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ajw107 · ‎07-03-2017

Sorry this is so long, but I thought it best to be as honest as possible, and it's been quite a ride so far...
Hi,
I'm sorry to report that after only a month of use my R5E10 motherboard stopped working a few weeks ago. The PC suddenly shut down and wouldn't POST. The Diagnostic Display stays at 00, the BIOS Boot-Up stage LEDs only light the first one, CPU, and even then not consistently. I tried:

Resetting both CMOS's via the button and by taking out the battery
Removing everything apart from the CPU and one stick of RAM
As I didn't know if it was the CPU or the motherboard, I bought a cheap Xeon E5 2609 V3 from eBay to try it with.

Unfortunately no luck in anything I tried. In the end I contacted the retailer, eBuyer, to ask for a replacement and send them the required photos of the serial number stickers and CPU Socket. Unfortunately they replied by saying that they can not approve an RMA as there is one bent pin in the CPU socket (see 'initial bent pin.jpg' below).

To make matter worse, in trying to find the single bent pin on the physical socket I accidentally brushed my finger against the pins in the wrong direction and bent multiple (about 5-7 I think) pins in the corner of the CPU Socket, AGGGHHH!!! (see 'main damage.jpg' below)!

and an overview of the whole socket

After this I was obviously too scared to go any further. Luckily upon Googling "ASUS bent CPU socket pins" I saw online that ASUS UK offer a CPU socket repair/replacement service if the pins are all intact (mentioned a few times on this forum and Overclockers3D Forum). So I took it to a jewellers to make sure all the pins were intact, they were phew. This was life saving news, as saying goodbye to over £500 because of a bent pin was quite a shock, as I'm sure you understand. So I filled in (well battled with, after finding out that I could only fill it in successfully with Internet Explorer for some reason) a technical support form for the board asking how much it would cost to repair, and how I should send it.
Unfortunately the reply was quick but devastating, and I was told that ASUS UK do not offer this service and nothing could be done. Instead I would have to find a third party Motherboard Repair Service. I did look online for CPU Socket Repair specialists in the UK, but thanks to the upsurge of PC and Mobile Phone Repair shops everywhere I just couldn't see the wood for the trees (obviously these shops just repair by replacing the whole fault part, nothing this specialised). The few places I did find unfortunately were in the USA.
I then bought a digital microscope off eBay, and some ESD tweezers so I could bend the pins back into place (although a sewing needle was ultimately used in the end as the tweezers were to big). This took quite a few hours, and help from a friend, but we were able to get them all aligned and at the same height. I also took the opportunity to check every single other pin was okay, and make sure there was no blackening of the end 'bump' of the pins from shorts (none) or deposits of anything (I was expecting maybe thermal paste or something but found two cat hairs, agh my cats hair gets everywhere, he he). Unfortunately this did not fix anything, and again all I see is 00 on the diagnostic Display and now not even the first 'CPU' BIOS stage LED lights up (although that was hit and miss before too).
As you can see I've been through the mill and back again with this. I've had loads of ASUS motherboards in the past (this replaced my old IMPACT VI which died after about 3/4years of loyal service, and at the moment I'm using my old Media PC as my main PC with my my old P8Z77-Deluxe in, which is VERY old and just cannot take even the minimum workload I'm putting it under - chrome + Firefox + xpra x-server client + xming xserver as client + a few ssh windows + samba client).
I would be eternally grateful if anyone knows of a service in the UK that could help with this. Better still would be if ASUS UK do still offer the service but the global support representative was unaware of this (the reply I got was pretty generic), and could give me the details of who to contact at ASUS about this. Like I say, I'm willing to pay for the repair as I may not have damaged the initial single pin (how is that even possible, not only is it against the edge of the socket but they are so tiny that multiple ones would be damaged if a CPU was installed incorrectly, surely?), but I did damage the other pins when looking for it.
Thank you for any help you can give, and sorry that this went on so long (can't believe the time either, how has this taken me over 3hrs to write).
Yours
Alex
PS Even thought I think I've included everything, I'm sure there will be something I've missed so please don't hestitate to ask me (was even thinking of sticking a video of all the pins under the microscope on Youtube, but that would be a long video of boringness)

Bahz · ‎07-05-2017

I'm really sorry to hear the situation, however this is the same for all other manufacturers because in this situation it would most likely require a full socket replacement which requires special machine to heat up the socket and then the soldering needs to be cleaned off completely before changing to a new socket. This service is no longer offered by most manufacturers because it requires quite a bit of manual work and post-procedure testing. I am sure there are individuals in UK that have the experience in changing CPU sockets and I think that would be the only way to fix this board. Finding this service of course won't be easy but I think it's possible to do.

Unfortunately from ASUS side there is nothing we can offer because we no long offer repair service for components parts in the UK so the procedure is replacement only, however boards with bent pins is considered physical damage and not covered under warranty.

ajw107 · ‎07-05-2017

Hi, thanks for you reply and apologies for my tardiness (the 10 year old mechanical HD in my makeshift old PC died on me, it doesn't rain but it pours, he he). Thank you for clarifying the situation, it did seem strange that it was once offered, but isn't anymore, but I understand now. Unfortunately I'm still not having much look with my search for third party repair centres isn't going so well. I've e-mailed a few companies, but they all come back saying the same thing - that they don;t do this specialised sort of repair and to contact ASUS, he he. So going a bit around in circles. You don;t happen to know of any companies that maybe of help?
Alex

Bahz · ‎07-05-2017

ajw107 wrote:
Hi, thanks for you reply and apologies for my tardiness (the 10 year old mechanical HD in my makeshift old PC died on me, it doesn't rain but it pours, he he). Thank you for clarifying the situation, it did seem strange that it was once offered, but isn't anymore, but I understand now. Unfortunately I'm still not having much look with my search for third party repair centres isn't going so well. I've e-mailed a few companies, but they all come back saying the same thing - that they don;t do this specialised sort of repair and to contact ASUS, he he. So going a bit around in circles. You don;t happen to know of any companies that maybe of help?
Alex

I would highly recommend that you check on Overclockers.co.uk forum as there are a lot of experts over there and my guess is that you might be able to find an expert engineer on there with the experience and tools to get this done. At this point because this kind of repair isn't that common and not very profitable at the same time so it'll be tough to find a company that offers this, that's why I mentioned it's more likely possible to find an individual that may offer this service to you.

persivore · ‎07-06-2017

You could try asking around some surface mount rework houses to see if anyone has the capabilities to do this sort of work. You're basically after someone who can do BGA rework. The ball pitch doesn't look super-small on LGA2011 sockets so there should be a number of places capable of doing this sort of work in the UK. Many places may be put off due to the size and nature of the part needing to be reworked though. There seem to be a few LGA2011 sockets available from common electronic component suppliers, so sourcing a replacement socket should be possible, but there's no guarantee these will fit the footprint on the PCB unless you can identify the exact part used. Any rework house is also likely going to want to x-ray the board after rework to verify solder joint quality. I wouldn't expect this sort of work to be cheap though - based on similar rework jobs we've had to get done I would estimate this route would work out about 50% of what the board is worth, and there's no guarantee there's not more extensive damage than just the socket.

Bahz · ‎07-06-2017

persivore wrote:
You could try asking around some surface mount rework houses to see if anyone has the capabilities to do this sort of work. You're basically after someone who can do BGA rework. The ball pitch doesn't look super-small on LGA2011 sockets so there should be a number of places capable of doing this sort of work in the UK. Many places may be put off due to the size and nature of the part needing to be reworked though. There seem to be a few LGA2011 sockets available from common electronic component suppliers, so sourcing a replacement socket should be possible, but there's no guarantee these will fit the footprint on the PCB unless you can identify the exact part used. Any rework house is also likely going to want to x-ray the board after rework to verify solder joint quality. I wouldn't expect this sort of work to be cheap though - based on similar rework jobs we've had to get done I would estimate this route would work out about 50% of what the board is worth, and there's no guarantee there's not more extensive damage than just the socket.

Very good feedback, it's true that it may not be worth it in the end because the 00 error can mean a lot of things so even if the socket is replaced properly, it's still not guaranteed to work. It's almost taking a gamble to invest in repairing it but the issue could have been caused by something else. At least if you repair the socket to the same part then I believe it may be possible to RMA it, if it looks exactly the same and doesn't show any signs that it's been altered or have any physical damage on the board.

Korth · ‎07-07-2017

The CPU socket might be difficult to rework since it's such a high pin density and it's essentially a proprietary surface mounted part on a proprietary multi-layer PCB. Not impossible, just difficult (and thus time-intensive and costly).

You can buy replacement LGA2011-3 socket parts on ebay, they're inexpensive. They all appear to be generic (Foxconn, Made in Shenzhen/China) parts, not fancy shiny ASUS/ROG parts. They strictly adhere to Intel's specifications, datasheets, and design guides. They don't provide the "extra" voltage pins used by ASUS OC Socket. The only way to get an ASUS OC Socket is to salvage one from another ASUS mobo. I wouldn't attempt to use an "OC Socket" salvaged from a non-ASUS mobo since it might have different electrical (pinout/voltage) implementations or noncompatible mechanical dimensions.

I've seen posts on these forums before where ASUS has accepted mobo RMAs because of bent CPU-socket pins. Not always, no guarantee. But you may be able to negotiate some kind of repair/service price with ASUS.

"All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others." - Douglas Adams

[/Korth]

Bahz · ‎07-07-2017

Korth wrote:
The CPU socket might be difficult to rework since it's such a high pin density and it's essentially a proprietary surface mounted part on a proprietary multi-layer PCB. Not impossible, just difficult (and thus time-intensive and costly).

You can buy replacement LGA2011-3 socket parts on ebay, they're inexpensive. They all appear to be generic (Foxconn, Made in Shenzhen/China) parts, not fancy shiny ASUS/ROG parts. They strictly adhere to Intel's specifications, datasheets, and design guides. They don't provide the "extra" voltage pins used by ASUS OC Socket. The only way to get an ASUS OC Socket is to salvage one from another ASUS mobo. I wouldn't attempt to use an "OC Socket" salvaged from a non-ASUS mobo since it might have different electrical (pinout/voltage) implementations or noncompatible mechanical dimensions.

I've seen posts on these forums before where ASUS has accepted mobo RMAs because of bent CPU-socket pins. Not always, no guarantee. But you may be able to negotiate some kind of repair/service price with ASUS.

That shouldn't be the case since that's the first thing they look for when they receive back MBs for RMA, all cases I've seen so far during my time here at ASUS with bent pins have always been rejected.

Vlada011 · ‎07-08-2017

If you didn't cut or burned pins you have more chance to someone fix them easy than replacing socket.
Chance to some LGA2011-3 socket work on ROG motherboard instead ASUS OC SOCKET is smaller than someone to fix your pins if they are only bent.
I saw many times fixing damaged pins on forums, people are even capable to solder pin on AMD CPU and back in working condition.
Replacing socket on so compex board with famous ASUS OC Socket with extra pins without ASUS is gambling as someone say...???
Everyone will charge and no one will give warranty that board will work.
Try to fix bend pins. I don't see nice on pictures because angles but I saw much worse situations and people who jump because happines after they fix bend pins.

I'm really sorry because your great motherboard not work.
I hope you will fix.

LiveOrDie · ‎07-08-2017

00 can mean many things one being the bios has been corrupted, have you tried both bios chips?

CPU Socket Repair In The UK