Reviving a P4 with 477 pins

[Sarcastro]

Here's the deal: I got a 2.8c for free from a customer. I know it sounds good but the catch is he managed to rip out one pin. I had it laying on my desk for quite some time until I tried to figure out ways to get it to work again, because without that one pin it didn't. So a friend came up with the idea to cut off a pin off a dead palomino (didn't have a dead p4 handy), put that into the socket, and to put the CPU over it. After a couple of times trying to align the processor over it the machine (the shuttle sb61g2 in my sig) booted with the said processor.

Until then there weren't any worries: ~3 hours prime stable at stock, and I didn't feel the need to test it further.

Now, yesterday the machine decided to quit (freeze) right after it copied 30gb of data off of a external SATA harddrive. I didn't think too much of it and rebooted. It didn't. Fans were spinning, harddrive too but no video signal. So I opened it, cleared the cmos, took the cooler off to look, and reassembled it. It worked again. This morning, same story. It didn't boot. So I cleared the CMOS. Again no boot. Took the cooler off again, reapplied AS5. Still no boot. So I took it out of the socket, and reinserted it. It booted again. It has been running prime95 all day, and it seems to work fine. Cold starts are no problem.

So what I would like to know from someone is, what could I do to perfect my 1 inserted pin method. And, does someone have a pinout schematic for a p4 nw? Because a friend (the same one who advised me not to try to solder a pin on but rather insert one in the socket) said if the broken pin is a data pin, the change in resistance could totally mess up the working of the processor.

Any comments/thoughts/ideas are welcome.

[a5h]

doubt there is a better way. solder it on? (yes it wud be hard :p:)
or RMA?

[hatemi]

I know a guy that has soldered numerosu pins to CPUs and got them working again:D His nic here is morkai so you might want to PM him to get tips on how to solder it properly.

[Sarcastro]

Thanks for the replies.

RMA is a no-go. Broken pin->User abuse-> No Warranty. Also I never had the retail box, and I would be ripping off the company I work for. Not gonna happen :D

Hatemi, I am not good at soldering, especially with such a tiny object as a pin. I've already had somebody else have a go at it and he managed to get the pin on. But when he lifted the processor to see his work, the pin fell down. Somehow it doesn't stick to the proc itself, at least with the substance he used to solder it. But if it turns out to be that I'm stuck with an unreliable/unstable system I'll PM morkai for some expert tips.

So I'm still trying to explain the shuttle not booting last night and this morning. Today it has been folding and priming all the time and didn't lock up. I have tried google for a P4 pinout schematic but I wasn't able to find anything.

[saaya]

ask a shop that repairs watches or a jewelry. they have the tools and knowledge to solder fine things.

or: just use some silver paint to connect the pin to the cpu, let it dry. then carefull put some super glue around the leg of the pin.

do the same thing to the other 4 edges of the chip so it seats flat in the socket.

now the chip will not stick as deep inside the cpu socket as before, but it sgouldnt be a problem. ive repaired a pentium 3 tualatin that way.

[Slickthellama]

motherboardrepair.com go to the cpu pin repair section. Dude, that guy rules. He repaired my CPU and it works well now.

[Farbror]

Originally posted by a5h
doubt there is a better way. solder it on? (yes it wud be hard :p:)
or RMA?

I now a guy he did that but to a harddrive and it worked an it still do(i think).....

[thirdeye]

^^
you mean soldered a pin back on the P/ata connector of a HDD? not much room to work there; would you heat solder on target point and then insert pin with pliers?

[Tedinde]

I've got a 3.2 with 2 missing pins. I took a Staple. and cut it down to where it stuck probably 1/2 a Millimeter above the Ziff socket. Put the chip in. Contact.

works fine now.

Ive tried soldering cpu's before. And amd XP wasnt too bad. But the P4's, man the pins are small!! I didnt even try.

motherboardrepair.com i have heard nothing but good about them.

I might send the chip off to them. $25 bucks is cheap to bring my 3.2 back to pristine condition so i can punish it some more.

I put it in a dell 400sc server for some folding duty till i figure what to do with it.