Train ride with PC, Heatsink fell completely off, now issues.

[rgx]

Firstly I'd like to say Hello and thank you for reading this in advance. When I arrived from the train I unpacked the desktop and noticed my heatsink was on the bottom of the tower unattached. I reattached it (fan working properly and seems ok), but in the process I noticed out of the 4 pins to hook to the board, 2 of them broke. My computer runs fine now, just whenever I open up any game / music program my pc goes crazy and lags and definitely doesn't run like it should. Is this due to the heatsink being without the 2 latches and not holding in properly, or maybe something else causing the computer to lag like crazy? It's driving my nuts how I can barely use my pc like I used to! Thanks.



Heatsink -

-Windows 7 (64 bit)
-BIOSTAR TP67XE (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
-Intel Core i5-2300 Sandy Bridge 2.8GHz (3.1GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor
-PNY VCGGTX550TXPB-OC GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video
-Antec BP550 Plus 550W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
-8g RAM



Also here is an image of my diagnostics when using any game / music program

 

[USAFRet]

Is this due to the heatsink being without the 2 latches and not holding in properly

Yes. It needs to be latched on at all 4 corners. You don't have a good seal between the CPU face and the cooler face.

And since it came off, new thermal paste. Clean off ALL the old, and apply new. Reseat the cooler.

 

[MauveCloud]

Reseating the cooler won't work if 2 of the pins broke. You need to buy a new cpu cooler.

 

[USAFRet]

Reseating the cooler won't work if 2 of the pins broke. You need to buy a new cpu cooler.

True. Time for a new one.

 

[rgx]

Is this due to the heatsink being without the 2 latches and not holding in properly

Yes. It needs to be latched on at all 4 corners. You don't have a good seal between the CPU face and the cooler face.

And since it came off, new thermal paste. Clean off ALL the old, and apply new. Reseat the cooler.

Thanks for the quick reply! Do you think that the heatsink alone is causing my problems (the issues with the lag and whatnot)? Meaning that I have to buy a new one and reattach with the thermal paste and pins.

 

[MauveCloud]

With those temperature readings, it's definitely the heatsink causing the problems. A loose heatsink is only marginally better than no heatsink at all, and the temperatures will cause the processor to reduce speed to compensate, or even shut down.

 

[rgx]

With those temperature readings, it's definitely the heatsink causing the problems. A loose heatsink is only marginally better than no heatsink at all, and the temperatures will cause the processor to reduce speed to compensate, or even shut down.

I see, thank you. I didn't realize that the heatsink being slightly loose would cause these temperatures, even though the fan still works.

 

[USAFRet]

With those temperature readings, it's definitely the heatsink causing the problems. A loose heatsink is only marginally better than no heatsink at all, and the temperatures will cause the processor to reduce speed to compensate, or even shut down.

I see, thank you. I didn't realize that the heatsink being slightly loose would cause these temperatures, even though the fan still works.

Being loose, there is no thermal connection between the CPU face and the heatsink face. The fan is merely blowing air around.

The heatsink pulls heat from the CPU into the cooler fins. The fan blows air over those fins to cool them down.

Any gap will cause temps like that.

 

[4Ryan6]

With those temperature readings, it's definitely the heatsink causing the problems. A loose heatsink is only marginally better than no heatsink at all, and the temperatures will cause the processor to reduce speed to compensate, or even shut down.

I see, thank you. I didn't realize that the heatsink being slightly loose would cause these temperatures, even though the fan still works.

Being loose, there is no thermal connection between the CPU face and the heatsink face. The fan is merely blowing air around.

The heatsink pulls heat from the CPU into the cooler fins. The fan blows air over those fins to cool them down.

Any gap will cause temps like that.

Affirmative!

 

[rgx]

Turns out the heatsink was the sole problem. I bought one for $15 from a local shop, attached the thermal paste, and everything works as should again! Thanks for the support guys!