[SOLVED] potential damage from shipping

kcinlober

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Jun 16, 2012
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18,510
Recently I moved from the uk to germany. I shipped (with dpd) a desktop that I had built back in 2015 (https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/CFYwyk), but during transit, somehow, the intel cpu heatsink and fan ripped off of the motherboard.

to prepare for shipping I took out the graphics card and memory, and packed the inside of the case with antistatic bubble wrap fairly tightly. if anything, I worried i had packed too much in. i still had the box and styrofoam packaging for the case, a fractal design core 1500, so i shipped it in that box with a few scarves as a layer in-between the syrofoam and box.

weirdly, the outside appeared undamaged, and the case itself looked great on the outside (the styrofoam keeps the case body from ever touching the outer cardboard). however, during transit the intel heatsink and fan unit ripped off of the motherboard breaking the pins that keep the unit attached to the motherboard and cpu. It is odd bc I had made sure to pack so there was some pressure from the bubblewrap on the inside. In addition, the 'drawers' for the hard drives (i have 2) became completely dislodged and bent as well, even breaking one of the SATA connectors. no other visible damage inside.

I still don't know exactly how only these things got damaged, but my actual question is about how to detect if any other damage occurred. To test it still worked, i placed the heatsink and fan back on the cpu (but without it being secured), put the memory back in, connected the hard drives and booted it. It seemed to start up ok with no errors with the drives themselves.

Should I buy a new cooler, or just the replacement pins for the stock intel one (and thermal paste) and just wait and see if anything else comes up? Should I run a benchmark or stress test first? Has anyone had experience claiming damages from dpd?

Thanks for any advice!
 
Solution
I would just try getting it up and running.

Im not sure DPD are at fault and doubt you can prove they did anything wrong even if they did. Really when shipping a desktop pc the cooler should be removed or fully supported. A piece of metal hanging off the motherboard is very susceptible to damage from just vibration caused by road or air travel even if it wasn’t mistreated.
I would just try getting it up and running.

Im not sure DPD are at fault and doubt you can prove they did anything wrong even if they did. Really when shipping a desktop pc the cooler should be removed or fully supported. A piece of metal hanging off the motherboard is very susceptible to damage from just vibration caused by road or air travel even if it wasn’t mistreated.
 
Solution

kcinlober

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Jun 16, 2012
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thanks! yes it seemed to be running ok (obviously i have to get some new thermal paste and pins for the cooler). I thought how i packed it would keep the cooler fairly supported, but I guess in the future I will just remove it before shipping.