Broken am3+ socket -- info?

[Uniballer]

Re: Broken am3+ socket -- info?

Yeah, at this point I am only really considering trying to pop plastic parts back in, or replace plastic parts sourced from the dead board's socket. The socket is surface mount, and there are surface mount components on the back of the board, so that would probably get way too hairy for me to attempt (after all, it's not my board). The only hot air tool I have ATM is a heat gun, and how the hell would you even align the part, let alone solder it back into place...

Was hoping maybe someone could point me to a datasheet and assembly drawing for the socket, but I realize it might not be publicly available.

[cheapie]

Re: Broken am3+ socket -- info?

...and that's why you're supposed to warm it up before removing the cooler if you're using a thermal pad. I'm not sure how they managed to break it though, I've had that happen with sockets 939 and AM2 a lot, and I never broke anything. Maybe AM3+ has a tighter grip?

(and yes, AM3+ is SMD)

[gg1978]

Re: Broken am3+ socket -- info?

some sockets are through hole, but most are surface mount today.. It'll be a difficult process either way.. It'll probably take a hot air rework station to get the old socket off. It might be possible to "pop" the socket back together again if the plastic parts aren't broken off.

[Uniballer]

A coworker of mine showed me his brand new ASUS Sabretooth 990FX with a damaged AM3+ socket. He and his friend were building a new system and decided to pull off the stock CPU cooler without twisting it loose. The CPU popped right out of the socket due to the strong grip of the latest AMD thermal compound. They bent a bunch of pins on the FX-8350, and damaged the socket so the cam end is lifted and the lever no longer moves the top of the socket back and forth. That is almost $400 worth of new hardware trashed by a pair of morons in 2 seconds (I extrapolate that to almost 3/4 million dollars per hour if they had the opportunity).

So I told him I would try to find out about repairing the socket. I'm not sure yet if any socket parts are actually broken or if they are only dislocated. I have a dead motherboard with a good socket that could perhaps be a parts source, but I know I don't have the equipment or experience to remove the bad socket from his board and solder the good socket in place without damaging something. Anybody know of any info on these sockets that might help? Thanks.