Old P4 - Bit plastic bit that holds heatsink on has snapped (pic)

z0mbi3

z0mbi3

z0mbi3

Soldato
Joined
9 May 2005
Posts
7,400
Location
Berkshire
I brought my other half's parents PC home with me last night as one of the fans has been ramping up like mad lately. I'd figured it was just a dust problem as it's never had a clean inside.

Anyway I'm a bit suprised to see that one of the arms that holds the heatsink to the board was loose in the case, and that the bit of plastic it would clip on to has snapped off, and the remaining one is acting like a hinge, so there's basically sod all preassure holding the HSF to the board.

Seems to me that someone has tried to remove the heatsink recently, snapped the plastic in the process and just left it hanging there, hence the fan ramping up.

Anyway this is an old Compaq Presario P4, is it possible to get a replacement mounting plate/shroud thing or should I just been chucking the whoel thing in a skip?

Lze1h.jpg.png
 
z0mbi3 said:
Compaq Presario P4
Click to expand...

It will be made with rubbish components only suitable for a skip, so I'd back up, dismantle and sell things of value, scrap the rest. CPU might have some worth, RAM, HDD, optical drives maybe, gfx possibly. Not much though.

I had to work on these types of machines all the time and they were almost never worth the effort. You can build something a million times better for not much money nowadays.

Just my opinion.
 
Check the MM for a new hs and/or mobo brkt
or even fleabay.Would not bin it just for a broken brkt,seems such a waste
 
Is it possible to pick up the hsf mounting brackets for a P4? If it hadn't been for this it would have kept going.

edit: Looks like it is, £3 on ebay with delivery.
 
You need to find out if it's a standard P4 retention bracket or a custom HP part.

Standard bit looks like this :
3724n.jpg
 
I'm confused. As far as I can tell from the photos, the heatsink is firmly fixed to the board, but fan loosely fitted to the heatsink as the bracket is broken. If so I don't get why the fan is ramping up, or why it can't be fixed with cable ties.

Other options, glue the heatsink on with thermal epoxy, or use old fashioned nuts and screws.
 
Well if it is attached, it could be all that dust in there causing problems. Looks like the HS is a bit clogged. If the dust is a bit yellow it's probably tinged from smoking in the same room as the PC, it makes the dust stick like **** to certain parts too I've noticed, quite often just blowing it out doesn't do the trick like it would otherwise.
 
JonJ678 said:
I'm confused. As far as I can tell from the photos, the heatsink is firmly fixed to the board, but fan loosely fitted to the heatsink as the bracket is broken. If so I don't get why the fan is ramping up, or why it can't be fixed with cable ties.

Other options, glue the heatsink on with thermal epoxy, or use old fashioned nuts and screws.
Click to expand...

You can see one metal arm across the heatsink/fan in the photo, there should be another one on the other side of the heatsink. So now if you pull on the heatsink it hinges on that one arm, because the other one isn't there.
 
There's a lot of slots to the left of it in the photo. How about turning the heatsink 180 degrees so that the loose side is next to the vents and clamping it down with a couple of cable ties. One end through the vents nearish the circuit board level, other end through the spare hole in the fan or whatever is more convenient. Use two at similar tensions to keep the heatsink parallel to the motherboard.

Holding the free end with pliers and the trapped end between thumb and finger lets you apply a lot of tension. Not sure if you'll rip the vents or not, if they hold I think it's a valid fix.

Let me know if you try this, there's also a risk of shearing the bracket plastic. I think the vents will go before the plastic shears and after the cable tie strips, but I'm curious to see which part fails first.
 
Last edited:
Fair enough, that's a more sensible option. Somehow doesn't appeal to me as much though. Still, something to fall back on if it turns out compaq(/hp?) used a propriety design.

Hope it works out well, any computer is worth £3
 
Yup.... go the fleabay option first and a good clean out. If your outlaws are anything like mine a NEW puter will scare them to death!!!...lol
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom