Any idea how to remove this cooler?

[Michael McChesney]

Have any of you guys encountered a CPU cooler on a prebuilt PC with no apparent way to remove it?

 

I purchased an Asus prebuilt desktop from Best Buy in 2017.  After I built a PC last summer, I put it away in a closet.  Recently, I decided to use it as a HTPC for my bedroom but I had problems with the boot SSD which I replaced and got the PC working.  Then I started folding and thought I could use the Asus as a second folding PC.  That worked for about a day, until I started having problems with the CPU fan.  It will start spinning for a few seconds, then stop, give off a dying moose sound, and then start spinning for a few seconds etc.  The CPU temp shot up to just over 100C before I turned it off.  As I see it, there is a possibility I need a new CPU fan/cooler.  (Just to be clear that was meant as a humorist understatement).

 

At first I thought that the 4 pieces of plastic that seem to be covering posts, were just that, plastic covering screws.  They might be covers, but I can't figure out how to remove them.  If they are covers they may be glued in place.  Then I thought, maybe it's backwards of the way I've seen coolers be installed and the screws are under the motherboard.  But that does not appear to be the case.  Before I give up and try zip tying a case fan on top of the cooler, does anyone have an idea of how to remove the cooler?

[Lurick]

Twist the four posts on the top of the cooler with the arrow pointing in the direction they need to be turned and then it should pop right off.

[minibois]

1 minute ago, Michael McChesney said:

At first I thought that the 4 pieces of plastic that seem to be covering posts, were just that, plastic covering screws.  They might be covers, but I can't figure out how to remove them.  If they are covers they may be glued in place.  Then I thought, maybe it's backwards of the way I've seen coolers be installed and the screws are under the motherboard.  But that does not appear to be the case.  Before I give up and try zip tying a case fan on top of the cooler, does anyone have an idea of how to remove the cooler?

It's probably removed in a similar fashion as the intel stock coolers:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005852/processors.html

[frozensun]

 

[SupaKomputa]

twitst the 4 plastic screw outside the fan, don't worry about the bottom part, it's unrelated.

for the replacement, you can just buy a bigger Intel stock fan with copper bottom.

Or you can fix the installation by replacing the thermal paste with a new one.

[akio123008]

A mentioned in this thread you can undo those plastic "screws". Another way is to squeeze them on the bottom (the circled ones).

[Michael McChesney]

8 minutes ago, Lurick said:

Twist the four posts on the top of the cooler with the arrow pointing in the direction they need to be turned and then it should pop right off.

Thank you so much.  It worked like a charm.  Now if I could only get a new cooler delivered that quickly.  I have a Cooler Master Hyper 212 cooling a i9-9900K in the PC I built.  I was thinking about upgrading to an AIO and just transferring the Hyper 212 to the Asus.  But that was before the pandemic eliminated my investment income for the foreseeable future and reduced my savings by 40%. I think I'll just order another air cooler from Jeff Bezos.  I'm sure he can use the money.  But anyway, thanks again for your help.

[Michael McChesney]

Actually, I'd like to thank everyone that replied.  You guys are all awesome.  Thank you so much.