This Was A MASSIVE Mistake - I Broke A $1000 Motherboard

erek

[H]F Junkie
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Dec 19, 2005
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Sad :( Big mistake!

"Slippery fingers always have consequences around PC components and this time it was BAD. A dropped Threadripper processor hit the socket on a $1000 (Canadian) motherboard and bent a bunch of pins. Normally that would be Game Over but instead, let's try to fix the socket with bent pins. :)"

 
This makes me not want to click the play button:
1585516993483.png


But I did, and skipped to the part where he unbent them, and then to the end...

He got it to work, and has a lot of patience.
 
I said this back on the day when I broke a Threadripper socket. Very hard to come back from. Those pins are like angel hair and packed in there in tremendous density. Don't ever even touch those.
 
I said this back on the day when I broke a Threadripper socket. Very hard to come back from. Those pins are like angel hair and packed in there in tremendous density. Don't ever even touch those.

Yikes! Do you have it framed and hanging on your wall?
 
Am I the only one who thinks he staged the whole drama as click bate ?

Wouldn't be surprising, a potential $1000 lost is likely a small amount relative to the total production cost of a video like this.
 
I said this back on the day when I broke a Threadripper socket. Very hard to come back from. Those pins are like angel hair and packed in there in tremendous density. Don't ever even touch those.
i remembered all the videos you made how to do it correctly...but i must have forgot you damaged one as well.
 
Because it was easier to RMA the board, so we could keep doing content, instead of content on why we could not do content. Lol

What board was it? I take it it wasn't an ASUS motherboard. I tried to RMA an ASUS x99 board with bent socket pins and they wouldn't give me any idea of what they would charge me to replace the socket over the phone. They said they would have to look at the board first.

Then when they got the board, they quoted my over $800 to repair the board. A brand new same model board was about $650 at the time. I said no-way and then they dropped their quote to around $350 "as a one time favor"... I told them that was still way too much but they wouldn't budge. So I had them send me the board back. Wasted about $25 for shipping and a bunch of my time because of the scum that ASUS' USA 3rd party RMA support is.

This was around the same time that I was seeing reports of other brands replacing sockets with bent pins for around $100.
 
What board was it? I take it it wasn't an ASUS motherboard. I tried to RMA an ASUS x99 board with bent socket pins and they wouldn't give me any idea of what they would charge me to replace the socket over the phone. They said they would have to look at the board first.

Then when they got the board, they quoted my over $800 to repair the board. A brand new same model board was about $650 at the time. I said no-way and then they dropped their quote to around $350 "as a one time favor"... I told them that was still way too much but they wouldn't budge. So I had them send me the board back. Wasted about $25 for shipping and a bunch of my time because of the scum that ASUS' USA 3rd party RMA support is.

This was around the same time that I was seeing reports of other brands replacing sockets with bent pins for around $100.
MSI X399 Creation board. I actually had 3 or 4 of those boards that we used for testing. It worked really well, was good and tough.

Here is the build we did with it.

 
So not clicking on another one if these click bait videos. But how does bent CPU pins translate to a destroyed motherboard?
 
So not clicking on another one if these click bait videos. But how does bent CPU pins translate to a destroyed motherboard?
Threadripper socket, if you have not seen one, is not close to anything like you have seen before. You are talking about 4,094 pins in that area. "Delicate" does not even begin to describe the pins. I have suggested for years now.....NEVER touch those...ever. The fact that Mike, and I know Mike, was able to get those oriented correctly, is crazy job. Would not wish it on my enemy.
 
Threadripper socket, if you have not seen one, is not close to anything like you have seen before. You are talking about 4,094 pins in that area. "Delicate" does not even begin to describe the pins. I have suggested for years now.....NEVER touch those...ever. The fact that Mike, and I know Mike, was able to get those oriented correctly, is crazy job. Would not wish it on my enemy.
Ah I see, the Threadripper socket is like the Intel boards in that the pins are on the socket not on the CPU. I'm sure that's a better design, but man I hate that setup... I say this as someone who's first experience with "what's this" ended up with bent "pins".. they're really not pins either.
 
Speaking of hardware going bad. I just got a new system built for my parents and when I booted it up, I get the post code for a bad CPU. I think it is a DOA CPU (no bent pins on the CPU). Back to Microcentewr tomorrow to troubleshoot (I don't have another motherboard or CPU wuth the right socket to test. I reseated it and still no go.)
 
When I was swapping out my old Ryzen 1800X for a 3700X, the HSF ripped the CPU out the socket.

I was scared at first, but luckily there was no damage.
 
When I was swapping out my old Ryzen 1800X for a 3700X, the HSF ripped the CPU out the socket.

I was scared at first, but luckily there was no damage.
Same thing happened on me last time lol:eek: (doing yearly maintenance/cleaning) Like to had a heart attack when it happened....Im using a Graphite pad so that never happens again and im actually pleased with temps. Apparently that lever does very little to hold the cpu on the socket, cause i barley lifted up when it pulled out.
 
LOL. I'll probably go graphite pad as well on my next build. Seems like a win-win situation.
 
Same thing happened on me last time lol:eek: (doing yearly maintenance/cleaning) Like to had a heart attack when it happened....Im using a Graphite pad so that never happens again and im actually pleased with temps. Apparently that lever does very little to hold the cpu on the socket, cause i barley lifted up when it pulled out.

I had this happen to me one time at a LANwar LAN party a long time ago. The Thermaltake fan went out on my A64 3000+, and one of the sponsors was Zalman(iirc) so they hooked me up. Sadly, when I was trying to get the HSF off, the CPU came with it and I dropped the whole thing. Was nearly completely flattened.
 
Wasn’t $1000 but I did it with my Asus Apex IX board, made it worse by trying to fix it. Amazing rma experience tbh, rma’d expecting to pay for the fix, they just sorted it (assume reflow) and sent it back.

Was not expecting it, as it was my own stupidity. If I did the same with the Zenith II Extreme I’m about to buy I’d probably legitimately cry.
 
Ah I see, the Threadripper socket is like the Intel boards in that the pins are on the socket not on the CPU. I'm sure that's a better design, but man I hate that setup... I say this as someone who's first experience with "what's this" ended up with bent "pins".. they're really not pins either.
it looks like pins on both the cpu and board to me...if you drop the cpu on hard surface it looked like pins (or what ever is there) would bend to me..it is certainly nothing like my older 1366 cpu that had an indestructible surface on both sides.....the bottom of the new ryzens seem fragile as hell to me
 
it looks like pins on both the cpu and board to me...if you drop the cpu on hard surface it looked like pins (or what ever is there) would bend to me..it is certainly nothing like my older 1366 cpu that had an indestructible surface on both sides.....the bottom of the new ryzens seem fragile as hell to me

There are no pins on a Threadripper cpu.
1585572651176.png
 
There are no pins on a Threadripper cpu.
View attachment 234006
got ya thanks....thats why i was confused...tks...so pins on the ryzen and none on threadripper bottoms? dont know why i figured they be same:geek: So are we saying that the socket itself on ryzen boards cant be damaged asside from spilling conductive past in it?
 
got ya thanks....thats why i was confused...tks...so pins on the ryzen and none on threadripper bottoms? dont know why i figured they be same:geek: So are we saying that the socket itself on ryzen boards cant be damaged asside from spilling conductive past in it?

well.. maybe not can't but certainly less prone to damage without resorting to caveman tactics.
 
Speaking of hardware going bad. I just got a new system built for my parents and when I booted it up, I get the post code for a bad CPU. I think it is a DOA CPU (no bent pins on the CPU). Back to Microcentewr tomorrow to troubleshoot (I don't have another motherboard or CPU wuth the right socket to test. I reseated it and still no go.)

You didn't do something like drop a Zen 2 chip in an older motherboard with an outdated BIOS, did you? (If so, you'd probably still need to go to Microcenter to get the BIOS updated unless you had a spare older CPU around anyway.)
 
Twist then pull the heatsink.

Yep. That's horrifying the first time it happens. I've heard advice to run the computer a bit to warm the CPU up, and then shut it down and remove the HSF right away. Don't know if that would help or not.
 
got ya thanks....thats why i was confused...tks...so pins on the ryzen and none on threadripper bottoms? dont know why i figured they be same:geek: So are we saying that the socket itself on ryzen boards cant be damaged asside from spilling conductive past in it?

You can damage an AM4 or any ZIF socket. It's harder than damaging LGA type sockets but it can and has been done. Typically what I've seen is people breaking the socket arm. It was more common in cases where this was actually made of plastic rather than metal. Surface mount components in the socket are also easily damaged. I've even seen a socket completely fall apart one time. I'm not sure how that happened. When I was a technician at a service center I saw all kinds of things ranging from broken CD trays to paper clips covered in ear wax lodged in a printer. I even saw a bullet hole in a server once.
 
You didn't do something like drop a Zen 2 chip in an older motherboard with an outdated BIOS, did you? (If so, you'd probably still need to go to Microcenter to get the BIOS updated unless you had a spare older CPU around anyway.)
Nope. It is a 2600X and the motherboard lists that all BIOS reversions work with it.
 
I said this back on the day when I broke a Threadripper socket. Very hard to come back from. Those pins are like angel hair and packed in there in tremendous density. Don't ever even touch those.

n00b!

Back in the AMD duron days (the bare silicon cpu's) a friend of mine put metallic thermal compound ALL OVER the top of the cpu, it had little resistors on top. So of course it created a short circuit and the thing wouldn't power on. He was shitting himself that he had probably fried it (he was like 18 and working at Staples, bought with his own money so a big investment for him). I was laughing but said "the power supply short circuit detection did what it was supposed to do, we can fix this". After some cleanup with alcohol and a bunch of qtips, it booted ok :)
 
n00b!

Back in the AMD duron days (the bare silicon cpu's) a friend of mine put metallic thermal compound ALL OVER the top of the cpu, it had little resistors on top. So of course it created a short circuit and the thing wouldn't power on. He was shitting himself that he had probably fried it (he was like 18 and working at Staples, bought with his own money so a big investment for him). I was laughing but said "the power supply short circuit detection did what it was supposed to do, we can fix this". After some cleanup with alcohol and a bunch of qtips, it booted ok :)
Threadripper, not Thunderbird...
 
To save a $1K piece of hardware, I'd have patience.

I was nervous as hell installing my Threadripper and took my sweet ass time. I have seen those tiny little pins, and I feel fairly certain that I do not have the fine motor skills necessary to fix one if bent.
 
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