Damage in the Socket

January 19, 2018 6:58 PM

Help me save the day and my friend's first computer build from bent pins in the CPU socket on the motherboard.

I was helping my BFF build his first computer. I've built numerous systems over the years but I've never had this happen: The unthinkable. We were getting ready to install the CPU and I noticed the pins in the socket on the motherboard didn't look uniform. On closer inspection, it is obvious that we have approximately 4 pins out of place in one little spot.

[Pictures] That was the best I could do to image them. The damaged area is in lower right between 4 and 5 o'clock. It seems like they are sticking up higher than their neighboring, correct pins, like they were pried upwards from below.

I do not know how it happened and it doesn't really matter that much. What matters is that AFAIK there is no RMA, warranty, or other remedy from the manufacturer (ASRock) or seller (Newegg) for bent pins in a CPU socket.

So I'm going to fix it.

I will spend the rest of my free time researching the situation and watching how-to videos, etc. I will probably make a go at it tomorrow with a magnifying lens and some sort of tiny pointed object like a needle or some precision tweezers.

I'd like to hear tales, war stories, practical advice or any other helpful thoughts & comments on this situation.

The board is an ASRock Z370 Pro4. Socket LGA 1151. The CPU will be a Core i3-8100. All brand new.

posted by glonous keming to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

"What matters is that AFAIK there is no RMA, warranty, or other remedy from the manufacturer (ASRock) or seller (Newegg) for bent pins in a CPU socket."

Really? Is that documented somewhere? That's bizarre.
posted by floppyroofing at 7:39 PM on January 19, 2018 [3 favorites]

Was there a shield installed over the socket when you un-boxed it?

There have been stories on boards for years about newegg stonewalling on RMAs for users with bent pins. The general gist is that all cases of bent pins are user error and not cause for RMA. I would have your friend email them and be nice. otherwise he will have to probably take it up with his credit card company. If you decide to have a go at it with something small and stabby, best of luck.
posted by Dr. Twist at 8:08 PM on January 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Yes, the plastic shield was in place and there was no damage to any of the boxes. My friend the owner put in a call to Newegg immediately but due to call volume they were going to call him back, then we had to part ways for the evening so I haven't heard what the outcome of that conversation was yet.

As for documentation of remedy denials, I haven't actually found that yet tonight. It's just the folk wisdom I've always heard and perhaps it's not true but there are certainly plenty of stories out there on forums and things like this: Why bent pins are not covered by warranty, a blog post from the Nordic division of a board manufacturer Gigabyte.
posted by glonous keming at 8:53 PM on January 19, 2018

If you're sure the motherboard came to your friend with bent pins, I'd wait to see what Newegg has to say about it, but it looks like you might have a fair shot at doing a self-repair if Newegg says you're SOL.
posted by Aleyn at 11:12 PM on January 19, 2018

One thing I remember kinda working is using a mechanical pencil to straighten the pins one by one. That method is sketchy, but will fix the issue if the the only problem is the geometry of the pins.
posted by Philipschall at 11:39 PM on January 19, 2018

Precision tweezers and a jeweller's loupe have had about an 80% success rate for me. Otherwise it's new mobo time.
posted by flabdablet at 12:28 AM on January 20, 2018

The mechanical pencil thing works better with CPU pins which are straight. The weird spring pins on Intel mobos need to be sort of teased back into place with a tiny tool and a magnifier and a lot of patience.

Personally, I would try to get them cosmetically back into place, then RMA the mobo as DOA anyway, then buy your next one from Amazon where you can actually return it in most cases
posted by selfnoise at 8:30 AM on January 20, 2018

Response by poster: Update: My friend took it upon himself to try to fix the pins solo, and felt like he had succeeded enough to where he seated the CPU by himself. When I got to him today we finished the build out but we couldn't get it to POST with the two 8 GB RAM sticks in the proper configuration, which is an common symptom for bent pin issues. So for now it's running with 16GB of DDR4 in single-channel mode and I'm not sure if he/me/us will ever do anything more about it.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Thank you all for your responses!
posted by glonous keming at 6:12 PM on January 20, 2018