Removing the memory heat-spreader

How th hell do you do it without trashing th ram?? I have tried gtting it off my kingston hyperx like 5 times and no matter what I try it just won't come off! Any secrets or anything? I can't figure it out...

bump since nobody has replied, I'd like to know myself since I have some ram on order that I want to look under the hood too

1st heat it up with a hair dryer
2nd pry off the 2 clips using a small flathead screwdriver
3rd carely slip in the screwdriver a bit in between the ram and heatspreader and try to lift it while blowing your hairdryer on it. (lift with your fingers not the screwdriver)
4th then do the same for the other side.

-it worked for me, i did it on 4 sticks with aluminum heatspreaders(including hyperx)

some of them simply use a "thermal pad", thus when you remove the clips, the heatspreaders should fall right off.

There are some however that use a sort of thermal adhesive. I'd recommend taking a hair dryer to warm them up before any attempt to remove the heat spreaders. When the spreaders and good and warm, use a razor blade on the two outermost chips, just make sure the blade is going between the chip and the heat spreader. Once the two outside chips are free, you can gently pry upwards, and they usually come right off.

Don't be afraid to use some pressure. I had some stubborn Kreton RAM that I really had to work at, but no harm was done to the modules despite all the force I was using.

I hadnt thought about them being semi-glued on there in some way

I guess I was just thinking the clip over the top of either end of the spreader needed to be lifted up or something

good info to know, thanks

The hair drier aproach workd beautifully, found out that I hav ddr400 chips on my ddr333 ram, guess that explains why my ram runs about ddr420 no problem...

Also found out that the memory chips that are on it can handle up to 3.6v! anybody know if I could actually push it that far or would other components on th board burn up?

iwillburnbush said:

Also found out that the memory chips that are on it can handle up to 3.6v! anybody know if I could actually push it that far or would other components on th board burn up?

Click to expand...

Normally the chips don't have any indication of voltage etched onto them. What you may be seeing is 3.6ns, although that speed is mostly found on video cards.

I wouldn't throw 3.6V at it unless you're certain these are modules that can take it. I'm talking about Winbond modules namely BH5-6/CH5-6, which are tried and true at such voltages.

Furthermore I don't know of any motherboard that would deliver that kind of voltage. Some motherboards, and it's a rarity at best, only provide 3.3V

haha, I looked up the data sheet for the modulas I found under the heat spreaders. Infineon HYB25 etc.

I don't think I'll give them any more voltage than I am now (2.8v) just because I don't really need to, but 3.6v is a lot...