Can't get the dang Cooler off!

[Kasher_Khan]

I have a Sycthe Ninja 1000 cooler installed on an Opteron 148 processor on an Abit AN8 SLI board.

My mobo is deffective so I need to remove the heatsink to send it back. The trouble is... the damn thing won't come off.

I used the back plate supplied with the ninja to hold its mouting bracket. Now I can't push down hard enough on the lever (without breaking the PCB of the Mobo it seems) to unlock the heatsink from ontop of the processor.

I tried removing the backplate thinking I could lift the entire mouting bracket assembly along with the cooler off the processor, still no go. I loosned the screws but the glue on the foaming of the backplate is stuck really hard to the back of the mobo.

This is my first time uninstalling a non factory heatsink. People with similar setups. Please let me know what the trick is... cause I refuse to believe that it is ok to exert maximum force.

Also on that note. How much force is too much force. (Wuuu Saaa!!! WUuuuu Saaa!!!)

 

[Kasher_Khan]

Ok I finally go the damn thing off using not one but two knives. I think I might have broken a few tiny pins on the back of the motherboard underneath the processor socket (all good, I am RMAing it already).

Anyways now the sticky part on the backplate is unevenly torn off in several places. I was wondering if I could completely peel it off and then just use some double sided sticky tape to place on the plate and put it back on the motherboard. If I can't cut it out exactly does it matter if the sticky foamy thing is covering different pins on the motherboard? what are those things anyways?(the little pointy nodes on the back of the motherboard?)

 

[sandness]

I had similiar problems with a Scythe Kamakiri. The backplate adhesive is simply way to strong- tore up my motherboard removing the damn thing.

The leftover adhesive won't affect anything (as it was running with the cooler on there in the first place). However, I wouldn't be surprised if the residue and scratch marks may send up red flags when you rma the board. Depending on how picky they are, they may hold it against you. As far as removing it, I'm not sure what will work. On mine, I tried rubbing alcohol and goo-b-gone, but to no avail.