Bent but curiously working Pentium 4 pins! Should I attempt fix?

[brathnach]

Hey guys,

I have 4 Dell Optiplex 170L's since new and have never touched them apart from upgrading ram and the occasional dust blow out.

However, I opened one up today as was contemplating upgrading the 2.8GHz processor to a 3.4GHz processor I had laying around. However the 3.4 was a 775 socket so I was out of luck but thought I may as well replace the paste while I was in there.

However after removing the processor I noticed an unusual pin configuration. I know I didn't bend this on removal as I do this sort of thing regularly and also I know this computer wasn't touched by anyone else since I got it in the box from Dell some 10 years ago so I can only assume it occurred in the factory.

The funny thing is that this PC has always worked perfect and after applying the paste (and leaving the pin as it was) I switched the PC back on and am using it now uploading this post. The processor appears to sit perfectly flat in the socket. I was going to straighten it but thought that I would probably end up having no working processor (if that pin broke off) where as it seems to work fine as it is.

Either way thought some one here might find this an interesting find. Sorry for the not so great pic; the pins are touching as the bent pin appears to slot into the socket with the pin it is pressed against. Do these processors have common pins? I'm just amazed it works and has worked for so long without any noticable errors etc. Is there any validation software I could run to check?

http://imgur.com/10IJy44

Jim

 

[junkeymonkey]

''I'm just amazed it works and has worked for so long without any noticable errors etc. Is there any validation software I could run to check?''


I suggest you keep on being amazed.. as long as its working fine and no major issues - don't fix what don't seem to be broken or it may well end up that way [opinion]

 

[Kisianik]

That is really amazing, and every one say that Dells are crap - working in such conditions, I am speechless, leave it and be happy.

By the way, are you still running IDE hard drive, you can add 1 SATA, I did 1 TB as data for someone else, works as a charm.

 

[Gam3r01]

Dont try to fix what aint broken...
Unless it starts giving you issues, I would assume its in working condition.

 

[brathnach]

Thanks for the replies. Yeah I'm going to just leave it as is. It is working fine as before. I did do a look up of the pin outs on the P4 and these are different purpose pins which makes it all the more odd! I didn't go so far as to see what each one is for.

But I like things that have a bit of a abnomaly like this as they usually outlast everything else!

Yeah its still on IDE but you are right there is a sata port available so might put one in it at some stage. I guess I'll just let it steam for another while!

 

[akseli]

CPUs have lots of pins/pads for just for providing the same shared voltage, as well as ground.

So I guess that bent one and any it might touch are just that, and that's why it may work.
For example LGA 775 layout on page 44, VCC, VTT, VSS are all power.
http://download.intel.com/design/processor/datashts/318732.pdf

Also some other pins might provide something that's not actually used so they can be broken too, without any problems. But since those two are together, I would guess they are for same power.

 

[brathnach]

Askeli,

That is what I would have thought also, but I just looked into it out of curiosity and they are different pins namely AP0# and A35# on the processor which are a Common Clock pin and a Source Sync pin, respectively. The effect of these 2 pins being shorted into the A35# socket is for another day however :lol:

http://download.intel.com/design/Pentium4/datashts/30056103.pdf (around p41)

I just posted to show how a computer can be coming out of the factory, passed any motherboard test Dell had at the time, and continued to work without a fault for so many years.