- Jan 1, 2014
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I'm probably going to have people laugh at me or provoke " what are you stupid?" comments that I will do my best to take in good grace 😛 but here goes...
I will start out by saying that I AM stupid for not doing enough research on CPU/heatsink removal like I should have in the first place... the websites and videos I looked at before said nothing about letting your computer run for a while first to warm up the thermal paste so it "unglues" itself from the heatsink and CPU more easily... so, like a fool, I did the gentle rocking back and forth motion that was suggested by my research without running the PC for a while first and, sure enough, managed to bend the pins on my CPU , basically destroying it (attempts to straighten the pins back out did not work).. basically looks like the CPU was firmly anchored to the heatsink (I used the thermal paste that came pre-applied to my CPU when first installing maybe that was my first mistake) and my best attempts to gently rock it back and forth still bent the pins..
$150 worth of painful lessons later.... in terms of the cost of CPU and motherboard replacement .... I am now TERRIFIED of damaging a CPU should I try to remove it from the motherboard again ... I'm wondering what people think of the following steps , paranoid though they may seem :
- run the PC for at least an hour first in hopes of warming up and loosening the thermal paste
- unlatch the lever on the motherboard that holds the CPU in place so, worst case scenario, hopefully if the CPU won't detach from the heatsink it just "comes up" off the motherboard still pasted onto the heatsink via (possibly stubborn) thermal paste
- after unlocking the latch arm lever thing on the heatsink, carefully using a flat head screwdriver to push the two latching mechanisms on each side free of the protruding "prongs" on the motherboard CPU socket that the heatsink would normally be attached to
- with a friend standing close by, gently lifting the whole thing... heatsink and cpu ... up and away from the motherboard... the friend would be there carefully watching the cpu, ready to catch it in case it falls off the heatsink and towards the motherboard.. I remember seeing a picture on another thread here of thermal paste goo getting into the motherboard cpu socket which is definitely something I don't want
- if the CPU is still attached to the heatsink at this point gently rotating the CPU until it "pops free" of the heatsink.
- and then of course using rubbing alcohol to gently clean thermal paste off the CPU and heatsink
my motherboard is the GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-USB3, current CPU in there is the AMD FX 6300 and I am using the stock heatsink/fan combo that comes packaged with the retail version of AMD FX 6300 ... I considered using a thermal paste other than the one that comes pre-applied to the AMD FX 6300 but I was so discouraged over destroying my first CPU that I didn't want to mess with cleaning the pre-applied stock thermal paste off and putting a better quality one on , I know I'm supposed to put a pea sized drop on but was still afraid of messing up and making another mistake 🙁
Thanks in advance to anyone who reads this and posts a reply !
I will start out by saying that I AM stupid for not doing enough research on CPU/heatsink removal like I should have in the first place... the websites and videos I looked at before said nothing about letting your computer run for a while first to warm up the thermal paste so it "unglues" itself from the heatsink and CPU more easily... so, like a fool, I did the gentle rocking back and forth motion that was suggested by my research without running the PC for a while first and, sure enough, managed to bend the pins on my CPU , basically destroying it (attempts to straighten the pins back out did not work).. basically looks like the CPU was firmly anchored to the heatsink (I used the thermal paste that came pre-applied to my CPU when first installing maybe that was my first mistake) and my best attempts to gently rock it back and forth still bent the pins..
$150 worth of painful lessons later.... in terms of the cost of CPU and motherboard replacement .... I am now TERRIFIED of damaging a CPU should I try to remove it from the motherboard again ... I'm wondering what people think of the following steps , paranoid though they may seem :
- run the PC for at least an hour first in hopes of warming up and loosening the thermal paste
- unlatch the lever on the motherboard that holds the CPU in place so, worst case scenario, hopefully if the CPU won't detach from the heatsink it just "comes up" off the motherboard still pasted onto the heatsink via (possibly stubborn) thermal paste
- after unlocking the latch arm lever thing on the heatsink, carefully using a flat head screwdriver to push the two latching mechanisms on each side free of the protruding "prongs" on the motherboard CPU socket that the heatsink would normally be attached to
- with a friend standing close by, gently lifting the whole thing... heatsink and cpu ... up and away from the motherboard... the friend would be there carefully watching the cpu, ready to catch it in case it falls off the heatsink and towards the motherboard.. I remember seeing a picture on another thread here of thermal paste goo getting into the motherboard cpu socket which is definitely something I don't want
- if the CPU is still attached to the heatsink at this point gently rotating the CPU until it "pops free" of the heatsink.
- and then of course using rubbing alcohol to gently clean thermal paste off the CPU and heatsink
my motherboard is the GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-USB3, current CPU in there is the AMD FX 6300 and I am using the stock heatsink/fan combo that comes packaged with the retail version of AMD FX 6300 ... I considered using a thermal paste other than the one that comes pre-applied to the AMD FX 6300 but I was so discouraged over destroying my first CPU that I didn't want to mess with cleaning the pre-applied stock thermal paste off and putting a better quality one on , I know I'm supposed to put a pea sized drop on but was still afraid of messing up and making another mistake 🙁
Thanks in advance to anyone who reads this and posts a reply !
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