Engineering screw-up on a miniature scale

[skotl]

Was fitting a new cooler to the CPU on my main computer. The old heatsink compound had gone hard so when I pulled the heatsink it dragged the CPU out of the socket and did this:

"Just bend it back", you might say, except each pin is 0.4mm in width with 1mm separation. Tried to get in there with a razor blade and ended up bending its neighbours (there are 1,331 pins in total).
So it's in the bin and a replacement is going to set me back £200.

The irony is that the new cooler was intended to protect the CPU I just knackered

 

[tom2207]

Id have been giving it a go , with a decent pair of tweasers ,,, or a scalpel blade ... and a good pair of glasses.

 

[Domdom]

I did that with a server Xeon CPU. Butterfingered moron that I am I managed to drop it. The damage was far worse than that too. Took me 3 hours with a plastic tool to fix it, but it fitted in the end, worked fine and nobody was any the wiser.

 

[julianf]

Its possible to bend them back.

They don't even have to be flawless as the socket has some slack.

Some people are good at that real fine work, and some not so. Find a trusted teenager or somthing if you're struggling.

 

[julianf]

Ps the size is almost clunky for someone who use used to doing smd rework.

 

[Fastdruid]

On a related note, I replaced my cpu cooler the other day. Now my PC won't start from cold without giving me a CPU fan failure...because it has a smart fan controller and runs *so* cool that the fan doesn't run until it gets properly loaded. I could turn off the fan warning but then I wouldn't find out if there was a genuine fan failure!

 

[carbon]

I’d persevere with trying to straighten it. Even it you bend a few more trying to get that one initially straight

 

[jack-daniels]

Check the pinout, it might be one of many grounds and not needed.

 

[qwakers]

ive reworked many of that type of damage in my younger years. slip a piece of thin card down the row for a reference when you get it close. fine work tweezers are your go to.

 

[gaz1]

the bining of it may have caused more damage but if lucky that cpu is stll salvagable

but that one is easily straightened out i use the electronic screwdrivers to rebend them back up never a blade to straighten them as you can cut them

ive found myself that they do straighten rather well as ive droped a few by accident or got caught on something taking them out

its a paitent game getting them straight dont rush them once near enough try dropping it onto the cpu board

 

[Greeves246]

I’ve known a few women that were very good at getting very small bent things straight again.

 

[skotl]

Check the pinout, it might be one of many grounds and not needed.

Beeeeep beep beep == "Memory fault", so I reckon it's needed!

 

[skotl]

Think I was doing more damage than what I had originally done. Neither my eyes nor my fine-finger skills (!) are what they used to be.

It's a Ryzen 3600X if anybody has an AMD AM4 motherboard and fancies trying to rescue it and turn it into an upgrade. Free to first person who fancies a go (I've already ordered the replacement).

 

[slim_boy_fat]

and nobody was any the wiser.

Is that another way of saying "the owner"?

 

[Alan Reynolds]

We used to get quite a few damaged processors that customers had graunched the legs on.
I made a set of tapered slips to gradually straighten the rows as I pushed them in and also made some very fine tubes that fitted over pins that had got crinkled, to be able to get them upright and straight. All done with a jewellers loupe.
The pins are amazingly bendable. When I first did it, I expected them to break off.

 

[optima21]

I'd be using a pair of tweezers for model making and some small tubing to straighten that, you can get blunt needles for syringes just need to check the correct gauge for the bore of the needle.

 

[voipio]

A capillary tube e.g. large hypodermic needle, might possibly get that straight again. I bought a bargain Canon SLR where the memory card slot had a bent pin, and managed to straighten the pin OK.

 

[LewisT]

Could you not twist the cooler off? the internet is awash with damaged ryzens for the same reason, have a 3100 here if its any interest to you.

 

[skotl]

Could you not twist the cooler off? the internet is awash with damaged ryzens for the same reason, have a 3100 here if its any interest to you.

Yeah - that's what you're supposed to do but the heatsink compound had gone brick hard, so twisting it brought the CPU out with the heatsink

Cheers for that - ordered a 5700X last night which ironically cost £10 less than that 3600X cost me 2 years ago

 

[Robotstar5]

I reckon even the bloke on the Repair shop who straightens the pins on music boxes would struggle with that density of pins.