Bent/Broken CPU pins

[Arya]

A week ago I had a terminal motherboard failure. After a few weeks of underperforming the system refused to boot and showed a RAM warning light. I've had an autopsy done on the board and it seems to be a CPU pin problem. What I want to know is, how did I manage to bend the pins and how can I avoid doing it in future builds.

How much force does it actually take to damage the socket? And how can I install CPUs more safely in the future? And finally - if this was something I did, how come the CPU itself wasn't damaged?

[Cartman122]

I've never had problems with bent pins before, but do be careful when installing the cpu. most of the time a bent cpu pin can be carefully bent back. A CPU pin being bent can be caused by many different things, like damaged in shipping or Incorrect CPU installation. The CPU wouldn't be damaged do to a bent pin unless its a AMD cpu with a broken pin. I hope I answered your question, sorry if i didn't

[CursedPanther]

Unless you're handling the CPU like a restless child, benting a pin during initial installation is rather uncommon. I'm sure you're aware that a CPU will only fit into one position of the socket, so further damage to the pins shouldn't occur after having it secured into place correctly.

Only thing I can have think of securing the cooler way too tight and applying damaging pressure onto the CPU and MB, but the backplate is there to prevent this from happening.

[Arya]

That's just the thing. I was very gentle with the CPU and held it carefully by the edges of the tool. When I mounted it, I lined it up carefully first and then gently set it down so that it immediately sat correctly with no need to adjust it. The CPU Cooler itself was mounted correctly - it has Phillips Screws which automatically eject the screwdriver at the correct torque. I used a fancy automotive screwdriver as well, to make doubly sure I had the right torque.

[CursedPanther]

How do you know it's a bent pin anyway? Can you actually observe the damage physically? I wouldn't just trust some software telling me stuff being broken, especially as CPU has such a super low fault rate on general.

[Arya]

I had a PC tech autopsy it, and he found a series of bent/damaged pins in the LGA1151 socket.

[CursedPanther]

狼 Wolfey 🔰 eredeti hozzászólása:

I had a PC tech autopsy it, and he found a series of bent/damaged pins in the LGA1151 socket.

Yea, well there's no saying that he somehow bents them himself. Just saying...

Trust me, many of these so called 'tech guys' are not professionals by any means and often do sloppy work. I'll bet on my own pair of hands instead on any given day. If something is found beyond repair, the only thing you can do is request an RMA with the manufacturer at the end.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

If there no physical bent pins, then something is damage, or it's just a faulty defective product that you got unlucky with, which you just want to RMA it, at this point, if it still under warranty.

CursedPanther eredeti hozzászólása:

狼 Wolfey 🔰 eredeti hozzászólása:

I had a PC tech autopsy it, and he found a series of bent/damaged pins in the LGA1151 socket.

Yea, well there's no saying that he somehow bents them himself. Just saying...

Could happen.

[Arya]

CursedPanther eredeti hozzászólása:

狼 Wolfey 🔰 eredeti hozzászólása:

I had a PC tech autopsy it, and he found a series of bent/damaged pins in the LGA1151 socket.

Yea, well there's no saying that he somehow bents them himself. Just saying...

Indeed. Whatever the case, it was a defective board - I tried absolutely every trick in the book and it wouldn't boot. All that's gained by finding out the fatal problem is satisfaction of my own curiosity.

[Sinistral]

If you had bent pin(s) why do you suspect it was a defective board? Also, have you seen the bent pin(s)?

The system may have been able to POST and operate to a degree with a bent pin for some time, so it may have happened during the original installation of the CPU. It's not like the pin bent itself in the socket.

How old was the build?

[Arya]

Sinistral eredeti hozzászólása:

If you had bent pin(s) why do you suspect it was a defective board? Also, have you seen the bent pin(s)?

The system may have been able to POST and operate to a degree with a bent pin for some time, so it may have happened during the original installation of the CPU. It's not like the pin bent itself in the socket.

How old was the build?

About two weeks old. The CPU itself ran perfect well for a week although the Voltage was higher than it should have been.

[Sinistral]

狼 Wolfey 🔰 eredeti hozzászólása:

The CPU itself ran perfect well for a week although the Voltage was higher than it should have been.

I don't know when you first detected the increased voltage...but that should have warranted some investigating, particularly if it was high right from the get go. I suspect the pin problem happened right from the beginning and was causing, or causing the system to report, the voltage spike. On just about any 'gaming' mobo these days, you can adjust voltages. By default, the BIOS wouldn't have increased the CPU voltage unless you used some auto-overclock feature the motherboard may have had. Anyway, I really think the problem stemmed from the initial build.

These things...they happen. At least you're not the guy who drilled a hole in his GPU to try to mount it.

[Arya]

As do I. I wasn't using the auto-overclock in any way, and even tried manually limiting the Voltage. Which was consistently a lot higher than what it was set to in Bios. Stock voltage for a 6700K is 1.296, mine was running 1.401 despite every BIOS setting locking it to 1.296.

[Sinistral]

Bummer. While it could have been the power supply overvolting, that seems like a far cry with the bent pin(s). Now we all know where high CPU voltage can come from, though. That BIOS though...eek! I would have definitely found the source of that considering it was a fresh build.

[Arya]

Sinistral eredeti hozzászólása:

Bummer. While it could have been the power supply overvolting, that seems like a far cry with the bent pin(s). Now we all know where high CPU voltage can come from, though. That BIOS though...eek! I would have definitely found the source of that considering it was a fresh build. :summerghost::summerghost:

With hindsight it seems quite alarming, but this was my first home build and I wasn't sure whether that was normal or not.

PSU overvolting seems unlikely, I'm using a Corsair AX760 which is a very highly rated model with high-end internals and a lot of safety features.

[Sinistral]

I think it's safe to assume then that the problem happened installing the CPU or the CPU came with bent pin(s). Unfortunately, there's no way to determine the condition it came in because that would be a warranty issue - hardware defect. Good luck my friend. Now you get to pick out a faster CPU though. :/