How bad is this?

Ok while i was at my mom's house over the weekend i had planned on reclaiming my vid card i put in her pc a long time ago since i now have use for it in my extra box and she doesn't really need it at all. Well as im pulling her box out of its cubbard area thingy i noticed a disturbing jingle/rattle coming from inside the box. Turns out that one of her heatsinks, the bigest one actually, had come of from where it was mounted on the mobo and was lodged inbetween the bottom of the box and my vid card :mad:

Now i know that period that is a problem, but what i need to know is what that heatsink was cooling, fromt he looks of it im assuming either the north or south bridge, and if the computer could be used in its current state moderatly since i will not be able to fix it before this weekend. Attached are 3 pictures of here mobo.

the pic attached to this post is a general overview of most of the inside of the box. the "top" of the picture is the back of the box, left is the bottom, right the top, and down is the front.

In this pic we can see a close up of the heatsink in question. the orientation of this picture is rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise from the first pic.

and finally this is what the mobo looks like with the heatsink missing as it currently is.

If anyone could enlighten me as to how important this heatsink is, or at least venture an educated guess, it would be greatly appreciated.

Also, how would i go about reattaching this heatsink. I tried to carefully press it back on since there was still some semblance of the stickyness on it, but as soon as the fan over the proc kicked in it fell off again. Is there some sort of glue that i should use? or should i not do it and get someone profesionally to do it.

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_s...l_adhesive.htm

A heatsink will draw heat away from the component it is on, that is its whole point. Heat in an integrated circuit can cause sort of a downward spiral as far as electrical problems and can, if the part gets hot enough, actually cause it to melt (worst case) or cause the system to crash/randomly error (best case). I have no idea whether or not your chip could get that hot, but I would hazard to guess if they put a heatsink on it, they did it for a reason...

Just make sure you follow the directions that come with the artic silver, keep it neat, and don't get any of it on anything else...

EDIT: And if there is a next time, focus the camera and/or keep it still ;)

o come on half the fun of trouble shooting user problems is attempting to deciphere what the hell they are reffering to, and at least i got some pics of it. imagine me trying to do something like;
so its this aluminum looking metal heatsink thats on this little black chip that could be a north or south bridge which is right next to the fan that is on top of the proc.

but yeah next time, i hope there isn't a next time, i will wait till after i take the pictures to start drinking. :D

Well,

It would help if we knew the make/model of the computer, or at least the motherboard.

An educated guess is that it is for the onboard video? which you must have, or you wouldn't be thinking of taking out the card?

My advice would be to go and buy a new card for your machine............or a new one for hers.............Artic Silver isn't cheap, the card should cost less?

Your mother?........................Yoiveh!................when I shoot you I will immediately go to the path lab and demand the return of my bullet for re-use :eek:

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Originally posted here by nihil
Well,

It would help if we knew the make/model of the computer, or at least the motherboard.

An educated guess is that it is for the onboard video? which you must have, or you wouldn't be thinking of taking out the card?

My advice would be to go and buy a new card for your machine............or a new one for hers.............Artic Silver isn't cheap, the card should cost less?

Your mother?........................Yoiveh!................when I shoot you I will immediately go to the path lab and demand the return of my bullet for re-use :eek:

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Where you getting 5 dollar graphic cards ? :p

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&Go.x=0&Go.y=0

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My advice would be to go and buy a new card for your machine............or a new one for hers.............Artic Silver isn't cheap, the card should cost less?

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are you suggesting then to not attemp to re-glue the heatsink on with the arctic silver and just get a video card for her instead? i was under the impression that even with a video card installed that the onboard video is still "routing" signals between the vid card and wherever the signals go after it hits the onboard vid, and therefore even with a seperate vid card she still has the risk of overheating and any other problems associated with a missing heatsink.