I've been trying for about an hour to remove this heatsink, the pen method doesn't work at all, they don't seem like those regular white "umbrella style" push pins from the back.
IIRC you need to pull the middle pin out, once that's done, you pinch the retaining "claws" on the bottom of the PCB and the heatsink should pop out.
Proud owner of a Shuttle HOT-555A 430VX motherboard and two wonderful retro laptops, namely a Compaq Armada 1700 [nonfunctional] and a HP Omnibook XE3-GC [fully working :p]
These two? Do I need to be pulling these while pinching underneath?
Just pull them out, they spread out the two claws on the other side. No need to squeeze anything together while pulling them. If the won't budge, try to rotate them by 90 degrees and try again.
Okay I got the pins out, thanks. Next problem I assume the 20 year old glue is holding it onto the chip pretty damn well. Have tried heating it up but not budging. Any ideas?
AaronS wrote on 2025-11-11, 21:16:Okay I got the pins out, thanks. Next problem I assume the 20 year old glue is holding it onto the chip pretty damn well. Have tried heating it up but not budging. Any ideas?
The freezer trick has worked well for me. A few hours in the freezer has always worked to get stubborn fossilized thermal compound to break loose with some gentle pressure.
After watching many YouTube videos about older computer hardware, YouTube began recommending videos about trains - are they trying to tell me something?
If it's that dried - prob. not doing good heat transfer either.
Make sure you can see nothing connecting from top to bottom - not familiar with this particular heatsink, but I have run into some over the years with extra/hidden attachment points.
Once you are sure there is nothing, try rotating the sink back and forth slightly and see if it will loosen - you might have to resort to prying it off.
Very easy to break things if you are not careful - I have a very small pry-tool I use in cases like this, and what I sometimes have to do it get it in place and then use an elastic or something to keep pressure on it - and let it sit that way for hours/days .. sometimes continued pressure will eventually get the pieces to "drift" apart.
And always worth trying heat/cold - sometimes a few cycles - thermal stress can also cause things to loosen.
Dave ::: https://dunfield.themindfactory.com ::: "Daves Old Computers"->Personal
Yeah there's only the heatsink and chip now.
I'll try the freezer thing, I assume this won't damage capacitors or any other components?
And yes it doesn't seem to get very hot, I detached the fan and ran 3Dmark01 and the rear of the chip gets hot to the touch (3ish seconds) but the heatsink only warm, (no thermal sensor to know exactly).
Okay couple hours in the freezer, followed by 20-30 seconds with hairdryer, stuck a credit card in there while twisting.
Horrible stuff you gotta pick off now. Thanks everyone. I wouldn't mind finding some aftermarket cooler but I don't think there's anything too good that doesn't take up multiple slots. I saw startech made a copper one but all long gone by now:
https://www.startech.com/en-gb/computer-parts … UUWCpHrrdc1MrQP
I'll just stick with this one.
