Heart-sinking moment

[BoomLiam]

Just came back from installing a new CPU cooler (Noctua NH-U9B) in my friend's computer, it was harder than I anticipated.

He was using a stock AMD CPU cooler so removing it would be simple enough, raise the retention arm, lift. Nope, it wasn't as simple as that, firstly, the cooler had attached itself very firmly to the CPU, the thermal paste had created some kind of unbreakable ionic bond. I, having worked with computers before, know that occasionally you have to man up and just apply force to get stuff done. So I did, and off it came. I was relieved, I thought something horrible would have happened. Upon further inspection, I noticed the CPU was still attached to the base of the stock cooler... I had ripped the CPU from the socket. At this point, I was shitting myself, fortunately I examined the pins and the socket, all looked fine. (They must design some kind of release mechanism or something that I was unaware of)

It took about 10 minutes but eventually I removed the CPU from the cooler with a combination of twisting, heating with a hair dryer, and swearing at it.

I cleaned the CPU, placed it back in the motherboard, attached the Noctua cooler (why do they insist on making attaching fans the most awkward thing in the world ) but we got it up and running, all fine, ran Prime95 and did a little OC to 4GHz no problems.

 

So that was my biggest heart-sinking moment, tell me about yours! (Hopefully they have happy endings like mine )

[qwertywarrior]

rule of thumb

if the cooler is stuck to the cpu

 

run prime95 and hold the fan in place once the cpu reaches like 90c+ turn off pc

and apply twisting NOT pulling 

[Imabigmac]

My biggest heart sinking moment was at friends LAN party and someone split cream soda which dripped onto my brand new gtx 680, luckily it didn't kill it! the interesting part is the 680 was a replacement for a 7950 which I dumped tea onto (by accident) lol.

[BoomLiam]

My biggest heart sinking moment was at friends LAN party and someone split cream soda which dripped onto my brand new gtx 680, luckily it didn't kill it! the interesting part is the 680 was a replacement for a 7950 which I dumped tea onto (by accident) lol.

Your GPUs are clearly thirsty 

[Imabigmac]

Not only are they thirsty but power hungry too!

[helping]

that feeling when you spot a leak from your pump onto an HDD rack, and the feeling when first time overclocking and not knowing how to clear CMOS.

those were intense moments.

[qwertywarrior]

that feeling when ur pc keeps rebooting by itself think that maybe this time it will work 

[legopc]

My biggest heart sinking moment was at friends LAN party and someone split cream soda which dripped onto my brand new gtx 680, luckily it didn't kill it! the interesting part is the 680 was a replacement for a 7950 which I dumped tea onto (by accident) lol.

how the hell do you drop a masive card into a cup of tea 

[Lil Chillbil]

Remind me never to have the op look at my computer 

[BoomLiam]

Remind me never to have the op look at my computer 

;( Normally it goes well when I work with computers. Even the technologically advanced Jesus couldn't have prevented this Now, hire me!  :angry:

[mineblaster]

the time i was drinking and playing games (great combo) and spilt it into the reset switch and IT WOULDENT STOP and with awesome balancing skills ripped the side panel off pulled out my seconed graphics card (asus DCII its big) unplugged the switch from the motherbord threw the card back in restarted and kept playing games

 

 

 

 

its just to easy to do

[Mooshi]

That time something was shorting my motherboard and the other time when water spilling onto the keyboard lead to PC not being able to boot because it can't without working keyboard..those are intense moments.

[IdeaStormer]

@BoomLiam, that happens all the time, the best thing to do to avoid that is have the computer on and load up (prime95 or something) and make sure the temp gets nice and warm (aka hot), shut it down. Then, quickly remove the heat sink but before removing the actual heat sink twist is a bit, back and forth a bit, not super hard but enough to loosen it up a bit, then remove it by peeling it off. I know you can't peel a heat sink but lift from one side as if it was being peeled off. Should help prevent that.

 

I never do that to my systems, and end up pulling out the CPU and have never ruined anything, it goes back on and no problem. Its actually a pretty cool trick.

[Lil Chillbil]

@BoomLiam, that happens all the time, the best thing to do to avoid that is have the computer on and load up (prime95 or something) and make sure the temp gets nice and warm (aka hot), shut it down. Then, quickly remove the heat sink but before removing the actual heat sink twist is a bit, back and forth a bit, not super hard but enough to loosen it up a bit, then remove it by peeling it off. I know you can't peel a heat sink but lift from one side as if it was being peeled off. Should help prevent that.

 

I never do that to my systems, and end up pulling out the CPU and have never ruined anything, it goes back on and no problem. Its actually a pretty cool trick.

 

remind me to never hire either you or the op lol 

[Matthias2556]

that moment when i couldnt even get the pc to turn on......

was positive it had a DOA part, but i had done a test build outside the case, and everything worked fine.... turns out is was dat 4 pin cpu cable that was routed behind the motherboard and up the back was too thick, causing a short. so i had to take the whole build apart and reroute the cable.... *facepalm

[IdeaStormer]

remind me to never hire either you or the op lol 

 

Right, because I can prevent that... stock cooler thermal pastes cause it not me, don't hire AMD or Intel and it should take care of it for you.

[Imabigmac]

how the hell do you drop a masive card into a cup of tea 

you don't, the tea cup got knocked off my desk onto the PC case where a conveniently placed open fan cut out is and the tea dripped onto the card.

[FranBunnyFFXII]

I want a coolermaster V8 GTS for my next build. Haswell-E hexcore baby. Do want.

ArticMX-2 thermal compound FTW.

[LogicDeifying]

Nope, it wasn't as simple as that, firstly, the cooler had attached itself very firmly to the CPU, the thermal paste had created some kind of unbreakable ionic bond. I, having worked with computers before, know that occasionally you have to man up and just apply force to get stuff done. So I did, and off it came. I was relieved, I thought something horrible would have happened. Upon further inspection, I noticed the CPU was still attached to the base of the stock cooler... I had ripped the CPU from the socket. 

Look your first problem was not googling how to take off heatsink off cpu,Sometime you just have to do it.I've done this before you dip the cpu into rubbing alcohol and twist... 

[Imaginaerum]

When my ATX PSU didn't match the holes in my ATX case...

[mc141]

When u transfer your mobo to a new case that isnt caked with dust and so cheap it started rusting for no reason and it shuts off immediately after you power it on. Turns out the cpu cooler came loose cuz it used the same cheepo plastic clips that the stoc cooler used. Luckily I had a stock cooler around to replace clip

[Saladin]

Moral of the story, never use a stock heatsink, never use stock thermal compound, always warm the thermal compound first, twist don't pull. That last one always sounds dirt.

[ultimatemythbuster]

Just came back from installing a new CPU cooler (Noctua NH-U9B) in my friend's computer, it was harder than I anticipated.

He was using a stock AMD CPU cooler so removing it would be simple enough, raise the retention arm, lift. Nope, it wasn't as simple as that, firstly, the cooler had attached itself very firmly to the CPU, the thermal paste had created some kind of unbreakable ionic bond. I, having worked with computers before, know that occasionally you have to man up and just apply force to get stuff done. So I did, and off it came. I was relieved, I thought something horrible would have happened. Upon further inspection, I noticed the CPU was still attached to the base of the stock cooler... I had ripped the CPU from the socket. At this point, I was shitting myself, fortunately I examined the pins and the socket, all looked fine. (They must design some kind of release mechanism or something that I was unaware of)

It took about 10 minutes but eventually I removed the CPU from the cooler with a combination of twisting, heating with a hair dryer, and swearing at it.

I cleaned the CPU, placed it back in the motherboard, attached the Noctua cooler (why do they insist on making attaching fans the most awkward thing in the world ) but we got it up and running, all fine, ran Prime95 and did a little OC to 4GHz no problems.

 

So that was my biggest heart-sinking moment, tell me about yours! (Hopefully they have happy endings like mine )

When my cooler failed when I was not home.  Luckily I had Core Temp set to auto shut down when the CPU got to 75 degrees.  I know the computer would have shut itself off without Core Temp, but I would rather not let the CPU get that hot in the first place.

[IdeaStormer]

Moral of the story, never use a stock heatsink, never use stock thermal compound, always warm the thermal compound first, twist don't pull. That last one always sounds dirt.

 

Stock coolers are fine, its the thermal paste that's pre-applied that causes the cpu to heat sink bond, use 3rd party thermal grease/paste that does not cause that and the stock cooler is fine. If you knew the actual count of stock coolers used to 3rd party it would blow your mind.

[Saladin]

Stock coolers are fine, its the thermal paste that's pre-applied that causes the cpu to heat sink bond, use 3rd party thermal grease/paste that does not cause that and the stock cooler is fine. If you knew the actual count of stock coolers used to 3rd party it would blow your mind.

Have to disagree, stock coolers are loud and do not perform particularly well, independent of the thermal compound (which is horrible). I am well aware that the vast majority of computers use stock coolers (both consumer and enterprise), doesn't mean that I would recommend one or that I think they do anything more than the bare minimum.