Arctic Silver Adhesive; removal techniques?

[ricey]

Hi all

 

I lapped the nf4 chipset heatsink on the m/b in my sig, and then I made the bad mistake of using Arctic Silver Adhesive to attach it :sad:

 

Everything went well for 9 months, but now the DFI fan is beginning to die; it makes a lot of grumbling noises and only spins at a slow rate so my chipset temps are 56 C at idle.

 

I've been doing a bit of research into removing heat sinks that have been permanently attached with AS adhesive.

 

Apparently, freezing the motherboard for 3 to 6 hours will make Arctic Silver Adhesive brittle, and then you can just twist off or pry off the heatsink.

 

Here are some references:

guru3D

LiquidNinjas

HardwareKnowledgeBase

 

Has anyone on DFI-street had any success with the freezer method? I really don't want to destroy my motherboard, but I have to fix this problem.

 

TIA,

 

ricey

[Infinity]

Good luck, dude. I lost a $500 X850Xt PE to that stuff. Ever seen a 30 year old man cry?

[Guest Dynamic]

Why did you do that in the first place, using Adhesive is not a good thing. Well, whatever happens i hope you can RMA that suckers back and get a replacement for it. Good Luck...i wouldn't know what to do....hehehe.....

[ricey]

Why did you do that in the first place, using Adhesive is not a good thing. Well, whatever happens i hope you can RMA that suckers back and get a replacement for it. Good Luck...i wouldn't know what to do....hehehe.....

 

The moral of this story is to NEVER attempt computer mods before engaging one's brain (or without reading the instructions first; I didn't realise that Arctic Silver adhesive was permanent ).

 

Anyway, I seem to upgrade my motherboard every 18 months or so, so if the heat sink removal goes horribly wrong I will just have to upgrade 10 months earlier than usual lol. I was hoping to upgrade my cpu next, as my current cpu sucks.

 

I'm hoping that the freezer method of removal works as detailed in the links I provided in my first post :confused: . If the heatsink doesn't come off relatively easily, there is no way that I will force it to. There are other ways to solve my problem without snapping my chip set or breaking my motherboard.

 

If I could get hold of a replacement DFI fan, I could just remove the old fan (it is held in by a few phillips head screws) and relace it. Nintek (my local DFI supplier in West Australia couldn't help me with a replacement fan). Maybe I could source a fan from an Australian DFI-streeter who replaced his/her chipset heatsink and fan with something better. Or I could remove the almost dead fan and zip tie a 90mm by 90mm case fan over the general area of the chipset heatsink.

 

As I said, there is no way I'm going to break my board.

 

Good luck, dude. I lost a $500 X850Xt PE to that stuff. Ever seen a 30 year old man cry?

Yeah? Ever seen a 49 year old man cry?

 

So, wish me luck; if this freezer method works, I'll have a few bragging rights on the Street.

 

ricey

[Smoken Joe]

First make sure that your card is not touching on the fan and no dirt on the fan. Your glue might have made it bend in the wrong way after a wile. Second you can either put a case fan blowing on the area or any fan that you can find that will blow air on the area can control teps very well. I have my fan effectily of- it only goes on over 45 and it never really reached that temp.

[KaollaSu]

This is a wild idea but if you want to freeze it really cold, fast. Get some liquid nitrogen or maybe an upside down can of compressed air if the Liquid Nitrogen isn't available. It will definately get it cold enough to make the adhesive brittle.

 

Edit: Another thought. Dry Ice!!!

 

Damn I get full of ideas when I've been drinking.

[Smoken Joe]

This is a wild idea but if you want to freeze it really cold, fast. Get some liquid nitrogen or maybe an upside down can of compressed air if the Liquid Nitrogen isn't available. It will definately get it cold enough to make the adhesive brittle.

 

Edit: Another thought. Dry Ice!!!

 

Damn I get full of ideas when I've been drinking.

 

 

Note to self- dont ask for advice on friday night.

 

See if you can fix the fan first or operate witout the fan working by using a external fan.

[Killing_Halo]

I have spare dfi heatsink just sitting around...you want the fan part of it..?? Wouldnt that be a bit easier. Just gettign anew heat sink form DFI and then just swapping fans without removing heatsink?

 

Also if you want that thing cold just get a can of compressed air hold it upside down that and spary the liquid that comes out is very very cold

[jumpman]

I just had an idea, instead of putting the mobo in the freezer...why not get a can of compressed air (its harmless for comps) and blow directly at the chipset heatsink. I think that it will freeze...or get REALLY cold and then you could try to twist it off.

 

Just a thought tho.

[AsAs1n8eR]

Also if you want that thing cold just get a can of compressed air hold it upside down that and spary the liquid that comes out is very very cold

I just had an idea, instead of putting the mobo in the freezer...why not get a can of compressed air (its harmless for comps) and blow directly at the chipset heatsink. I think that it will freeze...or get REALLY cold and then you could try to twist it off.

@jumpman,I think you should read other people's post first .As for the ideas try the undangerous ones first.

[ricey]

thanks for all the suggestions

 

I have re-seated both video cards and they are both not fouling the heatsink. I have checked that there is nothing interfering with the fan and it seems to be good.

 

However, the noise and slow fan speed is still there :sad:

 

I tapped the centre of the with my index finger (hard ) and the noise stopped and the fan sped up to just over 3,000rpm :confused: .

 

5 minutes later, the noise started again and the fan slowed down to around 2,200rpm :confused:

 

So, as far as I can tell, the fan's bearings are on the way out. I thought these magnetic flotation bearing fans were supposed to last for 50,000 hours, but this one has only been going for 7,320 (10 months, always on).

 

A trick that you used to be able to try with sleeve or ball bearing fans was to peel back the label covering the fan's centre and add a drop of fine machine oil. this often worked to quiet noisy bearings (a friend of mine used a similar method to revive a dead hard drive long enough to recover his data). However, I don't know if it works for these magnetic flotation bearings (I don't know what these are, I just saw that Angry Games called them that in another thread).

 

I have spare dfi heatsink just sitting around...you want the fan part of it..?? Wouldnt that be a bit easier. Just gettign anew heat sink form DFI and then just swapping fans without removing heatsink?

 

That would be the most sensible method; I tried to get a replacement chipset heatsink and fan from Nintek, the local supplier of DFI motherboards here in Western Australia but they were not able to help.

 

what would you want for the fan and postage etc?

 

ricey

[jimmil43]

If you turn the can of air over the temp of the gas/liquid coming out will be -40 F/C. You can risk that. Have you tried nail polish remover> Just an idea.