Motherboard heatsink (Southbridge) Falls off!!!???

[fattony]

A nice little story here:

A few days ago I was upgrading my system again putting in a Gig stick of RAM to bring my system up to 1.5GB of RAM now, and when I opened up the case and began dusting I noticed something had come loose I thought I was just seeing things, but out of the corner of my eye, while dusting the video card, i noticed a nice heatsink and FELL off of the motherboard, the Pin that holds the heatsink in place with springs one had come out.

How? No clue, but I proceeded to look for the pin found it eventually stuck it back into the solder points - yes it sprung out - and shoved it as hard as I could, then I placed the heatsink back in place started to apply the spring into place and WOOPS, came out again cut my finger and lost the pin. I never knew that Thermal paste was soo sticky you can take a guess as to what is temporarily holding it in place.

Anyways HP/Compaq, doesn't know how to work on computers obviously because that heatsink must have been off for a couple days before I noticed it, luckilly I picked up more RAM otherwise I may have been smelling some nice smoke right now.

New project: Need a new motherboard, Processor, Power Supply, Vid Card - AMD Socket 939 is what I decided I was looking for, my Compaq case was built with a Micro-ATX board so most likely that is what I will look for. 64 3200+ is perfect, 550+ watt PS, and a $100 GeForce 7 series is what I am looking for. SLI preferabally.

[SlowRoasted]

so is the processor fried now? You might try a strong rubber band/wire/string on the heatsink. Not sure about your motherboard, but it would work on mine.

[fattony]

Funny thing is, the computer is still 100% functional, and the heatsink sits on the chip just fine with only the paste... I will just need to hammer the piece in once I find it again flung off in the board somewhere.

[Sliker_Hawk]

You mean the chipset heatsink?
The same thing happened to me, but I've had the same motherboard for about five years, so I suppose it's just normal. Mine's right above my graphic card; I just heard a click from inside the computer, the music I was listening to hung, and then my screen went blank. It must've touched some tracks on the card... Anyway, the pins holding it in came out aswell, so I soldered those back in. Next time I opened it to install my DVD drive (a few months later), I noticed it was sitting on top of the graphics card again. Don't know where the pins went this time, either. I've just left it out on a shelf. I suppose I could wear it as a relic to Chaintech.

It was putting loads of pressure on the pins... Dunno how they held in as long as they did.

[Anogar]

Thermal paste, when left for a long time, can be quite the adhesive. I've had HSFs that get completely stuck to the CPU headspreader and are a pain to remove. It's definately not great that your heatsink came off, but as long as it's making good contact, it should be fine. Keep in mind that your computer would probably work for a period of time with no southbridge heatsink at all, so you're going to want to check the temps and make sure everything is okay. Also, Thermal paste is meant to ensure good contact, it isn't meant to be spread on like peanut butter. :P Careful you don't put too much.

[fattony]

The paste lol thats a good one Anogar, is actually what was originally on it and yeah it just sprung right off same story as Slikers'. Except I didn't notice it until I opened up the case, anyways next paycheck or so and I will have someone else install my motherboard and be done with all HP only components within my computer.

That is funny that they just spring right out of there, mine also was sitting on the video card but no damage caused to either component luckilly or I may have had to accelerate my plans a little sooner.