Problems fitting new cooler - pics inside. Please help!

[mishima]

Problems fitting new ATI cooler - pics inside. Please help!

Hi guys,

Right, I'm trying to fit this cooler to my old Hercules 3D Prophet ATI 9800 Pro 128MB card. I'm unsure whether I need to remove the heatsink (pictured) on the bottom of the card, I have removed the cooler that wass on the card on the front side. Do I need to remove this:

The screws in the screw holes (circled) will not come through because of this heatsink. I'm worried though if I pull of the heatsink it will damage something. Will it just be paste holding it on?

Please any suggestions...

 

[melbourne720]

I would have thought it could only be paste, albeit quite dry and hardened. Could try twisting it?

Can you fit the new cooler with that old heatsink still on? If you can, I'd leave it there.

 

[mishima]

I can't get the screws through the holes, the heatsink adds to the length of the screws so that they don't reach through.

 

[Xero]

Yep, you need to remove it or the new cooler won't sit correctly - I added the same cooler a while ago on that gfx card.

As mentioned above you need to twist it to get it to come off. The thermal paste used will be old and hard, so you can help by heating the card up first...either put the original fan back on and put it back in your pc and run something for a while...or you can try using a hair dryer

I was suprised by how much force it took to get this thing off...but it did come off in the end with a good twist...Be careful though as it will suddenly come off...

New cooler works great (gave the PC to my mam and dad...new one for me )

Hope all goes well

 

[mishima]

Excellent, thanks for that. Just what I needed to hear. I will get to taking it off now. Thanks again!

 

[mishima]

heated it up, it just will not budge !

 

[omne]

when I did it I used a hairdryer and it did work, but I had to heat it to the point where I couldnt actually touch the heatsink with my bare hands and had to use tissue paper to twist it.

It worked but I was paranoid about the heat and force required.

 

[mishima]

This is ridiculous man, I heated it up like you said and my hands are almost bleeding im twisting it that hard... won't even move a bit!

 

[omne]

If its that bad I'd maybe admit defeat :/ Wouldnt want to damage the pcb

 

[mishima]

I'm going to try and mod the bit of metal that came with the cooler and see if I can get the screws through. Pain in the neck this heatsink, on the instructions there isn't mentioned or pictured any heatsink this must be on the model I have.

Theres no other way I can try and get this heatsink off is there?

 

[mishima]

Sorted!! I modded the bracket (shoved it in the vice and bent it!) so that the screws could fit instead of taking off that blasted heatsink!

 

[Sean_UK]

Lol at the Zalman chipset cooler, i remember having one of them on my old mobo and having about 0.1mm clearence either side if it Nice bit of kit if/when it fits.

 

[mishima]

This build is my old system that I'm sprucing up for my girlfriend. That Zalman is really good, was a bit fiddly fitting it like you say but is an excellent replacement for a duff old northbridge fan. Silent, and nice cool temps!

That silencer I just fitted for the ATI card, almost didn't fit in my case - touches the IDE cables coming straight out the ports! lol

 

[Xero]

Well as long as there is good contact with the gpu looks like job's a goodun

Have you started it up yet to make sure everything is ok?

 

[mishima]

Hi,

I haven't booted into windows yet on it but I have hooked it up with PSU power lead to the mains and checked that the fan gets power and spins etc. All seems to be working fine, super quiet too! Must admit though its considerably heavier the graphics card now the silencer is attached!

 

[melbourne720]

Nice solution, very resourceful.

 

[mishima]

Thanks!

I think its everyone's nightmare buying something like a cooler and it doesn't fit. I was desperate to fit it though so I just did anything I could to get it fitted without damage. Plus I have the added bonus of another heatsink on the card (pictured)

 

[melbourne720]

Yes, I was thinking if you could find a way for the two heatsinks to co-exist you'd have a really good solution there. Nice one.