Worst Case Scenario

[lethalmartini]

Here is Murphy's Law in action:
So I just finish building this dream rig of mine early December. After using it for a week or two, I have to move across the US so I ship it back to California from Vermont. When it finally gets here, I check inside the case to find out that, to my great dismay, the retention locks of the heat sink popped off, pulling the CPU out of the mobo. Because of the thermal paste, the CPU was still attached to the sink, and was knocked around the bottom of the case.

So now, all the pins are still attached and there is no apparent physical damage to the chip, but upwards of seven to eight of the pins are bent. How dangerous would it be to attempt to realign the pins with pliers and put it back in the system? Do I have to just bite the bullet and front for a new CPU?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Bulwark]

I personally would probably try to fix the pins, depending on how badly bent they are. I honestly don't know if this has ne chance of messing up your mobo or anything like that though.

 

[Quailane]

It cant hurt to try.

 

[Grandpa Dan]

A tool slightly more delicate than pliers would be advised.

 

[Bulwark]

I personally would probably try to fix the pins, depending on how badly bent they are. I honestly don't know if this has ne chance of messing up your mobo or anything like that though.

 

[matrixzen]

Try using a credit card. BE VERY GENTLE when you bend the pins to avoid bending it off. You can hold the CPU up so you can look down the CPU alignment with the others to make sure it's fitably straight. Get it aligned and try fitting it in the socket and if it don't fit, don't force it but take it out and make some more alignments. Good luck!

 

[ChillPhatCat]

I wouldn't think twice about realigning the pins, just remember to move them slowly and be gentle.


I'd like to point out the one fault in shipping which is quite evident... if you or anybody plans to ship a computer they should take the heat sink off... even a light heatsink could cause damage by ripping off vital Mobo parts... I don't want to imagine what a 1 lb copper heatsink would do bouncing around in the case.

 

[jhl3]

The credit card trick works great most of the time if you are carefull!

 

[CCW]

Credit Card as mentioned above does the trick, if they come off you may still be able to run the processor without the pins, there are often pin-out guides available in white papers on websites to tell you what the pins do.

Craig

 

[lethalmartini]

So it turns out that there were 20 or so bent pins upon further inspection. I was able to use a pair of tweezers to work out some of the seriously bent ones and then spent three hours with a credit card realigning the pin axes. So now the processor fits in the socket again, but has not been tested. Will post an update as it comes.

Thanks for all the tips, the credit card trick really does work with a bit of patience.

 

[CCW]

Good to hear it now fits in the Socket, let us know how it goes.

Craig

 

[matrixzen]

I'm glad to hear that you got your pins realigned. I'm pretty confident it should work fine. I would truly hate it if my pins got bent.

 

[Kenshiro]

CPUs are semi-conductor components. They don't get damaged by knocking around, unless you can see physical damage (crack, chip....etc). In your case, I believe the only way your CPU can be damage is by static. Since it is in the case all the time, I doubt it is damage by static.

Keep us posted when you reinsert your CPU.

 

[lethalmartini]

So I pop in the re-aligned processor and turn the system on. No output to the monitor, no post. So I troubleshoot for a day or two and end up re-ordering my mobo.

Also, this time around I took off the new board's black retention lock and popped on thermalright's backplate and spring-screw system which seems to be a hell of a lot more stable then the standard retention/clip setup. I'd bet it runs the sink closer to the cpu as well.

Re-plug everything back into the new mobo and it works! Clearly, when the sink fell off, it probably smacked against the base of the agp slot or something and damaged the board. So now I'm running stable at 29C idle and 34C full load on an un-oced 3.0 chip. Four degrees cooler than the setup I had before the accident. Splendid.

Anyways, thanks for the advice guys.