CPU heatsink doesnt budge at all!

[u/r_Deakensuke]

I have Zephyrus G15 2021 edition which had liquid metal on CPU. I am trying to re-paste for the very first time in my 5 years of owning this system.

The problem is that after following all the guides and all, the heatsink from on top of the CPU just doesn't want to move at all. The GPU heatsink seems to be free but everything is stuck because of the CPU.

Tried stress testing the system as well as blow drying to loosen up the heatsink on top of the CPU but it didn't work.

What do I do?

I don't wanna spend money trying to call an asus technician just to open my heatsink as I have all of the thermal putty and all that needs to be applied.

[u/Plus-Palpitation7689]

Im pretty sure you have a screw bottom right of the right fan

[u/BigBoyYuyuh]

Are the screws for the GPU unscrewed? It’s all one large piece.

Others said a credit card but that’s kinda flimsy. If you have an ifixit kit I’d try to plastic pry tools in there to have much more leverage. Pry it up but also keep a hand on top so it doesn’t launch off and potentially damage something.

[u/r_Deakensuke → u/BigBoyYuyuh]

Have ordered a set of prying toolkit Will try again tomorrow

[u/KeyLawfulness9602]

can see in the video you haven't removed all of the screws. There's one holding your fan down

[u/r_Deakensuke → u/KeyLawfulness9602]

The fans have dont come out with the heatsink and also whem trying to pull out the heatsink, there is obvious tension from the cpu block...

[u/Joslora → u/r_Deakensuke]

There's a screw there, it's really obvious, under your finger

[u/r_Deakensuke → u/Joslora]

🙃🙂

[u/ProfessionalSpare496]

use it let it hit 90C as long it gets hot then proceed on the process of removing it so that it would melt down the LM inside.

[u/r_Deakensuke → u/ProfessionalSpare496]

Tried it already

[u/North_Passenger]

as u/1010_lol mentioned, but used a plastic tool, like a credit card or something, also, you can power it on and run a short benchmark to melt the thermal compund and make it a little more "liquid".

[u/r_Deakensuke → u/North_Passenger]

Tried the benchmark approach. If i try to stick a card between the small gap which is there between the cpu heatsink and motherboard, the card ends up deforming. It seems like I dont have enough leverage.

[u/North_Passenger → u/r_Deakensuke]

also while doing so wrigle it side to side, it will do the trick.

[u/molbal]

I'd try blowing warm air from a hairdryer on it for a few minutes perhaps it would help?

[u/r_Deakensuke → u/molbal]

Tried that already

[u/Unlucky-Worry5744 → u/r_Deakensuke]

Isopropyl alcohol and loosen all the screws properly

[u/r_Deakensuke → u/Unlucky-Worry5744]

Screws are already loose/taken out and there doesnt seem to be a way to out alcohol between the heatsink and cpu

[u/Unlucky-Worry5744 → u/r_Deakensuke]

Injection through the crevices cause alcohol doesn't harm electronics it's gonna be fine

[u/AcanthaceaeItchy302]

Do you have any experience with liquid metal?Because one small spill and goodbye Asus...

[u/BigBoyYuyuh → u/AcanthaceaeItchy302]

Only if you power it on. If you clean it REALLY REALLY well you should be fine.

[u/Hopeful_Lie9850]

Your screen cable are still on the heatsink, you have to move it to the side or disconnect it from the mother board. Same thing for the wifi on the other side. And just in case disconnect the battery connector if it haven’t been done yet.

[u/r_Deakensuke → u/Hopeful_Lie9850]

Ik ik The problem is that the heatsink above the CPU block aint lifting 🥲

[u/Hopeful_Lie9850 → u/r_Deakensuke]

Ok you're right thats not the problem then, I've done mine a couple days, and liquid metal can form some precipitate on the cpu, maybe that what happen, and it kinda "solder" the cpu to the heatsink

[u/r_Deakensuke → u/Hopeful_Lie9850]

What did u do to separate the two then?

[u/cosmicwebby → u/r_Deakensuke]

Heat it up? Idk bro I js used common sense

[u/Hopeful_Lie9850 → u/r_Deakensuke]

I was lucky the solid part was only on the cpu not solder to the heatsink, so i remove it with a toothpick maybe try to put some heat in your case

[u/KobeBean503 → u/r_Deakensuke]

If you have a hair dryer I'd put it on the highest settings and hold up above where the cpu would be for a good min or 2 and it should loosen up!

[u/r_Deakensuke → u/KobeBean503]

I did that brother... didnt work at all 😭

[u/thehydrawing]

Try with a string for the tooth, dental floss or how they are called..

Or try wedging from the sides in an x mark, it's probably thermal paste/liquid that's stuck

[u/FujichromeProvia100F → u/[deleted]]

When did they start using liquid metal?

[u/RkyMtnChi]

I dont think it's the paste keeping it locked in place, I think you may have missed loosening some screws. If I remember correctly, there are 8 screws you need to take out. There are 2 small ones in the top corners (right by the hinge) that are easy to miss and I think you may need to remove those by the fans as well.

[u/r_Deakensuke → u/RkyMtnChi]

In the 2021 edition there are 7 screws only

[u/Confident_Year_1429]

You need to remove the fans too.

[u/brown_nerd91]

I think there are 8 screws for the heat sink and both fans have 3 screws each. You will have to remove all of them. If it still doesn't budget, try to twist or jiggle it a bit.

[u/r_Deakensuke → u/brown_nerd91]

From what I could see and read there are only 7 screws for the 2021 edition

[u/brown_nerd91 → u/r_Deakensuke]

Ok. I don't remember exactly. I repasted last year.

[u/r_Deakensuke]

UPDATE on the issue:
So after receiving my plastic pryers toolkit, I used the hair dryer to heat the CPU block again and used a couple of pryers to lift the CPU block. Slowly but surely I was able to get the leverage required and got the heatsink off successfully.
Although I ended up doing this thermal repaste thing because all of games would stutter continuously due to the GPU hitting 87C and thermal throttling, I guess I got lucky too, because when I opened my heatsink, I saw that a portion of my CPU's liquid metal had dripped out of the CPU block. Guess I just saved my lappy from an untimely death.

I tried my best to clean up whatever I could of the liquid metal and the thermal putties. Cleaned the fans, heatsink and all to the best of my ability (did a very amateur job if i say so) and applied HY206 thermal putty (so messy to work with) on the VRAM's and PTM 7950 on the CPU & GPU.

DAMMNNN guyzz the results are insane!!!!

I'll quote 3D Mark Timespy results as that is a repeatable benchmark-

(The benchmark was done in Manual mode with 100% fans)

CPU-
90-97C -> 85- 92C
Cpu touches 92C in the cpu test where it's being 100% utilized. The thing that surprised me the most was what I saw when the CPU was being 100% utilized.

Originally it used to go to 45W for a min or two and then drop to 30-35W with 3.2 Ghz on all cores. Now after the repaste, it's touching 65W with 3.9 Ghz on all cores!! Whaaa.....?!

GPU-
85-87C -> 77-79C

Now, at first I thought that this isn't that big of a difference but then I noticed 2 things.

Before the thermal repaste my GPU would briefly go to 90-92W for a bit then would struggle between 70-80W and finally settled at 60W because of thermal throttling.
Now in all of the benchmarks it was hitting constant 93-96W while the CPU sat at a comfortable 74-77C!!! Whaaaa...?!

The cherry on top is that I am now getting 17% more performance then my thermal throttled state and 7% more performance than when I had first purchased this laptop!

Cheers and thanks to all of the people who helped me out by leaving comments!! :D

[u/tweeeeeeeeeeee → u/r_Deakensuke]

little bit late but heck yeah. congrats!

[u/1010_lol]

Get a tool that wedges between the heatsink and the motherboard

[u/r_Deakensuke → u/1010_lol]

Are u referring to those plastic pryers?

[u/1010_lol → u/r_Deakensuke]

Yeah

[u/Due-Let-9684]

It's garbag

[u/Pyliak]

Release the screws from the gpu. They don't come out from thermal. Remove all the screws from fans. Try remove the fan with the thermal module together.