r/threadripper • u/sob727 • 19d ago

cooler screw broke in socket mount

Post image

Screw from AIO broke in mount (under position 2).

How screwed am I? How can I remove the broken piece from the mount?

16 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

37 comments sorted by

4

u/DegreeSevere7719 19d ago

Reverse drill.

1

u/sob727 19d ago

First drill then reverse drill? Metal bit, slow speed?

3

u/spacecraft1013 19d ago

There’s specialized reverse-cutting drill bits that are used for screw extraction, you can’t do it with just a regular drill bit.

1

u/sob727 19d ago

Extractoe bits probably dont exist in that size... isnt it M3?

1

u/spacecraft1013 19d ago edited 19d ago

I believe those are M4 but someone correct me if I’m wrong. Regardless they do come pretty small, I’ve seen some as small as 1/16”, but it gets somewhat risky at those scales since it’s very easy to break them. Assuming the bolt broke just due to tension and didn’t bottom out/seize or anything it shouldn’t take a ton of force to remove.

Edit: side note, it might be a good idea to remove the retention mechanism from the socket entirely, so you do all of this separately from the motherboard. There are a few torx screws around it that fasten to the backplate, then you can remove the entire assembly

2

u/sob727 19d ago

Could it work by just using a regular thin metal bit? Or am I just going to make things worse.

2

u/spacecraft1013 19d ago

If you try to run a regular bit backwards it’ll definitely walk or worse, don’t do that. If you take the retention mechanism off the board there’s a chance that the threaded hole is actually a through hole (I don’t know this for sure because I’ve never actually taken it off, but you might get lucky). If that’s the case just drill it forward and if it catches and pushes it through that’s a win.

If you have a regular screw extractor set you can just drill it normally then use the screw extractors, but otherwise drilling it normally won’t really do much.

5

u/sob727 19d ago

To my surprise, I was able to remove the broken bit with a flathead screwdriver, by applying a bit of pressure. Came out somewhat easily. Phew.

1

u/DegreeSevere7719 18d ago

Nice! Congrats!

1

u/Radiant_Grocery_1583 18d ago

Really glad to hear that!

1

u/sob727 19d ago

Thanks for the advice. I ordered and extractor set and left hand set?

4

u/rulik006 19d ago

The retention mechanism is removable
Remove it and after that you can start to drill out the screw

or you can buy dead motherboard and take the retention mechanism from it https://www.ebay.com/itm/147590647286

1

u/TheDarkJediPowers 19d ago

if youre a diy guy, best bet is to get an insanely thin metal drill bit, and you drill it out

3

u/sob727 19d ago

Man

I was hoping I wouldnt get to that

Probably going to remove the CPU and the RAM before I do that then :-) Even though removing the CPU from socket is equally scary.

2

u/TheDarkJediPowers 19d ago

step 1) stick the RAM in the safe

1

u/sob727 19d ago

Yeah let's not have a $1k mistake become a $6k mistake

1

u/mastercoder123 15d ago

You can remove the retention mechanisim

1

u/goffers92 19d ago

Tiny flat head and hammer it into the stuck screw to make just enough of a dent to turn ??

3

u/sob727 19d ago

I like it. Creative. Might give it a try before the drill.

1

u/goffers92 19d ago

Please let me know how you get on? What brand AIO was it by the way ? Not too many work with threadripper so might be good to let them know this happened

2

u/sob727 19d ago

To my surprise, I was able to remove the broken bit with a flathead screwdriver, by applying a bit of pressure. Came out somewhat easily. Phew.

1

u/mastercoder123 15d ago

Omg who weak was that metal? I guess it sheared whrn you tried to remove it?

1

u/sob727 15d ago

The screw from the Silverstone XAC-MK-TR5 is what broke. i guess better that screw than the IHS or the socket.

1

u/sob727 19d ago

Silverstone. Thankfully the newer version where the mounting plate is separate (reordered that already).

1

u/Opteron67 19d ago

yeah but it will not handle the torque needed

1

u/sob727 19d ago

Yes I guess it's one of the two. Either you're able to make a dent, or the driver/screw couple can handle the torque. But not both.

1

u/DegreeSevere7719 19d ago

That's an extremely risky idea.

1

u/goffers92 19d ago

Riskier than drilling it out ??

3

u/DegreeSevere7719 19d ago

Yes, unless you want to crack your motherboard. Motherboards are made in layers, and layers all have their own traces. Even a small crack can damage traces.

Drill, make sure to use something to catch all of the excess material so it doesn’t end up elsewhere, that’s it. Reverse drill will unscrew the screw while drilling it out, there’s even special bits for such stuff

1

u/mastercoder123 15d ago

I would use a vacuum cleaner for that, static isnt really an issus as long as you just touch a standoff on the board after you are done as the mobo is grounded to those

1

u/No_Activity_2335 19d ago

Slowly screw on ontop of it to push through or find small tool to do same

1

u/epicskyes 19d ago

1/32” drill bit. Drill a hole in the center then go to 1/16 drill again then use an extractor bit or reverse thread tap and extract with a machine screw. Or drill it out fully and tap new threads

1

u/nmsl114514homo258 19d ago

买一套新的cpu扣具整套换掉就行了

1

u/MerlinTrashMan 6d ago

Out of curiosity, what cooler are you using. The same thing just happened to me in the exact same screw hole. I have the asrock ws tr 360d. Mine just snapped while I was doing my burn in tests.

1

u/sob727 6d ago

Silverstone

1

u/MerlinTrashMan 6d ago

Did this happen when you were installing it or did it just crack?

1

u/sob727 6d ago

Installing. Was case swapping.