I Broke a $900 Motherboard

[FRZ]

I guess I got sloppy swapping in my new motherboard. I mean, I've been a [H] member for years. I am infallible and can do no wrong.

I started up my new EVGA Dark Z690 board and it wouldn't post. The board would only boot with the top DIMM slot populated, nothing with the second one filled.

Going through all the trouble shooting, i finally pinpointed two small bent pins on the mobo. My genius ass of course tried to straighten them, only to make it worse.

Obviously, EVGA told me to pound sand and I ended getting another board, which works perfectly. They also didn't offer any sort of direct repair option, even at my cost.

I was curious if there waa a reputable third party I could try and have the pins repaired or the socket replaced all together?

One of the EVGA reps told me I can try these guys

https://ps3specialist.com/

but the phone number listed is always busy and I can't find another way to try and reach them.

Some pics for your amusement and ridecule.

 

[hititnquitit]

It really doesn't look that bad.

 

[Furious_Styles]

I do lots of board pin repair, highly likely I could fix this for you OP.

 

[CruisD64]

A steady hand and a needle should set things straight.

 

[cdabc123]

See if you can find the pinout for the socket. That was helpful for me when I had a dozen or so pins to fix on a old sr-x board. Alot of pins are redundant power or ground pins

 

[Andrew_Carr]

Another [H] member, who shall remain unnamed and is also infallible, had something similar happen to his board and sold it to me. Repairing it wasn't all that bad. A $10 set of tweezers/dental picks and some cheap jeweler's goggles makes it pretty easy to straighten these back out. 10x zoom is pretty much the max that was useful for me though, so if you can find something with around a 5x zoom that's probably perfect. I think I unbent the first couple with some tiny screwdrivers while waiting on my tools to arrive. It really felt more like just rotate them back into place or pushing them up/down to get the angle corrected. Broken ones are a little worse but if you bend them up at a higher angle they might still work.

See if you can find the pinout for the socket. That was helpful for me when I had a dozen or so pins to fix on a old sr-x board. Alot of pins are redundant power or ground pins

This was also the case on mine. Some of the pins were for memory and were broken off entirely so those slots wouldn't work, but a surprising percentage are redundant ground/power pins that you don't need to worry about as much. Mine also wouldn't boot with the bad slots populated, but if you don't plan on using all the memory slots you might be able to get it working without much trouble. Not sure on your board, but on mine each slot had its own set of pins all over the socket so they're not necessarily all grouped together.

 

[FRZ]

See if you can find the pinout for the socket. That was helpful for me when I had a dozen or so pins to fix on a old sr-x board. Alot of pins are redundant power or ground pins

Problem is I know those two pins initially bent were an issue as second DIMM slot wasn't functioning. That was also before my botched surgery attempt which ended up bending more pins.

I'm also hesitant to try repairing it again myself as my hands my not the most steady.

 

[cdabc123]

Problem is I know those two pins initially bent were an issue as second DIMM slot wasn't functioning. That was also before my botched surgery attempt which ended up bending more pins.

I'm also hesitant to try repairing it again myself as my hands my not the most steady.

Its a hard surgery sometiems those pins are a weird shape so sometime you can only tweak them around abit. I purposfully removed a few power/gnd pins i coudltn comfertable bend back to functional.

I think oems like to quote $100 for a socket replacement so maybe try to pursue that route if anyone know as place to do so.

 

[Furious_Styles]

See if you can find the pinout for the socket. That was helpful for me when I had a dozen or so pins to fix on a old sr-x board. Alot of pins are redundant power or ground pins

As far as I know Intel stopped releasing the pin diagrams after lga 1151.

 

[cdabc123]

As far as I know Intel stopped releasing the pin diagrams after lga 1151.

Thats unfortunate it was super helpful too me in the past

 

[Furious_Styles]

Thats unfortunate it was super helpful too me in the past

Tell me about it, makes 1200 and 1700 boards a lot harder for me, I don't want to nuke my CPU when testing but I have no choice really.

 

[funkydmunky]

A steady hand and a needle should set things straight.

Philip Seymour Hoffman says no​

 

[legcramp]

Confirmed FRZ works at newegg's RMA department.

 

[StoleMyOwnCar]

Wait, so hold on. Let me get this straight. The pins were probably bent initially. Then you tried fixing them and EVGA told you to pound sand because of it? Wtf did you even tell them when you called? There's no way for you or them to know who messed the thing up.

If I were you I would be crapping all over their reputation at any outlet possible. And maybe considering legal action, since it costs $900. The board was quite possibly screwed up from the outset, and they can't prove that it wasn't. For the amount of money spent, this is really garbage response.

 

[FRZ]

Wait, so hold on. Let me get this straight. The pins were probably bent initially. Then you tried fixing them and EVGA told you to pound sand because of it? Wtf did you even tell them when you called? There's no way for you or them to know who messed the thing up.

If I were you I would be crapping all over their reputation at any outlet possible. And maybe considering legal action, since it costs $900. The board was quite possibly screwed up from the outset, and they can't prove that it wasn't. For the amount of money spent, this is really garbage response.

I installed the first board and it wasn't working. Taking it back out I noticed the pins were bent. Unfortunately at that point I can't say if I had bent them when I first installed it, or it came that way from EVGA (which I doubt)

I have gone ahead and filed an insurance claim with my credit card company (fingers crossed) so Ill hopefully get my money back.

 

[cdabc123]

Oems will normally (almost always) blame the customer for bent pins and opt not to repair.

It can and has been used as a reason to not repair even if the customer sent in the board for other reasons. (With no bent pins, allegedly)

 

[legcramp]

Wait, so hold on. Let me get this straight. The pins were probably bent initially. Then you tried fixing them and EVGA told you to pound sand because of it? Wtf did you even tell them when you called? There's no way for you or them to know who messed the thing up.

If I were you I would be crapping all over their reputation at any outlet possible. And maybe considering legal action, since it costs $900. The board was quite possibly screwed up from the outset, and they can't prove that it wasn't. For the amount of money spent, this is really garbage response.

EVGA tried to blame me for a factory installed waterblock on a 3090 that was leaking internally. They tried saying it was my fault before it sent it back because I probably opened it up... then I told them the factory seal sticker was still intact and they agreed to replace it lol.

 

[Burticus]

And this is why I hate these types of sockets. Sadly AMD is even going that direction with AM5.

I have had replacement RMA motherboards sent to me at work that were bent right out of the box. So it's totally possible they were like that when OP got it.

 

[Susquehannock]

Plastic dental pick and mechanical pencil are my go to for tweaking bent pins. If I can do it, anyone can.

 

[StoleMyOwnCar]

I installed the first board and it wasn't working. Taking it back out I noticed the pins were bent. Unfortunately at that point I can't say if I had bent them when I first installed it, or it came that way from EVGA (which I doubt)

I have gone ahead and filed an insurance claim with my credit card company (fingers crossed) so Ill hopefully get my money back.

Uh no... it could very well have been defective from the factory. You don't just go and assume you broke it. I legitimately think I've never bent any pins during installation, both on motherboard and on CPU. Hell this latest AM4 build, I rebuilt it 4-5 times at this point, and clearly it still works. Neither side can prove they did it so your only fault is that you should have investigated it carefully when you got it. Unless they can prove it wasn't defective when you opened it, you need to press them for an RMA. Hard. You don't let $900 just go with a "well I can't prove I did it but I must have". If I spent that much, I'd be considering a lawsuit.

 

[FRZ]

Uh no... it could very well have been defective from the factory. You don't just go and assume you broke it. I legitimately think I've never bent any pins during installation, both on motherboard and on CPU. Hell this latest AM4 build, I rebuilt it 4-5 times at this point, and clearly it still works. Neither side can prove they did it so your only fault is that you should have investigated it carefully when you got it. Unless they can prove it wasn't defective when you opened it, you need to press them for an RMA. Hard. You don't let $900 just go with a "well I can't prove I did it but I must have". If I spent that much, I'd be considering a lawsuit.

Yes, I definetely should have inspected the pins before installing it. Lesson learned.

At this point its my word against EVGAs and they don't have to do anything about it.

As I mentioned, I thankfully did use a credit card with accidental protection so I should be reimbursed in the end.

 

[chameleoneel]

When you first got the board, did you pop the plastic socket cover off with your hand?----or did you install the CPU and let the force of the ILM clamp automatically pop it off?

 

[FRZ]

When you first got the board, did you pop the plastic socket cover off with your hand?----or did you install the CPU and let the force of the ILM clamp automatically pop it off?

I popped it off with my hand while the latch was open.

 

[chameleoneel]

I popped it off with my hand while the latch was open.

Ah, that could have been the moment of damage. Sometimes those pop off unpredictably and they fall into the pins. You're supposed to put the CPU into the socket and let the action of closing the clamp, pop the cover off.

 

[D-EJ915]

Ah, that could have been the moment of damage. Sometimes those pop off unpredictably and they fall into the pins. You're supposed to put the CPU into the socket and let the action of closing the clamp, pop the cover off.

If they had the latch open they pop off away from the socket unless you somehow managed to fit it back through the hole in the ilm plate.

 

[CruisD64]

Philip Seymour Hoffman says no​

Oof. Ouch.

 

[LFaWolf]

Uh no... it could very well have been defective from the factory. You don't just go and assume you broke it. I legitimately think I've never bent any pins during installation, both on motherboard and on CPU. Hell this latest AM4 build, I rebuilt it 4-5 times at this point, and clearly it still works. Neither side can prove they did it so your only fault is that you should have investigated it carefully when you got it. Unless they can prove it wasn't defective when you opened it, you need to press them for an RMA. Hard. You don't let $900 just go with a "well I can't prove I did it but I must have". If I spent that much, I'd be considering a lawsuit.

Uh, no. The OP messed with the socket and further damaged it. So whether the board came with bent pins is a moot point now. So either inspect the board and socket when you first get it or find someone who is capable of fixing it to repair it (no offense, OP). I do recommend Furious_Styles here, he repaired a bent AM4 CPU for me. Good luck!

 

[FRZ]

Uh, no. The OP messed with the socket and further damaged it. So whether the board came with bent pins is a moot point now. So either inspect the board and socket when you first get it or find someone who is capable of fixing it to repair it (no offense, OP). I do recommend Furious_Styles here, he repaired a bent AM4 CPU for me. Good luck!

Definetely learned my lesson. I'm going to send the board to Furious_Styles. Hopefully we can get it back up and running

 

[StoleMyOwnCar]

Uh, no. The OP messed with the socket and further damaged it. So whether the board came with bent pins is a moot point now. So either inspect the board and socket when you first get it or find someone who is capable of fixing it to repair it (no offense, OP). I do recommend Furious_Styles here, he repaired a bent AM4 CPU for me. Good luck!

Uh no. That's a load of shit. The socket is literally broken from the getgo. There is no "making it worse" as valid justification for them not taking it back. It could only be justification if it actually exacerbated the issue by much and they intended to actually do board level repairs (ie he scraped traces trying to solder something that he knocked off), but in this case it's a moot point. Bent pins are just bent pins. The before and after are hardly any different, and the company can't even prove that they are.

 

[cdabc123]

Uh no. That's a load of shit. The socket is literally broken from the getgo. There is no "making it worse" as valid justification for them not taking it back. It could only be justification if it actually exacerbated the issue by much and they intended to actually do board level repairs (ie he scraped traces trying to solder something that he knocked off), but in this case it's a moot point. Bent pins are just bent pins. The before and after are hardly any different, and the company can't even prove that they are.

Companies typically blame customers for bent pins regardless of if they caused the damage at all.

 

[StoleMyOwnCar]

Companies typically blame customers for bent pins regardless of if they caused the damage at all.

Well, that's pretty annoying. Looking back at it, I've never messed up any pins on either my intel or AMD builds, regardless of how I popped that plastic cover off. I would even venture to say that to actually have caused the issue, you would have to be trying. So just assuming the consumer is always at fault tells me that you should always buy your motherboard at a physical location if you can help it... Microcenter would have dealt with this with no questions asked.

Frankly this post greatly ruins my opinion of EVGA as a whole, especially lately. The opinions I hold are not usually strong on most issues, but in this case I am actually legitimately pissed off on the OP's behalf. OP can't prove he messed it up and neither can they. And no, bending a few more pins a few more degrees in the process of trying to correct is not bounds for saying "welp you must have caused the issue". So if their policies were anything consumer friendly, they would just quietly take it and repair it and everyone is happy, and they eat the probably trivial loss by repairing the pins themselves and selling it for a markdown. Instead they just fuck him over. I know now that I'm never going to buy an EVGA motherboard. What the fuck is the point of spending such a large premium when they can't even offer a consumer friendly RMA process on it? If I wanted to potentially eat losses like that, I could at most spend 1/3rd the price, assuming every manufacturer is doing it.

 

[Furious_Styles]

Well, that's pretty annoying. Looking back at it, I've never messed up any pins on either my intel or AMD builds, regardless of how I popped that plastic cover off. I would even venture to say that to actually have caused the issue, you would have to be trying. So just assuming the consumer is always at fault tells me that you should always buy your motherboard at a physical location if you can help it... Microcenter would have dealt with this with no questions asked.

Frankly this post greatly ruins my opinion of EVGA as a whole, especially lately. The opinions I hold are not usually strong on most issues, but in this case I am actually legitimately pissed off on the OP's behalf. OP can't prove he messed it up and neither can they. And no, bending a few more pins a few more degrees in the process of trying to correct is not bounds for saying "welp you must have caused the issue". So if their policies were anything consumer friendly, they would just quietly take it and repair it and everyone is happy, and they eat the probably trivial loss by repairing the pins themselves and selling it for a markdown. Instead they just fuck him over. I know now that I'm never going to buy an EVGA motherboard. What the fuck is the point of spending such a large premium when they can't even offer a consumer friendly RMA process on it? If I wanted to potentially eat losses like that, I could at most spend 1/3rd the price, assuming every manufacturer is doing it.

Sorry to tell you but I've been doing this for years and people who have no business building PCs damage the pins A LOT. Dropping the CPU in the socket, touching the socket with their finger, trying to clean the socket with q-tips, etc, etc. It is extremely easy to bend the pins so this should be of no surprise.

 

[LFaWolf]

Uh no. That's a load of shit. The socket is literally broken from the getgo. There is no "making it worse" as valid justification for them not taking it back. It could only be justification if it actually exacerbated the issue by much and they intended to actually do board level repairs (ie he scraped traces trying to solder something that he knocked off), but in this case it's a moot point. Bent pins are just bent pins. The before and after are hardly any different, and the company can't even prove that they are.

No, the OP admitted to messing with the socket and bending additional pins. What part of that don't you understand? You shouldn't blame the company for your own mistakes. The initial bent pins possibly could have happened with the removal of the CPO cover. Read the posts above.

I have bought over 50+ new motherboards, and none had come with bent pins. DOA? Yes, but no bent pins.

 

[StoleMyOwnCar]

No, the OP admitted to messing with the socket and bending additional pins. What part of that don't you understand? You shouldn't blame the company for your own mistakes. The initial bent pins possibly could have happened with the removal of the CPO cover. Read the posts above.

I have bought over 50+ new motherboards, and none had come with bent pins. DOA? Yes, but no bent pins.

"Bending additional pins" doesn't make you responsible for the initial pins being possibly bent. What part of that did YOU not understand? Like this would literally not change anything from the perspective of either the repair or who is at fault, it's a minor detail at best, and one they can not prove. The company possibly made the mistake here, and the OP just assumed that he bent them. If this company was consumer friendly, and the consumer had no record of doing this stuff before, they would replace it. End of story.

Also you and your 50 boards don't really mean much in the grand scheme of things.

Sorry to tell you but I've been doing this for years and people who have no business building PCs damage the pins A LOT. Dropping the CPU in the socket, touching the socket with their finger, trying to clean the socket with q-tips, etc, etc. It is extremely easy to bend the pins so this should be of no surprise.

But is that the likely case, here? If I've had a 100% success rate with never bending pins before, would I just assume that it was my fault this one time automatically? I would understand if it was a fledgling builder but I've built full intel builds MicroATX and smaller while watching TV and commenting on it to a friend. Statistically I would say that if I haven't done it before, and I've not done anything special this time, I probably didn't do it this time.

 

[LFaWolf]

"Bending additional pins" doesn't make you responsible for the initial pins being possibly bent. What part of that did YOU not understand? Like this would literally not change anything from the perspective of either the repair or who is at fault, it's a minor detail at best, and one they can not prove. The company possibly made the mistake here, and the OP just assumed that he bent them. If this company was consumer friendly, and the consumer had no record of doing this stuff before, they would replace it. End of story.

Also you and your 50 boards don't really mean much in the grand scheme of things.

So, there is a "possibility" that OP bent the pins himself, you said it yourself, right? OP's mistake includes not checking the socket for a $900 motherboard. How does the company know whose mistake it was? And why does the company care if OP has done it before? Anyone can make mistake in dropping in the CPU, even a seasoned DIYer.

You want them to eat a $900 mistake? Please, they are in it to make money. Get out of your utopia world.

Also, your sample size of just you not making the same mistake is also very small, in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Furious_Styles]

So, there is a "possibility" that OP bent the pins himself, you said it yourself, right? OP's mistake includes not checking the socket for a $900 motherboard. How does the company know whose mistake it was? And why does the company care if OP has done it before? Anyone can make mistake in dropping in the CPU, even a seasoned DIYer.

You want them to eat a $900 mistake? Please, they are in it to make money. Get out of your utopia world.

Also, your sample size of just you not making the same mistake is also very small, in the grand scheme of things.

I'll be the first to admit I've done it accidentally. It can be hard on especially older CPUs (2nd,3rd,4th gen) where you have a very small area to grip the cpu. I've since changed my method to flipping the board over so it's impossible to bend any pins. However if you already have it installed in a case you can't use that method.

 

[StoleMyOwnCar]

So, there is a "possibility" that OP bent the pins himself, you said it yourself, right? OP's mistake includes not checking the socket for a $900 motherboard. How does the company know whose mistake it was? And why does the company care if OP has done it before? Anyone can make mistake in dropping in the CPU, even a seasoned DIYer.

You want them to eat a $900 mistake? Please, they are in it to make money. Get out of your utopia world.

Also, your sample size of just you not making the same mistake is also very small, in the grand scheme of things.

There's a possibility that either of them bent the pins. That's the simple fact of the matter. When you're getting a new product, do you sit there and check it with a fine tooth comb, or assume based on the reputation of the company that it works? You said it yourself, your pins have generally never come out of the box bent. Neither have mine. I've also had cancer that's extremely unlikely to happen to my demographic, and is basically probably on the level of getting struck by lightning, statistically. So shit happens, whether either of us have had it happen or not. That's why your 50 whatever boards are utterly inconsequential.

The fact is if they were consumer friendly they would eat the cost of a minor repair instead of saying "welp it HAS to be your fault, fuck you". That's what Microcenter does. Sometimes so does Amazon. Yeah, I know. People are deceptive. People lie to get free things. So do companies. I don't think EVGA gets a pass just because we're being cynical.

Speaking of "fuck you", this debate isn't going to be reconciled at any point. I don't agree with you and will never agree with you on this case because I'm generally on the side of the consumer. You're not. So this is just going to turn into "fuck you," "no fuck you".

 

[LFaWolf]

There's a possibility that either of them bent the pins. That's the simple fact of the matter. When you're getting a new product, do you sit there and check it with a fine tooth comb, or assume based on the reputation of the company that it works? You said it yourself, your pins have generally never come out of the box bent. Neither have mine. I've also had cancer that's extremely unlikely to happen to my demographic, and is basically probably on the level of getting struck by lightning, statistically. So shit happens, whether either of us have had it happen or not. That's why your 50 whatever boards are utterly inconsequential.

The fact is if they were consumer friendly they would eat the cost of a minor repair instead of saying "welp it HAS to be your fault, fuck you". That's what Microcenter does. Sometimes so does Amazon.

Speaking of "fuck you", this debate isn't going to be reconciled at any point. I don't agree with you and will never agree with you on this case because I'm generally on the side of the consumer. You're not. So this is just going to turn into "fuck you," "no fuck you".

I am a consumer myself, and I buy motherboards, why would I not be on the consumer's side? Ridiculous assessment. You know nothing about me.

However, customers are not always right. And in this case, the customer is not right. End of story.

P.S. Also, a civil discussion does not need to end up in "fuck you."

 

[StoleMyOwnCar]

I am a consumer myself, and I buy motherboards, why would I not be on the consumer's side? Ridiculous assessment. You know nothing about me.

However, customers are not always right. And in this case, the customer is not right. End of story.

I disagree. Hence, fuck you. Blocked.

 

[LFaWolf]

I disagree. Hence, fuck you. Blocked.

Yeah, sorry, the reality is quite harsh for people cuddled for too long by their parents that think they are always right.