CPU Upgrade gone wrong

[nmitton239]

So I just upgraded my old AMD 64 3800+ single core with an AMD 64 5000+ Dual core. Everything booted fine, but when trying to play any games I'm getting much lower performance than I did with my old processor.

The only thing that really went weird with the processor install, is I noticed that the assembly that holds the heat sink in place was lose, and upon further investigation I noticed that the screws holding it in don't even go to anything threaded, so the heat sink assembly was sliding down a little until it was actually fully in place, now it seems fine.

Any suggestions?

 

[T_T]

Not sure I understand the problem of the heatsink installation. When you say "now it seems fine." does that mean that you securely fastened the heatsink down to the CPU socket?

Also, what lead you to believe that the system performance went down with the new CPU?

 

[nmitton239]

Sorry - it's a bit hard to explain. the entire assembly still kind of slides around if you try to move it... it really makes no sense how it was every staying put to begin with, but if it's left untouched it obviously stays put. (The assembly that's lose is the part that the heatsink fastens to) I'm going to take out the whole motherboard and investigate this a bit more later, right now i'm just looking for anything else that could've gone wrong, this was my first CPU upgrade as apposed to putting a new CPU into a new motherboard.

I was trying to upgrade the computer to play SWTOR, it was already running on my computer, just not with the best framerates. Now, when I finally get into the game (Even that part is taking longer than it was before) I'm left with a mostly black screen for a while, when the graphics finally load my framerate is so low that the game is completely unplayable, much worse than before.

 

[xaira]

ok, with amd chips the heatsink is fastened via 2 metal clips that latch on to 2 plastic projections from the heatsink bracket

this is supposed to be permanently fastened to the motherboard, if at any time you removed this, the bolts that the screws go in could have fell off the backplate

 

[Guest]

" the screws holding it in don't even go to anything threaded"

Someone might want to correct me here but doesn't the Athlon 64 use a backplate?
Try removing the mainboard and see if there is a metal backplate loose in the case - the heatsink screws into this. Without it the heatsink will just sit on the processor and "slide around", the thermal contact will be poor and the processor will overheat giving lousy performance as it throttles back to keep cool. What CPU temps are you getting?

stuart

 

[T_T]

xaira and stuart72 are both correct. AMD board manufacturers typically use two metal clips to hold the heatsink on the the CPU. The heatsink clips on on the backplate of the CPU socket, which is secured to the motherboard via screws on the backside of the mobo.

Your statement: " the screws holding it in don't even go to anything threaded" is a little confusing as well. If you're referring to the heatsink fan, there should be four screws that secure the fan to the heatsink. On the other hand, if you're not referring the the four screws to mount the fan, you may not have a heatsink that is compatible with your CPU.

I think it would be easier for you to take a good picture of the mobo w/o the heatsink on; a picture of the heatsink in question (make sure you show the screws you're referring to); and then post the pictures on photobucket.com to link them in this post.

 

[nmitton239]

I believe what xaira said is dead on, when I get home tonight i will remove the mobo and check in the backplate, because thats exactly whats going on. The heatsink bracket is detatched, and when trying to screw it into place, theres nothing for the screws to screw into, that's what I was talking about with my confusing statement earlier, sorry about that! It's been a long day. I'll post with an update when I get home.

 

[nmitton239]

Came home last night, this was the exact problem. It's all fixed now and running like a charm! Thanks folks

 

[nmitton239]

Best answer selected by nmitton239.