Have bent pins damaged my CPU? Will a damaged CPU break the new motherboard?

[pish_flaps]

I have committed the cardinal sin of all noob errors building my PC... I bent the socket pins. When building, I took the protective plastic off the socket, then tried to replace it to keep it safe (!) but bent the pins while doing it. Hoping it would still work, I fitted the CPU/heatsink etc. and tried to fire it up. Naturally, it didn't work. I returned the motherboard in the hope that they'd accept the return and give me a new mobo, but they weren't as stupid as I had hoped! I will now have to buy a new motherboard, but am being more careful this time, so thought I'd ask a couple of questions to the good people of Tom's Hardware forums.

What is the likelihood that I've fried my CPU connecting it to the damaged mobo? CPU is an i5-6600k, Z170 chipset. I turned the power on several times to try and get it working. The CPU fan would start going full speed for a second, then slowing right down. System obviously didn't post and power wasn't on for longer than a minute in any case. There aren't any burn marks etc. on the CPU.

Also, if the CPU is damaged, and I buy another mobo to try it in, will the damaged CPU break the new motherboard? I spent £160 on the mobo that I broke. If I have broken the £190 CPU and am about to break another £160 board, I think I may cry!

Slightly unrelated: I did notice some physical strain on the edges of the CPU from a very tight-fitting heatsink/fan. It creaked when I put it in and there are two "bites" where the heatsink attaches, though the CPU isn't bent.

Any advice very much appreciated!

 

[amd4lif3]

damn son i feel for you ok so remove the heatsink and cpu then try to straighten out the pins very carefully with a tooth pick its not likely you have fried the cpu it just would not power the cpu

 

[amd4lif3]

poor noob

 

[amd4lif3]

did you even follow the arrows tho cpus can only go in one way

 

[combinebasic]

I understand you situation, if the pin of ZIF socket of intel processor mobo, this is very badly experience, you can't align it again. But if you power-up even you know that the pins of socket is bent you maid it very wrong. The problem is the mobo the processor even the RAM and the PSU. I suggest do not test the processor chip in your new mobo, probably it will cause failure to your new mobo. Because it was shorted during power-up because of the bent pins, like wise to your mobo. The PSU try to test it using a multitester if the voltage output is normal like the 5volts.

 

[R_1]

I have had success with a mechanical pencil tip. the metal tube the lead slides through can gently straighten a pin. .5 or .3 mm depending on the CPU.
ouch.
My noob mistake was turning on an athlon 1Ghz testbed without a heatsink. I can still hear the sound made when the die cracked. We were all noobs once, it's how ya learn.

 

[amd4lif3]

I have had success with a mechanical pencil tip. the metal tube the lead slides through can gently straighten a pin. .5 or .3 mm depending on the CPU.
ouch.
My noob mistake was turning on an athlon 1Ghz testbed without a heatsink. I can still hear the sound made when the die cracked. We were all noobs once, it's how ya learn.

aghh the agony ahahahha lol i spent years of youtube in a matter of years and have never broke a cpu or mobo as a result pride lol i couldnt bare to break her she is my life

 

[R_1]

I have had success with a mechanical pencil tip. the metal tube the lead slides through can gently straighten a pin. .5 or .3 mm depending on the CPU.
ouch.
My noob mistake was turning on an athlon 1Ghz testbed without a heatsink. I can still hear the sound made when the die cracked. We were all noobs once, it's how ya learn.

aghh the agony ahahahha lol i spent years of youtube in a matter of years and have never broke a cpu or mobo as a result pride lol i couldnt bare to break her she is my life

I was in school getting A+, 2001. was youtube a thing then?

 

[amd4lif3]

oh lol it was made in 2005 but there are always blogs those have been around for a long time eheh

 

[pish_flaps]

Thanks everyone - I'll keep this open for now as I'd like to hear a bit more. I'm not going to touch the pins on the old mobo. Some chipsets might be OK to try to fix, but LGA1151 pins are so tiny, fragile and close together it is impossible to fix them. Mobo is dead and I accept that! Only two responses so far has answered the bit about "how likely is it that my CPU is fried and will that break a new mobo?" Obviously I didn't want to hear "yes the CPU is fried, don't even try it in a new mobo because you'll break that too!" If that really is the case, I will buy a new processor too (very reluctantly of course), but some more second opinions would be nice! I'm really hoping the CPU is OK, but I suppose there's no way of telling, so what are the chances it's OK after being powered up on bent pins? If it is broken, how likely would it be to break a new mobo? Could my other things be damaged too, like RAM? I know the PSU is fine because I put it back in my old setup.

 

[R_1]

I presumed the pins were on the cpu ala AMD. don't try a pencil on an 1151.

 

[spray2000]

Dude, You can still put the cpu in just make sure that all the pins are still there.. Even if you're losing some pins it will be ok to put it back in your motherboard. It won't hurt your system it just won't post.

 

[pish_flaps]

Thanks Spray2000, so anyone else want to confirm that putting the CPU in a damaged 1151 socket is unlikely to have fried my i5-6600k? So I'm OK to try it in a new mobo without risking breaking the new mobo?

 

[amd4lif3]

yeah id agree man its soo unlikely to fry your chip have you not seen videos where linus boots up a motherboard and has bent the pins he fixed the motherboard by unbending pins and then used the same cpu and it worked, the worst thing is the motherboard stays broken thats all his cpus never break

 

[pish_flaps]

Sweet, right. Thanks everyone! I'll get a new mobo and hope for the best!

 

[amd4lif3]

goodluck

 

[pish_flaps]

Just thought I'd post back since I'm always asking for advice and never giving much back... turns out there was nothing wrong with the CPU (maybe the original mobo would even have worked). The mobo and RAM weren't speaking to each other so mobo needed a BIOS flash. Who knew! I looked at a few checklists for reasons your PC might not be posting and that wasn't on any of them. Hopefully this will help somebody at some point!

 

[amd4lif3]

this mobo was new and needed a flash ??? odd

 

[amd4lif3]

makes sense though

 

[pish_flaps]

I thought so too amd4lif3, It's a Z170 board and DDR4 RAM - how old can they be?! But there you go....