Trying to mod some older videocards for practice so I can mod some more expensive shiznet with confidence.. Been modding my Voodoo cards lately, modded my Voodoo 3 1000 16mb AGP and it came out perfect. I used some Loctite 384 Thermal Epoxy I nabbed from work unused. I know there is a thread where u put the card in an oven to remove BGAs but I'm not about to put my Voodoo 5500 or my 3000 in to find out. I heard of the freezer trick and would like someone to elaboate a little bit on that. I have done some readup on it but if anyone here has some better methods of removing epoxied heatsinks before I decide to void a warranty on a 150 dollar card share brother share!

I use a raz0r blad3, and very carefully use it to pry the heatsink away from whatever its attached to, so far this method hasnt let me down.

Pop the card in a freezer bag and leave it in your freezer for maybe 30-45 minutes and the heatsink should just pop off with a little twist.

Yikes! I remembered again that I haven't sent you that old GeForce 4 card, I will try to remember to do it in the morning after work.
Just smack me if I forget again to jog my memory.
You may need to re-PM me with your address in case I "lost" that PM.

I have personally done the freezer trick and it works like a charm. Only thing is and it may be my freezer but I had to leave it in there overnight (like 6 hours). Then I pulled it out of both freezer bags (I went a little postal for fear of moisture) slid a credit card between the card and sink then a butter knife between the credit card and sink and it popped off no problem, no effort at all. I then let it sit for a day and popped it in my system and it was all gravy.

persoanly i use a hair dryer ,heat it it and allmost falls off ,did it to my video card and northbride with out any problems.

Well I found an interesting way of modding the Voodoo cards.

I been seeing a lot of stuff about hairdryers and all, seeing as heat seems to weaken the epoxy. So, instead of going all the way across the house for the hairdryer for a heat source, who not use the heat output from the Voodoo card itself

I plugged in my Voodoo 3000 AGP into my Folding rig and let it run for 10 min., took it out, and twisted the shiznet right off. The V3 3000 and up throw out the most heat, with the 5500 at the top.

Did the same with my 5500, ran it about 10 min., took it out and used a small screwdriver to pry them off, just a little twist along the edges, two on each side, small gradual turns so as to not puncture the PCB, and they pop right off.

Now how do I get all this crap excess epoxy off the GPU's?

Whatever works dude. I would use rubbing alcohol and a razor blade to get that sh!t off.

I use medical adhesive remover pads for goo removal. If you have a medical supply house near you or know someone in the field, I can't recommend them enough. They remove nearly everything I've thrown at them, and they come in easy one-use packages like wet-naps. Other than that, there is one product called "Goof-Off" and another called "Oops!" that remove most household adhesives, but won't melt most plastics. Best to test them on an area that doesn't show first, just to be sure...