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Problem separating cooler from you

linustechtips fan
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I recently got a asus 3090ti lc that the aio went bad so I am going to water block the card . But I cannot remove the heat sink from the front of the card. I have checked and removed all screws and tried heating the card up to see if that would weak-in the thermal paste and did not work. My last though is to put the entire card in fresh anhydrous isopropanol to try and try to dissolve the paste but I don’t know if that would damage anything or if there is a better solution 

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Have you tried sideways movement?

While being very careful that you're not hitting any components see if you can manage any sideways movement. If you can this confirms the heatsink is free.

Once that is confirmed try slow application of force. This can be done with either a wooden of plastic etc wedge. Wedge it somewhere and give it time. A very slow application of force should lift the heatsink. Basically you push the wedge until you encounter some resistance. When you are able to detect the the resistance has decreased then apply a little more wedge. 

If you're interested in a product please download and read the manual first.

Don't forget to tag or quote in your reply if you want me to know you've answered or have another question.

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11 minutes ago, keskparane said:

Have you tried sideways movement?

While being very careful that you're not hitting any components see if you can manage any sideways movement. If you can this confirms the heatsink is free.

Once that is confirmed try slow application of force. This can be done with either a wooden of plastic etc wedge. Wedge it somewhere and give it time. A very slow application of force should lift the heatsink. Basically you push the wedge until you encounter some resistance. When you are able to detect the the resistance has decreased then apply a little more wedge. 

I have tried sideways movement ad I don’t want to put a wedge against the dye 

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15 minutes ago, linustechtips fan said:

I have tried sideways movement ad I don’t want to put a wedge against the dye 

Yeah definitely don't wedge it, that's a disaster waiting to happen

 

How long did you heat it up for?

Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");

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It shouldn't be that hard are you sure you've removed all screws ? Or maybe it's LM I've no experience with

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1 hour ago, linustechtips fan said:

I have tried sideways movement ad I don’t want to put a wedge against the dye 

Very wise. I wouldn't do that either, that's why I didn't say wedge against the die. And how could you when you don't have any space yet?

You wedge against the heatsink and an area of blank circuit board.

 

1 hour ago, Blasty Blosty said:

Yeah definitely don't wedge it, that's a disaster waiting to happen

You have to apply opposing force between the heatsink and the circuit board. You're saying when you do this by hand it's fine, but if you do it mechanically all of a sudden it's not. That makes no sense.

If you're interested in a product please download and read the manual first.

Don't forget to tag or quote in your reply if you want me to know you've answered or have another question.

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6 minutes ago, keskparane said:

You have to apply opposing force between the heatsink and the circuit board. You're saying when you do this by hand it's fine, but if you do it mechanically all of a sudden it's not. That makes no sense.

Because when you use a wedge, all the force is in one spot on the board.

 

When you use your hands, the force is spread out

Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");

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4 minutes ago, Blasty Blosty said:

Because when you use a wedge, all the force is in one spot on the board.

 

When you use your hands, the force is spread out

So? There is 0 problem with applying a small amount of force. Every time you plug in a PCIE cable or similar you are apply force to a small area, how is that ok then?

 

If you're interested in a product please download and read the manual first.

Don't forget to tag or quote in your reply if you want me to know you've answered or have another question.

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Anyways that's what worked for me on my last 2 GPU water blocks. Small amount of constant force over period of time. I hope you succeed with whatever method you eventually use.

 

Spoiler

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If you're interested in a product please download and read the manual first.

Don't forget to tag or quote in your reply if you want me to know you've answered or have another question.

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Posted (edited)

Post a few good pictures.

No need for wedging, the gpu board sticks to the heatsink via thermal paste and thermal pads.

If really all the screws are off, moving laterally the board against the heatsink should release the sticking.

Like separating magnets, you do it laterally.

Edited by leclod

If you don't quote us, we won't know you answered

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i've been there with my old R7 3700x stuck on the cooler, you can try to heat the cooler up A LOT with a heatgun if you have it or a hair dryer and slide GENTLY a cutter blade between the CPU and the heatsink... BE EXTREMELY GENTLE AND REALLY CAREFUL or you will slice your hands and it won't be funny

 

 

....also blood doesn't conduct heat that well, not worth  

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