Well I did it...

[Zeb_Carter]

So, I was cleaning the fans on my desk top today. I even pulled the cooling sink on the CPU and cleaned the goop thermal paste off to put new stuff on. I figured I could clean the CPU easier if I took it out of the socket. Big mistake. Not the taking it out, but trying to put it back in. Several of the pins and they aren't really pins any more. More like...springs with a point that presses up against the CPU contact.

Well several of those contacts somehow got bent out of place. I tried to bend them back, but they are so tiny and my eye sight isn't what it used to be. Well long story short...that socket is fucked up. Which means the motherboard is now crap.

Ordered a used one just like I have now. $155. Now I just wait and hope the CPU didn't get fried too.

Typing on this laptop is not fun.

 

[PennLady]

Hope it all works out for you. No fun being between computers.

OTOH, I'm partial to laptops. But then I may have smaller hands.

 

[NotWise]

My condolences. I'm surprised when I hear that someone other than me is still using a desktop at home. They're so far off the market right now that I think the quality for desktop motherboards, cabinets and power supplies may not be what it once was. Some higher-performance gamer equipment is good stuff, but its fairly expensive.

I need to clean my desktops twice a year and I've lost two in the last couple years by failing to clean. One was just negligence and the other choked after a remodelling project flooded its area with plaster dust. I've only once felt much need to replace the thermal compound. I figure pulling the CPU is just asking for trouble.

 

[Handley_Page]

So, I was cleaning the fans on my desk top today. I even pulled the cooling sink on the CPU and cleaned the goop thermal paste off to put new stuff on. I figured I could clean the CPU easier if I took it out of the socket. Big mistake. Not the taking it out, but trying to put it back in. Several of the pins and they aren't really pins any more. More like...springs with a point that presses up against the CPU contact.

Well several of those contacts somehow got bent out of place. I tried to bend them back, but they are so tiny and my eye sight isn't what it used to be. Well long story short...that socket is fucked up. Which means the motherboard is now crap.

Ordered a used one just like I have now. $155. Now I just wait and hope the CPU didn't get fried too.

Typing on this laptop is not fun.

Pulling the CPU is very unwise, in my experience (and now yours, I suspect).
There's a rule about it for those who do not have a box of working spares:

If it works, don't fix it.​

My condolences. I'm surprised when I hear that someone other than me is still using a desktop at home. They're so far off the market right now that I think the quality for desktop motherboards, cabinets and power supplies may not be what it once was. Some higher-performance gamer equipment is good stuff, but its fairly expensive.

I need to clean my desktops twice a year and I've lost two in the last couple years by failing to clean. One was just negligence and the other choked after a remodelling project flooded its area with plaster dust. I've only once felt much need to replace the thermal compound. I figure pulling the CPU is just asking for trouble.

As you may know, I've just managed to put my Tower back together.
I've found that a clean paint brush and decent vacuum cleaner can work workers.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Youth is the time to discover our limits. Puters need perma-lubes like the cars have.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Pulling the CPU is very unwise, in my experience (and now yours, I suspect).
There's a rule about it for those who do not have a box of working spares:

If it works, don't fix it.​

As you may know, I've just managed to put my Tower back together.
I've found that a clean paint brush and decent vacuum cleaner can work workers.

Cleaning is an old cure. 35 years ago I got an ancient Collins R390 radio. It was made like a tank but fulla dirt and wasp nests and other crap. A paint brush and a vacuum cleaned it enough to turn the power ON. Several more cleanings made it work again.

 

[lovecraft68]

I have a lap top, but use a wireless keyboard so when I have to take the lap top somewhere the smaller keyboard drives me crazy.

 

[ishtat]

Four (Compaq) desktops in my office were affected by smoke from a small fire a few years ago.They never got hot but sucked through a lot of smoke that seemed to leave a sticky deposit. Insurers wrote them off but a friend suggested they might be cleanable and recommended a woman who specialised in restoring and resurrecting instuments.

She took the computers apart and sprayed the components with a tiny and very fine but high pressure warm spray which was largely water with what looked like dishwashing liquid. An amazing amount of gunk was cleaned off. She then recleaned them with what I think was pure water to remove the cleaning agent. Finally she spent forever drying everything out with a series of small fans.

Result. 3 of the four worked perfectly, the fourth was kaput. One is still used but only for the wages roll.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

Sorry Zeb.

For future reference, here are two articles (very similar) about how to physically clean your computer tower, keyboard, and mouse.

Computer Cleaning 101

How to Clean Your PC and More

For those who would like a couple other tips:

If you have cats, dogs, or a very dusty house, try NOT to keep your PC tower on the floor. If you must keep it on the floor, put something beneath it, a couple books, bricks, anything you have handy to raise the tower a few inches off the ground and it will stay cleaner.

This tip applies to laptops, too: Keep all those air holes clear. I've seen people overheat their laptops by setting them on top of lap pillow or on a bed comforter. CPUs get hot and obstructing the airflow can damage things. For desktop computers, careful shoving them up against a wall. They need to room to suck in air and expel it.

As Zeb unfortunately learned, it's seldom a good idea to pull the CPU. Trust me, things didn't get dirty between the CPU and the motherboard. However, the fan and heatsink resting on top of the CPU can get dirty. For others: you can remove the fan covering the heatsink of your CPU to clean it off. It either clips on or screws on. Removing that fan exposes the heatsink for easier cleaning, but please leave the actual chip in place.

IF you've pulled your CPU, search the web for how to correctly clean and reapply the thermal paste between the CPU and heatsink. When dropping your CPU back into place (you do that after cleaning off the paste and before putting the heatsink back in place) - look for matching triangles. CPU's are squares, but still fit in only one way. (Picture link showing what I mean)

If you've accidentally bent any of the many pins on the bottom of the CPU you shouldn't have removed: a mechanical pencil is your best friend for straightening bent pins. Just remove the lead. (Pic of mechanical pencil tip and Pic of bent CPU pins.

As for your motherboard, Zeb - brace yourself for potentially bad news. Some software (like Windows), authorizes itself per motherboard. Change the motherboard, and you could lose your license to Windows. As long as you're replacing your motherboard with the same make/model, you should be okay. Here's a good article that talks about Windows licensing: What Microsoft Won't Tell You.

If Windows doesn't think it's a legal copy after swapping out your motherboard - a call to Microsoft might fix things.

Good luck!

So, I was cleaning the fans on my desk top today. I even pulled the cooling sink on the CPU and cleaned the goop thermal paste off to put new stuff on. I figured I could clean the CPU easier if I took it out of the socket. Big mistake. Not the taking it out, but trying to put it back in. Several of the pins and they aren't really pins any more. More like...springs with a point that presses up against the CPU contact.

Well several of those contacts somehow got bent out of place. I tried to bend them back, but they are so tiny and my eye sight isn't what it used to be. Well long story short...that socket is fucked up. Which means the motherboard is now crap.

Ordered a used one just like I have now. $155. Now I just wait and hope the CPU didn't get fried too.

Typing on this laptop is not fun.

 

[TxRad]

Four (Compaq) desktops in my office were affected by smoke from a small fire a few years ago.They never got hot but sucked through a lot of smoke that seemed to leave a sticky deposit. Insurers wrote them off but a friend suggested they might be cleanable and recommended a woman who specialised in restoring and resurrecting instuments.

She took the computers apart and sprayed the components with a tiny and very fine but high pressure warm spray which was largely water with what looked like dishwashing liquid. An amazing amount of gunk was cleaned off. She then recleaned them with what I think was pure water to remove the cleaning agent. Finally she spent forever drying everything out with a series of small fans.

Result. 3 of the four worked perfectly, the fourth was kaput. One is still used but only for the wages roll.

Smoke usually contains a lot of acids and soot which can be conductive like graphite. What the acid doesn't eat, the soot shorts out. Soap and water works wonders but solvents are better as they evaporate faster.

 

[Handley_Page]

Sorry Zeb.

For future reference, here are two articles (very similar) about how to physically clean your computer tower, keyboard, and mouse.

Computer Cleaning 101

How to Clean Your PC and More

For those who would like a couple other tips:

If you have cats, dogs, or a very dusty house, try NOT to keep your PC tower on the floor. If you must keep it on the floor, put something beneath it, a couple books, bricks, anything you have handy to raise the tower a few inches off the ground and it will stay cleaner.

This tip applies to laptops, too: Keep all those air holes clear. I've seen people overheat their laptops by setting them on top of lap pillow or on a bed comforter. CPUs get hot and obstructing the airflow can damage things. For desktop computers, careful shoving them up against a wall. They need to room to suck in air and expel it.

As Zeb unfortunately learned, it's seldom a good idea to pull the CPU. Trust me, things didn't get dirty between the CPU and the motherboard. However, the fan and heatsink resting on top of the CPU can get dirty. For others: you can remove the fan covering the heatsink of your CPU to clean it off. It either clips on or screws on. Removing that fan exposes the heatsink for easier cleaning, but please leave the actual chip in place.

IF you've pulled your CPU, search the web for how to correctly clean and reapply the thermal paste between the CPU and heatsink. When dropping your CPU back into place (you do that after cleaning off the paste and before putting the heatsink back in place) - look for matching triangles. CPU's are squares, but still fit in only one way. (Picture link showing what I mean)

If you've accidentally bent any of the many pins on the bottom of the CPU you shouldn't have removed: a mechanical pencil is your best friend for straightening bent pins. Just remove the lead. (Pic of mechanical pencil tip and Pic of bent CPU pins.

As for your motherboard, Zeb - brace yourself for potentially bad news. Some software (like Windows), authorizes itself per motherboard. Change the motherboard, and you could lose your license to Windows. As long as you're replacing your motherboard with the same make/model, you should be okay. Here's a good article that talks about Windows licensing: What Microsoft Won't Tell You.

If Windows doesn't think it's a legal copy after swapping out your motherboard - a call to Microsoft might fix things.

Good luck!

A most useful contribution, Bucky.
Thank you.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Pulling the CPU is very unwise, in my experience (and now yours, I suspect).
There's a rule about it for those who do not have a box of working spares:

If it works, don't fix it.​

As you may know, I've just managed to put my Tower back together.
I've found that a clean paint brush and decent vacuum cleaner can work workers.

I normally wouldn't have, but the thermal paste had build up to the point it was starting to overflow out of socket. It needed to be cleaned. I wouldn't have had a problem but the damn thing weighed a ton and it slipped out of my fingers and hit the socket pins.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Sorry Zeb.

For future reference, here are two articles (very similar) about how to physically clean your computer tower, keyboard, and mouse.

Computer Cleaning 101

How to Clean Your PC and More

For those who would like a couple other tips:

If you have cats, dogs, or a very dusty house, try NOT to keep your PC tower on the floor. If you must keep it on the floor, put something beneath it, a couple books, bricks, anything you have handy to raise the tower a few inches off the ground and it will stay cleaner.

This tip applies to laptops, too: Keep all those air holes clear. I've seen people overheat their laptops by setting them on top of lap pillow or on a bed comforter. CPUs get hot and obstructing the airflow can damage things. For desktop computers, careful shoving them up against a wall. They need to room to suck in air and expel it.

As Zeb unfortunately learned, it's seldom a good idea to pull the CPU. Trust me, things didn't get dirty between the CPU and the motherboard. However, the fan and heatsink resting on top of the CPU can get dirty. For others: you can remove the fan covering the heatsink of your CPU to clean it off. It either clips on or screws on. Removing that fan exposes the heatsink for easier cleaning, but please leave the actual chip in place.

IF you've pulled your CPU, search the web for how to correctly clean and reapply the thermal paste between the CPU and heatsink. When dropping your CPU back into place (you do that after cleaning off the paste and before putting the heatsink back in place) - look for matching triangles. CPU's are squares, but still fit in only one way. (Picture link showing what I mean)

If you've accidentally bent any of the many pins on the bottom of the CPU you shouldn't have removed: a mechanical pencil is your best friend for straightening bent pins. Just remove the lead. (Pic of mechanical pencil tip and Pic of bent CPU pins.

As for your motherboard, Zeb - brace yourself for potentially bad news. Some software (like Windows), authorizes itself per motherboard. Change the motherboard, and you could lose your license to Windows. As long as you're replacing your motherboard with the same make/model, you should be okay. Here's a good article that talks about Windows licensing: What Microsoft Won't Tell You.

If Windows doesn't think it's a legal copy after swapping out your motherboard - a call to Microsoft might fix things.

Good luck!

Thanks Bucky, but I have been taking desktops and towers apart since 1995. I have even removed CPU's before without problem.

As for Windows...I have the original disk and key. I don't think I'll have a problem.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Aww, sorry Zeb, what a bummer.


(I did the exact same thing today with some IKEA flatpack shelves! fortunately IKEA are going to post me some replacement dowels. Although I think I might have to buy some needle-nosed pliers to extract the bits of dowel left in the shelves. That or use the implement I own which is meant for picking bones out of fish.)

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Aww, sorry Zeb, what a bummer.


(I did the exact same thing today with some IKEA flatpack shelves! fortunately IKEA are going to post me some replacement dowels. Although I think I might have to buy some needle-nosed pliers to extract the bits of dowel left in the shelves. That or use the implement I own which is meant for picking bones out of fish.)

Thanks.

A drill might be better.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

Thanks Bucky, but I have been taking desktops and towers apart since 1995. I have even removed CPU's before without problem.

As for Windows...I have the original disk and key. I don't think I'll have a problem.

Good luck, Zeb. Sounds as if you know what you're doing. Please be sure to post again when you that bad boy back up and running again.

 

[LadyVer]

So, I was cleaning the fans on my desk top today. I even pulled the cooling sink on the CPU and cleaned the goop thermal paste off to put new stuff on. I figured I could clean the CPU easier if I took it out of the socket. Big mistake. Not the taking it out, but trying to put it back in. Several of the pins and they aren't really pins any more. More like...springs with a point that presses up against the CPU contact.

Well several of those contacts somehow got bent out of place. I tried to bend them back, but they are so tiny and my eye sight isn't what it used to be. Well long story short...that socket is fucked up. Which means the motherboard is now crap.

Ordered a used one just like I have now. $155. Now I just wait and hope the CPU didn't get fried too.

Typing on this laptop is not fun.

Am glad I no longer have a desktop.

 

[ishtat]

Smoke usually contains a lot of acids and soot which can be conductive like graphite. What the acid doesn't eat, the soot shorts out. Soap and water works wonders but solvents are better as they evaporate faster.

Point taken about solvents. I think she was being conservative because these desktops had been 'geed' up with some additional components which she suspected may have contained or be partially fixed with glues or plastic cement compounds which in turn may have reacted with the use of solvents (may not of course!)

We figured it was best to see if we could have a crack at rescuing the kit, rather than rebuilding new units with the additional componentry.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Am glad I no longer have a desktop.

I'm lost without my big powerful desktop that can do things so fast you don't even have to ask the question. The answer is just there. Plus this little screen on the laptop sucks. Yes I could hookup the bigger screen from the desktop, but I don't have the right cabling and I don't feel like going to the store to get one.

I love my desktop. If all else fails, there are some for sale on ebay for cheap.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Thanks.

A drill might be better.

Any further advice on handheld power tools gratefully received

 

[49greg]

This thread made me think of an "Antiques Roadshow" (the US version) I saw earlier this week. An expert was discussing and old oil panting that someone's Mother In Law had cleaned with the cut end a potato that had been cut in half. It left some dried deposit on the painting.

The expert said that many professional restorers actually use spit and q-tips to clean paintings sometimes.

I wonder if it would work with the gunk build up in desktops some of y'all have mentioned?

I took my wife's old laptop in for repair once, when I came back to pick it up the guy's first question was to ask, how many cats I had. At the time it was three. Don't think spit works on cat hairs as well as a vacuum would.

 

[TxRad]

I'm lost without my big powerful desktop that can do things so fast you don't even have to ask the question. The answer is just there. Plus this little screen on the laptop sucks. Yes I could hookup the bigger screen from the desktop, but I don't have the right cabling and I don't feel like going to the store to get one.

I love my desktop. If all else fails, there are some for sale on ebay for cheap.

Check Asus Desktops at Bestbuy. I bought one a few years ago and it's the best one I've ever had. The price was great also. Since Asus builds most of the motherboards used throughout the industry, why shouldn't their computers be good.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Check Asus Desktops at Bestbuy. I bought one a few years ago and it's the best one I've ever had. The price was great also. Since Asus builds most of the motherboards used throughout the industry, why shouldn't their computers be good.

I got my DELL XPS in 2009 and this is the first major problem I've run into. Of course it was my fault, which makes it suck.

So far the only problem was the original disk drive crapped out. It had a long glorious run. 6years non-stop.

That's been the sole problem until my clumsiness.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

I got my DELL XPS in 2009 and this is the first major problem I've run into. Of course it was my fault, which makes it suck.

So far the only problem was the original disk drive crapped out. It had a long glorious run. 6years non-stop.

That's been the sole problem until my clumsiness.

Depending on how handy, picky, and risk acceptance you are - I just picked up a new desktop from cowboom.com, from their auction site. It's where Best Buy offloads their crap.

For $200, I scored an Intell 4460 i5, 2 TB hard drive, 8 GB RAM, with a DVD writer (not blu-ray). I added a geforce gtx 960 with 4 GB of 5GDDR RAM for $200.

The case was missing a foot and had a small dent in the back (easily fixed). It's an Acer, which meant an OEM motherboard that nearly caused problems. This proprietary board made for Acer had the plug for the USB3 ports along the same line as the PCI 16x slot, which had me shopping for the a short video card. Also, the front of the case had a SD slot, but the connector interfered with the video card. I don't use the SD slot, so I unplugged that connector in exchange for a beefier graphics card.

Additionally, the motherboard only included three SATA ports, which would have limited me only one additional hard drive. For $15, I picked up a PCI 1x add-on card for my other two 2 TB hard drives. All said and done: I feel as if I pieced together at least an $800-1000 machine for $415.

A clean install upgrade Winblows 10 got rid of all of Acer's crapware.

You'll often find IBuyPower desktops at that site. Those are typically good computers built with over-the-shelf parts.

Like TxRad, I like Asus, though they make so many parts for so many other vendors, sometimes their offerings can be hit or miss.

With Intel pushing their 5th gen processors, now is a good time to score good deals on pre-built computers with 4th gen processors. Same is true if it still has Win 8/8.1.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Depending on how handy, picky, and risk acceptance you are - I just picked up a new desktop from cowboom.com, from their auction site. It's where Best Buy offloads their crap.

For $200, I scored an Intell 4460 i5, 2 TB hard drive, 8 GB RAM, with a DVD writer (not blu-ray). I added a geforce gtx 960 with 4 GB of 5GDDR RAM for $200.

The case was missing a foot and had a small dent in the back (easily fixed). It's an Acer, which meant an OEM motherboard that nearly caused problems. This proprietary board made for Acer had the plug for the USB3 ports along the same line as the PCI 16x slot, which had me shopping for the a short video card. Also, the front of the case had a SD slot, but the connector interfered with the video card. I don't use the SD slot, so I unplugged that connector in exchange for a beefier graphics card.

Additionally, the motherboard only included three SATA ports, which would have limited me only one additional hard drive. For $15, I picked up a PCI 1x add-on card for my other two 2 TB hard drives. All said and done: I feel as if I pieced together at least an $800-1000 machine for $415.

A clean install upgrade Winblows 10 got rid of all of Acer's crapware.

You'll often find IBuyPower desktops at that site. Those are typically good computers built with over-the-shelf parts.

Like TxRad, I like Asus, though they make so many parts for so many other vendors, sometimes their offerings can be hit or miss.

With Intel pushing their 5th gen processors, now is a good time to score good deals on pre-built computers with 4th gen processors. Same is true if it still has Win 8/8.1.

Just in case, I was surfing the auction sites. I can pick up a used/refurbished, exact same make and model as mine for $150.

This machine originally sold for $1,100 new. I have added a more powerful graphic card, more memory and larger disk drives. I'm extremely happy with that.

If I need a boost in the CPU department I can get used/new CPU's to fit the socket with more power and speed. There are three stores on ebay that are selling new in the package CPU's for $75. And they even come with a more powerful cooling fan and heat sink.