Warped motherboard - Dell Precision T3500

[Torn Mind]

So, I literally picked up the remains of a Precision T3500 lying on the neighborhood grass. Whoever had it before was quite the vulture, and only the motherboard, heatsink, and PSU was in the case.

Somehow, the CPU socket had no bent pins despite being precariously close to landing on the socket (I did not open the computer until after taking it into the house). But I move things very carefully.

Anyway, the motherboard is severely warped and I am curious as to what the effects of such bending can do to a motherboard. Also would screwing down the board "restore" it to safe operation?

Also, whoever taking it apart was a full idiot, because he/she managed to wreck the front metal thing and drive bay cage.

 

[XavierMace]

Or perhaps they went postal on it because it was dead.

 

[UsandThem]

Depending on how bad the warping is, traces can separate causing issues or killing it outright. I believe warping from heat was what caused all those RRoD on the original Xbox 360 (it's been a while since I read about it).

There wasn't a raccoon family living in it when you found it, was there?

Also, if there was ever a thread that needed pics, it's this one. I'd love to see the condition of it.

 

[Torn Mind]

Or perhaps they went postal on it because it was dead.

I think it was dumped this week.
The metal was bent, but the ALL of the plastic survived. The person left two dusty leftover sheets of paper(dust from cleaning heatsink or fans, I suspect).

Nevertheless, no fans are present but the fan holders were left in the case.

But I got a beasty Dell Precision PSU, probably made by Delta Electronics.

And pics from my crappy phone camera.

All pics here: http://imgur.com/a/V61Dq

Warpage pics included in post. The rest is in the link.

 

[VirtualLarry]

That's ... pretty warped. I'd be a bit hesitant to re-purpose it for any "serious" work. Maybe a Linux workstation for learning VMs and servers and "fun" stuff.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

That's ... pretty warped. I'd be a bit hesitant to re-purpose it for any "serious" work. Maybe a Linux workstation for learning VMs and servers and "fun" stuff.

If VirtualLarry isn't keen on re-using it, it's probably best to just set in on fire.

 

[Torn Mind]

It appears to me, that the guy taking it apart simply didn't realize the heatsink needed unscrewing and used practically all of his might to bend the board until he finally realized something was amiss. And then it of course, it became trash.

Oh well, the stuff he picked off the board isn't valued much now. It still has a service tag, so I checked out the original specs. Underwhelming. It had a W3503, which runs for $3-4 bucks on Ebay, literally. 1GB of DDR3 non-ECC RAM. 256MB AATI FireMV. The most I might eventually do is risk a stick of ram and a CPU and see if it POSTs.

 

[UsandThem]

It appears to me, that the guy taking it apart simply didn't realize the heatsink needed unscrewing and used practically all of his might to bend the board until he finally realized something was amiss. And then it of course, it became trash.

It almost looks like they 'Office Spaced' it:

 

[Torn Mind]

It almost looks like they 'Office Spaced' it:

Didn't break the plastic though.
Still picked out the RAM, optical drive, HDDs before dumping it.

And yes, that movie was great. I wasn't in a environment like Initech. Did printers do that back then?

 

[UsandThem]

And yes, that movie was great. I wasn't in a environment like Initech. Did printers do that back then?

It was actually a fax machine.

As a person not getting any younger, they seemed to do that all the freaking time when you had an important fax to send or receive.

I don't know how many different fax machines I had to almost completely break down to clear the paper jam, and in the process get black toner all over myself.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I don't know how many different fax machines I had to almost completely break down to clear the paper jam, and in the process get black toner all over myself.

Toner and grease. Everywhere. Those clockwork contraptions just could not figure out how to move paper from one point to another without turning their innards inside out.

For what it's worth, printers still do that, just now they tend to have access doors all over that lets you get to the garbage. They still jam too much though.

 

[mikeymikec]

forced removal of heatsink without engaging brain and undoing things that needed undoing?