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Thread: Bending Motherboards

  1. #1
    Master Navigator HUGH's Avatar
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    Bending Motherboards

    For the first time, on installing a new motherboard, fitting the cooling fan caused it to bend. I didn't notice initially because, naturally, the board was screwed into the case first. On developing frequent, random faults I removed the board to discover that the standard AM3 cooling fan had caused it to bend.

    This is not tolerable in industry though many self-styled computer experts say it's fine "because the PCB is fibreglass". It matters not if the filler is epoxy or polyester resin, it's likely to damage some of the very fine tracks, including those in unseen, middle layers, and also to pop the end off SMT components, especially the tiny ones resembling a grain of sugar which, I think, are decoupling capacitors.

    My cure was to discard the heatsink bracket fixings (a basic 2-part set) and replace them with 5mm nylon screws and a 1mm nylon washer between the brackets and the board but I have also ordered a multi-part bracket set which takes the strain off the board.
    Motherboard designers obviously don't want to keep much of an area clear for a "proper" bracket set so minimise the construction.

    Operation is much improved but baffling at first because data written to the HDD was often corrupted so it wasn't obvious if faults lay with the HDD or the motherboard, especially if the faults were so variable.

  2. #2
    Orca Whisperer PA5COR's Avatar
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    With motherboards and all other multi layer boards i always prevent them from any bending.
    My son's new game computer with I7 Quad core processor has a gigantic cooling sink and ruddy large fan, so we placed it first on the board laying on conductive stiff foam and took a long time mounting it right without the board bending, only then the board was placed in the housing.

    Multi layer board can bend a little, but in the layers you can break the internal lines quite easy, non repairable too.
    In the modern radio's we have we find the same multi layer boards, so be careful working on them specially removing and rehousing them.
    Taking the weight of the cooling sink and fan from the board with extra brackets if needed, we made an extra bracket just for that.

    In all, prevent the boards from ANY bending, stress if mounted, and if heavy stuff is hanging free, support it with ( homemade) bracket to take the weight off the board preventing it from stress.
    Next good cooling, and keeping the comuter free of dust, regular clean out specially in a game computer that is used mostly on top ratings with a gazillion fans in it working as a vacuum cleaner.....

    Even my I 7 laptop gets a 3 month clean out including fan. cooling sink, etc.
    "If the Republicans will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop
    telling the truth about them." - Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965)
    “I’m not liberal/conservative, I’m anti-idiotarian.”
    At some point in the last 20 years, the left moved to the center, and the right moved into a mental institution

  3. #3
    The Fluid of Spock KD8TUT's Avatar
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    This is one of the reasons I water cool.... the amount of mass on some of these coolers will eventually warp the board and cause problems.

    In the old days I water cooled because designing my own loop was fun. These days I buy premade systems like the Corsair 110i not only because they are physically lighter but because the thermal stress is far lower on a processor I might use for 5 or 6 years.
    --
    So there I was, totally naked. With only a rubber hose and a stuffed animal...

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