Chipset HSF fell off!

B

btb103

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 11, 2002
Messages
1,065
In the last couple of days my machine has been locking up (completely) when I game or run other intensive applications and I have been very perplexed as to why. Today I cracked open the case to have a look and, first there was a huge amount of dust and crap inside the case, which I've now cleaned out. Second, I guess when I shipped it home a few weeks ago from college the chipset HSF fell off. It was just sort of hanging there by the hooks that loosely held it to the motherboard (an Abit IC7).

My question is, can I just clean off the old thermal compound with isopropyl alcohol and re-install the HSF with my Arctic Silver Ceramique? Are there other alternatives that would be better? Thanks for your help!
 
Yes and you want to do that ASAP. I'm surprised the NB hasn't burnt up already.
 
This happened to me as well. It was 2 years ago, and it didn't just fall off, it actually pulled the hook out of the motherboard. I made an emergency trip to radioshack and picked up a soldering kit ($15) and just re soldered the hook to the board. Scared the hell out of me though!
 
Could be worse... I pulled the die off of an old sempron while removing the stock HSF :).

Get that HSF back on that NB ASAP!
 
Uh so I'm trying to clean off the old thermal adhesive but the stuff is a bitch to get off. On the HSF itself I just used a razor blade and screwdriver to scrape it off with plenty of 91% ISO and that was a pain... Now I'm wondering how to get it off the NB, I'm guessing it can't withstand the scraping of a screwdriver and I don't want to dump alcohol all over the thing. What's the best way to do this?
 
What I do, is I take all the cotton off of a Qtip (the paper stick kind, not the plastic ones) soak it in alcohol, and scrape!
 
Pick up some acetone from your local pharmacy, drug store, or hardware store. It's the active cleaning ingredient in nail polish remover, and evaporates quickly. I use it for anything that alcohol can't handle. It's a very harsh cleaner, though, and it'll eat plastics (polycarbonate/lexan, namely). Use it on a Q-tip, it should rub off eventually, those thermal pads are a biotch.

Goo-gone and oil/gas style cleaners will also work, but they leave a film behind.

After the acetone has removed the goo, use 90+% rubbing alcohol to clean up the leftovers.
 
Acetone is the right way to go. Also, be advised that the IC7 series of boards had a nasty habit of loosing the metal mounting loops off the board. Mine pulled out on my old setup (see sig) and I had to epoxy them back in with a small dab of 5minuit on each end of the loop.

All 4 mounting loops are present on the boards if I remember right, so be sure that your's are all still there and not floating around in the case somewhere.
 
One of the mounting clips did come off... I'm confused as to why there are 4 though because on my HSF there are only two hooks - the other two mounts would go to waste, no? Perhaps i am missing hooks on the HSF? Thanks for the tips on the acetone, I guess I'll make another trip to the store.
 
You aren't missing any hold-downs for the heatsink. The boards are made with 4 hooks... I don't know why either. Possibly for aftermarket heatsink/fan units, or so that they have more flexibility in mounting the heatsink during manufacturing.
 
Count me as another IC7 owner who had a loop pull through the board. It happened when the mobo was only a few days' old and I was Memtesting overnight. The system ran for about 8 hours with no NB cooler at 260FSB, and no errors were detected! I'm not convinced that ICH5 needs any cooling.
 
Common fix for the IC7 was to use a small paperclip instead of the loop, and solder the clip ends together on the backside of the mobo, never comes out after that (dont forget to insulate the paperclip ends/solder point on the backside.
 
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