Saved Bookmarks
| 1. |
Solve : Motherboard Northbridge Problem? |
|
Answer» My daughter has had problems with her PC and i've eventually got it to my house. First thing i noticed when i opened it up was the heat-sink for the north-bridge was loose. On closer inspection, i found that the hook that is on the motherboard, which the spring arm on the heat sink clips under, had come loose. Now this is loose is there any way that i can secure it or the heat sink will not sit......I don't know of a safe way to secure it back properly, I would suggest getting some thermal adhesive (like thermal paste but it sticks the chip to the heatsink) to hold the heatsink on. Arctic Ceramique is one such product. As a cheap workaround, I have in the past used thermal paste as normal but with a dot of superglue at each corner of the heatsink - the edges transfer the least heat so the superglue doesn't harm heat transfer too much there, and that should hold the heatsink down. I was thinking of superglueing the hook back onto the motherboard, but i know some glues may harm/melt the motherboard plastic. May go with the thermal paste and glue option though. The PC sits flat and the heatsink would not be upright. You could try that but my concern would be whether the glue would hold the hook down strongly enough, there's usually quite a bit of force holding the heatsink down and there's only a small contact area for the glue to hold. Plus, as you say, I'm unsure whether it would damage the board, I personally wouldn't want to try it.What about Thermal paste on the chip and a thermal adhesive to 'glue' the heat sink down??Thermal adhesive is basically thermal paste, it just sets in place whereas thermal paste doesn't. It's different from glue in that it transfers heat better. So, if i just use Thermal adhesive, will that do the job? I've read on various other sites that some have thread fuse wire through the holes (that the hook/clip slots into) and create a loop from that. Others bent the spring arms on the heat sink to fit other hooks on the board (there are 4, but only 2 adjacent one are used). I'm still unsure about what to do for the best, but if Thermal adhesive will hold it in place, i think i may go for that.......Thermal adhesive should do the job fine, it'll come with instructions but you generally have to hold it in place for a few minutes, then it'll set and hold the heatsink on firmly. I've used it on old graphics cards a few times, where obviously the heatsink hangs down from the card, and haven't had any fall off yet! There's also thermal tape but that doesn't transfer heat all that well, and nor does it stick as well as adhesive. It's often used on things where there's at least a small a clamping force involved and thermal transfer isn't important - like underneath RAM heatspreaders and sometimes VRAM, although they're more often thermal pads. If there are other holes and BENDING the hooks will let you use them, that's a viable option too though. OK, thanks for the reply, i'll go down the adhesive ROUTE, and may also do a bit of creative bending, just for SUPPORT :-) Did you use Arctic Ceramique on your graphics card?? Do you recommend this?? What do you think of cheap alternatives, AG Termoglue, for example??I honestly can't remember what I used, it's been a while. It was probably Ceramique, can't say for sure, and I don't keep any around as I haven't needed it for ages. ok, thanks for the reply Does anyone recommend any Thermal Adhesive that they've used?? Just read online that the hook that hold the heat sink down may complete a circuit that TELLS the BIOS the heatsink is there??? Is this correct?? If so, just adhesive wont workI've never seen that myself, although I suppose it's POSSIBLE. |
|