There are no good solutions to your problem, and using some tool to unbend the pins is about the best of bad solutions. The real question is why did you try to replace the heat sink? That is a definite no-no unless you are both desperate and very experienced. While my own experience is with only about a dozen or so computers, I have never seen a machine yet in which the CPU fan was not separately replaceable, without replacing the heat sink. Just unscrew four screws, one in each corner, and the fan is removed. I would never, never purchase a computer if that were not the case. Purchasing an individual fan of the correct specifications may at times be a bit difficult, but nowhere near as nasty as the predicament in which you find yourself.
Also, I thought that all of the CPU sockets for the last five or ten years (or more) were the so-called "Zero Insertion Force" (ZIF) sockets. There is a lever on the side of the socket. Release the lever, and the CPU lifts out and re-inserts effortlessly, because the release of the lever releases the grip on all of the pins. After reinserting the CPU, re-engage the lever and the CPU is held in the socket and pin contact is made. With a ZIF socket, you should never need to force a CPU down. If there is any [significant] resistance at all, i.e., enough to bend a pin, then the pins aren't aligned with the socket -- realign the CPU with its socket. Did you extract the CPU from the socket without releasing the ZIF lever? Did ZIF sockets go out of style at some point because they were unreliable or for some other reason? Fred Holmes At 02:21 PM 2/15/2009, Rev. Stewart Marshall wrote: >I have a computer question and it is aimed at the Do It Yourselfer. > >I was replacing a cooling fan/heat sink on a CPU last week and when I pulled >off the old Heatsink it pulled the whole CPU out with it. > >When I put the CPU back in with the new heatsink/cooling fan, it bent (I mean >really bent) some of the pins on the CPU. > >Has any one ever had luck un bending pins on a newer CPU? > >It is an Opteron 170 AMD socket 939 CPU. > >I have ordered a replacement (lower speed) CPU for this board, and decided to >order a backup plan (Newer AM2+ board, CPU and memory) just in case. > >What should I use to unbend the pins? A sewing needle? > >Stewart > >Rev. Stewart A. Marshall >mailto:popoz...@earthlink.net >Prince of Peace www.princeofpeaceozark.org >Ozark, AL SL 82 ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
