CPU or motherboard toasted?

[Rhodry_Devenith]

The other day I was trying to replace the thermal paste on my processor and I had a little boo-boo... When I tried to pull the heatsink & fan off my CPU it was melded together and I ended up pulling the processor out of the motherboard without releasing it from its socket on accident. Some of the pins on the processor got bent so I used tweezers and a magnifying glass to straighten them back out, plugged it back into the socket replaced heatsink etc but now my display won't recognize input when I turn the PC on. I'm trying to figure out if it's the CPU that died or if it's the motherboard socket. Does anyone know a reliable way to tell?

 

[Tradesman1]

Test CPU in another mobo or get another CPU to put in your mobo - could well be both if you broke off a pin or pins in the socket

 

[Rhodry_Devenith]

Test CPU in another mobo or get another CPU to put in your mobo - could well be both if you broke off a pin or pins in the socket

Hm, I was hoping there might be a way to know without having more hardware. I don't have any other motherboards with the same socket available, or any spare CPUs of the same socket type to do that type of testing. I do know that none of the pins broke off (examined the surface thoroughly with a magnifying glass). I guess if I need more hardware it would be better to buy the motherboard first as I could potentially return it if I unboxed it, whereas that might not be the case with a processor...

 

[Calvin7]

How to remove / uninstall an AMD processor and HSF unit:
http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/pages/howtoreplaceamdcpunhsf.aspx

Note! Twist in a clock and anti-clockwise rotational direction, which creates a shear force in the thermal interface. Failure to break the adhesion seal between the HSF and the processor may result in pulling the processor out of the socket, possibly resulting in processor and / or socket damage.

In the future, you may want to move away from using thermal pads and start using thermal compound.
Artic Silver 5
https://www.neweggbusiness.com/product/product.aspx?item=9b-35-100-007&tpk=9b-35-100-007

Route to Thermal Compound Instructions
http://www.arcticsilver.com/methods.html