# Bent Pin on my motherboard :(



## Kusimeka (Sep 21, 2013)

Just got all my brand new pc parts, and i'm unsure of whether i did this myself or not, but after building the whole thing it wouldn't boot. So i took it all apart again, and i saw there was a single bent pin on the CPU connector pin. 

After just spending £1000, getting so excited and spending a good few solid hours building it, I'm pretty upset. I was thinking of trying to bend the pin back myself, my friend claims he can do it and has a kit to do so.

What do you guys think? Give it a try and if no luck try and get it replaced?

edit: its a socket 1150


----------



## micropage7 (Sep 21, 2013)

use needle to straight the pins and patience
i guess its worth to try


----------



## Kursah (Sep 21, 2013)

Well not sure if you guys have a store like Harbour Freight, I bought a precision tool kit with some small screw drivers, small picks and a illuminated magnifying glass kit for about $15US or so. I had to unbend several pins on a 1155 MB I bought used here on TPU a few years ago. The system booted fine, ran fine, loaded windows fine, but the MB would only recognize 2 out of my 4GB of memory at the time...channel 2 was not ID'd at all. Unbending the pins alleviated the issue and was actually fairly easy.

Good lighting, a steady hand, a small pick and a cheap magnifying glass and maybe a flashlight for extra "focused" light can make this project easier done than many may fear it is. That MB is still running great to this day! It was an Asus 55i Sabertooth.



Note: Just don't bend too hard...it's more of a "flick" like bending...a light nudge until it's close to matching the orientation of the other pins. You don't want to break the small pin off....but being gold pins (I would assume), they should have some decent flexability to be bent back to original form. But the unexpected bend in the joint may cause failure in the future if you swap CPU's frequently. But YMMV. I have no doubts you can fix this issue yourself or let your friend do it and be there to see how easy it really is!


----------



## SKBARON (Sep 21, 2013)

A steady hand and some patience can fix that, so it's worth giving a try . I've bent quite a few pins on a 1155 socket and successfully unbent them. Good luck with that!


----------



## Jetster (Sep 21, 2013)

One bent pin may or may not cause it to not boot. After you straightened it out test it not in the case with minimal stuff connected to see if is posts. If you have to replace it you will have to pay


----------



## erocker (Sep 21, 2013)

Motherboard manufacturers don't RMA for bent pins. Might as well try bending it back, but if your friend knows what he/she is doing, let them do it.


----------



## d1nky (Sep 21, 2013)

intel insurance cover this?!

I bent 1 on my 4100 I didn't want to snap it so I coaxed it into the socket and clamped it down, the thing is perfectly straight now.

this depends how bent it is tho, I wouldn't try getting it perfect by hand but enough for it to be seated. also bending it too often will weaken it and itll snap!


----------



## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Sep 22, 2013)

d1nky said:


> intel insurance cover this?!
> 
> I bent 1 on my 4100 I didn't want to snap it so I coaxed it into the socket and clamped it down, the thing is perfectly straight now.
> 
> this depends how bent it is tho, I wouldn't try getting it perfect by hand but enough for it to be seated. also bending it too often will weaken it and itll snap!



Intel procs don't have pins on them anymore. Well not for a long while actually. The mobo has the pins and he bent one. They are a lot more fragile then the proc pins and a royal pain in the ass to straighten of one gets bent. Processor pins are alot tougher.


----------



## Jetster (Sep 22, 2013)

My vision is not what it use to be. I literately have to use powerful glasses and two magnifying glasses to straighten Intel pins out


----------



## d1nky (Sep 22, 2013)

wow ive never had experience with intel platforms, sounds like a nightmare!


----------



## Jetster (Sep 22, 2013)

They are no problem unless your all thumbs


----------



## Kursah (Sep 22, 2013)

d1nky said:


> wow ive never had experience with intel platforms, sounds like a nightmare!



Quite the opposite. The pins on the sockets are generally fine. Out of the several dozen intel boards from 775 on up to the current 1150 that have used this LGA arrangement, I have only had the one board with bent pins that caused any noticeable issues. You have a pinless CPU, you drop it in, it can only fit one way. Slide the clamp over, and install the cooler...it actually is very easy to work with and makes for speedy CPU changes.


----------



## Kursah (Sep 22, 2013)

Registered said:


> Are you aware that there's a well defined procedure of putting the processor in the motherboard ? No tools required !
> 
> You see, a processor is a delicate device and requires precise interaction using a well-defined instructions, like pull the leaver and push the leaver and put the processor in (no pushing required). It usually settles in just by using gravity.
> 
> Now how it is possible to bend any pins remains mystery. Of course, accidents can happen to anyone but still there's just a little chance to bend a SINGLE pin, since the processor is pushing all of them at once.



The OP isn't asking for guilt or flak from users here, he's asking if there's a way to solve a problem he has. Here at TechPowerUP we pride ourselves in helping our peers without the need for making someone that made a mistake feel worse than they already do. Even if they did something wrong themselves, there's a good feeling when they can also fix it themselves too. Some folks need to learn the hard way that instructions may be necessary as well.

In this case, a few simple micro tools and a magnifying glass and in mere minutes this board could be fixed and operational again. We don't care how the pins got bent, we do care that they're intact enough to be bent back to as close to the original position for contact as possible.

You are right there's a small chance of a SINGLE pin being bent...and who knows it could be a factory issue and shipped that way, or maybe how the OP installed the CPU was just enough for that one single pin to move.

Welcome to TPU btw!


----------



## Kusimeka (Sep 23, 2013)

Thanks a lot for the help guys. I actually got a magnifying kit with a mechanical pencil and managed to 'flick' them back into place as suggested. Cant believe i actually managed to get this up and running fine. I expected to have a nightmare of a time sending it back etc, so happy right now! 

Time to test this beast out


----------



## brandonwh64 (Sep 23, 2013)

Atleast it was not like this! There is no coming back for this socket cause its missing atleast 4 pins and most are bent the opposite way!


----------



## Kusimeka (Sep 23, 2013)

brandonwh64 said:


> Atleast it was not like this! There is no coming back for this socket cause its missing atleast 4 pins and most are bent the opposite way!
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/130923/Bent.jpg



Ouch man that's rough! That makes mine look like nothing. If any of mine were broken off i wouldn't even have attempted it, that seems way too complicated!


----------



## SKBARON (Sep 23, 2013)

brandonwh64 said:


> Atleast it was not like this! There is no coming back for this socket cause its missing atleast 4 pins and most are bent the opposite way!
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/130923/Bent.jpg




Every time I see such damage to the pins I wonder what in the world was the person who did this trying to to there... Still, the socket is replaceable with the right tools and skill set.


----------



## Hood (Sep 23, 2013)

I've taken apart several old Dells and HPs with socket 775 and found 2 or 3 with a bent pin or two.  The weird thing is that these machines were original and had never been apart since they were built, and obviously functioned for years in that condition.  They were all boards that wouldn't display any video despite swapping all parts with known good ones.  On one of them I managed to straighten the 1 bent pin, but still wouldn't output a video signal, so I assume it had blown caps or something.


----------



## brandonwh64 (Sep 23, 2013)

SKBARON said:


> Every time I see such damage to the pins I wonder what in the world was the person who did this trying to to there... Still, the socket is replaceable with the right tools and skill set.



His brother took half the water block off and after moving place to place before I went and picked it up the CPU ended up in the bottom of the case and the pins like they are now.


----------



## SKBARON (Sep 23, 2013)

brandonwh64 said:


> His brother took half the water block off and after moving place to place before I went and picked it up the CPU ended up in the bottom of the case and the pins like they are now.



It still kind of hurts to see such damage, people really need to be more careful.


----------



## Ja.KooLit (Oct 1, 2013)

hopefully one day MOBO and CPU are pinless to avoid such damages...

or better yet CPU will be inserted like PCI... and then a full water block....

like a GPU / GPU...

those images above are ouch really a damage...


----------



## dorsetknob (Oct 1, 2013)

night.fox said:


> hopefully one day MOBO and CPU are pinless to avoid such damages...
> 
> or better yet CPU will be inserted like PCI... and then a full water block....
> 
> ...



Ah Nostalgia  Intel slot 1 and slot 2 and AMD slot A

those were the days


----------



## Ja.KooLit (Oct 1, 2013)

dorsetknob said:


> Ah Nostalgia  Intel slot 1 and slot 2 and AMD slot A
> 
> those were the days




waaahaha... i just searched and damn your right... i think i didnt know much about computer that time....  first cpu i touch was the p4


----------



## Jetster (Oct 1, 2013)

Here is a pic I took a couple of years ago of a board I bought used. This was after I straightened the pins The board still works today


----------



## staiger (Oct 1, 2013)

I also had a problem with 2 bent pins on an Asus motherboard. Long story short I argued that if I had dropped something then quite a few pins would be bent in, very much like the pictures in entry number 15. In my case the pins are bent away from the socket and therefor were not subject to any impact. I sent the board back to the online retailer along with the pictures below and within a few days a new motherboard appeared.

In any case I for one am fed up with them telling us what is and is not covered. In the UK we have certain rights; to expect that an item bought should be of good quality and fit for the purpose. The automatic assumption that we the end user must have caused the damage as opposed to the possibility that it slipped through their quality control must be challenged. Should this happen to me again I will be more than happy to see them in court.


----------



## maksic87 (Oct 2, 2013)

I still have a good eye sight so i can repair bent pins with only a sewing needle. repaired like 20 mobos for Intel CPU and they all work. Real problem is there if a pin broke of. Then its time for a full socket replace  Good luck anyways, if I was you i would try to repair it


----------



## Ja.KooLit (Oct 2, 2013)

straightening such bent pin requires patience...if you rush it and broke even 1, not good. MOBO will be useless. although maybe it will work but it wont perform 100% full.

I had one experience one time... about 3 years ago (not my own computer though) but at works computer... lol.... just playing around and somehow when I remove cpu, I accidentally drop into the board... yaks atleast 10 pins bended in all directions... lol... luckily, not a single pin broke, and manage to straighten it all kind of small tools i can find...

so be careful when pulling out CPU....


----------



## Supersoft (Oct 5, 2013)

Kusimeka said:


> Thanks a lot for the help guys. I actually got a magnifying kit with a mechanical pencil and managed to 'flick' them back into place as suggested. Cant believe i actually managed to get this up and running fine. I expected to have a nightmare of a time sending it back etc, so happy right now!
> 
> Time to test this beast out



I was looking through here to see if anyone already mentioned it first. Came across the same advise years ago (mechanical pencil). Glad you figured it out though before I saw this. Enjoy your rig. At least now, you can enjoy it with a greater sense of accomplishment. Nice work


----------



## MightyMission (Oct 5, 2013)

it's quite easy if you steady your pin bending hand on a book or something to get the right height, I've re-aligned several intel socket pins, and as others have said here...patience, a steady hand and more of a flick motion than a lot of pressure.
I've used mechanical pencils on amd cpu pins but can't say wether the pitch is too fine for intel socket pins.
A straightened out safety pin is enough.


----------

