[Quailane]

Hey all, I am stuck with stock voltages and multipliers on my motherboard. Its not a bad board. I have a Shuttle MN31N with IGP. I clocked it up to 170 FSB with pc2100 kingston value ram at 6-3-3-2.5. I am stuck with my stock voltage (1.5) and stock multiplier (10.5) on my thoroughbred 'B' duron 1400. I know this processor can go way higher but the NF2 integrated graphics wont work with FSB higher than 170. Last night I went to
http://www.oc-inside.de last night and was attempting to remove the heatsink for over an hour with help from my brother using everything from pliers to a screwdriver. I thought I trashed the mobo and processor at one point but I was lucky. I dont want to mess up my heatsink as it keeps the duron at 29C. You could bet I was really ****ed after that but then I found the pcb view option for the pin mod. I looked at the bottom of my motherboard and there were the soldered pins sticking out of my mobo under the processor. Late last night and after school today I was trying to use scotch and electrical tape to hold thin copper wire from an ata cable on the pins but to no avail. I cannot get them to make any or good contact with them and am really stressed out by this. My motherboard has hit its limits but my cpu hasn't so I was thinking that I could solder the copper wire on those pins without damaging the cpu because of the heat. I'm not worried about making a permanent mod because the copper wire could be clipped and bent out of the way. I have the right solder and my dad would do the soldering but I want to know if it would work or if anyone has tried this before. I want to get the most out of my $38 cpu. I know its risky but I want your thoughts on this as cpu is the bottleneck of this really compact system. Plz help!

[AL Romero]

i got my fingers and toes crossed for ya

[UberBlue]

DON'T SOLDER! This has been done before, but with a defroster repair kit or conductive pen.

[dz]

best way to do it: get an old 40-conductor IDE cable you can sacrifice. Get some of those stranded wires out, 4-5cm long pieces. Switch to socket view. Bend up your wires, center part about 1.5mm, and place them in between the proper holes. Takes a steady hand, but works nicely.
Don't use anthing above that size, it will make it hard/impossible to get the CPU in without breaking it. I tried with solid wire from an 80-conductor IDE cable, could barely get it on. 2 wires in one hole was out of the question.

[felinusz]

You don't want to remove your heatsink right? Try using "Rear Window Defogger Repair Paint" as UBERBlue mentioned (the brand name is "Permatex" - you can buy it at any large hardware store, or well-stocked car garage) for the rear-socket.

But personally, I would try harder to get the heatsink off - there are little clips on the heatsink that you need to press in, and then out.

I usually take about 4 sheets of paper towel, and place them on the PCB below where the little catch in the clip is - this is a safety blanket to prevent the screwdriver from punching a hole in the motherboard (which I have done twice). Then I use my very small flathead screwdriver to depress the mounting clip, and then use my fingers to pop it out of the mounting nug.

For a 100% safe and foolproof method (which hurts a lot) you can use your fingers alone to depress, and pop the mounting clips. It hurts a lot, but shouldn't puncture the skin - if you are scared about scratching your motherboard, or killing it then this is the best way. I have done it this way many times.

IMO attaching wire to the rear PCB of your motherboard is way too sketchy... but I'm a wussie

[Gnufsh]

If you want to solder it, it would be best to first remove the CPU, which would defeat the point. The wire in socket mod is probably the best way to go.

[wildfrogman]

If your motherboard plate has a hole behind the cpu socket you could just wire wrap the small pins on the backside of the motherboard. The good thing about that is you dont have to take the cpu out/heatsink off etc. And you can add a tiny resistor so if somthing goes wrong nothing will fry.

[Quailane]

Thanks guys for the replies. Just to push the clip of the retention bracket below the nub on the plastic socket takes all of my strength and I cant push it off. It is clipped on by one nub though it is the hardest retention mechanism I have ever seen. I guess I might try again with the fan removed as that could help due to the design of the sink. The bracket is held firmly by the plastic holding the fan to the sink. I don't want to break anything on it though because I might not be able to put the fan back on or it might not hold securely to the socket. Oh well. Thanks for cautioning me about the soldering as that was what I was going to do tonight after my dad got home from work. I like the idea of window defogger paint by felinusz. I'll go pick some up on saturday if the removal of the heatsink still does not work.

[Cyrix_2k]

Dude, you have to push down HARD to get the HSF off. On my old T-bird, I used two screwdrivers, one to push down, and one to pry outward. It takes around 30 lbs of force! I thought I was going to crush the die. Lucky I didn't. I'm lucky now, I have a HSF with a thumb clip