Bent pins.. have I fixed it?

[elkstep]

Hi guys,

A friend gave me a mobo (Asus Maximus V Extreme) with a couple of bent pins, and a CPU... I watched a few videos, had a go at straightening them out, then slapped the CPU in it, added some RAM and a HD, attached a PSU and had a go at booting it... got as far as the BIOS screen (American Megatrends etc) then shut it down so as not to burn out the CPU with no heatsink.

My question is: does this mean it's working, and safe to use, or is it still likely the bent pins could cause problems down the line?

In other words, I'm kind of assuming the thing wouldn't start at all if the CPU was not making contact as required, so as it's booting up to BIOS successfully, I've fixed the issue - is this correct?

Thanks in advance for your advice!

[DDY]

I think at this stage I would be more concerned over the uncertainty of the repair than the possible future risks, for booting up to the BIOS alone would not convince me that the CPU is well connected.

If you're confident with your repair work, the next step is to boot up with all the RAM slots populated and run a CPU and memory stress test - with the CPU heatsink installed of course!

Once that passes, check the bottom of the CPU and the socket for signs of overheating, e.g. burn marks or discolouration of the metal contacts.

Put everything back together, fit a GPU this time and stress test both the CPU and GPU for a good few hours and inspect the CPU and socket again.

If that all works out, I'd be confident that the repair was a success.

EDIT: Damage caused by poor pin-LGA contact has been known to occur;

http://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#...GA+socket+burn

[listy]

i certainly would not be running CPU with out a cooler @ at all......

[peterb]

Most of the pins are either power or ground, so statistically, the chances are that one of those was bent.

So, provided they are not shorting against anything else, and the system boots, then you should be OK, even if the bent pins aren't making contact. If they are control pins (that is control, interrupt, data or address) and they weren't making contact, then it is unlikely that the system would boot at all, so you are probably OK.

Whether you will hit problems later is impossible to predict with any certainty.

BTW, running a CPU without any heat sink at all is very risky. The thermal capacity of the bare device is very low, and they are consuming a lot of power, which is ultimately heat. If the chip does overheat, it will probably shut itself down, but there is a risk of long term damage.

[elkstep]

OK thanks guys - I've put it all together properly and it seems to be perfectly stable, but I haven't done any sort of stress testing yet, so will try that tonight!

Yeah, in hindsight running the CPU without a cooler probably wasn't a very bright idea - it was on for all of about 3 seconds though, and doesn't seem to have done any damage!

[scaryjim]

... in hindsight running the CPU without a cooler probably wasn't a very bright idea - it was on for all of about 3 seconds though, and doesn't seem to have done any damage!

Modern CPUs are very good at protecting themselves against thermal shock from inadequate heating, but even a very short burst of unexpected heat could seriously damage a CPU (which is, after all, just a very thin piece of silicon). I once fired up a Duron CPU after checking its details and finding that the max TDP was < 10W: that's not much power, thought I, I'm sure it can cope for a few seconds just so I can boot into BIOS and check it's working. So I threw the power switch, and was greeted by a sharp crack and a distinctly burny smell. Thankfully it was part of a batch of 10+ CPUs I'd only paid a few quid for, so no great financial loss, but it taught be to never make assumptions

[Bonebreaker777]

Back in those days I done thing similar to Jim,but I always had my paperweight Titan CPU cooler at hand to just simply press it on manually. Don't miss that cooler - at 500g I was always afraid that it will rip off the motherboard.

Edit: if it booted to the BIOS,slap a cooler on, install the bare amount of necessary components and test the living daylight out of it.

[DDY]

Back in those days I done thing similar to Jim,but I always had my paperweight Titan CPU cooler at hand to just simply press it on manually. Don't miss that cooler - at 500g I was always afraid that it will rip off the motherboard.

Edit: if it booted to the BIOS,slap a cooler on, install the bare amount of necessary components and test the living daylight out of it.

I would suggest more than the bare minimum to test as many of the CPU's pin connections as possible, that is fully populating the DIMM slots and installing a PCIe graphics card; considering that each DIMM slot has its own set of connections to the CPU as well as each PCIe lane.

[Bonebreaker777]

I would suggest more than the bare minimum to test as many of the CPU's pin connections as possible, that is fully populating the DIMM slots and installing a PCIe graphics card; considering that each DIMM slot has its own set of connections to the CPU as well as each PCIe lane.

That's probably a better suggestion