How do you remove a heatsink/fan from a video card?

[Kraid2xd]

Okay, I'm kinda new to this cooling mod thing, and I was just wondering, how do I remove the heatsink/fan off the gpu and the ram of my Gainward geforce3 ti200 so I can put on a better heatsink?

Do I just yank it off with pliers and a screwdriver or is there a more finesse/gentle method involved?

Any particular tools you guys recommend?

 

[SpeedTester]

I think I remember someone saying if you put it in a zip bag and
throw it in the freezer for 15 minutes then take out and twist the heatsink
off, it would come off easially. You can also use a can of compressed
ai by holding it upsidedown and spraying under the heatsink

 

[CelticDemolition]

yeah, theres the freezer trick, which makes the glue brittle so you can snap it, and then theres the hair dryer trick, where you blow at it for a while with a hair dryer on high... this loosens up the glue instead of making it brittle... then dig under it with a flathead screwdriver and gently pull it off. the guy i heard this from prefers the gentle pull over the sudden snap... i'm kinda inclined to agree though i've never tried it myself.

 

[Brian48]

The only thing I don't like about the freezer method is that it makes everything else on the PCB brittle as well. If you're not careful, you could damage something else on the card during the process.

Just use a screwdriver. It's easy and there's a lot more finese to it than you might think. There's a written step-by-step here. http://home.earthlink.net/~chinmonster

 

[Jerboy]

<< I think I remember someone saying if you put it in a zip bag and
throw it in the freezer for 15 minutes then take out and twist the heatsink
off, it would come off easially. You can also use a can of compressed
ai by holding it upsidedown and spraying under the heatsink >>



Freeze it then hold an air-impact chiesel(a.k.a mini jack hammer) against side of the heatsink. It worked on my ECS K7S5A chipset cooler before I threw it away.

 

[gdawson6]

With my hercules 3d prophet II 64mb ddr i just pushed the little plastic things from the bottom and kinda pryed it off, it came off quite easily and had some kind of thick orange stuff.

 

[Jen]

geforce generally held by plastic pins easy enough to remove


for other ones that are glued on best to do freezer method.........just be very carefull as it does make the pcb brittle also. i seen a couple of bad things happen when the attempt to remove the heatsink ended up destroying the video card


Jen