I upgraded to a new system and had the problem of a naked Athlon X2 4400+ to sell. I still had the IHS that came on the chip but wasn't sure how to reattach it. I searched around the web but didn't find any definitive info on the matter and decided to share with you the steps I took to get my chip back in to "from the factory" condition. I've read many forum posts here and never felt the need to register however not finding any information on this I decided that the group here at Bit-tech.net was the place to share it. I'm sure everyone here will curse me for not taking photos of exactly what I did and how I did it, however I'll try and be very detailed in my description and post a couple photos of the aftermath. First things first --------------- Reattaching the IHS is not a big deal and is quite simple. The trick is to make the chip look the way it did from the factory. To accomplish this, you'll need a few things: A well lighted work area, I think this goes without saying but I mentioned it anyway The chip in question The original IHS that was removed, for naked metal on silicon cooling goodness Motherboard, this is a great way to hold the processor and make sure none of the pins get bent or damaged, if you have other ideas or steadfast ways, stick with them Razor blade Small tube of black RTV, here we used Permatex black Hi-Temp RTV Silicone gasket sealant from Autozone Hypodermic needle, 18 gauge needle was ideal Small syringe, obviously for the application of said goo 91% Alcohol, or your cpu, IHS, cleaner of choice AS5 TIM, or your thermal interface goop of choice Some paper towels for the mess, some prefer lintless cloths, I use paper towels and a light breeze to blow off any remaining fibers, not the best but I've never had an issue Dremel tool w/cutoff disc, normally this is something not everyone would have however I'm familiar with the crowd that frequents these forums Small kitchen knife or Exacto blade, a kitchen knife was used here (not critical) A small, tall glass, small diameter works best, a bar glass was used here Spare change, this is to put in the glass to apply force to the processor while the RTV sets up Second things Second --------------------- You need a solid work surface that is free from vibration and roving, curious, would-be attacking house pets or children. I used the kitchen table. There were better solutions however with mom baking cookies for Christmas, the kitchen island was not an option (hohoho). Some of the materials in question. http://picasaweb.google.com/bbopptech/ReplacingTheIHS/photo#5141805611981854386 You'll notice the hypodermic needle is very short. This is all you'll need the dremel and cutoff disc for. Trim it neatly off at about 1/2" or so long. After cutting off, if you take the needle tip and rotate it while GENTLY touching it to the cutoff disc side, it will debur the cut edge. The needle is very thin so give yourself some extra length when trimming it. This leaves extra needle length in case you get crazy deburring the edge and make a divot in the side of the needle. Use the Exacto or small kitchen knife to debur the INside of the needle's stub end. Just lightly place the tip in the end of the needle and rotate it to clean out any rough metal edges left from the dremel cut. CPU PCB with the old gasket material in place. Notice the gap in the gasket material, we'll refer to this later. http://picasaweb.google.com/bbopptech/LLV1000Pics/photo#5094100887759307906 http://picasaweb.google.com/bbopptech/LLV1000Pics/photo#5094100900644209810 Use the razor blade to gently scrape off any of the old rubber gasket material from the chip and IHS. The cleaner you can get it the better the contact you'll make with the new seal. I've found that holding the razor perpendicular to the scraping surface can help with materials like the old gasket is made from. Try not to use a forward cutting angle while scraping or you could damage the PCB of the chip. Unfortunately I did not take pictures of my before/after scraping but I did manage to get both the CPU PCB and IHS completely clean of the old gasket material. If the CPU is not in the motherboard or CPU holding device you're using, go ahead and place it there now. Clean both the CPU, surrounding CPU PCB, and IHS off with the alcohol or cleaning fluid. Make certain the CPU is completely lint free <--very important as you won't be removing the IHS and you do not want a hair keeping the IHS from making excellent contact. In preparation for this I also wipe my finger and thumb tips with an alcohol saturated paper towel to remove any possible skin oil. Just in case I graze something that wasn't suppose to be touched. Next put a small gloop of AS5 or your TIM of choice on the cpu. Push it to all corners of the cpu and make sure you have complete coverage of the CPU. Take the razor blade like so and drag it across the CPU to remove any extra TIM. The less TIM the better, just enough to created a tissue paper thin coating across the surface of the CPU. http://picasaweb.google.com/bbopptech/ReplacingTheIHS/photo#5141805693586233026 Open the tube of RTV and squirt some into the syringe. It won't go far before it starts sticking to the sides and filling up the tube but luckily we don't need much. http://picasaweb.google.com/bbopptech/ReplacingTheIHS/photo#5141805775190611666 http://picasaweb.google.com/bbopptech/ReplacingTheIHS/photo#5141805848205055714 Put in the plunger and squish it to the end but not out the end. http://picasaweb.google.com/bbopptech/ReplacingTheIHS/photo#5141805929809434354 Twist the needle stub on to the syringe and you're ready to start caulking! http://picasaweb.google.com/bbopptech/ReplacingTheIHS/photo#5141806002823878402 Holding the syringe with needle up (just like in the movies!) push the plunger in until the RTV starts coming out the end. Wipe the end of the needle stub clean. Take the small diameter glass and place a paper towel over the top of it and put loose coins into the paper towel. You'll end up with a glass full of coins in a paper towel. This will protect the glass from breaking or scratches. http://picasaweb.google.com/bbopptech/ReplacingTheIHS/photo#5141812930606126914 One note before continuing. I don't have pictures of this but if you look closely at the CPU PCB you can see where the old bead of gasket material was. The inner and outer edges are very lightly visible. These are important because we want to lay our new bead right down the center of these guidelines. NOTE: On my AMD X2 4400+ there was one side of the PCB that didn't have any gasket material. This provides an air gap for expanding hot air to escape around the CPU and surrounding components. DO NOT apply the new gasket material completely around the PCB. LEAVE A GAP for air to circulate/expand! We want to apply firm even pressure to the plunger and move along the PCB at a pace equal to the pace at which the RTV is exiting the needle stub. Any place you stop will get a bulge in the RTV bead. When you place the IHS on, this bulge will squish out the sides and have to be trimmed off. Not a big deal as I have one place where this happened but the more evenly you can lay out the bead the less work you'll have for yourself later. Once you have your bead of RTV laid, give the IHS a thorough final cleaning since this is the last time you'll see the under side of it. Now for the last bit. Take the IHS with BOTH hands - Index fingers and thumbs on all 4 corners and slowly move it down towards the CPU PCB. As you get closer and closer "eyeball" the PCB to make sure the same amount of PCB is sticking out on the top & bottom, left & right. You want it to be completely centered the way it came from the factory. Once you see that it is dead on, make contact with the TIM and RTV. Keep your fingers and thumbs on each of the 4 corners, press down firmly and twist the IHS back and forth in TINY TINY movements. Probably on the order of 1/64" movements. We just want to try and work any air out of the TIM contact patch while not smearing our thin line of RTV. After about 8 tiny twists or so, eye-ball the IHS and make sure it's centered. Now place the glass with coins in it, in the center of a paper towel. Pull each of the corners of the paper towel up along the glass and gather the slack. This will make it easier to center over the IHS without bumping the IHS from its centered position. http://picasaweb.google.com/bbopptech/ReplacingTheIHS/photo#5141806080133289746 We use a paper towel/cloth because glass on metal = slippery. The paper towel puts a layer between the IHS and the bottom of the glass so the glass sliding off the IHS isn't as likely. http://picasaweb.google.com/bbopptech/ReplacingTheIHS/photo#5141805530377475746 By the way.. this is a very old glass. It has a keyhole on the back of the frosting so you can see the back of the cocktail waitress on the back. http://picasaweb.google.com/bbopptech/ReplacingTheIHS/photo#5141806161737668386 Nothing like old wierd stuff... Let the RTV set up over night with the weight of the glass/coins sitting on the IHS. If you have any areas around the IHS where the RTV oozed out, you can simply trim them off with the razor blade after the RTV has cured. And there you have it, a CPU that looks the way it did when you got it from the factory. I'll post some pics of the finished product tomorrow when the RTV has cured, provided the cat doesn't knock it over tonight -Comments welcome-
My camera doesn't have macro unfortunately but everything came out really nice, trust me There where only 2 small spots of RTV that bulged out and they received a trimming with the razor. If you notice from the top down, the IHS does have a very slight twist to it. The sides are not completely parallel with the CPU PCB but... it's close enough for government work. Sometimes it looks aligned and others a hair off.. so it is very close. Not too bad for ye 'ole eye-ballin http://picasaweb.google.com/bbopptech/ReplacingTheIHS/photo#5142076916476008306 http://picasaweb.google.com/bbopptech/ReplacingTheIHS/photo#5142077015260256130 Hope this helps.
Hmm, the only hsf I have for it is the stock one with thermal compound on the bottom untouched since I used a waterblock since it was new. I was planning on giving this combo to my friend up in Indy.... I suppose I could throw the hsf on and take a measurement or two. I'll check it tonight when I get home from work. After setting it up and running it this morning for ~1hr IDLE @38C w/CPU fan on LOW using AMD temp monitoring, Run fan at full speed if CPU temp >50C IDLE @27C w/CPU fan on HIGH setting, Run fan at full speed if CPU temp >25C *as reported in BIOS The ambient room temp is around 70 degrees Farenheit which is about 21.1C 27C is actually identicle to what it idled at with the waterblock (comparing to high speed fan temp). The stock fan on high is still very quiet. I won't be able to load it because I don't have a spare OS laying around to hook up to it but the initial temps look really good. I'll get some screen shots when I get home for lunch or after work.
BIOS screen shots of the CPU temp with IHS re-attached. Low Fan http://picasaweb.google.com/bbopptech/ReplacingTheIHS/photo#5142396393323354002 High Fan http://picasaweb.google.com/bbopptech/ReplacingTheIHS/photo#5142396483517667234 The ambient room temp is still at 70 degrees Farenheit which is about 21.1C I don't have 'before' temps because I made this chip naked over a year ago and do not have that data. You can see by looking around the web that the stock temps with stock cooler are good. A bit off-topic, I can not for the life of me get pictures to display from Picasa. Does anyone use their picture storage and have any experience with this? I have not been able to uncover anything about it.
