Have you ever damaged a motherboard installing a heatsink?

cadmium · Post by **cadmium** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 12:01 pm

I certainly came close installing the retail cooler from my E8500 onto my Gigabyte EP45-UD3R. I heard some cracking and thought it was all over, but the system posted fine and seems to be running okay. It certainly raised my blood pressure.

What are your stories?

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 12:27 pm

Yes, I busted my MSI nForce2 board K7N2 Delta Platinium when i was installing heatsink. Screwdrive slipped and hit the PCB. After that, no life in that board unfortunately.... that had been my property for two weeks...

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 12:29 pm

Hi,

No, so far so good!

cadmium · Post by **cadmium** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 1:01 pm

thejamppa wrote:Yes, I busted my MSI nForce2 board K7N2 Delta Platinium when i was installing heatsink. Screwdrive slipped and hit the PCB. After that, no life in that board unfortunately.... that had been my property for two weeks...

I've knocked a few capacitors loose in my day too. Mostly on video cards though.

relitz · Post by **relitz** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 1:17 pm

I've had to bend a few capacitors to fit various heatsinks, but I've never damaged a motherboard.

Plekto · Post by **Plekto** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 2:57 pm

I've done it once or twice where the screwdriver knocked off a surface-mount component or made a gouge and nuked a trace. In both cases I fixed it with soldering and some very fine wire-wrapping wire. (30-40awg coated magnet wire, typically).

Try to see where the broken trace is - and follow it to the nearest components. Or find the partially damaged/lose surface mount piece. Usually one side of it pops off and there's a cold solder connection as a result.

psiu · Post by **psiu** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 3:35 pm

cadmium wrote:
thejamppa wrote:Yes, I busted my MSI nForce2 board K7N2 Delta Platinium when i was installing heatsink. Screwdrive slipped and hit the PCB. After that, no life in that board unfortunately.... that had been my property for two weeks...
I've knocked a few capacitors loose in my day too. Mostly on video cards though.

Something to try with those kind of heatsinks is a nut driver--fits right over the little tab that won't contain a screwdriver when you are straining away.

So far so good for me in that particular regard.

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 6:56 pm

Not a motherboard, but I almost destroyed my old 6600GT trying to put a VF700 on it. I didn't use the spacers for the bolts and ripped of two transistors. I managed to solder them back on with a LOT of work and luck.

Read story here.

Still works today.

victorhortalives · Post by **victorhortalives** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 11:52 pm

Yes, I busted an Abit board trying to install a Minja. I scabbed through some of the connecting tracks with a screwdriver !

Then I noticed that I was supposed to unscrew the mobo mounting plate part way, do the install and then tighten the plate. A bit late now to know this as Abit is no more, BUT any mobo with screws will give a clue to future mounting strategies.

As an aside, I have found that Asrock mobos install Minjas very easily, but Gigabyte ones seem to be a problem (not like Abit), but it seems to take 2 attempts to get it right.

sjoukew · Post by **sjoukew** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 8:55 am

On an asus motherboard, with a athlon thunderbird on it, I tried to change the cpu cooler, because it was broken. The mechanism used an screwdriver, the cooler in question needed quite a lot of force before it got into the correct position.
Once my screwdriver flipped of the mechanism, destroying several lanes on my motherboard near my cpu. That was the end of my motherboard. After that I never had any troubles.

blackworx · Post by **blackworx** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 9:26 am

Broke the CPU socket on a socket 370 mobo back in the bad old days when the socket formed part of the retention system.

bonestonne · Post by **bonestonne** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 9:47 am

i fudged up the PCB for my 30gb WD ATA drive a while back, but managed to get the resistor back on...the molex power input was broken, so i had to go ghetto-fabulous on it so i could get power into it. drive still works though, as ugly as the job is, it still works.

never botched a motherboard though...came close, but never made it happen (i really really hated that s370 board).