Removing Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive

[Toad21]

I have some ramsinks attaches to a video card and want to take them off. How would I go about getting them off? They are monster ram sinks and are attached with Arctic thermal adhesive. And I donot want the video card to get damaged.

Thanks!

-Todd

 

[Gavinni]

Well if you can't pull them off, stress test your card for a while to heat it up, then turn your computer off and quickly remove them while the thermal greese is still gooey from the heat. Then just wipe it off with a napkin dabbed in alcohol.

 

[akapaulk]

Hope this helps (scroll towards the bottom for removal instructions).

 

[kleptik]

First off - I HAVEN'T TRIED THIS... but i have read of others putting their part in a ziploc bag in a freezer and carefully prying off the frozen heatsinks with an xacto knife. As for removing the leftover adhesive, I wouldn't have a clue. Good luck and be careful. Arctic silver's website has a big red warning that adhered parts stay so "forever."

 

[mentok1982]

DO NOT USE RUBBING ALCOHOL

Isopropyl alcohol is what you should use. There is a difference between the two.

 

[Venthos]

Er, one second. Just glanced that over.

Why the different instruction set for Arctic Silver 1/2/3 and Artctic Silver 5? If I read that right they do not want you to do the "Heatsink prep" with Arctic Silver 5?

I always did as they instructed on the site with my Socket A Athlon XP. Put a bit on the heatsink, rubbed it into the heatsink, wiped off excess. Then I put a thin layer on the core, and boom, done.

With AS5 they say the heatsink prep is bad mojo and just to slop a glob in the middle and squish down the heatsink, nothing more nothing less?

-Venthos

 

[Toad21]

Thank you very much. I used isopropal alchohol to remove arctic silver paste, but never adhessive. Thank you all for the advice!

Thanks!