Need help removing heat sink

I'm trying to remove a Thermaltake Volcano 6CU+ from my system. It's cooling an AMD Athlon XP 1800+. I can't get the clip to unlatch, if anyone could help me it would be greatly appreciated.
thanks

 

Most latches have a little bracket thing that allows you to use a flathead screwdriver to lever the clip.

 

it's always difficult the first few times cause you dont know how much force is too much--and you dont want to harm the CPU.

unfortunately, many heatsinks, especially on socket A processors, are really annoying to get off. get your flathead screwdriver in there really good, and apply pressure while forcing the clips off of the socket. its gonna take more force than you'd think... good luck to you.

 

I've been using a flat head screw driver and pressing down on the clip like I'm supposed to but I still can't get it to unlatch. I'm pushing down and pulling the fan outward and it's not unhooking. Is it possible that there is not enough distance from the motherboard and the clip to unlatch? I have a soyo K7v mobo. I'm trying to be cautious because the screwdriver already slipped once and I hit the mobo, but I don't think it did any damage. Anyway, if there is any thing else I can do or if I am doing it wrong please let me know. Thank you again for your time.

 

if you can get a second screwdriver and push down with one while prying the clip away with the other... it could work. i've had to do that before. it sure is a pain when they make it attatch to only 1 of the 3 pegs on the socket

 

Well, a frustrating hour later I finally managed to remove the heatsink with a pair of needle nose pliers. I tried using two screwdrivers but there wasn't enough room to work and I didn't want to damage the board by having the screwdriver slip on me. Anyway, I just used the pliers to push down on the clip and at the same time I was able to pull the clip out. Anyway, thank you very much for the help.

 

My question is...why?

 

probably to upgrade the CPU or change to a better heatsink... why else?

 

I have read that it can be helpful if you take the new heatsink to the hardware store and find a screwdriver that fits "just right" into the clip, though I have never installed or removed a heatsink myself, and so I am not speaking from my own experience...

 

haha, being an AMD fan, all i can say is thank GOD they moved to a new heatsink retention clip similar to Intel's design for the new 64's... the lack of that and an integrated heatspreader were by far the worst aspects of the athlon XP.

 

Damn...never knew Intel made it that easy.

 

I've seen some heatsink clips that were said to have been designed to to be unclipped with a flat-head screwdriver, but which would take a nut driver of the right size with far less likelihood of slipping off. Now that you've got the job done, I hope yours wasn't one of them!