Bended back bent pins, seems to be fine?

[jossrik]

Hey everyone,
Thank you in advance for reading. When installing my motherboard I accidentally bent a couple pins on the front USB 3.0 connector, Just toNight, I took my machine apart and bent them back and hooked up my front panel USB 3.0 (unplugged from the bottom USB 3.0 connector, and plugged it into the front). Everything plugs in fine, no hard to plug in or anything, so I think everything is all right, I know the pins weren't broken when I straightened them, but one of the two bent pins looked like it was bowed, rather than just bent to the side slightly (couldn't plug in before, didn't try and cram it on, but couldn't really see in there after putting the motherboard in the case), figured it'd just be easier to use the other connector on the motherboard, and I was right, it was torture bending those two pins back. Anyway, the question, finally, how much damage can it potentially do, bending the pins back like that? Next computer I build I will get a new case, but This motherboard and CPU will stay in it for a while. I want to go real water cooled (I have the H100 all ready), but I'll hold off on that if I could have damaged anything in there for any reason. Should I go back to the other plug? I've bent pins back on CPUs and more recently on motherboards with good results, at least in the short term, is there anything long term I should be looking for?

 

[007agentHP]

no really bad effects. if it works, it will work until they are bent again.

 

[jossrik]

Sounds reasonable enough. I know if you bend them too much, too far or too often they can break off, other than that, I wasn't sure if there was an "other than that".

Thank you for the reply. Sets my mind at ease, I just hope I remember when I goto sell it on eBay to mention that the pins there were bent but bent back, and everything works just fine. Won't be for a few years though... The old memory isn't that great lately.

 

[jsmithepa]

Meh, those header pins are "relatively" soft, so unless u intentional go back&forth like 20 times, ur fine. Now bend the CPU socket's pins and I am outta here.

 

[jossrik]

I've bent back socket pins too with good results, but never as far out of whack as the USB pins were. The socket pins I've bent back were just out of line and you gotta be real real careful. Also, you have to bring them too far the other direction to get them straight, at least in my limited experience.