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Welch
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Bent Pins - We have the Technology!

Thu Jul 12, 2012 2:36 am

So I've seen a good number of people on here talking about receiving an Intel motherboard with bent pins. I thought I'd offer some words of encouragement to those of you thinking about attempting to correct the issue.

*WARNING* - This is not for the faint of heart, those with a constitution check of less than 20 (d20), or individuals with parkinson's disease.

Tools Needed
Magnifying Glass (if you aren't perfectly near sighted like me)
Compressed Air straw
Adequate light

***Check List***
0. Is this a new board? If so you may want to consider an RMA before touching anything....
1. How many pins are bent? (1 or 2? Or is half of the grid bent)
2. What appeared to cause the bent pins? Does it look like a large area of bent pins from something pressing down on them or random "rogue" pins?
3. How bad are the pins, are they just misaligned to the left or right, or are they pushed down under another? Does the base of the pin appear to be attached correct?

If its only a few pins, and it doesn't look like the base of the pin has been pressed down so hard that it could have caused other damage and they appear to just be "leaning"... then your board may be a candidate for Pin Correction Surgery!

***Procedures***
For these Intel pin grids, simple look at this from a 45 degree angle towards a good light source and you can spot the individual pins that are misaligned. Once you have determined which pins are incorrectly bent, use a magnifying glass to determine which direction it need to be corrected towards. Without the magnifying glass look top down direction at the pins with light above your head and you will see a gold little dot for each pin tip. You can usually see the rows that are off a little bit and will see a single pin that isn't correct.

1 . . . . . . . .
2 . . . . . . . .
3 . . . . . . . .

As you can see in the above "Schematic" (yep I'm calling it that), Row 1 appears to be perfectly fine. Row 2's pin #2 is shifted to the left and Row 3's pin #3 is also to the left.
What you will want to do is take the tip of the Compressed air straw and simply (and ULTRA carefully) slip the pin inside the straw's hole. Don't push down at all and don't leverage the straw very hard at all. You will ever so slightly just lean the straw in the direction that the pin needs to go. After every slight adjustment, remove the stray and double check the position of the pin. I can't stress this enough how slightly you need to move the straw to correct the pin. This may seem like a very crude way to deal with such fine electrical components, but done by the right hands you can bring your motherboard back into operational status. I was able to do this with a Mini ITX board that was unable to post until I performed the above. Good luck guys, just remember to be VERRRRRRRY delicate.
Last edited by Welch on Wed Nov 07, 2012 12:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
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Chrispy_
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Re: Bent Pins - We have the Technology!

Mon Nov 05, 2012 5:39 pm

Since this thread seems to get referenced by me and a few other people occasionally, I thought I'd add a footnote;
The pins on the LGA grids are copper. This is, without work hardening, a particularly ductile material that can be bent a lot without inducing metal fatigue failures.

It would seem that the pins on an LGA are extensively work hardened for springiness, and possibly even tempered a bit by the tool that makes them. At any rate, if a pin goes through more than about 60 degrees of plastic deformation, there's a good chance it will shear (the stress fractures will already have been created during the inititial knock that bent it).


Given that Foxconn make pretty much every LGA socket, I'm going to say that to make a correction you're going to have to overcompensate for the metal's hysterisis by about 10-15 degrees. What that means, for the non-engineers, is that if a pin is out to the left by 30 degrees, move it right 40-45 degrees. This should get it right first time. The fewer total degrees of movement you force the metal through, the less chance you have of snapping it off. 90 degrees just shears the pin right off (tested for **** 'n giggles on a dead board).

Put it this way. To correct a 30-degree bend the correct amount the first time requires you to move the pencil/tube/straw 40-45 degrees.
If you don't go far enough - no problem, put the pencil/tube/straw back and keep bending. This won't overwork the metal because you're not causing any plastic deformation (permanent bend), you're only stressing the metal in elastic deformation (does what it says on the tin - springs back unaffected).

If you go too far, you have to add the overshoot to the correction - so a 30 degree correction, overshot by 10 degrees and then corrected is the same as a 50 degree repair. It's going to be weak as hell but it'll work. Overshoot the other way and then recorrect and you're probably going to be looking at 70 degrees in total. Assuming the pin stayed in place, plugging the CPU in will probably be enough force to snap that pin anyway.
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flip-mode
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Re: Bent Pins - We have the Technology!

Mon Nov 05, 2012 6:00 pm

Chrispy_ wrote:
Given that Foxconn make pretty much every LGA socket, I'm going to say that to make a correction you're going to have to overcompensate for the metal's hysterisis


I don't know enough about metals to see the humor in this situation.
 
Captain Ned
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Re: Bent Pins - We have the Technology!

Mon Nov 05, 2012 6:01 pm

flip-mode wrote:
Chrispy_ wrote:
Given that Foxconn make pretty much every LGA socket, I'm going to say that to make a correction you're going to have to overcompensate for the metal's hysterisis
I don't know enough about metals to see the humor in this situation.

Methinks you neglected a [/sarcasm] tag.
What we have today is way too much pluribus and not enough unum.
 
mattrixx
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Re: Bent Pins - We have the Technology!

Mon Nov 05, 2012 7:08 pm

Newbie here, but I couldn't resist registering to the Tech Report and responding to this specific Forum thread.

Yes indeed, "Bent Pins"! I had my experience with this issue the beginning of this year with an Asus P8 Z68-V Pro motherboard.
To make a long story short, I did not inspect the LGA 1155 Socket (like I now know to do) prior to inserting my core I-7 2600K cpu.
After not posting and finally removing the cpu for further investigation, I could at that time visually see with the naked eye something was NOT quite right
with the reflections of several pins in one quadrant of the socket. Yes, they were bent or pushed out of alignment with all the rest in that quadrant.

After receiving an RMA from Newegg (my very first), I shipped it back to Newegg only for them to send it back to me as "damaged" by user.
Considering that it would cost just as much to fix by Asus as to just replace the MB, I decided to attempt to see if I could try and "fix" the MB myself.
I first purchased an illuminated head magnifier for around $10 online and armed with a jeweler's screwdriver and a long straight pin, I managed to push up and back on the several pins in question so that they reflected back light in somewhat the same pattern as the rest.

I did not have the option of trying out my cpu in another MB to insure the chip was OK, but rather hoped it would be OK when I placed it back into the socket to have another go at Posting. Well it was my lucky day to be sure, as the thing fired up back from the dead as I called it, with absolutely NO further issues or problems since (knocks on wood). Now I am not a fool, so I don`t think I will ever pull that chip out of the socket until the board dies or it needs to be replaced for some additional reason.

Now the reason for this Post of mine is to ask a question!
I see that some if not all the newer Ivy Bridge MB`s have a new type protective cover over the LGA socket that indicates the cover is to be removed AFTER the cpu is inserted and CLAMPED into the socket, and no longer to be removed first thing as before. I take it this is an additional method of protection of the pins underneath whilst lowering down the arm and clamping on and over the CPU in the socket?
Or, is the (new style) protective cover actually keeping any abnormal movements of the chip in the socket by aiding in the actual correct clamping process itself?
I`m suspecting the latter, as manufacturers are now recognizing they have a problem with the former method of correct CPU insertion and clamping.
Could the real reason for so many incidents of MB`s with broken or "bent" pins even before CPU insertion, being in the actual removal of the former protective cover?
 
cynan
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Re: Bent Pins - We have the Technology!

Mon Nov 05, 2012 8:31 pm

Yes. I believe many CPU socket pins were/are bent when people try to pop out the protective cover only to find that it goes sailing right into the CPU socket bed. Removing the cover after seating the CPU sort of avoids this potential issue.

As to how much the new cover helps in the alignment of the CPU during clamping, I'm not sure. When I did my last Ivy Bridge build, I just tore the protective cover out and carefully seated the CPU on the bed of pins per the usual method. Once you know how delicate the newer LGA sockets are and know to take the proper care installing the CPU, it's usually not a problem. I'd guess most of the bent pin cases were caused by those upgrading from older socket designs that weren't nearly as delicate and just not being aware (like when I nerfed the socket pins during first attempt at an LGA build - doh!).
 
flip-mode
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Re: Bent Pins - We have the Technology!

Mon Nov 05, 2012 9:58 pm

Captain Ned wrote:
Methinks you neglected a [/sarcasm] tag.

:wink:
 
Welch
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Re: Bent Pins - We have the Technology!

Wed Nov 07, 2012 12:43 am

mattrixx wrote:
Could the real reason for so many incidents of MB`s with broken or "bent" pins even before CPU insertion, being in the actual removal of the former protective cover?


Bingo! The first time I went to remove one of these covers, I felt the center slightly touch the pins and sort of brush up against the bottom of the plastic cover. The best way to remove it is by squeezing the sides of the cover and pulling it up. Never try to pop it off by pulling one side up like your popping the lid off Pringles or something, it leads to horrible results.
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

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Waco
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Re: Bent Pins - We have the Technology!

Wed Nov 07, 2012 1:15 am

I've repaired more than a few LGA boards with no issues. My terrible vision (6.x and 7.x in each eye) allows me super macro vision for fixing small bends and crimps in the pins. Out of 5 motherboards I've seen with mangled pins I've brought back all 5 with very little drama. Yes, it's difficult and it requires a steady hand, but it's extremely easy otherwise.
Victory requires no explanation. Defeat allows none.
 
etilena
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Re: Bent Pins - We have the Technology!

Wed Nov 07, 2012 1:29 am

Got a bent pin once with a LGA board. Installed CPU and tried to max out 16GB of RAM on 2 slots but no matter which of the 4 slots I tried it wouldn't work. Decided the motherboard wasn't working so brought it back to the shop and they visually inspected it, saying that there was a bent pin on it and they would not accept it.

Brought the board home, used Google, grabbed a mechanical pencil with the slight extended tip and bent the pin back to be aligned with everything else. This was a year ago and the computer has been running flawlessly since.
*yawn*
 
Welch
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Re: Bent Pins - We have the Technology!

Wed Nov 07, 2012 4:11 am

Waco wrote:
My terrible vision (6.x and 7.x in each eye) allows me super macro vision for fixing small bends and crimps in the pins.


Holy crap, my eyes aren't quite that gone yet. I'm assuming you meant -6.x and -7.x. As of now I'm -3.75 in both eyes and near sighted as I'd ever like to be.
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

1600x | Strix B350-F | CM 240 Lite | 16GB 3200 | RX 580 8GB | 970 EVO | Corsair 400R | Seasonic X 850 | Corsair M95 / K90 | Sennheiser PC37x
 
Waco
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Re: Bent Pins - We have the Technology!

Sat Nov 10, 2012 11:57 pm

Welch wrote:
Holy crap, my eyes aren't quite that gone yet. I'm assuming you meant -6.x and -7.x. As of now I'm -3.75 in both eyes and near sighted as I'd ever like to be.

Yeah that's what I meant. I'm basically blind without my glasses / contacts.
Victory requires no explanation. Defeat allows none.

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