Bent Motherboard CPU Socket Pins

[elison]

ASUS Maximus-IV Extreme-Z Motherboard (1155)
i7 2600k

So yesterday, as I was putting together my new build, my dumbass accidentally bends the shit out of about 5 pins on the socket of my motherboard. After I got done raging, I went back and tried to bend them back into place. Out of all the pins that were bent, I can honestly say only one of them had me worried as it looked like it was crossing over and touching another pin.

Anyways, I did my best to get them back into position and after about 10 cigarettes and debating whether or not I wanted to boot it up, I gave in and to my surprise it booted up fine. I was able to access everything in the BIOS without any errors, the debug LED came up with an AA code, which from what I understand after researching a bit, is normal operation. Installed windows, drivers, yadda yadda and it's running fine.

Should I be worried at all about this computer? I don't want to fry my CPU or motherboard, as I'd be down in the hole around $650. I was originally planning on overclocking it after buying a XSPC water cooling kit, so obviously it won't be running stock at all.

Worse comes to worse, I'll just go buy another MB within the next month but the charm of a new build and all, I'm sure you all understand.

[Sonomaa]

as long as the pins didnt break off you should be fine. if they were all straight and pointed the right way, it shouldnt have a problem. if you start getting random failures when doing specific things assume there might be damage. to be 100% safe you could buy the same board again but you should be ok. we used to get customers who bent the shit out of their CPUs when I worked at a computer store (a real one, not best buy style) and we could usually save them with a very delicate touch and some watch makers tools, but the ones today are a bit safer

[elison]

Thanks for the reply Sono. Assuming I do start getting these errors, is there any risk of frying anything on the MB, whether it be CPU, GPU, Memory or the MB itself?

[Niya]

As long as the CPU was able to slide into the socket without any or with very low pressure, you should be fine. Those sockets are built so you simply CAN'T fit the CPU in if anything is in the wrong place. Even if those pins are not 100% linear, it shouldn't be a problem as long as they still have contact to the CPU. So when you get it to boot up normally, shouldn't be a matter. A normal CPU should go crazy when only a single pin is not connected.

Worst case that could have happened (but shouldn't any more since it already booted) would be that 2+ pins touch, depending on what type of pins those are that could kill the MB, the CPU and even some other parts like RAM or the PSU.

[Tymon]

Contrary to popular belief, those pins are pretty sturdy motherfuckers.

You should be just fine if you bent them all back in place and the PC booted. The CPU socket will keep them in place from now on.

[elison]

Not going to stress on it anymore. Just for the fuck of it I overclocked to around 4.7 and ran Prime 95 for about 3 hours with absolutely no issues.


Thanks for the replies guys, it definitely helped lift some considerable weight off of my shoulders.

[Coren]

I had a customer pay me once to straighten about 40 pins on a cpu with a dental pick and a magnifying glass. I wanted to kill her, but it worked when I got done. As others have said, those pins are quite sturdy. It either would have worked, or not, immediately.

[Dmitry]

I hope you charged a good bit for that work. That would drive me nuts.

[Artemicon]

I've seen some mangled cpu pins in my day and unless they actually broke off I've never had a motherboard give me problems after straightening pins. As long as it sees all its memory the cpu speed is correct and it doesn't kernel panic or BSOD randomly you're fine.

For what its worth I'm an Engineering tech for SGI and I straighten atleast 1 motherboards worth of pins a day.

[Avanarius]

Just like mentioned above, the pins are pretty malleable. Partially gold I believe. I've dug through Pentium 4 (478) chips that have had almost every single pin bent completely the fuck over yet I've gotten them straight and had the chip boot perfectly fine. It's not exactly a do or die process, I just think most of the fear comes from the investment. If the cpu fits without much force into the socket the socket itself will straighten out the pins the rest of the way.

[SephYuyX]

Better question is, is how is everyone bending these pins in the first place?

[Coren]

The one I fixed... the customer took their laptop to best buy. Best buy tech takes the CPU out to look at it (I have no idea wtf he's looking at) and drops it. Bends a few dozen pins. Crams it back into the socket and tightens the heatsink down. Voila. "Oops, you'll just need a new computer now".

[Tymon]

Interesting that I post in this thread right before I build my own rig, and do the same thing..

I bent about 5 pins by accidentally pulling the lid off of the socket the wrong way. They don't even have to be straightened, as long as they aren't touching they will work, since the Sandy Bridge socket has no actual pin holes, they only need to make contact.

It's really nothing to have a heart attack over, even though everyone (me included) will, every time. As long as the pins aren't touching, or they break off, it will (should) work