Broke my first LGA 775 cpu socket!

D

desertjedi

Weaksauce
Joined
Feb 29, 2008
Messages
69
A buddy gave me a new Gigabyte P45 board for selling 3 of his video cards on ebay. I'm not really a Gigabyte fan. The last Gigabyte board I had was a P35 board that didn't overclock for jack - even though it was KNOWN as a great overclocker. He wanted to get rid his Gigabyte P45 board because he couldn't hit 4.2Ghz on his E8500 like he and I did on other boards. Okay - the dude's got a lot of money to blow on upgrades.

For me, it was a great deal - sell 3 video cards for him and get a $135 P45 motherboard.

So I go to clean off some AS 5 he left on the side of the cpu socket with a bit of paper towel with some alcohol on it. I guess the paper towel must have snagged some of the pins in the socket and...it's over, history - the socket now has bent pins. I found a highly-magnified pic of an LGA 775 socket and I knew the socket was toast. I wanted to make sure I was at fault and that he didn't send me a borked mainboard. I determined that the LGA 775 pins are about as sturdy as toothbrush bristles and that anything that touches them would be instantly FATAL. Heck, even a good stiff breeze might take them out (I actually wonder if you got specs of something in the socket, could you use compressed air or not?)

I had built a couple of LGA 775-based systems before and I heard about the fragility of the pins when the socket first hit the street but I didn't realize just how fragile they were. My buddy gave me some tips on how to cut down on the "risk".

Does anyone know if Gigabyte could repair the board with a new cpu socket? I'm waiting for an answer from them but I presume it would cost more than it's worth - if doable.

In the meantime I needed a cheap mainboard for my home business so I ended up ordering an MSI P43 Neo3-F. I had a bad experience with an MSI board in the past and most of my friends don't recommend them but I figure if they were that bad, they'd be out of business by now - and not have the loyal following that they do. Any thoughts on that board? It's arriving tomorrow and I'm TOTALLY SPOOKED about the socket pins.
 
sucks about the pins

As for the MSI board, I don't think theres too much to worry about. I had a MSI P35 Neo2FR board for a good while and it was superb.
 
theyre not that fragile... theyre on springs, or springy themselves. they do bend easy though, and you can bend them straight but its a major bitch. think of those times when you had to straighten that ps2 mouse or svideo jack... times a thousand
 
i don't think gigabyte will repair your board. most companies i've rma'd with (tyan, msi, asus) won't even accept your board if it ships without the socket cover.
 
Get a mechanical pencil and bend them back.
Click to expand...

Um, I'm not sure I can do that.

Here's a pic of what the pins look like.

And here's a pic of what mine look like.

Our engineering tech people (at work) have nice "professional" lit magnifiers but I'm not sure they'll magnify enough - the pins are extremely small. Will look into it though.

Kencheeto, thanks for the comment - makes me feel a wee bit better about it. It's always nice to try a new brand - usually.
 
I could fix that, ive bent lots of the pins, as long as its not broken your ok, remember since they are super fragile study the bend you need CAREFULLY and only bend once. DO NOT overbend cause bending back can snap it (ive done that). Check with them most all manufacturers have a repair cost policy a gigbyte board back in the day (DQ6) they charged $40 to fix
 
desertjedi said:
Um, I'm not sure I can do that.

Here's a pic of what the pins look like.

And here's a pic of what mine look like.

Our engineering tech people (at work) have nice "professional" lit magnifiers but I'm not sure they'll magnify enough - the pins are extremely small. Will look into it though.

Kencheeto, thanks for the comment - makes me feel a wee bit better about it. It's always nice to try a new brand - usually.
Click to expand...

looks repairable, they don't have to be perfect, you just have to get close enough to work ;)
 
Gigabyte wrote me back and actually recommended an RMA.

But I found a "tech" here at work with a nice illuminated microscope, so I'm going to see if I can maybe do some socket surgery.
 
They are fixable. They don't even look that bad. Using a very pointed blade that is made for superfine cutting, watch really close and gently straighten them back one by one. I just fixed two bent pins on my X58 board.
 
JCNiest5 said:
They are fixable. They don't even look that bad. Using a very pointed blade that is made for superfine cutting, watch really close and gently straighten them back one by one. I just fixed two bent pins on my X58 board.
Click to expand...

that must have been insane! the lga1366 ones are smaller than the 775 ones since it's a second gen socket.
 
I did the same thing with a paper towel trying to clean off some thermal paste. I was unhappy about it. I was able to straighten 2 bent pins without a mag. glass. I then used a contact cleaner on the socket as I held mobo upside down and sprayed. My bro is still using the mobo today.
 
dccmadams said:
I did the same thing with a paper towel trying to clean off some thermal paste. I was unhappy about it. I was able to straighten 2 bent pins without a mag. glass. I then used a contact cleaner on the socket as I held mobo upside down and sprayed. My bro is still using the mobo today.
Click to expand...

How the heck do people get thermal compound on the socket? Seriously I don't get how sloppy you would need to be to have compound getting all over the socket edges.

Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
ocellaris said:
How the heck do people get thermal compound on the socket? Seriously I don't get how sloppy you would need to be to have compound getting all over the socket edges.

Posted via [H] Mobile Device
Click to expand...

Was thinking the same thing. Been doing this awhile and I have never gotten TIM anywhere but on the top of the CPU itself.
 
ocellaris said:
How the heck do people get thermal compound on the socket? Seriously I don't get how sloppy you would need to be to have compound getting all over the socket edges.

Posted via [H] Mobile Device
Click to expand...

Some people are somewhat new to applying thermal paste so they fill the top of the CPU with it, thus upon applying the heatsink, it overflows and falls into the socket. Pretty easy to guess.
 
Well I put the socket under a very nice high-quality microscope and found AS 5 on some of the pins. I was able to clean off the TIM using very pointed tweezers. I then began straightening pins and, as suggested, it started to work.

Then tragedy struck...one of the pins was simply gone...cut down in the prime of its life...never again to POST. It was very disheartening because it looked like it had a chance.

But I also found two other pins in really sad shape. I was able to get the pin "head" in the correct contact area but they were still higher than the others because had been straightened a bit and I could not re-simulate their natural bend.

Oh well, I will RMA it to Gigabyte. Maybe they'll fix it and charge me a reasonable fee.

Meanwhile the MSI P43 Neo3-F POSTed first time. :) I see it has a quick boot option. Combine that with my OCZ Vertex SSD and I think it'll be sweet.
 
IIRC, Asus charges like $20 (or was it $40?) to fix pins/CPU socket. Not sure about other manufacturers, though. Don't know how they fix it/them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top