Removing CPU retention module on Giga-byte motherboard

[JPreston]

Hi All

I want to remove the retention module from my GA-K8N Ultra in order to use a water-cooling kit of the screw-through/backplate variety. Now, most S939 motherboards have two screws holding this on but I have some plastic stud type things and I can see no way to dismantle them . (Just to make sure I'm not talking rubbish by 'retention module' I mean the rectangular black plastic bracket around the CPU to which a stock cooler clips )

Can anyone with a similar motherboard (presume Giga-byte use these across the whole range ) give me any pointers how to take this off, preferably in a reasonably reversable way?

I would post pics of exactly what I mean but unfortunately that would mean taking my PC apart hence no internet access to check for replies...I think I would just take a Dremel to it before going through all that

[EvilMunky]

When i had to do similar (on different mobo) i realised after a while i wasnt gonna manage to get the thing off intact. So I Brute Forced it..................

Sometimes tho there is an easy release on the other side - but you need to remove the mobo to check that.

[Snaga]

Do the plastic studs form a sort of V on the back of the mobo? If so squeeze the V together(with some long nosed pliers), you should then be able to push the stud through the hole.

[peterb]

If it is a plastic rivet type job, drill it out - but just use a twist drill bit in your fingers, not in a hand drill and certainly not in an electrc drill (unless you want to run the risk of the drill bit sliding off and cutting through all those lovely fine tracks on the board!)

[JPreston]

Do the plastic studs form a sort of V on the back of the mobo? If so squeeze the V together(with some long nosed pliers), you should then be able to push the stud through the hole.

Not in the sense I think you mean - sort of splaying out, like barbs on a harpoon, or the sort of plug that you would use to fix a screw into plasterboard with a cavity behind it (I've been DIYing all day )? No this seems to be more like a Y shape, with the vertical part going through the motherboard and the top parts held apart by some sort of barrel-shaped bead. But can I remove the bead? Can I b******s...it seems molded in place

That said when taking the cooler off my previous GFX card it was fixed on with the V shaped fixings I think you mean...and I still ended up having to totally destroy them to get them off. Guess I'm just cack-handed...

Ta for the suggestions...guess I'll have to just drill it off then

What's a twist drill? If not one of those things like an egg whisk, is it like a screwdriver with a drill bit on the end?