SOCKET LGA 775 PIN REPAIR METHOD.
SOCKET 775 DAMAGED PIN REPAIR METHOD.
Tools:
1 pair of angle point tweezers - others work but I liked flat angle points.
1 Stanley or break off tip wide flat knife. It needs to be wide so it’s strong. Set the blade projection to about 1.5 inches from its sleeve support.
1 steel pin - standard dress maker’s type.
1 pair of wide nose pliers - to hold pin.
1 pair of sharp scissors.
1 x Strong 'halogen type' pedestal light - being able to position and angle the head of the lamp is a big help when viewing the project through the magnifying glasses. Aim it so that you have a great close up view.
Materials:
1 reject 775 socket from dead board - this is where you will get the pin/pins needed. Keep an eye on your local PC shops skip bins - or preferably just go ask their technicians for a dead 775 bare board.
Start
1. Prepare pin: Use a flat blade screw driver and lever part of the socket from the dead board. As it breaks away keep all the pieces for they contain your needed pins. From a broken piece of socket gently pull several pins - depending on where the solder broke on the base of the pins, some will come out the top easier and others the bottom. Just cruise along - take your time.
The object at this point is just to get some nice stock for the project. You will drop some and others will flick off the tweezers, so several will likely be needed. Pickup a virgin (unbent) pin in tweezers - hold it by its top - and use the scissors to cut off the solder bulb on its bottom, at the bottom of the "V" above it. Place it carefully to one side. You may need more if you drop it later but you can cut them later as you need them.
Note: don't unfold the pin as the pin/barb combo is used here in it’s entirety - i.e. pin, barb and the spring effect from the folded material - less only the solder bulb (that was) holding it to the PCB.
2. Now - onto your motherboard
Prepare the broken pin: Each pin leg is in a separate hole, the same as the holes you just pulled the needed pins from. The pins are made from one piece of metal. They are folded and the front is the pin and the rear is the barb - holding the pin into the plastic socket hole and also it provides the solder leg, which we need to cut off - at the "V" just above the solder bulb.
Ideally the broken pin should be broken at its shoulder - not at the bottom of the neck below the head!! This is where they usually break if they are played with in straightening attempts. So if your problem pin is broken at the base of the neck, we are going to break it again - this time at the shoulder, before it narrows down towards the head. So using the tweezers grab the pin as low as you can to the plastic socket - ideally right on the socket. Now while you hold it tight, wiggle it back and forth, rocking the tweezers at the same time to increase the abuse on the metal - until it breaks off. Now we have a normal folded pin, in the socket and broken off at the shoulder!
Next use the dressmakers standard sized (1.25"?) pin - held firmly in the pliers - to push the back portion of the pin (I call it the barb) slightly forward from its resting place. The gap created is where we you are going to push the new replacement pins barb.
Pickup the material (new) pin, you previously found and removed solder bulb from, and holding it the same way as it needs to be - place the barb firmly but gently in the gap you just created. If you drop the pin, invert the motherboard on some white paper and tap it to recover the pin. If it’s lost (make sure it’s not on your board where it could create a short circuit later) get another pin and chop the solder bulb at the bottom of the "V" and use that.
With the new pin (and it’s barb) now behind the old pins barb, pickup the Stanley (or other brand of break off tip) knife - place it vertically, with blade tip between the pin and its folded barb and with point of knife on the top of the steel fold - on the folded side.
What you are going to do here is use the top edge of the fold to push the full barb of the new pin in behind the others barb. Now - using the adjoining pin barb tops as a level guide - push hard to seat the new pins barb top at the same level as the others. This will ensure that the pin projection at the front is the same as all the other pins.
Once the top of the new pins barb is level, using the knife again, tilt the pin neck to the same angle as the others. NOTE: It pays not to touch the pins head - as the pins head is too delicate and it will break off at the base of the fine neck. So, lever on the pin, using the knife, only along the neck – preferable near it’s base – otherwise you risk bending the neck itself, rather than the area below the neck, to position the head. There is plenty of neck length to use.
Now - look carefully at the pins head - the idea is to have it nestling into the shoulder of the pin in front of it (though higher), when viewed from above. Have a good look at all the other pin head locations to become comfortable with the exact location needed.
To align your pin head (back and forth), using the neck only, Use knife, held with blade horizontal against the vertical part of the pin, below the neck, to push it and its barb back against the socket pocket's rear wall if needed - ideally you should be pushing on the old pin and its barb, so using it here to also hold the new pin against the rear of the pocket. This is the contact point between the two pins which will convey the electrical current. Otherwise, if barb is not hard against rear pocket wall, the pin head will be too far forward.
Note: If the top of the barb is hard against the rear wall of the socket pocket where the pin is located AND the barb is pressed into the socket till the barb top is level with the others, then this pins head projection, forward, will be the same as the others.
If the head is now sideways from its needed alignment, use the knife edge against the neck, to align it with careful pressure - as required. The intention here is to locate the head, laterally, by bending the pin BELOW the neck/shoulder.
Finally, use the knife to set the pin head level with the others, again using only the neck as the pressure area. Once the pin head is aligned it should look in line with the others from all the X, Y and Z (i.e. forward/back, left/right, up/down directions).
Testing
If you wish to test your new pin use a meter, set on continuity and place one contact on the pin and run the other along the resistors next to the socket position to find a continuity point. Once your meter beeps - if set to beep - or shows a continuity signal - you have proved your repair.
