If you can find a socket for sale online it might be possible to replace the top part of the socket. I did that once.

Other alternative is gluing the heatsink on with thermal adhesive.

Socket A hearsinks have a three tab design that can work in this case but my experience is that they don’t work well when the center tab is broken. And they are too strong for socket 7 you need to bend them to be less tight.

But yes, there is a clip style heatsink clip. They are rare. And you need a special heatsink to hold them better.

Yeah those spring clips that grab just the alternate tabs are very hard to find and are designed only for soc 5/7 and also soc 8 (that I ever found). There is a topic here about them but cannot find it right now...

Sphere478 wrote on 2023-08-09, 02:47:

If you can find a socket for sale online it might be possible to replace the top part of the socket. I did that once.

The tabs for heatsink's clamp are on the lower part of the socket - the foundation part with the contacts for the CPU pins. I don't know of way to replace this part without desoldering and replacing the whole socket. If you do know, please share the knowledge.

Sphere478 wrote on 2023-08-09, 02:47:

Other alternative is gluing the heatsink on with thermal adhesive.

I don't even want to comment on this solution 😁

Horun wrote on 2023-08-09, 03:14:

Yeah those spring clips that grab just the alternate tabs are very hard to find and are designed only for soc 5/7 and also soc 8 (that I ever found). There is a topic here about them but cannot find it right now...

Can you provide the link to the topic, please? I have a GA-6OXT mobo with one broken tab on its socket.

analog_programmer wrote on 2023-08-09, 04:35:

I don't even want to comment on this solution 😁

You laugh, but it was quite common back in the 486/Pentium era for the heatsink to be attached with thermal tape to the CPU.

analog_programmer wrote on 2023-08-09, 04:35:

Can you provide the link to the topic, please? I have a GA-6OXT mobo with one broken tab on its socket.

Something like this for example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/293044369143 (it's a UK seller though, not sure where you are located). Some people even made their own with paperclips.

I once bought a SS7 mainboard with glued on heatsink. The CPU temperature went through the roof while the heatsink stayed cool. (At least) AMD CPUs need some pressure from the heatsink to make the aluminium lid touch the complete die.

Take two clamps, the kind that have a slit in the middle. Cut them in the middle and glue them to the heatsink using epoxy. But like Sphere478 said, you can use a double-sided tape to glue the heatsink to the CPU.

TheMobRules wrote on 2023-08-09, 05:40:

You laugh, but it was quite common back in the 486/Pentium era for the heatsink to be attached with thermal tape to the CPU.

I know that, but these CPUs are with factory glued heatsinks. But for the sake of a mobo with a crippled socket to cripple a processor... no thanks! Of course, this is my personal opinion, but others may like this epoxy-resin-ish solution 😀

TheMobRules wrote on 2023-08-09, 05:40:

Something like this for example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/293044369143 (it's a UK seller though, not sure where you are located). Some people even made their own with paperclips.

Thanks for the link! This already seems like a perfectly acceptable variant, but for socket A 😉 The "diagonal" pads on socket 370 are wider.

Another alternative is to form a new heatsink clip, like OP did here. Labor intensive, but pretty slick. I got a few boards with broken tabs that could use that treatment.

Something that looks okay in my mental model that I will have to try, is unwinding the spring from a clothespeg/clothespin from the coil spring wooden type. All but one loop in which you stick a match, toothpick/cocktail stick through for locating it. Might need to upturn the ends of the prongs a bit to stop them slipping off.

edit: quick experimentation showed that my mental model was right about the length that could be achieved to be suitable if unwound, but did not take into account how the cheapy metal loses temper or whatever when cold worked and is easy to snap and loses it's spring... also the wire must kind of rotate when on the forming mandrel as the two L ends do not stay pointed right as you undo the coil, there's some twist in it. Potentially there are clothespeg springs that are better suited to this, but the ones I've got aren't.

analog_programmer wrote on 2023-08-09, 04:35:

The tabs for heatsink's clamp are on the lower part of the socket - the foundation part with the contacts for the CPU pins. I do […]
Show full quote

Sphere478 wrote on 2023-08-09, 02:47:

If you can find a socket for sale online it might be possible to replace the top part of the socket. I did that once.

The tabs for heatsink's clamp are on the lower part of the socket - the foundation part with the contacts for the CPU pins. I don't know of way to replace this part without desoldering and replacing the whole socket. If you do know, please share the knowledge.

Sphere478 wrote on 2023-08-09, 02:47:

Other alternative is gluing the heatsink on with thermal adhesive.

I don't even want to comment on this solution 😁

Horun wrote on 2023-08-09, 03:14:

Yeah those spring clips that grab just the alternate tabs are very hard to find and are designed only for soc 5/7 and also soc 8 (that I ever found). There is a topic here about them but cannot find it right now...

Can you provide the link to the topic, please? I have a GA-6OXT mobo with one broken tab on its socket.

I think you may be right about the top part/tabs.

This is the one I serviced, I was trying to remember

download/file.php?id=151961&mode=view

Zeos motherboard project

Gluing the heatsink on on a socket 5/7 is a very viable option if the correct thermal rated adhesive is used. Many OEMs including intel did this.

Replacing the socket is also possible, I have installed sockets before, but never done the pleasure of removing one in a non destructive way haha. (Torch to salvage the socket, don’t do that if you like the mobo)

But if you wanted to replace the socket, you would probably rip the socket off leaving the pins standing there then remove the pins with a desolder gun one by one. Then install new socket. It can be done. It isn’t impossible. See my sig for the tyan mod

Sphere478 wrote on 2023-08-09, 17:20:

I think you may be right about the top part/tabs. […]
Show full quote

analog_programmer wrote on 2023-08-09, 04:35:

The tabs for heatsink's clamp are on the lower part of the socket - the foundation part with the contacts for the CPU pins. I do […]
Show full quote

Sphere478 wrote on 2023-08-09, 02:47:

If you can find a socket for sale online it might be possible to replace the top part of the socket. I did that once.

The tabs for heatsink's clamp are on the lower part of the socket - the foundation part with the contacts for the CPU pins. I don't know of way to replace this part without desoldering and replacing the whole socket. If you do know, please share the knowledge.

Sphere478 wrote on 2023-08-09, 02:47:

Other alternative is gluing the heatsink on with thermal adhesive.

I don't even want to comment on this solution 😁

Horun wrote on 2023-08-09, 03:14:

Yeah those spring clips that grab just the alternate tabs are very hard to find and are designed only for soc 5/7 and also soc 8 (that I ever found). There is a topic here about them but cannot find it right now...

Can you provide the link to the topic, please? I have a GA-6OXT mobo with one broken tab on its socket.

I think you may be right about the top part/tabs.

This is the one I serviced, I was trying to remember

download/file.php?id=151961&mode=view

Zeos motherboard project

Gluing the heatsink on on a socket 5/7 is a very viable option if the correct thermal rated adhesive is used. Many OEMs including intel did this.

Replacing the socket is also possible, I have installed sockets before, but never done the pleasure of removing one in a non destructive way haha. (Torch to salvage the socket, don’t do that if you like the mobo)

But if you wanted to replace the socket, you would probably rip the socket off leaving the pins standing there then remove the pins with a desolder gun one by one. Then install new socket. It can be done. It isn’t impossible. See my sig for the tyan mod

That interposer PCB with own tabs and another socket might do the job for socket 5 or 7. (I doubt I'll find such thing for my broken socket 370.)

As for thermal epoxy resin solution - it may work for CPUs in all ceramic packages (for those without metal caps), but what about AMD K6-xx. Anyway I don't like this option. (In my case PIII/Celeron s.370 processors are with exposed silicon die or with metal caps for those with Coppermine-T/Tualatin core.)

If I have to desolder and then again solder 300+ tiny pins for CPU socket... better off to trash the mobo and buy another one - it's not worth the labor.

P.S. I think I'll try something like SSTV2's (don't know why call him "OP") solution.

analog_programmer wrote on 2023-08-09, 17:59:

If I have to desolder and then again solder 300+ tiny pins for CPU socket... better off to trash the mobo and buy another one - it's not worth the labor.

tabs are on the moving part of the socket, afaik you can replace it without desoldering anything

rasz_pl wrote on 2023-08-09, 18:14:

tabs are on the moving part of the socket, afaik you can replace it without desoldering anything

Really?! I have two motherboards with s.7 and three with s.370 (including the one with the broken tab) and on all these five motherboards the tabs for heatsink's clamp are on the socket's plastic foundation (non-moving part with the pins).

Oh yeah, forgot about the tabs I put on the interposer. That would work for sure.

You could quite easily just stack the PCB, the socket and the interstitial socket, and just use it like that without any soldering as a heatsink retention clip. Note not to order pcb too thick

erm brain aneurysm, of course not! What I was thinking of? there is some other socket where the breaking part is mobile and can be replaced

Sphere478 wrote on 2023-08-09, 18:48:

Oh yeah, forgot about the tabs I put on the interposer. That would work for sure. […]
Show full quote

Oh yeah, forgot about the tabs I put on the interposer. That would work for sure.

You could quite easily just stack the PCB, the socket and the interstitial socket, and just use it like that without any soldering as a heatsink retention clip. Note not to order pcb too thick

A no-copper textolite PCB with holes for the CPU pins and tabs for the heatsink's clamp between the CPU and the damaged socket sounds like a good idea.

Gotta elevate the pcb to clear the crankcase of the socket. The interstitial socket does this in conjunction with the LIF socket. The area between has the proper elevation for such a pcb

The socket can be disassembled and only that part can be changed, the donors can be socket 7 itself, socket S7, socket 370 with small modifications and socket 462 with more modifications, so patience and a little creativity are needed. I did that and showed it in this thread Heatsink glue for Pentium 233MMX?, but not my thread.

Hoping wrote on 2023-08-09, 22:02:

The socket can be disassembled and only that part can be changed .... Heatsink glue for Pentium 233MMX?

so I didnt have a stroke after all!