Help!!! Arctic Alumina Adhesive Problem!!

[henwy]

Hi guys,

I'm new to posting but have been lurking for a while. I have a problem I need help with. So I bought the arctic adhesive because I was trying to reattach the heatsink for my southbridge: one of the legs was not secure anymore. While I was waiting for the epoxy to cure (having a weight on it), I guess the weight slipped and the heatsink slipped and was not making contact anymore. I was not in the room so I didn't realize when this happened. Now I have two surfaces (the chip and the heatsink) not bonded together both with the epoxy (with good position though). What should I do? Should I try to clean the epoxy off and try to start over. If I do, how do I get off the adhesive? I have the arctic cleaner set that gets rid of thermal grease. Will it work for this material? If not, should I just try to apply more adhesive and try to rework the bond? Again, the two surfaces are not bonded so I don't need to worry about getting them apart. I WANT to get that bond. Thanks so much guys!!!!

 

[Automata]

That cleaner is going to be effective as splashing some water on rock. The epoxy that you bought forms a very strong bond that is going to be near impossible to break without damaging the board.

Post pictures of the heatsink, there may be solution.

 

[henwy]

pictures of heatsink and southbridge

Thanks for the response!

Ok so here are two pics, first one is the heatsink, second is the southbridge. I actually managed to find a pin for the heatsink to replace! So should I just go ahead and mount the heatsink normally? I mean will it still work even though the epoxy is separately on each surface? Thanks guys!

 

[Automata]

It won't be ideal, but cooling for the southbridge isn't as critical as your processor. Just make sure to get it on right this time.

 

[henwy]

So should I apply more epoxy or just go ahead and mount the heatsink? Will I notice any performance problems? Also will the existing epoxy act as a thermal compound? Thanks!!

 

[Automata]

You will need to use a paste of some sort to make them meet. Otherwise, you will have severely decreased cooling capacity for that chip, which could cause problems. As I mentioned in my last post, it isn't an ideal solution, but it should work.

 

[henwy]

Cool one last question, should I use arctic silver 5 or the adhesive as the "paste"? Also when you say it's not ideal, what do you mean exactly? I'm not super familiar with the function of the southbridge other it controls many I/O functions including the PCI Express. Cam it be detrimental to the performance of my graphics card? Thanks again man you're a lifesaver!

 

[Automata]

It isn't ideal because there is excess material between the two surfaces, which is going to increase the gap and decrease the cooling capacity. It is like putting a sweatshirt on. But, as I said, since the southbridge doesn't put out much heat, this isn't going to hurt it as long as you have as good contact as possible.

As long as it stays under the threshold it was designed for, it won't cause any issues.

 

[henwy]

And about which material to use, if I'm going to use the new mounting clips should I add thermal grease or additional thermal epoxy on the already existing epoxy?

 

[Automata]

That is up to you. If you want to be able to remove the heatsink in the future, don't use the epoxy. Performance wise they will nearly be the same.

 

[henwy]

Thanks man!

 

[Conumdrum]

You should somehow try to remove as much of the TPoxy as you can. Your mounting surface is now very rough and will not give good contact at all. You could sand the HS, not sure what to do about the TPoxy on the chip.

 

[henwy]

Yeah I can't think of a way to get it off the chip.. So I'm just gonna do what thideras suggested and add a small amount of as5 and mount.

 

[Conumdrum]

At least get some fine sandpaper and a small square something and try to get 'some' of it off. Tedious close work, take your time.

 

[henwy]

I shouldn't sand the chip right?

 

[Automata]

Correct. You will have a very small layer on the top, so it gives some breathing room, but it is very thin.

 

[Conumdrum]

No, just the stuff on top of it........ If you don't feel comfortable trying it, then don't. Me? I'd take the mobo out, put it on a well lit table and try all sorts of odds and ends. I'd probably spend 2-3 days trying different things till I gave up, broke it, or got it as smooth as I could.

Auto stores have good sandpaper, look for 800 grit or so. Rinse the board in alcohol and dry with compressed air when done.

All depends on what you want to do. It IS your stuff.

 

[henwy]

Hey guys,

so I went ahead and put as5 (on top of what was already there) and remounted the heatsink. So far everything seems to be working fine, I ran 3dmark and get around the same score as before. I also put one of my temperature sensors from my temp monitor on the heatsink of the southbridge. Would this reading be anything reliable? I mean I guess the danger was that there would not be good contact between the southbridge chip and the heatsink, thus not transfering heat. So if that was the case the temp reading on my sensor would be much lower than what the actual temperature range of the southbridge chip is right? Anyways, right now it idles around 29.4 C and when I get into 3dmark 11 it rises to around 32-33C. I think it is still rising, and might rise more if the tests were longer. Should I run a stress test to see what my readings are? Are there any signs I can notice that would tell me if the southbridge is overheating? What is a typical temperature for a southbridge chip? Thanks!

 

[Conumdrum]

You can't get good temps off the heatsink. You could try HW Monitor for one, and decipher what temps are what. Hopefully on a Google serch and on this board you'll find some clues to what temp is your SB.
If 3D mark ran fine, Try Furmark next, it will push the GPU, and the SB is the PCI communication chip. Air cooling, a 10 min test is usually enough.