I’m trying to remove an original backing plate from an ASUS A8V Deluxe mobo. I removed all the fastners, and placed as much pressure on the plate that I deemed safe, but it won’t come off. A bit of Googleing revealed it’s stuck on with heavy-duty double-sided tape. Further Googling found someone who had removed it by soaking with something called GoofOff (apparently based on xylene and other petroleum distillates).

Obviously, whatever cleaner I use has to be 100% safe for the mobo. Does anyone know of one? The local hardware store is warning me away from any SuperGlue type removers and towards a glue remover made for plastic model makers, but they don’t stock it. Not had much time to Google it, but I've not found anything.

I’ve removed stick-on bodywork badges from cars before, heating up the badge with a hair dryer until the glue becomes soft enough to pry the badge off. Would that be a safe?

The other option is to attempt to bodge the old backing plate to the new heatsink, instead of using the custom backing plate that came with the new heatsink.

Probably. Most on board components are safe to near 100C & it's unlikely for you to get it that hot with a hair dryer.

That's if you really need to remove it.

A sheet of paper with a cutout for the backplate could work as a simple yet very effective heat shield for the motherboard while heating with a dryer. Just to be extra safe. The glue probably don't have to get very hot before it starts to loosen up noticeably.

You can safely clean with isopropyl alchohol. Anhydrous isopropal is commonly used to clean non water soluble flux off of pc boards after soldering. You could use soap and water too, just make sure that you remove battery first and rinse when you're done with distilled water. Make sure that board is absolutely dry before adding any power to avoid corrosion.

I'll give the hair dryer a go, and using kitchen silver foil to mask the board will I'm sure make it a lot safer, so good tip there. Thanks. I've got some IPA wipes too.

It worked. 4 minutes of heat applied and it surrendered its sticky grip on the board