Bridge Fan How to remove from board?

[phwashington]

I think it is the north bridge on an EVGA MB. It has a fan with a
rounded housing about 4.5 cm across. On opposite sides it has pins on
springs that appear to punch into the motherboard. Is there some way
to replace this whole assembly? I'm concerned that if I push these
pins out it will tear up the motherboard.

 

[GT]

On Wed, 13 Aug 2008 09:49:32 -0700 (PDT),


It won't tear up the board if done carefully. Put one hand
on the corner of the northbridge you're going to unclip
first so the spring tension of the other side doesn't flop
the heatsink sideways and while holding that corner,
carefully (so as to not scratch the traces significantly)
use a pair of pliers (or in some cases a plastic ink pen
with the center pulled out will be the right size) to
compress the notches on the pin where they catch on the hole
edge on the back side of the motherboard, so it slips
through the hole in the motherboard.

Reverse the process to install the new heatsink, holding
down the side of the sink opposite the pin you first push
through the board, and with both procedures don't allow the
board to flex too much.

You might find that when you remove the pins, the heatsink still doesn't
'fall' off - just give it a gentle twist whilst pulling.

You might be able to replace the heatsink with 1 that doesn't require either
pins to hold it on, or a fan. Depends on your board and temperatures though.