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Northbridge HSF replacement help

meson2000

meson2000

Senior member
Hey everyone. I have an ASUS A7V133 motherboard. It has a Heat sink with a fan
on the northbridge. However, the fan is going bad and making an awful noise. I ordered
a new HSF and Artic Silver adhesive to replace it. However, I want to know
the best way to remove the old fan and heatsink without damaging the
North Bridge. Can I just pull it off with force? Or is there a solvent that I could
use to remove the paste? Let me know what the best thing to do is.
Thanks.
 
Yea, but I think that the Heatsink is the fan on my board. They are one solid piece. The new HSF I ordered
is one solid piece. I am going to have to remove the old one to put an new one on.
 
I assume it's not simply clipped on, then?
if it's held on with an epoxy like Arctic Alumina, it won't come off at all.
 
are u sure it's an A7V133 ???

since i've been using a lot of A7V133 and all of them comes w/ a fan that u could easily unscrew from the heatsink...
just unscrew it and replace the fan
 
I am sure it is an ASUS A7V133 KT133A board.
I am pretty sure that it is held on with some type of glue. I will
have to double check it tonight. I am pretty sure there were no
clips that I could see. I haven't looked at it for a while though......
Thanks for everyone's input.
 
I've replaced the northbridge HSF/sinks on 4 of my motherboards.
I think the only one that was actually glued on was the MSI K7master.
And ... for that one ... I put the MB in the static bag it came in and stuck it in the freezer.
Wait awhile. Then I used some cardboard under a screwdriver on one corner to pop it off.
I have to tell ya thou ...I was at my patience limits with the MB.
Anyway ,,, that process works on MB and 2 vid card I've had.
No problems poping the HSF's that are glued this way.
AND I EVEN GOT Artic Silver Thermal Adheasive to separate this way.
(so I could re-use a blue orb on a new card)
 
Originally posted by: Noid
I've replaced the northbridge HSF/sinks on 4 of my motherboards.
I think the only one that was actually glued on was the MSI K7master.
And ... for that one ... I put the MB in the static bag it came in and stuck it in the freezer.
Wait awhile. Then I used some cardboard under a screwdriver on one corner to pop it off.
I have to tell ya thou ...I was at my patience limits with the MB.
Anyway ,,, that process works on MB and 2 vid card I've had.
No problems poping the HSF's that are glued this way.
AND I EVEN GOT Artic Silver Thermal Adheasive to separate this way.
(so I could re-use a blue orb on a new card)
Click to expand...

When I got my video card recently (BFG tech Asylum gf4 Ti4200), I wanted to switch out the vga cooler, which I discovered was epoxied to the chip. I'd read that someone froze the card, as you advise, and popped it off with a screwdriver. While that would likely work, I was in the case of my vid card extremely reluctant to try something like that, and in fact have not, due to the implied risk it imposes upon the chipset.
I don't think I'd do something like that unless my equipment was efficiently replaceable.
Just my $.02 🙂

 
Yup ... like I said ... the 1st time I did it ... I didnt care...
and the video cards I did it on were outdated, it worked to get more out of my cards without buying new.
I would NOT advise doing it if you cant take the risk.
All the card and the MB worked much better with better cooling.
I didnt destroy any equipement using this process.
You'll actually find alot of links of users doing this process.
I wouldnt do it at all if your freezer isnt REAL COLD.
 
Freeezer... good (as above) (2 for 2).
BTW, my A7V133 had a noisy HSF with pins, no glue, no thermal paste (IIRC).
 
hmm, i had looked at this and the fan there is clearly screwed on, plus the heatsink appears just plastic-riveted to the mobo, for easy removal... If yours is glued I guess its a different revision or something. Probably worth contacting Asus for some sort of guidelines?
 
Why don't you do the easy thing and just pull the plug on the fan?
If the system is stable don't do anything else.

In my experience you don't need a fan on the northbridge heatsink and in the KT133A solutions I'm not sure if you even need a heatsink at all times. I know that a lot of manufactueres put fans on the northbridge but even on the KT333 and KT400 solutions I've come into contact with I haven't seen one single case of the system crashing just because you don't use the fan.

Similar/Other experiences?

/Matt

 
unplug the fan, close your case.
problem solved.
the heatsink and fan are almost completely useless unless you are pushing for mad FSB.
i did this exact same thing on my personal machine at work with an A7V in it.. of course, it makes no difference at all, and is alot quieter.
 
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