Disconnecting molex plugs (Gcard)

I have a radeon 9800pro lying here waiting to go into my pc to give my 9700pro a bit of a rest and to give me two more fps in oblivion. Before you ask - it's a free loan from a mate who upgraded to a 6800gs, its not much but every little helps.

The problem is that I can't get the old card out. Or to be precise i can't pull apart the power plug - its a molex 4 pin jobby and its kind of a y splitter coming out of the card. One end of the Y comes off fine but the other is stuck. I think i can wobble it a bit but it doesn't seem to budge. I've spent about 5 mins trying to pull them apart, tried using small pliers too. I am thinking of grabbing full size pliers and just going full out trying to pull it apart, but i dont wanna be too brutal.

Any special ninja tricks people use to separate them? Wiggling about like i do in hard drives hasn't really worked as its on a free hanging cable and i can't get proper grip on it and there is nothing solid to hold it.

I know its a bit silly and i will survive if i have to stick to my 9700pro since oblivion works on that too (just about) but it would be cool to swap.

First off make sure your PSU is unplugged before you get setup, usually when I have a molex sticking i wiggle it in this fashion left to right, then back right to left. Then try up and down and down then up. Rinse and repeat until its out. If it really that bad then just cut the power cord so you don't damage your card, I mean what is worse a bad lead which you can solder or a jacked up PCB video card :).

Dont be too afraid to use a little force, your not working with a fragile piece of glass or something, just use some common sense as to the force your using. Good luck hope that helps.

The sticking bit isn't on the card, its on the cable leading from it where it plugs into another cable


CARD-------------cable---------[Plug-> >-Plug]-----------more cable------------[other bits of my pc]

Which is why its hard to wiggle :( coz there is nothing to wiggle against, gotta hold both parts in ones hands. Am thinking big kick arse pliers, maybe vice, and two HGV's trying to pull it apart :D Maybe its a new way to ancor ships in docks :D Just use a 4 pin molex :D

In that case, surely its just a matter of brute force?

You should be able to grab each of the connectors in a hand each and just pull?

Make sure your hand doesn't smash into something when it finally gives tho :mrgreen:

if you end up damaging the connector on the card side, you can get replacement connectors from Maplin and cripm/solder them on :)

If anyone wonders how this turned out here's an update:

Fortunately the bit which i couldn't disconnect was hooked to a neon light (which i kept off all the time anyway) - so i took that out with the graphics card. I tried to split them when they were both out of the case and still had no joy - it think some of the metal connectors locked or maybe the plastic bits, but its not just because its tight. They are still together lol. But I got the 9800pro in now and its giving me a few more fps in oblivion and its quite playable. So I am happy.