Problem replacing heatsink (pics). Please help..

[sn8ke]

Ok, I recently had some problems with the stock fan on my 9800 pro (thread here). I bought a VGA silencer which I received today. I'm having a hell of a time getting the stock heatsink off. I've been trying to get it off for over an hour. The power cable for the fan was a bitch as well, it finally came off but not without a fight.

I'm no novice with computers or hardware, but modding video cards is one of the very few things i've never done. Should it be this difficult to remove it? Is there a simpler way of going about it?

Picture of the pin
Picture of the pin from the underside
(It's a little blurry, lens focused where the most light was.)

I've been squeezing that thing like crazy, but it won't go through the other side. I've used fingers, pliers, tweezers...

What am I doing wrong??

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

It sounds like you're doing it right... those little flap locks should go in and let you pull off the HS from the front...

 

[sn8ke]

Thanks for helping out.


Well, those little flaps are long gone. I don't see them anymore so I guess I squished them against the pin already. Should I just pry the heatsink off? I was under the impression that the 2 black pins would come out like screws and then the heatsink would naturally come loose. I don't wanna damage anything so i'm being very careful I don't do something wrong.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

The thermal paste used to keep the HS on the chip will cause it to stick on pretty well. You might have to apply a decent amount of force to get it to come off.

 

[sn8ke]

I can't pull the heatsink off because it wants to pull those black pins with it. They won't go through the holes. I've squeezed them all I can. wtf..

If I push the pin down from the top, it pops out a little more from the bottom of the card. I don't know what else to try. Those pins keep twisting and I can't grip them with the pliers.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

It's been a long time since I took my heatsink off my old 9500pro, but I think the black pins stayed attached to the heatsink even when they had the little flaps pushed in. I think they have a mechanism to keep them attached to you don't lose them.

I don't know if that made any sense...

 

[sn8ke]

Ok, I was squeezing/trying to fit it through the hole and one of the pins just snapped and broke and a spring went flying. I did the same to the other pin so it eventually broke too. I got the heatsink off now. I cleaned the core with some alcohol, but it looked kinda messy to begin with. Here is a pic of the core after I cleaned most of the stock thermal grease off. The grease around the actual gpu was there. Is that ok? I tried to clean it up a bit, but it's a little difficult. Does it look like it should at this point?

Pic of gpu
(edit: link fixed)
Thank you

 

[Nocturnal]

You may want to clean the gunk around the chipset as well. Otherwise if the leftover paste conducts with the other stuff and shorts something out you'll be out of a card.

 

[sn8ke]

Ok, I cleaned it off some more. This is about as clean as it's going to get using paper towels. I used all my q-tip/ear swabs yesterday when cleaning some case fans though, so I don't have any of those. Think it's ok to mount the silencer now or would it be best to wait until tomorrow when I get go buy some more q-tips and clean more thoroughly?

New pic of gpu

ehh it's pretty late, i'll probably just finish it off tomorrow..
I appreciate both your help.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: sn8ke
Ok, I cleaned it off some more. This is about as clean as it's going to get using paper towels. I used all my q-tip/ear swabs yesterday when cleaning some case fans though, so I don't have any of those. Think it's ok to mount the silencer now or would it be best to wait until tomorrow when I get go buy some more q-tips and clean more thoroughly?

New pic of gpu

ehh it's pretty late, i'll probably just finish it off tomorrow..
I appreciate both your help.

Glad to hear you got it off. Good luck tomorrow.

 

[sn8ke]

Ok, I applied some AS5 and mounted the heatsink. Just want to know if it looks like it should to you guys before I reinstall it. The clip is a little lobsided but screwed in firm, is that normal? Also, you can see "into" the heatsink (second pic).

The clip
View of heatsink

I gotta go but i'll be back later tonight to hopefully reinstall the card.

Thanks for your help.

 

[sn8ke]

d'oh
I forgot to plug the fan into the video card.

I took it off and cleaned the AS5 off of the heatsink, but not the gpu. I think there was a little too much on there to begin with. It looks better now. Is that alright? The AS5 was only on there about 5 minutes before I took the heatsink off to plug the fan in.

The blue clip isn't lobsided anymore, but I can still see into the heatsink as I stated in my above post.

 

[thelanx]

The clip shouldn't be lopsided, make sure you alternate and screw a little on each side. Seems like the second time you got it right. Seeing "into" the heatsink is normal. Looks like you're all set. Congratulations man on your first video card mod!

 

[sn8ke]

I just installed it. First boot, monitor did not receive a signal ;(
I feared the worst. I came SO close to scratching the PCB when messing with those stupid pins. I reseated it and this time heard that *click*. Got a signal, but it was an error message stating "You did not plug the power connector into your radeon 9800...etc". Oops again. I plugged it in and it seems to be working great. The suspense was killing me..

I'm gonna install that little pci slot switch right now. Just wanted to make sure it was ok.

I have another question though. I'm a little worried about the card still, and i'm in no hurry to leave it on overnight like I always used to. How can I monitor the temp of the card? The 9800 pro didn't come with a sensor did it? Any software that will do this? I used to have ATI tool, but I don't recall seeing temps..

THANKS GUYS!