Tips on removing Wraith Stealth

[setanjan123]

Hi there,
So I got a deepcool gammaxx 400 to replace my Ryzen 5 3600 stock cooler which is a Wraith Stealth. I followed some tips which said heat up the PC a bit before removing the heatsink. So I ran some cinebench and gamed a bit till the temps were consistently above 80c. I immediately turned the PC off and started unscrewing the cooler. Eventually the backplate fell off but the cooler is stuck in place. I tried to wiggle and twist it a bit and it didn't even budge. I didn't try pulling on it as that usually causes the cpu to come out with the cooler. I screwed everything back in and running the PC as before. Do you guys have any suggestions as to how to properly go about this? The stock cooler is using the thermal paste that came with it and I've heard it gets stuck like cement. I am considering calling a technician but can't fully trust them with my rig xD

 

[Nerevarine]

DO NOT remove it by force, the cpu will come off even though its locked in the socket. IT can bend your pins. I recently had to go through this.

What I suggest you to do is get a metal prying pick (mobile stores) and wedge it between the cpu and the cooler contact point slowly. Make sure you do this, after you have ran a benchmark to heat up your cpu a bit and turned off your pc. slowly wedge it from all sides and remove the thermal paste. This will scratch your cpu cover but it doesnt matter, its just a heatsink.

DO NOT PULL the CPU COOLER BY FORCE!!!

 

[patkim]

Good advice by @Nerevarine. I have also experienced it first hand, the stock thermal compound that comes with AMD CPU's stock cooler tends to glue the CPU & heatsink.

Three things come to my mind
1. IPA Cleaner - spray ample amounts of IPA cleaner (99.9% pure) in between the CPU & heatsink
2. Use mobile/laptop opener picks - As already suggested above. You might need a longer one. Those guitar pick style triangular openers might not help.
3. Dental floss. Floss the corners between CPU & heatsink.

You might need lot of patience and need to do it slowly and carefully.
Keep a small brush ready. You might need it to clean the board if small amounts of dry compound eventually sprinkles itself on the board in the process.

1 & 3 together worked in my case when I faced it sometime back.

 

[setanjan123]

Thanks both for your suggestions. I haven't tried anything yet. I'll do it on the weekend when I get time. It's a scary affair with how many people seem to rip their cpus out with the heatsink.

 

[bssunilreddy]

Foe me it happened early when I bought my Gaming Rig last year. I tried to unscrew the heatsink and thr processor got stuck to the heatsink and the pins got bent and the mobo didnt accept the RAM as only one RAM began accepted by the mobo. So I searched through the amd forums and tomshardware forums for a solution and I found that if any processor pin gets bent then RAM wont be accepted by the mobo and BSODs occur. I even sent a query to AMD but they asked me for a clear photo of the bent pins and since I dont have any DSLR camera I could not send them a clear shot of the processors bent pins. So I found out about the bent pins issue and using my mobile phone as a microscope I unbended the three pins of my processor upon which everything became good and RAM got accepted by the Mobo.

This heatsink getting stuck to the Ryzen processors is an common issue due to applying too much of thermal paste onto it and one must be careful when taking out the processor out of the heatsink.

So many memories and lessons learnt which are discussed here and told to junior members of the forums like this and TE.

 

[Nerevarine]

Even if the CPU paste is wet, due to capillary action the force is strong enough to rip the cpu off the socket.
So even if you recently applied paste and want to re adjust (which you never should btw), follow the same method of wedging a pick and tooth floss and then removing it

 

[topgear]

Interesting to read an old issue like this is still with AMD - remember those days when I had a 955BE which tends to come out along with the cuu cooler ( cm hyper 212 ).

There's one more way to do this . please do it at your own risk

Unlock the processor from motherboard by lifting up the locking latch / metal clip of the motherboard. This will unlock the cpu from the socket and you can take out the whole cpu glued with the heatsink without damaging the pins. Do remember to unlock the cooler before as well.

Now once the whole thing is out you can separate both the cooler and the cpu any way you prefer .. as it's out on the open hopefully on a table you have more room to work.

 

[setanjan123]

Interesting to read an old issue like this is still with AMD - remember those days when I had a 955BE which tends to come out along with the cuu cooler ( cm hyper 212 ).

There's one more way to do this . please do it at your own risk

Unlock the processor from motherboard by lifting up the locking latch / metal clip of the motherboard. This will unlock the cpu from the socket and you can take out the whole cpu glued with the heatsink without damaging the pins. Do remember to unlock the cooler before as well.

Now once the whole thing is out you can separate both the cooler and the cpu any way you prefer .. as it's out on the open hopefully on a table you have more room to work.

Had thought about it but the cpu latch isn't really accessible as its covered by the heatsink.

 

[setanjan123]

So I finally managed to do it. Turns out I wasn't applying enough force or rather applying force in the wrong area. Instead of applying it on the heatsink I was trying to twist the cooler by applying force on the fan part since its kinda big . Didn't need dental floss or a pick and just plain force worked with the processor still in the socket thankfully. There wasn't much thermal paste to clean and now the new cooler is humming perfectly. Temps went down like 15c(90s to 70s)at peak in cinebench multi core. Gained 200 points even which means it was throttling. Tried playing a game and temps were firmly in the 60s. Great cooler in case anyone wants to buy. Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

 

[Nerevarine]

I wanna change cooler too but goddamn dont wanna rip the cpu off socket again..

 

[patkim]

I wanna change cooler too but goddamn dont wanna rip the cpu off socket again..

Ideally when you unscrew the Ryzen stock cooler, it should slightly & gently pop-up in its place giving you an indication that the heatsink has indeed separated from the CPU. If not then it's definitely stuck to it. You can check for this step and then take a subsequent decision. Also if you have replaced the previous stock AMD compound with aftermarket, chances are less that it would be stuck like glue.

All this discussion further raised my curiosity and I just thought of checking the official AMD page on uninstalling the AMD CPU. They say

Lightly twist the CPU cooler clockwise and counterclockwise to loosen the seal between the heatsink and the lid of the CPU.

But the cooler has 2 components, Fan (Brittle plastic) and Heatsink (Sturdy metal). Even they are not explicit on this procedure whereas holding the heatsink is more imperative here.
Read here

 

[topgear]

The question why amd cpus stick with with cooler like glue but Intel cpus don't. Seen this with using after market coolers as well. I suspect it's ( processor only ) mounting mechanism on socket ie the cpu pins are to be blamed here. Wondering even after so many years why amd did not change this ?

 

[setanjan123]

The question why amd cpus stick with with cooler like glue but Intel cpus don't. Seen this with using after market coolers as well. I suspect it's ( processor only ) mounting mechanism on socket ie the cpu pins are to be blamed here. Wondering even after so many years why amd did not change this ?

AMD does use the latching mechanism like Intel in their threadripper line. I don't see why they can't implement it in their Ryzen line.

 

[topgear]

AMD does use the latching mechanism like Intel in their threadripper line. I don't see why they can't implement it in their Ryzen line.

Threadripper is a massive piece of processor. even amd did not dare to play with it's mounting mechanism .. otherwise a stuck threadripper will just rip up half of the motherboard

 

[quicky008]

This is one of the reasons i try to steer clear of amd cpus. Its risky to use a cpu that has a propensity to pop out of the socket while trying to remove the cooler.

 

[Extreme Gamer]

AMD does use the latching mechanism like Intel in their threadripper line. I don't see why they can't implement it in their Ryzen line.

Creating an LGA design from scratch is a lot of work and I think it is protected by Intel patents. The threadripper line probably uses some workarounds, and I am sure you're aware of how gigantic a threadripper CPU is even compared to intel's big boi offerings.

 

[setanjan123]

Creating an LGA design from scratch is a lot of work and I think it is protected by Intel patents. The threadripper line probably uses some workarounds, and I am sure you're aware of how gigantic a threadripper CPU is even compared to intel's big boi offerings.

I know how gigantic they are. Which is precisely why it should be far easier to implement it for a smaller chip. It doesn't even need to be LGA actually. Just needs a better locking mechanism. Iirc there is a company out there who is actually making better locking mechanisms for AMD mobos. I don't exactly remember the name of the company. It's a Chinese one. If Intel indeed has a patent on LGA that's kinda petty lol. But its Intel afterall.

 

[Extreme Gamer]

What I am trying to say is that threadripper's size might be a factor in the patent workaround.

 

[skeletor]

I think the best way is to run some AVX-heavy benchmark. Unlatch and sort of start twisting the heat sink while the benchmark is running.

Shutdown the system and continue twisting the heat sink.

 

[topgear]

This might help

https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/fuyidr