DD MAZE4 chipset block renders my board useless!

[GV2NIX]

Help! DD MAZE4 chipset block rendered my board useless! ='(

I am very upset. I left town for 3 months to find that my DD MAZE4 chipset block managed to pull out two of the chipset loops causing the water block to fly off. Who knows where the loops went, I haven't found them yet. Maybe they embedded themselves in a nice, squishy, expensive chip elsewhere in the case, like on my SCSI controller card or something.

How could this have happened!! Don't they test these things for longevity?? I had a hunch that the 4 retaining hook springs were WAY too stiff and provided WAY too much pressure, but I installed it anyway thinking that DD would have tested to make sure that it wouldn't damage the board! My board is useless now! I can't install any kind of northbridge cooling! I need at least two loops that are diametrically opposed, but the damn block pulled out two on the same side. Is my board useless? Do I need to throw it away and buy a new one? I can't believe this...

Does anyone know of a better system used to retain the MAZE4 chipset block? Have they developed a new mechanism? If not, then I really don't know what to do. Words cannot express my disappointment and fear that I built a horrible rig that is flawed because of the loops. I would appreciate any suggestions, comments, shared experieces, anything... I want to repair my rig and use it, but I want to have some suggestions first.

I can't believe they opted to use loops instead of holes, why would anyone ever want to do that?? It seems needlessly complicated and inefficient to have loops. What's wrong with holes?? And I can't believe that DD made such a flawed retention system... Help please, thank you in advance!

 

[alinosa]

check to see if the loops went all the way through your mobo. if they did then it will be safe (mostly) to run thin guage wire through there and make a closed loop to replace the loops that were pulled off. all you'd need to do is make a U-shaped piece with long legs and runit through the holes, then twist the loose ends together... viola, new mounting loops.

 

[GV2NIX]

I think if I do that the part of the loop that passes under the board will touch a lead of a surface capacitor or something. I guess I could use insulated wire? The hooks apply a lot of pressure, around 20-30lbs total I think, any suggestions on how to tie the loop so that it'll be strong enough? I doubt normal tying will hold up to that kind of tension.

 

[evowatercooling]

Put a piece of rubber on the backside and just twist the wires until you get it as tight as you want it to be.

 

[GV2NIX]

Hmm, yeah, I think I'll try it. I doubt the twist will hold though, maybe I'll solder the twist, that should work right?

 

[alinosa]

if you cross the ends (like a plus sign) and fold the wires back over on themselves (180 degrees) and then twist this piece to itself, it won't break unless the wire itself breaks. the problem with soldering is getting the solder to stick to the wire after you're handled it. i'm sure you could do it if you have flux tho.

 

[GV2NIX]

Hmm, interesting, never twisted like that before. It seems like it would be much stronger. Yeah, soldering might be troublesome, I'll try your method, thanks!

 

[alinosa]

no problem

keep us updated

 

[Wicked Klown]

There was an thing on the front page on how to better the loops. Take a PCB board, paper clip, wire about 26gauge. Cut the PCB to size and the paper clip as well, then run the paper clip through the loops holes and then place the PCB board on to them. Now take the paper clip and bend the two ends inwards and wrap with the wire. Now solder the wire to the paper clip.

 

[GV2NIX]

Hmm, that's interesting too. As I don't have any spare PCB around, I'm going to try the wire tie trick first. Thanks WK!

 

[evowatercooling]

The wire tie trick should do just fine. You probably should have no less than about 5 twists though.

 

[GV2NIX]

Why's that?

 

[evowatercooling]

Because less than that and it may pull apart. I believe if you have about 5 or 6 twists it should be able to handle the pressures you are putting on it. In reality just do as many twists as you can manage with the wire you are using.

 

[GV2NIX]

Oh oops, I read your poast as "no more than 5 twists." What you said makes perfect sense, I should twist it as much as possible.

 

[ƒÓÒl]

I'd vote using paperclip wire too, much stronger than a twist tie.
Just trim the ends so that there's two 5 mm legs of wire under the board, and bend them towards each other. Where they meet, add a drop of JB Weld then wrap with a strip of electrical tape to insulate when the JB's cured. You can also use a piece of plastic or rubber under that "bridge" to insulate. Even a little piece of pop bottle would do the trick.
You can just bend the wires together if you're patient with a pair of needle-nose pliers.
You'd break your board before that wire came apart...

JB Weld quick takes 10 whole minutes to cure. It's different than the normal version of JB Weld, and is pretty easy to find.

 

[evowatercooling]

Disregard the part I said about using a twist tie. I should have said use wire of about 20-26 guage. I dont like the use of paper clips because they are not that strong. Most of the ones I have played with break after a short period of time. You can get small guage picture frame hanging wire at walmart for very little. This stuff works great. I used it to hold a fan on my buddy's xp90 and to hang my speakers off of my loft.

 

[GV2NIX]

Alright, gonna go head out and get some wire today. I inspected the mobo though, and I think one or two surface capacitors got knocked off...!

 

[GV2NIX]

DD wrote back to my e-mail regarding my problem. The e-mail I received is below. I have a newfound respect for DD customer service!

Sorry to hear about the Jason,

The springs are specked to the chips specifications but on some boards they may be a bit thinner than others and this sort of thing may happen like in your case. Here is what we can do, we can send you some thermal adhesive and you can permanently seal your chipset block onto your board. Now your saying why would I want to do this? I will never be able to use the chipset block when I upgrade my motherboard in the future, right? First lets get this board back up and running then in the future when you do replace your mother board we will send you a new Chipset block for your new board since the current block is now permanently fixed to the old board. Please let me know if this will work for you, and if this does work all you will need to do is save these emails so we can reference back to them and get you what we promised.

Best Regards
Dan Stephens
[email protected]

 

[alinosa]

WOW. impressive