Leave it, as long as it's not higher than the Die itself. Check if the shim and Die are on the same height - if so, you can easily use paste.

I usually use hot air (around 130°C) for heating up the cooler and then go for a slow twisting motion. Usually it comes off relatively easy.

^ As tehsiggi said.

Replacing the pathetic OEM heatsink with a real one in a 9800 Pro (from 5:25 onwards)

Besides improving point cooling for the GPU, don't forget about overall case ventilation.

In many vintage PC cases the OEM provision for ventilation is poor (relatively few spots for relatively small diameter fans). Then some users don't pay any attention to it, leaving said few spots unpopulated, etc.

I would leave the yellow stuff as long as its lower or flush than the die.

You had better luck then I did on one of my cards as they put so much goop on it that it damaged 2 of the smds removing the HS....... card still worked. ATI 9700 Pro missing smds needed?

I had a 9800 SE where I had to put it in the freezer overnight because the decades had turned the (now?) yellow thermal paste into epoxy.

TELVM wrote on 2026-07-28, 16:53:

^ As tehsiggi said. […]
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^ As tehsiggi said.

Replacing the pathetic OEM heatsink with a real one in a 9800 Pro (from 5:25 onwards)

Besides improving point cooling for the GPU, don't forget about overall case ventilation.

In many vintage PC cases the OEM provision for ventilation is poor (relatively few spots for relatively small diameter fans). Then some users don't pay any attention to it, leaving said few spots unpopulated, etc.

Ventilation is very important. Especially around 9700/9800 series. They don't do well well with thermal stress. Most noticeable with the memory (and it's bga solder joints) - so offer that card a decent airflow.

tehsiggi wrote on 2026-07-28, 15:08:

I usually use hot air (around 130°C) for heating up the cooler and then go for a slow twisting motion. Usually it comes off relatively easy.

I tried this, albeit unscientifically with a hair dryer at minimum heat. Despite the heatsink becoming too hot to touch, it did not wiggle at all. I was also concerned about applying force because if the heatsink would suddenly loosen, there were plenty of components right around its edges (and some even underneath, where it raises up!) that would have come clean off.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2026-07-28, 23:28:

I had a 9800 SE where I had to put it in the freezer overnight because the decades had turned the (now?) yellow thermal paste into epoxy.

This is another piece of advice I read, but it was also noted that it could potentially be hard on the card so I only had mine in for ~30min before I got paranoid and decided I'd just try to pry the heatsink off, landing at what I ended up doing. The paste is absolutely epoxy by now. It's like chipping at concrete.

tehsiggi wrote on 2026-07-28, 15:08:

Leave it, as long as it's not higher than the Die itself. Check if the shim and Die are on the same height - if so, you can easily use paste.

Grem Five wrote on 2026-07-28, 22:36:

I would leave the yellow stuff as long as its lower or flush than the die.

I was leaning in this direction already, and after sleeping on it I think this is what I will do. I'll finish the clean-up (the chip still has some residue on top of it) and then continue on to applying the new paste and cooler.

I'll report back and let you all know how it went. Thank you for the tips!

Acetone will work great to remove the yellow stuff, just soak it and let it cook for a while.

So today I was going to resume, but as I began re-evaluating the cleanliness of the processing unit, my eye got caught on what appears to be some surface-components having broken off:

This is heart-breaking, because I thought I got off scot free taking the heatsink off. I know this didn't happen during the cleaning up of the chip earlier, because I only worked on the very center part which is why all that hardened yellow gunk can still be seen on the sides. At first I thought maybe there shouldn't be protruding parts on that spot, but looking at a reference image (for example here or here), it would appear that two components within the circled area appear to be missing.

Oh phooey. 🙁 We're in Louis Rossman territory now.

Do you need reference values? I have dead R300's from which I can derive the exact values, if you need. Could do that next week.

tehsiggi wrote on 2026-07-31, 18:44:

Do you need reference values? I have dead R300's from which I can derive the exact values, if you need. Could do that next week.

I'm not sure I understand.

A previous poster suggests that the card could in fact be functional as it is.

I don't have proper soldering equipment nor experience.

leonardo wrote on 2026-07-31, 19:00:

I'm not sure I understand. […]
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tehsiggi wrote on 2026-07-31, 18:44:

Do you need reference values? I have dead R300's from which I can derive the exact values, if you need. Could do that next week.

I'm not sure I understand.

A previous poster suggests that the card could in fact be functional as it is.

I don't have proper soldering equipment nor experience.

Yep, it could work just fine.

I was just asking if you want to replace them and need the reference values. If not, all good.

Give it a shot without them, it'll probably do fine.

The yellow stuff is a phase change compound and it's supposed to be solid at room temp. It's a better gap filler than paste and has greater longevity.

If you havent cleaned the yellow compound off the heat sink yet I would check it for the missing components, that is where mine were still stuck too.

I never reattached mine but still have it.

edit: BTW I dont think that is a 9700 pro but a non pro judging by the memory chips. I think the only one I have with those memory chips is my ATI Radeon 9700 TX actually.

Grem Five wrote on 2026-08-01, 02:14:

If you havent cleaned the yellow compound off the heat sink yet I would check it for the missing components, that is where mine were still stuck too.

I never reattached mine but still have it.

edit: BTW I dont think that is a 9700 pro but a non pro judging by the memory chips. I think the only one I have with those memory chips is my ATI Radeon 9700 TX actually.

3.3ns is a 9700 non-Pro, that is correct.

tehsiggi wrote on 2026-08-01, 04:48:

Grem Five wrote on 2026-08-01, 02:14:

BTW I dont think that is a 9700 pro but a non pro judging by the memory chips. I think the only one I have with those memory chips is my ATI Radeon 9700 TX actually.

3.3ns is a 9700 non-Pro, that is correct.

You guys are probably right. I was only going by the overall visual when looking at which card this might be. Windows was also helpfully tagging it as a Radeon 9500 Pro/9700 Pro in Device Manager... that's probably where I got the idea from. Not that a 9700 would make me any less happy. I was already capping out the framerates to monitor refresh on every game the card would run!

...and now onto the progress. After taking another breather I resumed. I decided to go through with the components missing. Installing the heatsink required a lot of focus (I was intent on not undoing any progress), so there aren't that many pictures, but once I felt I was closer to the finish line I did snap these two:

I used MX-6 for the actual core of the video card, and the Zalman supplied thermal paste for the heatpipe grooves. That stuff was quite thick and I didn't at first know how to properly spread it around, but I then discovered that a pin-head was just the right size to be placed inside the grooves. Moving it back and forth directionally worked out great.

Here is the setup before "locking in" the top half of the cooler, which secures the heatpipes in place:

After the card hat sat for a day, I then plugged it in:

However, it looked like the tip of one of the heatpipes was just coming into contact with the memory module in the DIMM-slot, so I moved the RAM to the second slot and vóla:

Hoping that the case exhaust fan placed right on top of the video card will pull air out from over the heatsink at a rate that satisfies it:

Coming up next - does the system POST...

Fingers crossed! One well meant advice: Grant that 9700 some proper airflow. Those cards tend to live longer with a proper airflow.

Hmm... close but not a 100% success.

On first boot the system gave me one long and three short beeps, which to my understanding communicates video card error. I was disheartened, but on second boot attempt the system came right up, and was working perfectly. I tested it for a couple of hours and it ran without a hitch. 2D/3D et all. Tested 3DMark and a couple of games and saw no glitches or corruption of any sort. The heatpipes and the heatsink got warm to the touch, but not burning hot like the old one used to.

To clear the various drivers and other cruft that had been piling up on this system earlier I decided I'd reinstall Windows. After reinstallation everything was fine until at one point I restarted following the installation of sound card drivers, and then suddenly there was a Windows Protection Error. Following a restart the system came up again, but this time in 16-color mode, telling me it couldn't detect the video hardware. I immediately powered down and removed the card.

I think this one is in an in-between state and I'm not sure why it isn't 100% reliable now. If I had to guess, I wouldn't say overheating, but am just not sure.

Wait a minute... swapping the old card in I'm getting exactly the same kind of behavior as with the "busted" Radeon 9700. This is starting to look more like Windows/driver-shenanigans than a video card issue.

Yup... this has now become an issue of troubleshooting the drivers for the Aureal Vortex instead. Besides the occasional one-long three-quick beeps when cold-starting, the Radeon 9700 seems to be fine as well. Aren't these things fun?!