When a pro messes up

I’ve been messing with PC hardware for tens of years. I always built my computers from parts and sometimes I do this for other people. Maybe I’m not a real pro, but I know a lot about this area and I follow all computer news and I think I know quite a lot.

I often read about a situation when somebody is trying to take the cooler off the CPU but thermal paste is practically glued to the CPU and eventually, that person applies so much force that it just rips off the cooler with the CPU from the socket. I’m sure many people saw this.

I was always laughing when I see such stories and I always thought that the person who did it was strong but not really sharp. Just to say it politely. And really, don’t you feel that you applying too much force?

But a couple of weeks ago I did exactly the same thing! I felt so embarrassed. But let me explain what happened. In 2018 I wrote my first post in this blog that I bought a new computer. It worked really well and it still working just fine.

But some time later, my friend asked me to help build a computer for his kids. And I assembled almost the same computer, just with a better graphics card. But eventually, the kids decided to upgrade the CPU to a 5000 series CPU. And this was quite a good perk of the AMD platform because it is really easy and cheap to greatly improve performance.

But after they replaced the CPU, the computer did not boot. Unfortunately, they did something with the old CPU and bent a lot of pins, so it wasn’t usable anymore. Probably something happened to the motherboard as well. I’m not sure.

Anyway, the first thing I checked everything. I cleared BIOS, unplugged anything non-essential, and reconnected all cables. I updated the BIOS to the latest that supports that CPU. It is good that the motherboard has a BIOS flashback feature that does not require the CPU to work. Then I tried different memory in different channels. Nothing helped. The boot sequence stopped with the “DRAM” LED active. Hint, always buy motherboards with debug LED. It will save you a lot of time. I’m glad I did.

The CPU became warm during the boot process but not hot. Anyway, at that moment I saw 3 different reasons why the PC would not boot: CPU issue, memory issue, or power supply issue. Also, it could be some combination of these factors.

I tried 2 different sets of memory and none of them worked. So probably it wasn’t the memory. Moreover, if I remove the CPU then the motherboard will light the “CPU” LED. And because the CPU became warm, I decided that it was not likely that this was a power supply. I didn’t rule it out, I just decided to try something else.

I carefully inspected the CPU and the CPU socket and they were good as new.  And because the CPU was new, it was most likely something happened to the motherboard. It is quite rare that the new CPU has issues. The correct thing would be to ask them to buy a new motherboard and then test it with a new motherboard.

But that kid’s holidays just started and I know how long these days are without a computer. I was at his place a long time ago. His system was almost the same as mine I decided to try my CPU in that system. His system had the same CPU and memory, and my motherboard was almost the same just with Wifi. So if it does not work then most likely it is motherboard.

So I unscrewed my cooler from the CPU and I was trying to take the cooler off. But I didn’t remove it for 8 years and I couldn’t do anything. I tried to pull it. I was trying to rotate it and nothing helped. So I applied more and more force and eventually after 5 minutes of different things, I ripped the cooler with the attached CPU from the socket. It was truly a facepalm moment for me. I did what I laughed at when others did it.

But because I’m a mature person after some time I started to laugh. In the worst case, I will buy a CPU and motherboard. It wasn’t a big deal but the situation was truly comical to me. Anyway, after some time I started assessing the situation.

Firstly I need to take the CPU from the cooler. Firstly I try to take it off using my hands. But I couldn’t find a grip. Eventually, I found a place between the cooler and the CPU to put a flat screwdriver and then turned the screwdriver a little bit and it fell off to the table. And please plan ahead. You don’t want the CPU to fall from some high to your table and damage all its pins.

Then I checked if any CPU pins were stuck in the CPU socket. But luckily for me, all pins were with CPU. Then I started to inspect the pins. And there is a hint on how to do it. All you need to look from the side of the CPU so all pins point up and the CPU face points down. Then slightly angle the CPU in every 3 axes back and force. The pins are so perfect that you will immediately see if anything is out of order. Then repeat it from the other 3 sides.

Initially, I thought that everything was fine, but then I found two bent pins. Now I’m pretty sure that I bent them when I was trying to pull the CPU from the cooler using my hands and my fingers on the side bent them. One pin was just slightly bent. Basically, instead of being perpendicular to the CPU, it was around 80 degrees. I was able to put it in position. And there is a hint for doing this.

I used a very small flathead screwdriver for the iFixit set. You need to firmly put the end of the screwdriver so it will rest on the CPU and then bend the screwdriver in the direction you want. Never use the end of the screwdriver to push the end of the pin in the direction you want. It is very easy to apply too much force and break the pin from the CPU.

The situation was much worse with the second pin. I simply couldn’t see the direction it was bent. All these pins look like they are covered with gold. And the bright light makes them shine quite a lot. And my eyesight is not what it used to be. And they are quite small.

Anyway, that boy was my eyes. I explained to him what I wanted to do and he directed me eventually I did it and now all the pins were straight and almost perfectly aligned. I placed it back in the CPU sockets and decided to try to power it without the CPU cooler.

And there is the trick of how you do it. Firstly you need to keep one of your fingers on top of the CPU. It is a very critical part. You should not lift it even for a very short time when a computer is powered on. Then power your computer on and immediately move your second hand to the power off switch. I suggest immediately powering it off to make sure that you can power it off. If you do it a second time, make sure to give the CPU enough time to cool off.

This trick works because heat spread on your CPU has a certain thermal inertia and it will require a couple of seconds to overheat and you will have time to power it off when you fill high temperature. You will feel that the temperature is rising very rapidly and it will almost immediately reach 50C (around 122F). When you feel it - immediately cut the power off.

Anyway, in my case, the temperature started to rise quickly but I was able to see a picture on my monitor just moments before I switched the power off. Thank god, the CPU was fine. But it didn’t work when I placed my CPU in his system. It was heating up but quite slowly.

And tried a few different things like resetting BIOS, and trying different memory sticks but the result was the same. So it is the motherboard or power supply. I decided that it was a motherboard because everything worked fine before he started to mess with the new CPU and it is quite hard to damage the power supply from the motherboard.

I could try my power supply but to be honest it was my work day and I already spent like 3 hours of work time so I decided that it was worth trying the new motherboard because I simply don’t have time to unplug everything and then plug everything back. Also, there was a chance that I could damage my system again and I thought that I had enough risk for one day.

Anyway, a few days later he brought the new motherboard and second 5000 series CPU. I was expecting that he would contact me before buying a new motherboard but he didn’t. It was the same motherboard, just more space in BIOS so it can support pretty much any AMD CPU from 1000 to 5000 series. But luckily for us, it also has a BIOS flashback feature and debug LED!

So I flashed the latest BIOS and installed a new CPU. But to my surprise, it stuck again with the same DRAM LED lit. Everything looked exactly the same. The new CPU was barely warm. We tried a second CPU and we had the same results.

At that moment I thought that I made a mistake and it was a power supply. But before that, I decided to try to exhaust all possibilities. So I reset the BIOS and then tried a different memory stick. And when I changed the memory stick, the CPU became very hot, and different LEDs lit up. So it looks like the old memory wasn’t compatible with the new CPU.

Then we put back his video card and plugged it into my monitor. Then we waited a bit to allow the CPU to cool off. Then we tried again and we saw a picture on the monitor and immediately switched it off. Success at last!

It turned out that he had an issue with the motherboard and that memory somehow was not compatible with a new CPU. I thought that the 5000 series already ironed out all memory issues but it turns out that it didn’t.

And funny thing is that sometime before I tried that memory set that works fine in the 3000 series and on the 5000 series on my Ryzen 2600X and it does not work properly at 3200 MHz or higher even though that module was rated for 3600 MHz. Anyway, I gave him my 3600 module kit and I took his 3200 kit and everything worked just fine after that.

What did I learn here? Well, I learned a lot. Always buy a motherboard with debug LEDs. It will save you quite a lot of time. The next thing is to buy a motherboard with a flashback BIOS feature. It saves even more time.

Next, there is always a chance that you will have multiple problems. It is rare but it happened. And last thing you need to check everything first before blaming the next part. When the new CPU didn’t start in the new motherboard, I was ready to blame the power supply, but I still decided to check everything from the beginning. I even reset the BIOS. Imagine my shame if he bought a new power supply and it still does not work.

Anyway, I hope it will help someone.