Oops, pin bends

[eggrock]

MSI P67A GD65, ready for a 2500k except for an inadvertent cloth drag across the pins, resulting in some visible damage (upper right of photo), plus a few pins that aren't visible from this shot that are extended higher than the rest of the pin set.

I used some embroidery needles from my (RIP) mother-in-law to bend the pins back to a perfect x/y/z orientation--think I'll be okay?

 

[Magnus]

More than likely, they'll be fine.

 

[Skripka]

try booting.

 

[eggrock]

try booting.

LOL - shall I drool on the mobo?

I'm wondering if pins on a mobo can be bent back safely. Common sense would say yes, the copper pins are flexible enough to accommodate (with luck) some minor abuse. I've never been in this position before and would like some anecdotes before flooding a 32nm piece of moolah with voltage.

 

[Skripka]

LOL - shall I drool on the mobo?

I'm wondering if pins on a mobo can be bent back safely. Common sense would say yes, the copper pins are flexible enough to accommodate (with luck) some minor abuse. I've never been in this position before and would like some anecdotes before flooding a 32nm piece of moolah with voltage.

Every case is different. There's no telling for certain short of booting. Bent pins in LGA can sometimes do wonky things to current...OTOH, I've bent pins back fine on PGA AMD cpus.

 

[Magnus]

CPU's are tougher than most people think. Although, I do kinda wonder what amount of force a piece of cloth has to exert to bend the pins.

I've straightened pins on old CPUs that were given up for dead with a mechanical pencil and they were good to go. If there's a broken trace, trying to boot won't do any further damage or hurt the other hardware.

 

[eggrock]

CPU's are tougher than most people think. Although, I do kinda wonder what amount of force a piece of cloth has to exert to bend the pins.

I've straightened pins on old CPUs that were given up for dead with a mechanical pencil and they were good to go. If there's a broken trace, trying to boot won't do any further damage or hurt the other hardware.

A draping sleeve on a t-shirt exerts enough force to bend the two obvious pins in the pic and pull out two more. I feel pretty lucky considering the carelessness I gave this board. It was a relatively minor move on my part; major from the perspective of the mobo.

 

[Magnus]

A draping sleeve on a t-shirt exerts enough force to bend the two obvious pins in the pic and pull out two more. I feel pretty lucky considering the carelessness I gave this board.

Pretty sure it was the arm inside the sleeve.
Note to self: Only wear short sleeves when abusing MB's.

 

[EvilPokemon]

In the same boat today. Though it's a used MB I just bought, rather than one I damaged myself.
I used an empty mechanical pencil to straighten them out, then used a credit card to line them up. Still not %100 perfect. I can see a slight variance and my motherboard just endlessly cycles when plugged in.
I am not pleased -_-

Hopefully you have better luck than I did.

 

[PaperclipGod]

I'm so confused. Where are these pins on a mobo?

 

[silent-circuit]

I'm so confused. Where are these pins on a mobo?

Intel LGA (EDIT: land grid array, apparently) sockets in use since the Core 2 series have the pins in the socket and "pads" on the chip, as opposed to earlier Intel sockets and current AMD sockets like AM2/AM3/AM3+ which have pins on the chip and holes on the board in the socket.

Good luck OP, depending on the pins damaged you may be okay but you could easily end up in the same situation as EvilPokemon above. LGA pins are a huge pain in the ass to get "right" again. The board may very well be dead. The only good news here is, most motherboard manufacturers will install a new socket on a board with damaged pins for about $25 + shipping to them. Physical damage isn't covered under warranty.

 

[DeathPrincess]

Use mechanical pencils (without the graphite in them).

 

[extide]

LGA = Land Grid Array

You can't use a mechanical pencil to fix LGA pins as they arent the same as the pins on the bottom of a PGA cpu.

Also, LGA existed in the later gen P4 days, with the intro of LGA 775.

Core 1 only existed in mobile and thus never used LGA.


Good luck, those pins are very hard to fix!

 

[Ieat]

CPU's are tougher than most people think. Although, I do kinda wonder what amount of force a piece of cloth has to exert to bend the pins.

It takes almost none. I was cleaning the socket area with a tissue and didn't even notice a pin got caught and yanked out of alignment until I checked later. These pins can take a lot of downward force but seem ridiculously fragile when any pressure is applied sideways.

 

[Melon]

It takes almost none. I was cleaning the socket area with a tissue and didn't even notice a pin got caught and yanked out of alignment until I checked later. These pins can take a lot of downward force but seem ridiculously fragile when any pressure is applied sideways.

Compressed air is your friend.

 

[extide]

It takes almost none. I was cleaning the socket area with a tissue and didn't even notice a pin got caught and yanked out of alignment until I checked later. These pins can take a lot of downward force but seem ridiculously fragile when any pressure is applied sideways.

That's why they have those little covers that ship with the boards!

 

[Ieat]

Compressed air is your friend.

I do have compressed air but this was thermal compound the previous owner left all over the socket area.

 

[Ieat]

That's why they have those little covers that ship with the boards!

Yeah, the newer sockets like 1366, 1156 and 1155 have socket covers that fit right into the socket. But this was a 775 board. The little plastic cover would need to removed anyway to clean the socket retention lid anyway.

 

[eggrock]

Hopefully you have better luck than I did.

Good luck OP, depending on the pins damaged you may be okay but you could easily end up in the same situation as EvilPokemon above.

Good luck, those pins are very hard to fix!

Thanks, it works just fine and I'm using it now. The hardest part was getting enough light and magnification to see what I was doing. I wound up using a 3" magnifying glass that has a little booster area on it, and an embroidery needle to do the bending. Everything looked perfect to the naked eye once I was done--it is easiest to see breaks in the pattern without magnification. Turns out all those little pins have beads of what looks like gold at the end, or if not gold, something brighter than the copper legs.

I wonder if a jeweler's ocular with a light on it would be good for this, but I don't plan on fucking with any more motherboards in the future.

It takes almost none. I was cleaning the socket area with a tissue and didn't even notice a pin got caught and yanked out of alignment until I checked later. These pins can take a lot of downward force but seem ridiculously fragile when any pressure is applied sideways.

I almost didn't notice it because it felt like a minor snag, but I gave the socket a last look before putting the CPU in and started wondering about the gaps I saw. Googled up some pics and--got nervous.