How To Repair A Pin

Information technology'due south incredibly alarming when any harm comes to your beloved electronics, and especially any part of your PC. One of the worst things for a PC is when the CPU gets damaged. Is there anything y'all can do to fix cleaved CPU pins?

If a CPU pin completely breaks off, your best run a risk is to hope that only a redundant ground pivot bankrupt considering otherwise, it'll crave special equipment to attempt a repair. Bent pins can be more easily fixed with household items like credit cards and sewing needles with more success.

This article will take a closer expect at what to do when pins break on your CPU, including whether a CPU tin work with cleaved pins and how you lot can remove the broken pins.

Annotation: I highly recommend y'all get your hands on some cheap magnifying glasses or something similar when attempting whatever of these methods.

Can a CPU work with broken pins?

CPU pins are extremely fine and can be aptitude or broken even with a gentle driblet.

A CPU may still piece of work with bent pins. If yous can straighten the pinout and reinsert it, there may be the promise of it working.

Occasionally, a CPU may even work without all the pins – but this is a very rare situation that occurs when redundant ground pins are removed.

If a damaged CPU is 'fixed' and reinserted, it could work fine, but there's likewise the risk that it could cause a short with the other pins, resulting in permanent impairment to the CPU and motherboard.

Merely put, trying to employ a home-repaired CPU carries the chance that it could 'brick' your reckoner or crusade it to lose ability and never turn on or function over again.

This would reduce your computer to a 'brick,' hence the proper noun.

How do I tell If a CPU is dead?

Sometimes, a CPU will stop working for no discernable reason. It's pretty articulate when this happens considering it results in a total calculator failure, sometimes accompanied past an error message or not.

A few things that tin happen when a CPU fails:

The reckoner refuses to even turn on, no beeps or screen activity.
The estimator doesn't perform the Power-On Commencement Test (POST)
The computer doesn't turn on, but the fan runs at a high setting.
The figurer does start merely crashes after a few seconds.
Blue Screens of Decease or any other system halt error.

If your computer gives you any of these when y'all attempt to insert a CPU, information technology ways it's either damaged or just dead.

In these cases, trying to farther 'ready' the CPU won't practice whatever good and you'll accept to buy a new CPU.

How to set broken pins on CPU

Sometimes we drop our CPUs or the pins get bent from incorrect insertion, and we call up that it isn't salvageable, but this isn't the example.

Sometimes pins tin be reinserted and piece of work, particularly if they're but bent. Bent pins are really simple to fix, requiring minimal equipment and piece of work.

You lot demand one of these:

A credit card.
Sewing needle/tweezers/toothpick.
Mechanical pencil.

Depending on how damaged the pins are, you can use one or more of these in concert or one after some other.

Credit card method

A regular card or souvenir card should exist fine. To check, put the CPU on a flat surface with pins in the air.

Then, run the carte through a row of undamaged pins. The bill of fare should make contact with the pins with minimal force per unit area. Information technology definitely shouldn't bend the pins or damage any office of the CPU.

And so, run the card in all 4 directions around the pin, and you'll cease up straightening the pivot.

Try reinserting the CPU after this, but don't force it in—rather, gently endeavor to insert it and back off if it doesn't mount properly.

It tin can be especially hard to tell if a pivot is aptitude in the middle, so inspect it closely and straighten it again until information technology works.

Remember to not force the card when straightening pins, every bit information technology can damage the other pins.

Mechanical pencil method

A plain mechanical pencil with either a 0.5mm or 0.7mm (0.02in or 0.03in) opening should be fine. You need to remove the pencil atomic number 82 beforehand and clear the opening of whatsoever obstructions.

How to prepare aptitude pins using a mechanical pencil:

Put the tip of the pencil over the aptitude pivot.
Carefully maneuver the pencil to straighten the pencil.
Use the pencil as a straight edge to determine how direct the pin is.
Once straight, carefully pop the pin out of the pencil without farther bending it.

Sewing needle method

You can do this with tweezers and toothpicks as well, as long as the object tin comfortably fit betwixt pins.

The point is that these objects can fit underneath bent pins, such equally pins that bend into awkward positions. Using this advantage, you lot can leverage the pin into a more easily attainable position.

To fix, follow these steps:

Slide your needle underneath the bent pin, being extremely careful not to scratch the CPU'south surface.
Pull just one side of the needle up, leveraging the pin into a straighter position.

After this, y'all may want to use i of the other in a higher place methods to further straighten the pin.

How to remove a broken pin from a socket

Removing a completely broken pin is a tricky job because the pins are incredibly fine. Thankfully, there are a few methods of removing broken pins from sockets.

Solder sucker pump method

For this method, you'll need a solder sucker and a piece of silicone tubing.

Annotation: Brand sure that it'southward a decent solder sucker. Quick test: Depress the plunger fully that it locks in place. Block the intake nozzle with your finger, and press the release button. The plunger should just release a short distance and complete the full release length in one case you remove y'all finger from the nozzle.

Cut a small length of silicone tubing, about half an inch long and press information technology onto the nylon nozzle stop of the solder sucker (it'due south likewise a great way to keep your solder sucker tip similar new for normal use).

You should end up with about a quarter-inch of hosing left that is longer than the length of the nylon tip.

Load the solder sucker by depressing the plunger and placing the tip of the silicone hosing over the socket's connector pigsty with the pin within it.

Press the release button on the solder sucker and hopefully, the broken pivot fragment will be within the solder sucker.

If not, repeat until yous are successful. It may take several attempts to get it loose.

Tweezers method

With small enough tweezers, information technology'south a cinch to remove cleaved pins. Use pointed, straight tweezers for this chore, as they can all-time fit in the cramped area of the CPU pins. Simply close the tweezers until they can grip a pivot—practise on unbroken pins if you need to become a feel for it.

Then reach in while maintaining your grip and grab the broken pin, carefully pulling it out without disturbing any other pins. Now yous can decide whether you want to try and repair it, or perhaps try to see if the CPU will work without it.

Can completely broken pins be repaired?

closeup of CPU pins and a marked area showing where to solder a broken pin

A common concern is that a pin breaking off is a problem you can't fix, but that isn't strictly true. While CPU pins breaking vastly decreases the chances that repairs can make the CPU functional again, information technology isn't impossible. Repairing a broken pin is possible with specialized equipment, merely information technology's still risky and difficult to implement.

You will need:

Soldering fe.
Solder.
Flux.
Magnifying glass.

A word of caution: with how tiny CPUs are getting these days, even the tiniest slip of the manus can ruin the entire motherboard and essentially fry your estimator. It isn't generally recommended to attempt repairs yourself. But in theory, you lot tin can solder the pivot dorsum together. However, actually doing then is a very complex procedure akin to calculator brain surgery.

Final thoughts

While information technology can be deplorable when a pivot bends or breaks, all isn't lost. Redundant basis pins breaking won't bear on the CPU working, and in that location are numerous methods to gear up aptitude pins.

For cleaved pins, extremely careful soldering may work to reattach broken pins, but it's nevertheless a high hazard.

Marlo has ever been obsessed with computers his whole life. After working for 25 years in the calculator and electronics field, he at present enjoys writing about computers to help others. Most of his time is spent in front of his estimator or other engineering to continue to learn more. Read more.