This Is Why You Never Attempt To Remove Ram Heatspreaders

mullered07 · Dec 5, 2008

ok, so the other day i thought id reflash my ram with the spd's they came with as i was running a modded spd for compatibility reasons when i had my phenom x3 and it wouldnt boot at 1066.

so i decided to remove 2 sticks (i have 4) and flash them 2 at a time, well i didnt stop at removing 2 sticks did i ? i decided to have a look at the actual chips just to make sure they were d9gmh as i was led to believe.

anyway i peeled back one of my sticks heatspreaders which was stuck on with this shitty thermal tape and low and behold, the writing is so faint on the chips i still wasnt sure, no problem, ill juststick it back down and pop them bk in eh ?

well yes, the pc wouldnt boot, although the stick still looked in tact no matter what i tried could i get it too boot. thinking there must be a probllem i removed the 2 sticks and proceeded to gently peel the rest of the heatspreader off, oh boy :cry:

not only did it remove the heatspreader, that shitty tacky thermal tape also removed the chips from the pcb :eek:

(<<< thats an actual screenshot of my face at the time it happened)

so now boys and girls im going to show you what your ram looks like without those pretty heatspreaders. and for those of you of a squeamish nature, look away now. (pictures to follow in 10 mins)

Binge · Dec 5, 2008

mullered07 said:
ok, so the other day i thought id reflash my ram with the spd's they came with as i was running a modded spd for compatibility reasons when i had my phenom x3 and it wouldnt boot at 1066.

so i decided to remove 2 sticks (i have 4) and flash them 2 at a time, well i didnt stop at removing 2 sticks did i ? i decided to have a look at the actual chips just to make sure they were d9gmh as i was led to believe.

anyway i peeled back one of my sticks heatspreaders which was stuck on with this shitty thermal tape and low and behold, the writing is so faint on the chips i still wasnt sure, no problem, ill juststick it back down and pop them bk in eh ?

well yes, the pc wouldnt boot, although the stick still looked in tact no matter what i tried could i get it too boot. thinking there must be a probllem i removed the 2 sticks and proceeded to gently peel the rest of the heatspreader off, oh boy

not only did it remove the heatspreader, that shitty tacky thermal tape also removed the chips from the pcb (<<< thats an actual screenshot of my face at the time it happened)

so now boys and girls im going to show you what your ram looks like without those pretty heatspreaders. and for those of you of a squeamish nature, look away now. (pictures to follow in 10 mins)

This is going to be as entertaining as 2 gpus 1 pcb (lolz!) :cry:

WC Annihilus · Dec 5, 2008

Shoulda taken a look at cdawall's thread from a few days ago
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=77814

technicks · Dec 5, 2008

Oh man that sucks ass.
I wanted to do it last week because i was curious what chips they used on my Buffalo's.
As i was trying to get the heatspreader of something in my mind said NO DON'T DO IT. :laugh:

So i stopped and placed the ram back.

spearman914 · Dec 5, 2008

technicks said:
Oh man that sucks ass.
I wanted to do it last week because i was curious what chips they used on my Buffalo's.
As i was trying to get the heatspreader of something in my mind said NO DON'T DO IT.
So i stopped and placed the ram back.

I doubt it. Like i can say that I want to take the screws off the cpu cooler when it's running but it said " NO DONT DO IT"

technicks · Dec 5, 2008

You doubt what? :confused:

Sasqui · Dec 5, 2008

WC Annihilus said:
Shoulda taken a look at cdawall's thread from a few days ago
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=77814

Wow. Won't be trying that any time soon

Xazax · Dec 5, 2008

I had some OCZ GOLD 1066mhz DDR3 ram, i pulled the HS off.. of course that didnt happen because i was careful

But then again the OCZ ram was just POS sticky paste on some Aluminum fins...

O well, goody now you get some new ram!

may i suggest the Gskill PI Black 800mhz (2x2GB)

mullered07 · Dec 5, 2008

spearman914 said:
I doubt it. Like i can say that I want to take the screws off the cpu cooler when it's running but it said " NO DONT DO IT"

thats completly different, its stuck on using sticky tape ffs, whats the worse that could happen ? oh boy :cry:

and for ur amusement, as you can see the first pic plainly shows the chips still stuck to the heatspreader, and well the other 2 show the pcb - chips and also what happened to the pcb when i realised it was fubarred (it got snapped in 2 lol :ohwell:

)

Xazax · Dec 5, 2008

damn.. poor things.. well now there very nice paper wieghts, hey send em to me i can use some paper wieghts.....

imperialreign · Dec 5, 2008

mullered07 said:
thats completly different, its stuck on using sticky tape ffs, whats the worse that could happen ? oh boy

and for ur amusement, as you can see the first pic plainly shows the chips still stuck to the heatspreader, and well the other 2 show the pcb - chips and also what happened to the pcb when i realised it was fubarred (it got snapped in 2 lol )

ouch!

next time, take an old credit card, and run the edge with some isopropyl - it'll usually cut clean :toast:

technicks · Dec 5, 2008

Well i can see how you can tear those suckers off. Does the tape come from NASA or something.

I think it's ridiculous that they use the super adhesive tape for it. :ohwell:

mullered07 · Dec 5, 2008

technicks said:
Well i can see how you can tear those suckers off. Does the tape come from NASA or something. I think it's ridiculous that they use the super adhesive tape for it.

my thinking exactly, and the heatspreaders arent even really making contact with the chips, its just to nicey them up a bit, with that shitty tape, i cant see how it would transfer heat to the heatspreaders.

i basically knew after a few attempts at trying to get it to boot, that the stick was fubarred, so proceeded to peel the rest of the heatspreader off and with very little pressure, the chips came right off stuck to it.

oh well shit happens, tho this is the first time ive killed a piece of hardware that im actually using.

technicks · Dec 5, 2008

My condolences.

mullered07 · Dec 5, 2008

Xazax said:
damn.. poor things.. well now there very nice paper wieghts, hey send em to me i can use some paper wieghts.....

paper weights ? they weigh next to nothing the ram chips :ohwell:

imperialreign said:
ouch!

next time, take an old credit card, and run the edge with some isopropyl - it'll usually cut clean

i was very careful, as i am with all my hardware, but this tape needs to stopped, theres no need to put this kinda crap on memory modules :shadedshu

technicks said:
My condolences.

i appreciate that, it is indeed a dark day :cry:

eidairaman1 · Dec 5, 2008

well if the chips are under warranty, try to RMA, aslong as you manage to get the heatsink back on.

mullered07 · Dec 5, 2008

eidairaman1 said:
well if the chips are under warranty, try to RMA, aslong as you manage to get the heatsink back on.

you are joking, when that shitty duct tape or whatever it is they use is peeled off, you cant get it back on, i was wanting new ram anyway so now i have an excuse, and i saw at ebuyer for £36 2x2gb ddr800 ocz platinum which is a damn good price,

heck i cant hit 500fsb so i dont see why i need anyhting higher than 800mhz

lemonadesoda · Dec 5, 2008

MURDERER

RAMICIDE

Call the police!

****

Nasty, bad luck m8. See it as an opportunity to upgrade to bigger, faster RAM. You wouldnt have done it before, now you can! :toast:

Beertintedgoggles · Dec 5, 2008

IF there is a next time.... heat up the spreaders with a hairdryer first before taking them off (just don't leave it on them long enough to burn anything or yourself).

LittleLizard · Dec 6, 2008

to pull out heatspreaders, do it in my favorite way. freeze them

eidairaman1 · Dec 6, 2008

can you do that on Thermal epoxy aswell?

LittleLizard · Dec 6, 2008

eidairaman1 said:
can you do that on Thermal epoxy aswell?

it depends. what freeze them does is to weaken the material between the chips and the heatspreader to be more easy to pull them out. but watch out when you do it because the cold can also kill your ram :ohwell:

Flyordie · Dec 6, 2008

So the lesson is this-
DONT PULL THESE OFF--

eidairaman1 · Dec 6, 2008

LittleLizard said:
it depends. what freeze them does is to weaken the material between the chips and the heatspreader to be more easy to pull them out. but watch out when you do it because the cold can also kill your ram

this is pertaining to the southbridge of my motherboard

LittleLizard · Dec 6, 2008

to remove the tim of your southbridge? it could work if you have a way to freeze it without destroying the mobo but there are kits for doing so (kits that DO NOT FREEZE)

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This Is Why You Never Attempt To Remove Ram Heatspreaders

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