[cdoublejj]

I'm trying to clean some hardened thermal paste off my NB, the problem is this is no ordinary hardens thermal paste. it's almost completely unaffected by alcohol and it's almost as hard as epoxy, i can barley even peel off minute amounts with my metal razor blade. (and not it isn't epoxy the NB has a metal lid)

EDIT: i'm wondering if the previous owner didn't epoxy the nb heat sink on. when i scrape it, it has an almost metallic finish, and there is a generous amount of this stuff on both the NB and SB.

EDIT: i'm going to try heat.

EDIT:EDIT: Okay here is the solution, take two square cotton pads, like the ones you use to clean your face. Stack them on top of each other, place on the area (heatsink/chip) and pour fingernail polish remover (acetone) into the cotton pads, get them nice soaked. Now find something to cover the cotton pads with to keep the moisture in and let it sit for an hour or.

 

[KeyboardXpert]

CAREFUL! You can melt the IHS or destroy the board if you aren't careful.

 

[Grmadness]

scrape carefully with a PLASTIC knife or credit card.Then rubbing alcohol on a cloth, and finish up the cleaning

 

[KeyboardXpert]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grmadness

scrape carefully with a PLASTIC knife or credit card.Then rubbing alcohol on a cloth, and finish up the cleaning

Too late. He already resorted to heat.

 

[cdoublejj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grmadness

scrape carefully with a PLASTIC knife or credit card.Then rubbing alcohol on a cloth, and finish up the cleaning

won't even scratch it. I put the soldering iron to the heat sink, it's really crappy iron with bad tip, it got the heat sink really warm but, not melt the solder hot. one would have to be an idiot to put an iron to the IHS. Also the the IHS or lid is metal you owuld need a blow torch to melt it. Heat didn't do anything, i'm really starting to think a previous owner used some kind of metallic epoxy, i'm actually needing to know how to soften up epxoy.

I've been doing this stuff for really long while now and i've never seen any thing like this. this stuff has shiny metallic reflection/finish when i scrape away at overflow on the edges. it's looking like i will need a really straight flat block and high grit sand paper.

 

[emdea22]

Tell us if you had any luck with sand paper. I encountered a similar thing a long time ago but i just gave up...

 

[cdoublejj]

yeah, yeah.... hmhm there is no way this thermal paste. put ito n paper plate and soaked it in water, the water rolled off after soaking for a small while, like plastic. if all else fails i lap it with a small sanding block.

http://www.wikihow.com/Remove-Epoxy

 

[cdoublejj]

updated with solution for future reference.