You need to pull the center of the pins out of the top first. A pair of needle-nose pliers should be all you need.

Pull the center pin slightly and you can now then squeeze the barb and push it through.

Cheers,

Theyre litterally all like this, after you pull the pin out use some small needle nose plyers and squeeze the bottom barb gently without crushing the plastic and pull it out the otherside with your fingers.

I'm just having a very hard time getting a solid grip on them at all with needle nose pliers and I've already scratched the heatsink a bit. They don't really budge at all if I pull from the top.

I noticed the top of the pins seem to have a very small hole in them maybe? So would threading a wire in there and pulling be a good idea? Is that even what I have to pull on? I don't know what I would use.

Other push pins I've used I would push down on the top and then squeeze the barbs at the bottom to release them.

To clarify, when you are pulling the pin from the top, you are only pulling this bit, right?

You don’t need to pull this bit completely out (though it won’t do any harm to), just enough to allow the part of the pin on the underside of the board to be compressed slightly for pushing through the PCB.

paradigital wrote on 2023-06-18, 07:25:

To clarify, when you are pulling the pin from the top, you are only pulling this bit, right?

You don’t need to pull this bit completely out (though it won’t do any harm to), just enough to allow the part of the pin on the underside of the board to be compressed slightly for pushing through the PCB.

Yes. It is very stiff and hard to grip even with pliers. I also don't want to make too many attempts because of the pliers marring the surface.

You might be able to use a small jeweller’s screwdriver from the bottom of the pin to push the center part upwards, also you might try a thin lubricating oil on the center part of the pin to free it up.

Finally, there are slotted/u shaped/fork screwdrivers available that might be better to lever with:

https://amzn.eu/d/htJ2Br9

I’m not recommending these as I’ve not measured the sizes, this is just an example of the type of screwdriver!

paradigital wrote on 2023-06-18, 07:56:

You might be able to use a small jeweller’s screwdriver from the bottom of the pin to push the center part upwards, also you mig […]
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You might be able to use a small jeweller’s screwdriver from the bottom of the pin to push the center part upwards, also you might try a thin lubricating oil on the center part of the pin to free it up.

Finally, there are slotted/u shaped/fork screwdrivers available that might be better to lever with:

https://amzn.eu/d/htJ2Br9

I’m not recommending these as I’ve not measured the sizes, this is just an example of the type of screwdriver!

Alright thanks for the suggestions.

Upon further inspection, the card doesn't seem to use thermal paste from what I can see:

Would a pad like this need to be replaced?

Heat up the heatsink with hair dryer, Twist while hot, not prying or pulling.

Cheers,