Tab holding HSF broke on Socket A - cpu/mobo fried?

[kaiten]

Here's a story. I have an Asus A7V133 socket A with 1.2 GHz AMD Athlon Thunderbird as a second sytem. Fiancee turned it on, heard a pop and system turned off. I opened the case, HSF hanging at 45 degree angle from where it should be (WTF?).

One of the plastic tabs on the processor housing broke, and the el cheapo HSF only used 1 tab on each side. CPU didn't burst into flames, but I didn't want to turn it back on for any period of time. What are the chances the CPU is still functional? What about the mobo and other parts?

Any suggestions on if it is worthwhile to get another HSF that uses all 3 tabs on each side, and just have one side held by 2 tabs and the other side by 3 tabs.

 

[weeber]

Well, I can't tell you specifically about your situation, but it happened to me too. I think I was using a 900MHz Socket A CPU at the time. Anyways, one of those plastic cleats broke off my socket and the the HSF fell off the CPU and on to the video card while the computer was running. I got a new HSF that hooked on to two cleats on each side and everything fired up fine as can be.

So my situation worked out OK. Take a good look at the CPU and see if there's any scorch marks. If so, it's toast. Otherwise, it's probably worthwhile to try a cheap HSF to see if you can get it up and running again.

 

[kaiten]

Ok, I'll take a look at it. The motherboard is supposed to have some thermal protection, but I wasn't sure if that worked for something like a heat sink falling off and temps going up really fast.