Possible damaged NB?

[EXCellR8]

I was trying to replace the loud NB cooler on my old NF7 board and I think I may have physically damaged it when I was pulling off the old one. I accidentally slipped a blade under the corner of the NB chip after it sliced through the plastic push pin. It didn't go in too far, less than one-eighth of an inch, but I had a bad feeling that I had hit something else. So now, when I go to start the computer I get long beeps meaning the DRAM isn't seated properly. The memory is seated fine, and it wasn't beeping before, so I'm guessing the connection or the PCB has been damaged near the NB. Any ideas?

Not a huge deal as I can find another board, but I would like to see this one working again if possible.

 

[mailpup]

I'm just guessing but isn't the NB attached by soldered prongs? Perhaps one of them was cut. That would be my guess but I think you said the same thing.

 

[Technochicken]

If you managed to cut all the way through one or more of the pins you are probably out of luck, but if all you did was damage a solder joint you may be able to fix it by heating the are with a heat gun. I would not do that unless it was your last resort though.

 

[red1776]

make sure that you didn't pull the chip away from the board, sometimes (cross your fingers) merely pushing down on the chip and re-seating the cooler fixes it (kind of) if it was pulled up with the cooler and old thermal paste.

 

[EXCellR8]

Thanks for the input.

I still haven't been able to get the board to POST or anything, so I'm guessing it's a goner. I slipped a small piece of paper under the suspect corner just to measure how deep it went and it is a little bit more as compared to the opposite corner. i know it sounds like a hilariously unsophisticated test but i can't physically see any damage. looking at the reverse side of the board underneath the NB it seems like i couldn't have touched anything but something's definitely not right. doesn't look like the chip itself has been pried up at all; the green LED still lights when i turn the board on but i get no video and that constant beeping. oh well.

 

[red1776]

I slipped a small piece of paper under the suspect corner just to measure how deep it went and it is a little bit more as compared to the opposite corner. i know it sounds like a hilariously unsophisticated test

Thats not what i was thinking, you kind of did a plasti-gauge test
It sounds like it got uprooted. any chance that the blade penetrated the heat spreader?

 

[EXCellR8]

the NB itself is level with the board all the way around, but i did sort of catch the very edge of the corner in question, slicing a tiny little piece of green coating in the process. the heat spreader is fine i think but i'm gonna take a closeup snapshot or two of the area and see what you guys think. u know i don't even know why there is a cooler on there... thing doesn't even get that hot.

okay my camera can't really focus in quite far enough to see the corner clearly. you can't really see anything conclusive anyway...

 

[mailpup]

Regardless of the precise nature of the damage, it sounds like it needs repair or replacement. Since it's old and probably not worth repairing, you may as well replace it.

 

[EXCellR8]

yea i've just been looking for replacements since they are cheap enough. unfortunately they are getting a bit harder to find but i'll get another. lesson learned: i shouldn't have cut any corners (no pun intended) when trying to quickly replace the cooler :dead:

thx again for the input fellas