue. Instead make a thermal pad by dabbing on some silicone RTV on the chip - not silicone thermal grease - and squishing it with the heatsink.

 

[DeadlyKnight]

using rtv can scar the chip unless its not (acid cure) check the back if it says anything about acidic anything its not what you want you need neutral cure (warranty purpose only) other wise it wouldnt matter i use the thermal tape ,pads suck

 

[jamarno]

Automotive RTV labelled "safe for oxygen sensors" won't be acidic, but as a practical matter, RTV that smells like vinegar won't do significant harm.

 

[randomlinh]

I'll go w/ the "don't freeze the damn card" statement. From personal experience, it flucked up my TNT (i was left w/ a trident for 2 months.. grrr).

Hey, if you have any artic silver left over, send some this way, $14 is a lot for a little tube

 

[Eug]

Hey, it's not that bad considering it seems to work so well. That's the cost of a movie with popcorn and drink +/- a chocolate bar. Would have preferred half as much for $8 though. This tube is gonna last forever.

Anyways, V3 with stock 40 mm heatsink and additional 40 mm fan = 165+ MHz.
V3 with stock 40 mm heatsink and additional 40 mm fan, but with silicone thermal grease = 170-175 MHz.
New 50 mm heatsink/fan with Arctic Silver (plus I stuck the old setup on the back with frag tape), and now I get 180 MHz.

I think I've reached its true limit, because at 182+ MHz I get artifacts, even if it's not been running for any length of time - not hot. And, I've already heatsinked my memory chips.

Mini-alpha with Arctic Silver on my sound card - my sound card no longer does funny things.

 

[merlocka]

I've removed 4 heatsinks (TnT's & V3's) using the "freezer" method and the small fat blade on a swiss army knife. Just make sure you get the blade into the glue so when you twist the knife you are grabbing the top of the IC (not the pin grid array) and the bottom of the sink. You can usually find a corner that has less glue then the others.

 

[randomlinh]

On your SOUND CARD??? heh, time to overclock that sucker and pump out them mp3's faster!


Oh, and what about soaking the entrie card in acetone... ?

 

[Eug]

"On your SOUND CARD??? heh, time to overclock that sucker and pump out them mp3's faster!"

Hehe. It was because I was getting sound dropouts with my Live! Platinum, and I noticed it was getting VERY hot during gaming. Arctic Silver and a heatsink (and better case cooling) seemed to have solved the problem.

"Oh, and what about soaking the entrie card in acetone... ?"

Eh... Acetone is a very good solvent, and I suspect that would be a good way of loosening the heatsink. I am guessing, but I also suspect it could destroy many parts of the card, although at least you'll have removed the heatsink.

 

[DuckmanX]

Use hot hairdryer to blow on it fer a lil while and yank that sucker off... after you've yanked it off, cool down the chip again by turning off the heat on the hair dryer...