Question How to tell if bent motherboard pin is really fixed? (z390/LGA1151)

[Umar M]

As the title says, a board I bought on eBay came with 2 bent pins that weren't shown in the auction. Anyways long story short I think I managed to align them again and have booted up windows and everything seems ok.

I'm just wondering if there's a way to test them to make sure they are ok? I got a decent deal on this motherboard and just want to know if I should return it and search for another before the return period is over or if I'm ok with keeping it. I can add before after pics also if necessary.

It's a gigabyte aorus z390 pro with i7 8700k.

I'm currently running Prime 95 Small FFTs test. Been 100% load for 40 mins as of posting.

 

[USAFRet]

It looks fixed enough.
I suppose you could find the actual pin assignment for that socket, and see exactly what function flowed from those 2 pins.

One of my boards a few years ago:
Before - No boot

After - boot success

3 yrs later, still going strong in my HTPC.

 

[Umar M]

It looks fixed enough.
I suppose you could find the actual pin assignment for that socket, and see exactly what function flowed from those 2 pins.

3 yrs later, still going strong in my HTPC.

That's good news, I was just hoping to be able to find out if its working now before my chance to return it is up...but if you did the same thing and are still ok perhaps I can cross my fingers.

Is there any other test I could do besides P95 Small FTT?

 

[USAFRet]

Is there any other test I could do besides P95 Small FTT?

General use?

 

[drea.drechsler]

That's good news, I was just hoping to be able to find out if its working now before my chance to return it is up...but if you did the same thing and are still ok perhaps I can cross my fingers.

Is there any other test I could do besides P95 Small FTT?

Try a memory test, something that will exercise as much of the memory as possible so that you'll know it's hitting every memory data and control line.

But the best thing to do is compare to a pin-out chart (something like below, but I'm not sure it's correct for your socket) and determine what the pin function is. If it's something like VSS or VCC there are a lot of redundant pins so one or two not making reliable contact will probably not cause a major issue.

https://techgage.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Intel-Coffee-Lake-Pin-Diagram.jpg

 

[Umar M]

General use?

Was hoping something that could help me determine soon so I could decide whether to keep or not. But agree that sometimes just general use you'll do something that you wouldnt catch during a test.

Try a memory test, something that will exercise as much of the memory as possible so that you'll know it's hitting every memory data and control line.

But the best thing to do is compare to a pin-out chart (something like below, but I'm not sure it's correct for your socket) and determine what the pin function is. If it's something like VSS or VCC there are a lot of redundant pins so one or two not making reliable contact will probably not cause a major issue.

https://techgage.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Intel-Coffee-Lake-Pin-Diagram.jpg

Im giving intel extreme burn test a shot, there's an extreme test option and you are able to select MAX for memory to test it all. Thanks for the tip, i wouldnt have thought to test all the memory. I have 32gb installed in 4 slots so that should cover that.

I took a look at the chart and I'm not able to tell what one of the pins is as its blurry. This is a higer res version but still illegible (https://en.wikichip.org/w/images/a/a4/coffee_lake_pin_diagram.png )

• one is 7 across from the bottom right and 3 up - VSS
• 2nd one is 6 across from the bottom right and 4 up - cannot read the purple square
  • diagonal (up and right) to the previous pin

EDIT: Going by the clearer skylake pin diagram this second pin could possibly be EDP_TXP [1}
https://en.wikichip.org/w/images/9/9f/skylake_pin_diagram.png

 

[drea.drechsler]

.....
Im giving intel extreme burn test a shot, there's an extreme test option and you are able to select MAX for memory to test it all. Thanks for the tip, i wouldnt have thought to test all the memory. I have 32gb installed in 4 slots so that should cover that.
.....

So that VSS pin is just one of the many pins bringing ground onto the chip so it's probably no big loss. I can't find a higher-res copy of that diagram either to figure out what the other one is.

Forgot this...also be sure to check PCIe devices fed by the CPU, which would probably include the GPU and an NVME. They should be working (else you'd have noticed pretty quickly) but it may be with reduced bandwidth...like the GPU only PCIe x 8 or an NVME drive PCIe x 2, for instance. You can use GPUz to check GPU bandwidth, and Crystal DiskInfo to check NVME bandwidth.

Same goes for any other peripherals and as well the iGPU to include the HDMI audio it provides, if that's important. You may not care about them but if you find you've lost, say, HDMI audio for the iGPU you'll be comforted to know exactly what that last pin affected.

 

[Umar M]

So that VSS pin is just one of the many pins bringing ground onto the chip so it's probably no big loss. I can't find a higher-res copy of that diagram either to figure out what the other one is.

I'd hazard a guess at Embedded Display Port (edp) as that comes up on the wiki page as a hit....I am currently using the iGPU via HDMI as I didnt install the video card yet. I suppose I should put in the video card and make sure the PCIEX slot is running at x16

Forgot this...also be sure to check PCIe devices fed by the CPU, which would probably include the GPU and an NVME. They should be working (else you'd have noticed pretty quickly) but it may be with reduced bandwidth...like the GPU only PCIe x 8 or an NVME drive PCIe x 2, for instance. Same goes for any other peripherals and as well the iGPU to include the HDMI audio it provides, if that's important.

You may not care about them but if you find you've lost, say, HDMI audio you'll be comforted to know exactly what that last pin was connected to.

I'll need to test the HDMI audio via the iGPU somehow, and i dont currently have an m.2 ssd to test that as im just using an older Sata SSD. And agreed I'd be happy to know if I've lost something exactly what it is, but hoping the realignment went without issue, the cpu bracket does put the CPU down quite hard into the pins so they must have made contact.