Does Ryzen Get Stuck?

[Mike Soda]

While I wait for the NH-U14S to be back in stock on/from Newegg I stumbled across some old claims that stock AMD CPU coolers used to get stuck to the CPU. I've read that one can twist them apart but I'm worried that'd damage the pins. I've also heard of using dental floss & even soaking the entire mess in a 91%+ Isopropyl Alcohol bath for 5 minutes. Although wouldn't the mere action of forcibly pulling the heatsink & CPU off together in order to soak without releasing that tension arm damage the pins anyway? What can I do to ensure I won't break something I absolutely can't replace?

 

[warlinty]

that's not a CPU cooler issue but a thermal paste issue from the looks of it, buy any decent or high end thermal paste and you should have no future issues

[Narnash]

Nah ... it's not really stuck. Thermal paste ist just a sticky stuff and the PGA style sockets just can't hold the CPU as strongly in place as the LGA sockets intel use (LGA is pushing the PCB of the CPU down and PGA just "clamps" all pins in it's hole, you can see the mechanism when you "close" socket without a CPU in it)

 

To make sure you don't damage anything you can just twist very gently and see if the cooler can already "slide" a bit when you removed the screws from the cooler (than it should be safe to remove it normaly), a still a bit warm CPU and thermal paste can help with that (just let the CPU heat up a bit befre you try to remove the cooler).

 You can also try (if you can) to open the socket with the cooler still on top than you can remove CPU and cooler together and get the CPU of the cooler by twisting it.

 

Just make sure when you remove the CPU to pull it straight up (as I said a bit of gentle twisting while you don't pull it is OK, but twist and pull like most people do on intel sockets might bent pins if you unlucky*) the CPU might get removed with it put that's usually fine.

 

 

 

PS: a few bent pins are not a super big issue though, razor blades, ball point pens, needles, tweezer and a magnifing lens can bent them back fairly easily. BTW even ripped of pins can be soldered back on ( I did it myself once) and heard from a a friend that a nice jeweler soldered a pin back on for him.

 

[Mike Soda]

Just now, warlinty said:

that's not a CPU cooler issue but a thermal paste issue from the looks of it, buy any decent or high end thermal paste and you should have no future issues

Thank you but I know it's paste related, I was wondering if AMD was still using that sticky variant though. I've found some recent posts although not many, of people with Ryzen claiming it happened to them.

[TheReal_ist]

2 minutes ago, Narnash said:

Nah ... it's not really stuck. Thermal paste ist just a sticky stuff and the PGA style sockets just can't hold the CPU as strongly in place as the LGA sockets intel use (LGA is pushing the PCB of the CPU down and PGA just "clamps" all pins in it's hole, you can the the mechanism when you "close" socket without a CPU in it)

 

To make sure you don't damage anything you can just twist very gently and see if the cooler can already "slide" a bit (than it should be safe to remove it normaly), a still a bit warm CPU and thermal paste can help with that (just let the CPU heat up a bit befre you try to remove the cooler) You can also try (if you can) to open the socket with the cooler still on top than you can remove CPU and cooler together and get the CPU of the cooler by twisting it.

 

Just make sure when you remove the CPU to pull it straight up (as I said a bit of gentle twisting while it's still in the is OK but) the CPU might get remove with it put that's usually fine.

Thank you, I was going to post this but you summed it up, pretty well. 

[Mike Soda]

3 minutes ago, Narnash said:

Nah ... it's not really stuck. Thermal paste ist just a sticky stuff and the PGA style sockets just can't hold the CPU as strongly in place as the LGA sockets intel use (LGA is pushing the PCB of the CPU down and PGA just "clamps" all pins in it's hole, you can the the mechanism when you "close" socket without a CPU in it)

 

To make sure you don't damage anything you can just twist very gently and see if the cooler can already "slide" a bit (than it should be safe to remove it normaly), a still a bit warm CPU and thermal paste can help with that (just let the CPU heat up a bit befre you try to remove the cooler) You can also try (if you can) to open the socket with the cooler still on top than you can remove CPU and cooler together and get the CPU of the cooler by twisting it.

 

Just make sure when you remove the CPU to pull it straight up (as I said a bit of gentle twisting while it's still in the is OK but) the CPU might get removed with it put that's usually fine.

 

 

Thank you so much, I'm going to bed now but here's my game plan. Reduce the fan speed & run Aida64 Extreme while OC'd to hit about 80C. I'll then try to quickly disassemble everything before it cools down & use your very slightly twisting method to ensure it's loose before pulling. If that doesn't work, so long as I completely power everything down & disconnect, would it be safe to squirt 91% Isopropyl Alcohol between the chip & heatsink? Also do you have any other minimally risky methods?

[Narnash]

2 minutes ago, Mike Soda said:

Thank you so much, I'm going to bed now but here's my game plan. Reduce the fan speed & run Aida64 Extreme while OC'd to hit about 80C. I'll then try to quickly disassemble everything before it cools down & use your very slightly twisting method to ensure it's loose before pulling. If that doesn't work, so long as I completely power everything down & disconnect, would it be safe to squirt 91% Isopropyl Alcohol between the chip & heatsink? Also do you have any other minimally risky methods?

I'm personally not a big fan of this soaking method, generally it should work, but even though it's only isopropyl alcohol it might damage plastic parts on the motherboard (if you have an acrylic window on the case it can cause microcraks fairly easily, too) leave stains on painted objects and so on.

 

As long the themal paste is not ancient old the whole heatsink removal is fairly unlikely to cause any issues, also a "pulled CPU with heatsink" is not damaged at all in most cases. Slightly bent pins are very easy to fix and ripped pins by sticky heatsinks are maybe case by one of a 1000 of those who pulled their CPU and heatsink together.

Ryzen is a young platform, warm paste has a lower viscosity I think you should be fine. Just don't rip, pull and twist the whole thing like a jackass than should nothing get damadged.

 

BTW so far I removed (changed) my Ryzen CPU heatsink now in my system 3 times and replaced the heatsink in the Ryzen system of a friend once and so far I didn't pulled it out of it's socket, so I guess it's less of an issue on this platform.

[WoodenMarker]

You'll be fine if you lightly twist it loose before pulling the heatsink off. The pins won't be damaged if they're still in the socket.

[minibois]

Nah, it's alrighty I replaced my cooler some time ago with an aftermarket one and removing it's was ez. In the past I replaced some AM3 CPU coolers too and that paste was older so stuck more.. but on my Ryzen system it was a breeze. If you can't however remove it, give it a tiny twist when removing it, or just turn on the system for a minute before removing it: that heats up the CPU, which makes the past easier to work work and better to remove the cooler.

[Mike Soda]

10 hours ago, Narnash said:

I'm personally not a big fan of this soaking method, generally it should work, but even though it's only isopropyl alcohol it might damage plastic parts on the motherboard (if you have an acrylic window on the case it can cause microcraks fairly easily, too) leave stains on painted objects and so on.

 

As long the themal paste is not ancient old the whole heatsink removal is fairly unlikely to cause any issues, also a "pulled CPU with heatsink" is not damaged at all in most cases. Slightly bent pins are very easy to fix and ripped pins by sticky heatsinks are maybe case by one of a 1000 of those who pulled their CPU and heatsink together.

Ryzen is a young platform, warm paste has a lower viscosity I think you should be fine. Just don't rip, pull and twist the whole thing like a jackass than should nothing get damadged.

 

BTW so far I removed (changed) my Ryzen CPU heatsink now in my system 3 times and replaced the heatsink in the Ryzen system of a friend once and so far I didn't pulled it out of it's socket, so I guess it's less of an issue on this platform.

 

10 hours ago, WoodenMarker said:

You'll be fine if you lightly twist it loose before pulling the heatsink off. The pins won't be damaged if they're still in the socket.

 

7 hours ago, Minibois said:

Nah, it's alrighty I replaced my cooler some time ago with an aftermarket one and removing it's was ez. In the past I replaced some AM3 CPU coolers too and that paste was older so stuck more.. but on my Ryzen system it was a breeze. If you can't however remove it, give it a tiny twist when removing it, or just turn on the system for a minute before removing it: that heats up the CPU, which makes the past easier to work work and better to remove the cooler.

I can't thank y'all enough , yeah I built my PC this past summer so the paste is only a few months old. Last night I checked to see if I could release the leaver with it all attached but Wraith Spire is too wide & sits too low. I'll do the heatup & very slightly twist method you all recommended with it outside of the case. At first I was thinking inside would be better but the weight of the motherboard alone should be enough to separate the two if they aren't really stuck anyway. Plus that'll give me room to maybe try the dental floss method or maybe Alcohol on a q-tip so it doesn't get on other parts of my board.

[minibois]

43 minutes ago, Mike Soda said:

 

 

I can't thank y'all enough , yeah I built my PC this past summer so the paste is only a few months old. Last night I checked to see if I could release the leaver with it all attached but Wraith Spire is too wide & sits too low. I'll do the heatup & very slightly twist method you all recommended with it outside of the case. At first I was thinking inside would be better but the weight of the motherboard alone should be enough to separate the two if they aren't really stuck anyway. Plus that'll give me room to maybe try the dental floss method or maybe Alcohol on a q-tip so it doesn't get on other parts of my board.

I personally removed the cooler when it was in my case, by just laying it flat, unscrewing the cooler and screwing the new cooler (with it's backplate) in with it the case up right.

[Mike Soda]

On 11/30/2017 at 12:27 PM, Minibois said:

I personally removed the cooler when it was in my case, by just laying it flat, unscrewing the cooler and screwing the new cooler (with it's backplate) in with it the case up right.

I'll actually do the same because in the time it'll take me to unplug everything, remove my 1060 & unscrew the entire motherboard, the paste could cool down.