[SOLVED] Absolutely messed up Ryzen installation - what to do now?

[nekminnit]

I experienced pretty much the same thing these guys did and have no idea what to do:

View: https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/7j1kyu/amd_ryzen_please_learn_from_my_mistakes/

Will AMD help me

I bought a Ryzen 7 2700X and put on the stock cooler wraith prism to which I opened the UEFI Bios and I was getting 50’C even to my stupid 14 year old brain that clicked something’s not right so I thought the Thermal waste was the suspect and while removing the cooler from my motherboard the Ther...

linustechtips.com

View: https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/63qwa7/psa_if_using_the_wraith_spiremax_clean_the_stock/


I bent at least 5 pins but none snapped off. If I can bend them back and fit the CPU into the socket, is there a chance it will work fine? I am scared to reinstall the AMD Wraith cooler because of the extremely sticky thermal paste, so should I buy some aftermarket paste and use that instead? Also how the hell do you screw down the AMD Spire cooler without it sliding around on the CPU, spreading the thermal paste??

 

[Gmoney06ss]

If you can repair the pins, there is high possibility it will work fine. As long as they don't break off.

You absolutely want to get new thermal paste ad you've already installed the cooler once. Never reuse thermal paste.

Can't help with cooler install as I've never personally dealt with ryzen chips before.

 

[CountMike]

All good TIMs are sticky, the secret to taking cooler off is to twist it left and right until it unsticks. even better to be worm at that time.

 

[Rogue Leader]

All good TIMs are sticky, the secret to taking cooler off is to twist it left and right until it unsticks. even better to be worm at that time.

This is a good tip. Run the system for a couple minutes, shut it off, and then immediately try and remove the cooler. Should be warm enough to break the bond much easier.

 

[InvalidError]

Never reuse thermal paste.

Reusing paste is fine as long as the aftermarket paste hasn't been in place long enough for the oil and solids to separate, especially since IHS where contact with the heatsink isn't as critical unless aiming for high OC which is mostly pointless with Ryzen 2xxx which has very little OC headroom past 4.1GHz. Pre-applied pastes on the other hand don't have enough oil in them to get a meaningful second chance.

The paste on my CPU (white goo out of a 10+ years old tube) has been reused multiple times from swapping between my i5-3470 and a friend's i7-2600k. Scraped the paste off the CPU and HSF, put it back on the middle of the other CPU, re-installed HSF, ran my friend's CPU for a couple of days, got a crash, put my own CPU to test stability, put my friend's CPU back in to confirm that my computer only crashes with his CPU, rinse and repeat a few more times. Still perfectly fine a year after the last CPU swap.

 

[nekminnit]

Reusing paste is fine as long as the aftermarket paste hasn't been in place long enough for the oil and solids to separate, especially since IHS where contact with the heatsink isn't as critical unless aiming for high OC which is mostly pointless with Ryzen 2xxx which has very little OC headroom past 4.1GHz. Pre-applied pastes on the other hand don't have enough oil in them to get a meaningful second chance.

The paste on my CPU (white goo out of a 10+ years old tube) has been reused multiple times from swapping between my i5-3470 and a friend's i7-2600k. Scraped the paste off the CPU and HSF, put it back on the middle of the other CPU, re-installed HSF, ran my friend's CPU for a couple of days, got a crash, put my own CPU to test stability, put my friend's CPU back in to confirm that my computer only crashes with his CPU, rinse and repeat a few more times. Still perfectly fine a year after the last CPU swap.

Is it alright if I boot the PC without the CPU cooler just to check if it runs?

 

[InvalidError]

Is it alright if I boot the PC without the CPU cooler just to check if it runs?

I wouldn't recommend that, the CPU will go into thermal throttling if not thermal shutdown within seconds.

If you absolutely want to do a power-up test without having to buy thermal paste first, almost anything is substantially better than nothing. Even a small dab of toothpaste will do for a very short term test. (Many white toothpastes contain aluminum oxide particles for polishing. Same stuff used in many cheaper thermal pastes, especially those intended for applications where long-term stability outweighs performance.)

 

[nekminnit]

I wouldn't recommend that, the CPU will go into thermal throttling if not thermal shutdown within seconds.

If you absolutely want to do a power-up test without having to buy thermal paste first, almost anything is substantially better than nothing. Even a small dab of toothpaste will do for a very short term test. (Many white toothpastes contain aluminum oxide particles for polishing. Same stuff used in many cheaper thermal pastes, especially those intended for applications where long-term stability outweighs performance.)

I tried bending the pins back and the CPU didn't fit into the socket. Should I keep bending or get a replacement?

 

[InvalidError]

I tried bending the pins back and the CPU didn't fit into the socket. Should I keep bending or get a replacement?

If you mean replacement as in returning your current CPU for another one, damage from user error is usually not covered by the warranty and you may get caught. If you mean writing off this one and buying another, then there is no harm in trying to see if you can massage the pins into fitting again before ordering another.