motherboard - heat sink

heat sink on motherboard is loose. pins missing. is this going to cost a fortune to get it fixed.?

 

Probably the Northbridge heatsink like mine, held on by a glued condensation gasket and double sided sticky tape brtween the heatsink and chip, but mostly by two (strong) spring clips in a Z arrangement, each end of the Z being anchored by a U shaped loop soldered onto the motherboard.

Possibly one of the hoops has come unsoldered, if it can be found, or a new one made (a suitably shaped paperclip might be ok) you might replace it yourself or get a computer repair shop to do it for about the same cost as replacing a motherboard capacitor I guess (whuch is....?).

But be careful about leaving the old loose in computer behind the m/b if that's the problem, because it could cause a short. There's video on Youtube showing that someone did exactly this repair.

Dumb_Question
30.August.2012
Compaq Presario S5160UK DT261A under XP/SP3
Processor - Celeron 2.7 GHz
Motherboard - MSI MS-6577 v2.1
RAM - 1GB + 512MB #1GB +1GB max# DDR PC2700
PSU - Octigen 300W model 10270PSOTG #'upgraded' from original Bestec 250W PSU [in 2011?])
Nvidia GeForce 6200 graphics card in AGP slot.

 

Described it perfectly. I ll go to good old YOUTUBE. thanks

 

This is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24TrbD94QLQ. It doesn't show you how to effect the repair, simply that it can be done.
I guess the how is similar to replacing duff motherboard capacitors (several videos on YouTube).

If your heastsink has come off completely: An easy way is to stick the heatsink back on. I believe if examined your heatsink carefully, you will notice that that gasket around the edge is tacky and the centre of the heatsink has a layer of what appears to be (more more firmly adhesive) double sided thermal tape. You could (after removing the old thermal tape) apply some new thermal tape (eg sekisui 5760 (adheres very strongly)[ebay in the UK], Akasa AK-TT12-80 [ebay or Amazon], if in the the US, you can get TGlobal tape from digikey without vast shipping costs, I've no recommendation as to how adhesive the latter two are). The trouble is with gasket, I think it is there to absorb shock and thus protect the brittle chip and its mounting arrangement (solder bumps) and so has to in contact with the small board on which the chip is mounted. You can either leave it there (sticking it on with glue) and hope that it adhrers, or replace it with a slighlty tacky/adherent squashable material that will deform to the correct height when assemled - eg some rubber solution ? As an alternative to thermal tape you could just go the totally irreversible way and use 2-part thermal epoxy....

Dumb_Question
2.September.2012
Compaq Presario S5160UK DT261A under XP/SP3
Processor - Celeron 2.7 GHz
Motherboard - MSI MS-6577 v2.1
RAM - 1GB + 512MB #1GB +1GB max# DDR PC2700
PSU - Octigen 300W model 10270PSOTG #'upgraded' from original Bestec 250W PSU [in 2011?])
Nvidia GeForce 6200 graphics card in AGP slot