Broke my cooler. Can I still use it?

[cestral]

I was installing a Kraken X62 when I overtightened one of the screws so that it broke. The cooler still seems very firmly attached even if only three screws are holding it in place atm. Do you think it's safe to turn on?

NZXT appears to take 2-3 weeks to send a replacement screw to Europe and it's gonna suck if I have to wait all this time.

The CPU is a 7700k.

 

[sm625]

Loosen the screw at the opposite corner a bit, so that the two screws adjacent to the broken one are carrying the majority of the load. And then dont bump your PC until you receive the replacement and it will be fine.

 

[fralexandr]

you might also be able to find a hex nut with similar threading if you take one of the thumb screw cap things to a hardware store and test it on various bolts for a threading match.
If both sides of the standoff are the same threading, it will probably be a 6-32 hex nut but ymmv.

getting the hex nut off might be tricky unless you have the appropriate tools for it though.

 

[bigboxes]

I did the same thing when building the rig in my sig. Over-tightened one of the four mounts. I'm guessing that I had stripped the mounting bolt. Just backed off a bit on the affected one. Made sure everything the heatsink/pump was solidly mated and then left it alone. My 4790K has been stable @ 4.7Ghz for over two years now.

 

[corkyg]

What happened to the lower part of the broken screw? Where is it?

 

[cestral]

The lower part of the screw is stuck inside the standoff.

Anyway, thanks for the tips, but the replies came in a bit too late. I have already sent the whole thing back waiting for a replacement. Apparently the store had to take the whole thing back for me to get a replacement. Unfortunately they're out of stock atm so it looks like I have to wait two-three weeks for a new one. Sucks.

 

[fralexandr]

Yeah, it's pretty annoying when the mounting hardware breaks :s. I guess it's better than the alternative where the motherboard or cpu breaks from overtightening though .

 

[LPCTech]

My first thought would be to fire it up and check temps.

If the temps are ok I would just leave it.

But since im not sure how you would get the broken screw out of the standoff perhaps replacement is best.