The creaking you hear is very normal when they are tight as they actually should be. Being the old timer that I am, I heard this all the time taking memory chips out of PC's. Get a small flat head screw driver and slowly insert it between the chip and the socket. Then twist left and right slowly. Then push it in further. Slowly, twisting as you go. You can lift a bit also. You will see it start to come out. Don't worry about bending the pins a bit. You can easily straighten them back out.

If the ROM is corrupt, then screwing it up taking it out is a moot point.