Arctic Adhesive removal ?

[Bubba]

I need to remove the AS adhesive from my chipset.(I have way tooo much) how can I get it off or what should I use.Is the top of the chipset fairly durable?

 

[cyber mouse45]

What, like this much??


Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

 

[cyber mouse45]

Do you think alcohol or acetone would work?? I've never used the AS adhesive before, so I don't know how hard it is to get off. I got some gun cleaning stuff that might work, but I’m not sure what it would do to the chip.

 

[Starfoxer]

try acetone, or nail polish remover. that may work

 

[Starfoxer]

lol you like that pick mouse dont ya

youd think the guy would be smart enought o whipe
the AS off. lol

 

[cyber mouse45]

youd think the guy would be smart enought o whipe
the AS off. lol

Yeah, I wiped the AS3 off my chip before I RMAed it.

 

[gone_fishin]

Try the product called "Goof Off" from a hardware store. It removes just about anything and comes in a small can.

 

[Colin]

If you have Arctic Silver Adhesive on your chipset, that's epoxy. It won't wipe off nor will a solvent cut it.

 

[cyber mouse45]

If you have Arctic Silver Adhesive on your chipset, that's epoxy. It won't wipe off nor will a solvent cut it.

Well, I guess it's time to get out the acid. hehe

 

[Bubba]

Can I use a sharp razor and scrape it off?How sensitive is the chipset?

 

[Krusty]

I need to remove the AS adhesive from my chipset.(I have way tooo much) how can I get it off or what should I use.Is the top of the chipset fairly durable?

You're sure that it's adhesive, right? Not the thermal grease, but the stuff you use to glue two things together?

I'd probably try using the razor blade very carefully. That would probably get a good amount off. Just make sure to keep the blade at a very shallow angle to prevent scratching up the chipset.

 

[Milkman]

Try auto carb cleaner, that stuff will cut most anything, I used it to remove stubborn stuff from my gpu when I installed my corb, then cleaned it after with acetone(worked like a charm!!)

 

[ac3wooddog]

nail polish or alchohal works good

nail polish or alchohal works good

 

[Colin]

Bubba - Where is it on the chipset? Is it on the surface of the chip or the leads? Is there a heatsink mounted to the chipset with epoxy?

 

[Bubba]

Well, I epoxied a corb to the chipset with it and then when I restarted my box(or tried to anyway) it was dead,so I decided to take it off and clean it and try again without the epoxy to see if that's what it was.I had messes around with some other hardware and if that wasn't enough to really make things difficult I changed some settings in the bios also.I pretty much eliminated everything else already so I think it was the epoxy.I put it in the freezer and was able to get it off but it's stuck on the chipset pretty good.Also I think I may have nicked a trace on the board taking it off(I was as careful as possible too)I guess tommorow I'll try cleaning it and trying again.I hope it's not my KR7A.I was trying to put together my main system.I bought a Radeon 8500 and a LianLiwith 2 20 gig Maxtor ATA133 Liquid cooled drives.I'm glad I found out before I did it to my 8500(I already had the HS off but decided to try the chipset first).But now my 8500 is laying around and something always seems to happen if I don't get it back in the comp right away,I don't know why I don't leave well enough alone or at least do one thing at a time.I always tend to do it all at once knowing darn well that if one thing is a problem I'll be trying to figure out which one of the 100 things I did is the culporate.Please just don't let it be my 8500 and preferably not my mobo either.Maybe just a spot of epoxy on a lead or trace somewhere!

 

[Colin]

If the epoxy was only on the HS and Northbridge, it could not have caused a malfunction. The traces on the board have a protective coating, so a little slopped epoxy would not cause a problem. The slight capacitance of Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive may have caused the board to malfunction, if it was on some of the surface mount components around the Northbridge.

Obviously the epoxy has a strong bond to the chip. The only way I have been able to remove epoxy is by lapping, and this only with heatsinks. While I know folks have lapped both Northbridge chips and GPUs, I hesitate to recommend this. Without the beep codes during post, it's hard to go any further in diagnosing the source of the problem.

I understand it's tempting to assume the problem was caused by the thermal adhesive, but remember, anytime components are installed or removed, the potential for damage exists.

 

[Bubba]

Yeah,bummer.I guess I'll install everything on another mobov and see if that works,if not than at least it will eliminate the board as the problem and I can go from there.If it is than I need to try and figyre out what it is on the board.Thanks for your input Colin.