I bent CPU socket pins on a 'dead' mobo

[doodah222]

Boy, I really screwed up. I have an Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 and the board 'died' after a year of use, no post, no beeps. Checked the Psu, ram, and HD, that left CPU and processor, and being that I didn't overclock, I'm pretty sure it was the board.
Even though its over a year old, this board has a 3 year warranty, so I was prepping it to hopefully get an Rma on Monday.
Where I screwed up royally was the plastic cap that covers the CPU socket. On it it says 'must be installed over the CPU socket to return mobo for service, etc'. Only thing is, I forgot that its supposed to be put back over the CPU hold down, not under it! In trying to do it that way, I bent some pins before I realized my mistake.
My question is, is there any way Asrock would still accept it for an Rma, because it was 'dead' before I bent the pins, if they straightened them out to test the board they'd be able to test it, and see that it was 'dead'. What do you guys think, how's Asrocks customer service?

 

[WilliamM2]

They will deny the warranty if they catch the bent pins, Asus is known for this as well. Can you straighten them?

 

[doodah222]

I don't think they could be straightened without looking like they were straightened. I'm not trying to hide the fact that I accidentally bent the pins, but it was done after the mobo was 'dead', not while in use. Can't they still test to tell if it is dead regardless of the bent pins.

 

[Raduque]

I straightened some pins on an Intel 775 board and you cant even tell.

 

[Ketchup]

Are you the first person Asrock has seen with this problem? No.
Do they even need to use the pins to test the board? Don't know.
Will they deny your RMA because of this? They very well could.
What would I do? Straighten the pins the best you can. If they aren't perfect, send an explanatory note back with the board and see what happens. That's about all you can do, but it wouldn't hurt to try. I have had pretty good luck straightening pins on a CPU, but not with this many pins. Mainly takes good patience.

Oh, and for the record while on the topic, I much preferred having the pins on the CPU.

 

[Raduque]

Oh, and for the record while on the topic, I much preferred having the pins on the CPU.

I've seen more CPUs with broken pins than motherboards, and I've broken a few CPU pins myself.

 

[john3850]

While cleaning a old 680i 775 mb I deceided to wipe the cpu pin area with a soft cloth.
Bad idea the cloth stuck to the triangle pins and I spent much time straightening 12 pins.

 

[doodah222]

Not a total loss, if you bend pins on a mobo, they put you 'out of warranty', and you send $50 and they send you a new OEM.
Since they can't test the mobos being sent back, and considering it was my fault on the pins, I'm pretty happy I'm only out $50, and not the full $130.

 

[HeavyClocker]

I believe ASRock can do something for you.Really bad mistake