Removing Ramsinks attached via Artic Lumina Thermal Epoxie

Maviryk · Feb 1, 2006

My 6800GS loaner card just came in. It's been installed and now I have to send them my 6800 Ultra. The waterblock came off fine... except now I have 8 ramsinks attached via Artic Lumina Thermal Epoxy. I read somewhere that you're either supposed to freeze it, thus making the epoxy brittle and easy to break off... or heat it up with a drier to make the epoxy pliable. Does anyone have a good experience removing TA'ed heatsinks? I really don't feel like ripping off a ram chip.

Thanks

Maviryk · Feb 1, 2006

Well, I just spent 20 bucks on a heat gun. Works great, don't forget to wear glvoes when you do it though, those chips get hot!

Initially I stuck them in the freezer, but that didn't work. heatgun and flat screwdriver worked great.

Voodoo Rufus · Feb 1, 2006

Does the card still work?

Maviryk · Feb 1, 2006

You know... that is a good question. I'll test it in my roommate's computer when I get it all put back together. It's built using spare parts from my old ones anyhow.

Maviryk · Feb 1, 2006

Yup, everything turned out OK. Heat gun didn't seem to harm the card any. Ran on my roommate's computer just fine. Still has the same flaw that I'm RMAing it for though (not recieving power from the secondary power connector).

Voodoo Rufus · Feb 2, 2006

To any others reading, I would strongly caution about how long you subject a card to heat. I just did this same trick last night, and the epoxy did loosen to a tacky texture, with my heatsink popping right off. Problem was that I probably melted the solder pads underneath my BGA flip chip graphics processor and now the card displays only garbled colors on post. So, just use as much heat as neccesary and no more. This can kill your cards if not careful.

RIP BFG 5700 Ultra.

sunrunner20 · Feb 2, 2006

I wonder if a hot air rework want or high wattage soldering iron would be a better method for those that have the supplies aviable. I would be willing to try if given the epoxy.

PS: Only have the iron, I can't afford the ~$250 for a hot air wand for my SMT station.

Maviryk · Feb 2, 2006

Ouch, sorry to hear that Rufus, what kinda heat gun were you using??? I got mine for 20 bucks at a hobby store, it's mainly used to shrink plastic wing coverings on RC planes and such. It only gets to about +400 degrees F.

When I was doing it I had my screwdriver twisting with a little pressure underneath the ramsink and PCB until it finally came off. It only took about 15-20 seconds...

Please becareful for all those who do it.

Voodoo Rufus · Feb 3, 2006

Yeah, same type of heat gun. Except some solder will easily melt at 300F I believe. Not sure what kind is used under BGA chips.

situman · Feb 3, 2006

I used a hairdryer to get the NB heatsink off my Sapphire Mobo. SUcker is epoxied on good. Made a little "air-tunnel" out of some copier paper to direct the hot air away from my capacitors. Took like 5 minutes and nothing melted.

Silversinksam · Feb 3, 2006

You want to use cold to remove Alumina adhesive, not heat.

And you need to be very careful.

Removing Ramsinks attached via Artic Lumina Thermal Epoxie

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