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Introduction |
One of the scariest parts of building your own computer can be handling your expensive new processor, especially the large plane of delicate pins on its underside. If you’ve accidentally dropped it, bumped it the wrong way, or installed it incorrectly—and now there’sbent some pins bent, fear not! In most cases, these pins can be bent back, and nobody has to know of your mishap. | | | Use this guide to straighten bent pins on your computer’s processor (CPU). | | '''Note: The level of severity of bent pins may varyvaries case to case, but the general process outlined in this guide is intended to be a catch-all. Some instances of bent pins may be unfixable, so use your judgement and proceed with caution. If your processor arrives already damaged, pursue an RMA before attempting to bend the pins back, possibly voiding your warranty.''' | | | '''Caution: CPU pins are extremely fragile, and although malleable, can only be bent a finite number of times before they have a chance of snapping off.''' | | | If a pin breaks off, consult a pinout diagram of your CPU to see if the pin happens to be a dummy pin. If this is the case, consider yourself lucky, and install and use your CPU normally. | | | This guide uses an AMD Ryzen 7 2700X as an example, but the process applies to all [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pin_grid_array|pin grid array (PGA)] CPUs, such as all AMD AM2, AM2+, AM3, AM3+, and AM4 socket CPUs. | | | '''Note:''' This guide doesn’t apply to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_grid_array|land grid array (LGA)] CPUs such as modern Intel CPUs, as the pins reside inside the motherboard socket instead of on the CPU itself. |
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