computer problem

[Scott Douglas]

Went to investigate why my multi card reader quit working so I opened my box up to take a look.
While I was in there (hey, the hood was open...) I thought, why not clean up the heat sink and get some of the dirt out of here?
When I released what I thought was the heat sink holding device the whole dang cpu came out instead.
They glued the heat sink to the cpu.
What the heck am I gonna do now?
Tried putting it back in but pins are bent now.
I can't see any way to align the cpu with the socket since it's buried under the heat sink.
What are my options?
I'm on my son's old laptop now. Thankfully I didn't listen to my wife and toss it out. The computer with the problem is an HP Pavilion a6720y running Vista 64 w/AMD Quad core processor. It had been flawless until the multi card reader stopped working the other day. I use it a lot to download pictures from my cameras.
Help?

[TimT]

They glued the heat sink to the cpu.

No they didn't...they applied some thermal grease to the cpu to transfer heat to the heat sink... the grease can be "glue" like.. maybe use a blow dryer to heat the ass'y up an pry apart.. straighten the pins with a tooth pic.... and try to seat it...

[TimT]

And if the cpu is hosed because the pins are to damaged... you could always get a replacement cpu..

[Scott Douglas]

I'll give it a try Tim, but if this is 'grease' I'd hate to see how tuff their glue is. This thing is really on there.

[Scott R]

Don't forget to place new thermal compound on the CPU before you replace the heatsink. A little trick is to get the heat sink warm as mentioned above and gently twist it off to break the bond. Of course yours is out so you can pry it off I suppose.

[stomachmonkey]

Tim is correct, it's thermal paste.

You should clean the old paste off and reapply new.

You can get a tube pretty much anywhere, Best Buy will carry it, couple of bucks.

You want to reapply anytime you remove a cooler from the cpu to prevent hot spots on the CPU.

[masraum]

Once you get is all back together and working. A bit of advice...




.... don't take it out again.

You know what they say?

If it ain't broke....

good luck

[id10t]

Originally Posted by masraum

Once you get is all back together and working. A bit of advice...




.... don't take it out again.

You know what they say?

If it ain't broke....

good luck

And better real working advice - clean all traces of thermal paste and put new thermal paste on. A must-do, unless you want to fry your cpu

[gr8fl4porsche]

Once a year I haul all my PC's from around the house and my office outside for a little spring cleaning.

Screw those little cans, I hit them with 100psi of shop air.

Shocking how much crap comes out.

[Scott Douglas]

It sure is nice to know you guys are with me on this one.
I'm going to give the removal a try in the morning after I straighten the pins. My eyes aren't good enough to do it tonight. There's a lot of those pins and they're TINY.

[gacook]

Be gentle when bending them back in place, and LOOK first to make sure you're bending the right side in the right direction...

[Scott Douglas]

I plan on using my digital camera to take pics of the pins to verify they're straight. It can see things I can't.
Anyone know what the min focus distance is for a Logitech web cam?

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Scott Douglas

I plan on using my digital camera to take pics of the pins to verify they're straight. It can see things I can't.
Anyone know what the min focus distance is for a Logitech web cam?

If you have two rows that you know are straight make a feeler gauge from sheets of printer paper.

Stack a bunch of sheets together then add / subtract till you have the correct number of sheets.

Trim down so it's easy to handle, maybe tongue depressor size, then tie them together with Scotch tape.

You could probably use a feeler gauge set to straighten the pins if the pins are not touching adjacent rows / bent too much.

Slide a smaller one in and use it to bend the whole row straight.

If you do that scrub the snot out of it to make sure it's clean and free from contaminants.

Make sure you are grounded, when you go out for thermal paste grab a grounding strap. If you go to Best Buy ask the geek squad guys if they have an extra floating around or make one real quick.

[azasadny]

I can replace the CPU for you, if you like. What CPU do you need to replace it with?

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by azasadny

I can replace the CPU for you, if you like. What CPU do you need to replace it with?

AMD Phenom Quad-Core 9xxx series (AM2+) up to 9850 (Agena)

Box came with a 9550 so it's 1 step below max.

If it were me I'd cruise over to microcenter and grab an AMD CPU / MOBO combo for a couple of bucks more than the cost of the replacement CPU. Would need RAM, his box is DDR2 and most new are DDR3 but RAM is dirt cheap.

I'd grab one of the ASUS bundles. Nice MOBO, 4 RAM slots, 2 HDMI ports, surround sound and tons of PCI /PCIE slots for expansion.

For a couple of hours time and ~$250 he'd have a new box.

[azasadny]

I agree, but DDR2 RAM is very expensive, compared to DDR3. If Scott buys the parts and sends them to me, I'll rebuild his system and send it to him the next day... All he will pay is the shipping...

[Scott Douglas]

So here's where I'm at on this.
Got my other computer from the garage set up so I can at least communicate and look at pics I've taken of the cpu.
I think I've got them pretty straight, but, one of 'em spins when I go to straighten it. (sigh)
I can't see tossing this box, it's just got too much good stuff in it.
I'm going to try to take the heat sink off and try inserting the cpu to see if it will work. Worth a try IMHO.
If I just replace the cpu, what would be an 'plug and play' replacement upgrade?
I assume a cpu/ MOBO combo is a cpu on a mother board, correct?
I'm really starting to appreciate how fast my old computer is compared to my old old computer. sheesh this thing is slow.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by azasadny

I agree, but DDR2 RAM is very expensive, compared to DDR3. If Scott buys the parts and sends them to me, I'll rebuild his system and send it to him the next day... All he will pay is the shipping...

Yeah that's the thing.

A direct AMD replacement CPU is going to be just as, if not a tad more expensive than a current / better CPU plus MOBO.

Doing a quick search it's a discontinued CPU so finding one new is going to be tough and they are in the $150 range.

You can find them used for ~$50 and up.

Personally I would not go the used route unless it was for a piece of legacy equipment that I had no choice but to keep set up the way it is.

FWIW IIRC you can generally run an AM3+ socket CPU in an AM2+ MOBO, it fits, but I believe you lose some memory features of the AM3 CPU and is not 100% supported?

[azasadny]

You can replace the CPU with the appropriate AMD CPU that the motherboard will support. Look up the motherboard model on Google, then look for the manual and it will list the CPU's that the board will support. You start by ID'ing the socket type. If it's an older CPU, you may have to get one on eBay ar Amazon as the local MicroCenter only carries the latest CPU models (at least mine does)...

[Scott Douglas]

Here's a pic of the after straightening.

Sorry I couldn't crop it for a closer look.

It's sounding like I either have to live with my old old computer or get a whole new one.
Problem is my hard drive in the 9550 box is scsi or SATA and I don't think I can just plug it into the old old box (Dell Dimension 8200) since it's IEDE(?) [I must be getting old I don't remember what that designation is anymore]