ACK !! I have screwed up

Deadjasper

2[H]4U
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Oct 28, 2001
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Was upgrading the CPU on a Mini ITX MB and somehow managed to bend a couple of socket pins and ended up with a dead MB. 😭

I then broke out my trusty USB microscope and ground down the business end of a tiny screwdriver till it was almost a point ("almost" is important). I then very carefully lifted up on the 2 pins in question with the screwdriver. Those little pins have hooks on the end which made it a lot easier. Even after getting them the best I can you can still see they are bent with the naked eye.

After putting the system back together I was shocked and surprised that it actually worked. Computer booted normally and all seems well. Don't know if it's trust worthy but time will tell.

Anybody else ever successfully tackle this problem? What was your technique?
 
Was upgrading the CPU on a Mini ITX MB and somehow managed to bend a couple of socket pins and ended up with a dead MB. 😭

I then broke out my trusty USB microscope and ground down the business end of a tiny screwdriver till it was almost a point ("almost" is important). I then very carefully lifted up on the 2 pins in question with the screwdriver. Those little pins have hooks on the end which made it a lot easier. Even after getting them the best I can you can still see they are bent with the naked eye.

After putting the system back together I was shocked and surprised that it actually worked. Computer booted normally and all seems well. Don't know if it's trust worthy but time will tell.

Anybody else ever successfully tackle this problem? What was your technique?
Fixed a few. I use very small tweezers and grab the pin and bend up.
 
congrats on a successful fix! Bent CPU pins is one of those nightmare scenarios.
IIRC I've used razor blades, tweezers, stiff bits of wire, and already-sharp screwdrivers to fix bent pins. Can def be done successfully with care but I've also broken off pins trying to straighten them, yikes.
 
I still prefer the pins on the chips, I've never tried a pin on socket mb. I just feel like I have more control with the fragile thing in my hand. But since I don't change platforms more than once a decade I haven't had an opportunity to break one yet. Maybe in five years.
 
congrats on a successful fix! Bent CPU pins is one of those nightmare scenarios.
IIRC I've used razor blades, tweezers, stiff bits of wire, and already-sharp screwdrivers to fix bent pins. Can def be done successfully with care but I've also broken off pins trying to straighten them, yikes.
Oh! I just remembered a couple more tricks

for pins that are bent but still have some space between each other:
slide a razor blade between the entire row at once- being careful not to drag the blade or apply too much pressure to the substrate- and gently rock back and forth, alternating sides periodically, until everything is standing up straight again

for mangled or utterly flattened pins:
use the tiniest, sharpest thing u can find (fresh XActo blade, pointy end of small sewing needle) to bend the most affected pin(s) up a small amount and slip about 1/2 - 2/3rds of the pin into the end of an empty mechanical pencil (preferably 0.5mm) and carefully bend it up. The support from the pencil can help straighten the pin & prevent further mangling but extreme care should be taken not to insert the pin too far into the pencil at first as that will stress the base of the pin (good way to snap them off). I haven't had to try this one in awhile tho, and modern CPUs may use too tight a pin pitch for it to be safe & effective.
 
I still prefer the pins on the chips, I've never tried a pin on socket mb. I just feel like I have more control with the fragile thing in my hand. But since I don't change platforms more than once a decade I haven't had an opportunity to break one yet. Maybe in five years.

If you plan on building a new system out of new parts in 5 or so years, you won't have much choice. AMD is slated to make AM5 an LGA socket. They've already moved to LGA for their huge Threadripper and Epyc CPUs years ago. I couldn't imagine trying to fix a 4094 pin CPU if some of them got bent, that'd be a nightmare.
 
.5mm barrel on a mechanical pencil pencil works wonders with bent pens on CPUs.

I have a $30 pair of higher end needle-tipped cosmetic tweezers for LGA issues.
 
If you plan on building a new system out of new parts in 5 or so years, you won't have much choice. AMD is slated to make AM5 an LGA socket. They've already moved to LGA for their huge Threadripper and Epyc CPUs years ago. I couldn't imagine trying to fix a 4094 pin CPU if some of them got bent, that'd be a nightmare.
Yeah about that. Planning on dropping in a max compatible AM4 chip when prices come down then wait another few years. Then I'll finally get a chance to break one. Maybe by then my hands will shake so much I'll have to make someone younger do it.
 
guess this was a Intel system iv had a similar horror story but this was with a amd 5900x went to remove the cpu outa socket and somehow the tim went and sopped all over the pins. this was first time i ever seen such a thing i didnt even plop it on there was very Conservative with this as was a $125 30g tube.

i first used a thin toothpick to get the bulk off the pins, but it looked like id not be able to get the rest off the substrate. i ended up being told use iso,and a ultra fine toothbrush. my heart almost broke as i thought these pins were like intels made of straw. nope they are made of this stuff called metal (shock) it withstood the gentle brushing and iso bath. chip works perfectly in a itx build i just did.
 

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The best thing to use used to be a metal sewing needle hole. However I don't know if that's even too large for the new sockets. It worked fine on socket 775, and I think 1155?
 
I had to bend ~10 pins back into place on a evga sr-x board (dual lga 2011). Used a phone camera for magnification and and xacto knife to bend them. 2 of the badly bent/twisted pins broke off but luckily those were gnd or vcc pins.
 
That’s terrible news. LGA sockets suck. Too much power through the contacts and they turn into pretzels.
 
Flat tweezers, with skinny tweezers to get started it needed. Nice fat, flat wide tweezers. Gods gift :love:
Then never un-seat cpu again ya.
 
guess this was a Intel system iv had a similar horror story but this was with a amd 5900x went to remove the cpu outa socket and somehow the tim went and sopped all over the pins. this was first time i ever seen such a thing i didnt even plop it on there was very Conservative with this as was a $125 30g tube.

i first used a thin toothpick to get the bulk off the pins, but it looked like id not be able to get the rest off the substrate. i ended up being told use iso,and a ultra fine toothbrush. my heart almost broke as i thought these pins were like intels made of straw. nope they are made of this stuff called metal (shock) it withstood the gentle brushing and iso bath. chip works perfectly in a itx build i just did.
crap like this convinced me to try high end thermal pads...just imagine if it got on the motherboard socket as well. What kind of thermal paste is pink like that?
 
crap like this convinced me to try high end thermal pads...just imagine if it got on the motherboard socket as well. What kind of thermal paste is pink like that?

It looks very similar to the pre-applied crap that AMD used to use in the Socket 462 era. It was either reddish-pink like that, or yellow. I hated that stuff because it was crap at transferring heat, and if you left the excess on, it basically turned to concrete and was near impossible to remove.
 
It looks very similar to the pre-applied crap that AMD used to use in the Socket 462 era. It was either reddish-pink like that, or yellow. I hated that stuff because it was crap at transferring heat, and if you left the excess on, it basically turned to concrete and was near impossible to remove.
that stuff was the worst! I remember scraping and scraping Socket A heatsinks to get it off... rubbing alcohol wasn't very effective.
 
Way back in the day when the First AthlonXP dethroned the Intel P3, I managed to drop one while doing my build. Only when I started walking, I realized it was stuck to the underside of my shoe. That was a hard lesson.
 
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