(3.0) Soldered IHS Removal Solution
Alright, first up, the most tricky being.. you guessed it, soldered CPUs. Oh comon.. it does exist in history that people have done this successfully, so can you Those with a soldered CPU should not attempt to remove the IHS because doing so gives you about a 25% chance to remove it successfully without destroying the CPU. If you do manage to remove the IHS the temp difference you will see will be almost nothing, <4c at most and is not worth the high risk. For those who are hardcore modders and want to give it a shot heres the proceedure to follow to minimize the chance of destroying your CPU.
1. Get a small handheld razor, sharper the better.
2. Line up the razor with the black adheasive around the CPU where the IHS makes contact with the PCB, one of the 4 edges is the best place to start.
3. Slowly move the razor back and forth untill you created a small cut.
4. Once you got the razor into the adheasive slowly and steadily apply moderate pressure on the razor while gentley moving in a downward direction, make sure you are cutting no more than 2-3MM into the adheasive at a time, go all the way around the CPU before going a little deeper. Be sure to keep it as straight as possible so you do not accidently score the PCB, take your time!!
5. If you feel the razor stopped slicing the adheasive and it won't move STOP applying pressure as you probably hit the PCB, carefully remove the razor and contiune where you left off.
6. If you are doing exactly what I said you should now be feeling the razor slice right through the adheasive with relative ease, remember do not go any deeper than 2-3MM on the first run.
7. Once you have gone around the entire CPU once go around it again going another 2-3MM deeper, repeat above steps.
8. After the 2nd run you should be through most if not all of the adheasive, you should be able to slide at least half the length of the razor between PCB and IHS and towards the middle of the CPU. If you can you successfully seperated the adheasive. Be extremely carefull when sliding the razor toward the center of the CPU, do so VERY slowly so that if you are to hit something like the CPU die, you won't damage it.
9. Grab a torch if you have one, if not use a lighter with a large flame (the torch will work MUCH faster and better). Hold the CPU with the IHS facing down or rest it against an object. Never ever leave the razor wedged between the IHS and PCB for "support", thats giving the solder too much pressure and when it lets go will most likely let go with part of the die still attached to it, let it melt the slow way with no pressure on it while its heating up. Carefully and quickly move the torch/lighter across the IHS at a distance of about 2-3CM depending on size of flame. Be extremely carefull not to melt the PCB and make sure you move the flame across the IHS once per second, NEVER hold the flame on the IHS or even near the CPU, you will damage it very quickly.
10. The solder Intel uses roughly melts at 80-90c so it could take a while. Once you feel that the IHS is hot enough and the solder is starting to melt slide your razor about 5MM between the IHS and PCB and ever so gentely give it a light pry in an upwards position so the sharp blade is towards the IHS not the PCB. If its still not moving STOP and contiune heating the IHS, rinse and repeat untill it comes off.
11. Once the IHS is removed and the die is hopefully not ripped off, clean off the remaining solder off the die and IHS. Remove the CPU loading plate on your motherboard, install the CPU, put your heatsink or waterblock on the CPU. A screw down type is highly reccomended as the CPU is not as "high up" as it was with the IHS on it. If you have a screw down type just screw it down untill it makes contact with the die. If you do not have a screw down type mount it as normal and it should have contact, but your PC tower will have to lay on it's side so it will get contact. Oh and don't forget to put your favorite TIM between the die and heatsink
12. Take a breath, power on the system and hope it posts. If it does run your favorite stress testing program and enjoy the extra few degrees less on your temp. If it doesn't post make sure theres a moderate ammount of weight on the CPU so all it's pins are making contact on the board (not enough to crush the die please). If its making good contact and it still refuses to post, then unfortionately the CPU did not survive the operation you did on it
