How to remove thermal pad?

A friend of mine was building a computer and he used thermal pad on the heatsink.... guess he didnt know better but anyway the mothere board got fried and he has to remove the thermal pad from his proscessor. He asked me and i dont know what to tell him cuz he would kill me if i gave him bad advice and he killed his processor. So any ideas?

He might try a plastic picnic knife. Carefully.

Did the pad goo up and stick to the CPU core? If so, I'd try rubbing alcohol and Q-tips after some fingernail work. Maybe a credit card.

REALLY carefully!!

Is it the whole, or a large portion of, the thermal pad or just some residue?

If it's a big chunk of the pad thenstart by just peeling as much off with his fingernails as possible.

for the residue left behind try a little lighter fluid on a lint free cloth. Don't put the fluid directly on the core, put it on the cloth then wipe the core. Then, once it's off follow up with some rubbing alcohol.

do the same thing on the HS too, lighter fluid works wonders when cleaning thermal pads off of heat sinks.

Whoops, double post.

thanks for the sugestions

I always just scrape off what i can with something that won't scratch it and then remove the rest with a solution that will disolve it. Lighter fluid works good and I believe that WD40 does, also. Of course, you need to do a good clean of the heatsink or other surface after you get done using something like that. Always finish up with a thorough clean with rubbing alcohol.

James

Nail polish remover is an alternative also.