Risk of dislodging chips if removing m3 adhesive on nVME drives?

[Rodinski]

I'm being a bit paranoid, hopefully.

 

I installed the included heat spreader ADATA Legend 850 but decided to try and peel it off as the processor wasn't in good contact with the heat spreader. I tried pulling it off but the adhesive is a bit strong. I gave a big of a tug but realized the potential of pulling out the chip and thought I saw it slightly dislodge (im hoping it was just the adhesive). Should I be worried?

 

I'm going to stress it after I get new mounting screws (stripped a screw while installing) but am now worried the longevity of the nVME could be compromised. Say, as it heats under load, the chip will slowly dislodge and I might lose everything on the drive in a year or 2.

 

Anyone have any experience with this? Is it easy to know if you pulled the chip out slightly? Thanks for any input.

 

 

[Poinkachu]

13 minutes ago, Rodinski said:

I'm being a bit paranoid, hopefully.

 

I installed the included heat spreader ADATA Legend 850 but decided to try and peel it off as the processor wasn't in good contact with the heat spreader. I tried pulling it off but the adhesive is a bit strong. I gave a big of a tug but realized the potential of pulling out the chip and thought I saw it slightly dislodge (im hoping it was just the adhesive). Should I be worried?

 

I'm going to stress it after I get new mounting screws (stripped a screw while installing) but am now worried the longevity of the nVME could be compromised. Say, as it heats under load, the chip will slowly dislodge and I might lose everything on the drive in a year or 2.

 

Anyone have any experience with this? Is it easy to know if you pulled the chip out slightly? Thanks for any input.

 

 

A pic of what you think dislodged would help us giving an informed answer.

 

My ADATA SX8200 Pro heatsink also didn't come off easily, at the end of the day managed to peel off the heatsink off the NVME, but the heatsink bent out of shape.

But everything on the PCB was fine. And it works fine up until now(Around 1,5 years). Though I can't say it wil surely be the same for you and your nvme.

IMHO, unless they use some sort of crazy strong adhesive or some sort of botchy job of a solder. The NAND & Controller should be fine.

Those 2 are mainly the components on the PCB the thermal tape adheres to.

 

If you want to take off an adhesive tape, thermal pad, thermal paste, try heating it a bit first. ( Obviously, I learned this after attempting to remove my heatsink )

Luckily in PC, parts makes heat, so... just stress test the part a bit before trying to remove it.

Using the fishing line method also helps sometimes .

[MONIXMARU]

show us a pic of the condition exactly, a simple solution will be to back all your files up now!!!

 

 

[Rodinski]

Thanks for the input so far guys. 

[MONIXMARU]

4 minutes ago, Rodinski said:

Thanks for the input so far guys. 

at this point you will need heat and will need a very thin card or a picking tool. Ifixit has those available

[Poinkachu]

12 minutes ago, Rodinski said:

Thanks for the input so far guys. 

From what I've seen so far it seems the tape does only sticks to the NANDs & Controller.

Other component seems fine, and IMHO should be fine since none of them is in contact with the tape (meaning nothing pulling them out when you tried to pull the heatsink).

Although if you did ended up bending the PCB when pulling, the contact pads & solder might separate, but it is less likely to happen.

[Rodinski]

Thanks for the input guys. I'll do some stresses and see how it goes.  If you pulled yours off completely and it's still fine to this day, I guess the solders are stronger than I thought.

 

I can't test it out till next week as I wait for parts. I'll see how stress tests go. I also figure that if the (I guess) controller pops out, I should be able to find someone to reball the chip back and do a data recovery if needed. For now I'll just keep the important stuff on another SSD.

 

Thanks guys. Gives me some reassurance.