I have a PC (HP Pavilion 430.uk) from a friend (no, really) that was riddled
with malware and was running incredible slowly and doing all sorts of scary
things.
Having spent a day cleaning up the machine it still seems slow. Next up I
opened up the machine to add a network card so I could get the latest
updates for all the anti malware software and re-run all the scans. On
opening it up I found a heat sink sitting at the bottom the case. It had
fallen of what must be one of the important chipset chips. The heat sink was
held on by a clip that went over the heatsink and clipped in to two loops
soldered in to the motherboard. Unfortunatly one of the loops is missing.
This is why the heatsink fell off. It is also why I can't refit it.
Since discovering that, with the knowledge that the machine had been running
with out the heatsink, I continued to update and rescanned the machine.
Accoring to all the scanners the machine should be clean, yet its still
slow.
So, a few questions questions
1) Is it possible that the missing heat sink is the reason for it being
slow?
2) Since the machine still runs, is it safe to still run it with out the
heatsink being there?
3) Any ideas as to how to refit the heatsink with out the loops?
"AC" <xxxx@xxxx.xxx> wrote in message
newsb4Hj.27580$5i5.1496@newsfe6-gui.ntli.net...
> Hi All
>
> I have a PC (HP Pavilion 430.uk) from a friend (no, really) that was
> riddled with malware and was running incredible slowly and doing all sorts
> of scary things.
>
> Having spent a day cleaning up the machine it still seems slow. Next up I
> opened up the machine to add a network card so I could get the latest
> updates for all the anti malware software and re-run all the scans. On
> opening it up I found a heat sink sitting at the bottom the case. It had
> fallen of what must be one of the important chipset chips. The heat sink
> was held on by a clip that went over the heatsink and clipped in to two
> loops soldered in to the motherboard. Unfortunatly one of the loops is
> missing. This is why the heatsink fell off. It is also why I can't refit
> it.
>
> Since discovering that, with the knowledge that the machine had been
> running with out the heatsink, I continued to update and rescanned the
> machine. Accoring to all the scanners the machine should be clean, yet its
> still slow.
>
> So, a few questions questions
>
> 1) Is it possible that the missing heat sink is the reason for it being
> slow?
Yes - possibly throttling itself, but I have only heard of this on CPUs
before - its not the CPU, right?
> 2) Since the machine still runs, is it safe to still run it with out the
> heatsink being there?
No - get a replacement one. Zalman do fanless heatsinks for chipsets - check
out the QuietPC website.
> 3) Any ideas as to how to refit the heatsink with out the loops?
The new one will come with new pins / heatsink glue
"GT" <ContactGT_remove_@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:014421f1$0$8715$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com...
> "AC" <xxxx@xxxx.xxx> wrote in message
> newsb4Hj.27580$5i5.1496@newsfe6-gui.ntli.net...
>> Hi All
>>
>> I have a PC (HP Pavilion 430.uk) from a friend (no, really) that was
>> riddled with malware and was running incredible slowly and doing all
>> sorts of scary things.
>>
>> Having spent a day cleaning up the machine it still seems slow. Next up I
>> opened up the machine to add a network card so I could get the latest
>> updates for all the anti malware software and re-run all the scans. On
>> opening it up I found a heat sink sitting at the bottom the case. It had
>> fallen of what must be one of the important chipset chips. The heat sink
>> was held on by a clip that went over the heatsink and clipped in to two
>> loops soldered in to the motherboard. Unfortunatly one of the loops is
>> missing. This is why the heatsink fell off. It is also why I can't refit
>> it.
>>
>> Since discovering that, with the knowledge that the machine had been
>> running with out the heatsink, I continued to update and rescanned the
>> machine. Accoring to all the scanners the machine should be clean, yet
>> its still slow.
>>
>> So, a few questions questions
>>
>> 1) Is it possible that the missing heat sink is the reason for it being
>> slow?
>
> Yes - possibly throttling itself, but I have only heard of this on CPUs
> before - its not the CPU, right?
Definatly not the CPU.
>
>> 2) Since the machine still runs, is it safe to still run it with out the
>> heatsink being there?
>
> No - get a replacement one. Zalman do fanless heatsinks for chipsets -
> check out the QuietPC website.
>
>> 3) Any ideas as to how to refit the heatsink with out the loops?
>
> The new one will come with new pins / heatsink glue
>
Ah, so I can avoid the old loops and just glue one on? Cant I just get the
glue and stick the old one back? Obviously after cleaning the heat transfer
paste off.
"Darklight" <nglennglen@netscape.net> wrote in message
news:j5qdnfE8GKr-S3HanZ2dneKdnZydnZ2d@bt.com...
> do your self a favour reinstall the os and reformat the whole hard drive.
>
> thats if you have an installation software
>
> have you defragged the hard drive
Absolutely, under normal circumstances I would. But there is so much
software with out the original disks and user data is scattered all over the
place I thought I'd have a go at cleaning the malware out. Plus, I've never
seen a PC with so much malware on it I wanted to treat it as a challenge.
Funnily enough I completely forgot about a simple defrag. This PC hasn't had
any maintenance since it was bought so the file system must be all over the
place. Cheers for the reminder.
AC wrote:
> "GT" <ContactGT_remove_@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:014421f1$0$8715$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com...
>> "AC" <xxxx@xxxx.xxx> wrote in message
>> newsb4Hj.27580$5i5.1496@newsfe6-gui.ntli.net...
>>> Hi All
>>>
>>> I have a PC (HP Pavilion 430.uk) from a friend (no, really) that was
>>> riddled with malware and was running incredible slowly and doing all
>>> sorts of scary things.
>>>
>>> Having spent a day cleaning up the machine it still seems slow. Next up I
>>> opened up the machine to add a network card so I could get the latest
>>> updates for all the anti malware software and re-run all the scans. On
>>> opening it up I found a heat sink sitting at the bottom the case. It had
>>> fallen of what must be one of the important chipset chips. The heat sink
>>> was held on by a clip that went over the heatsink and clipped in to two
>>> loops soldered in to the motherboard. Unfortunatly one of the loops is
>>> missing. This is why the heatsink fell off. It is also why I can't refit
>>> it.
>>>
>>> Since discovering that, with the knowledge that the machine had been
>>> running with out the heatsink, I continued to update and rescanned the
>>> machine. Accoring to all the scanners the machine should be clean, yet
>>> its still slow.
>>>
>>> So, a few questions questions
>>>
>>> 1) Is it possible that the missing heat sink is the reason for it being
>>> slow?
>> Yes - possibly throttling itself, but I have only heard of this on CPUs
>> before - its not the CPU, right?
>
> Definatly not the CPU.
>
>>> 2) Since the machine still runs, is it safe to still run it with out the
>>> heatsink being there?
>> No - get a replacement one. Zalman do fanless heatsinks for chipsets -
>> check out the QuietPC website.
>>
>>> 3) Any ideas as to how to refit the heatsink with out the loops?
>> The new one will come with new pins / heatsink glue
>>
>
> Ah, so I can avoid the old loops and just glue one on? Cant I just get the
> glue and stick the old one back? Obviously after cleaning the heat transfer
> paste off.
On Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:58:28 GMT, "AC" <xxxx@xxxx.xxx>
wrote:
>Hi All
>
>I have a PC (HP Pavilion 430.uk) from a friend (no, really) that was riddled
>with malware and was running incredible slowly and doing all sorts of scary
>things.
>
>Having spent a day cleaning up the machine it still seems slow.
First, you haven't told us the config of the system - what
parts including processor model, memory amount, what tasks
it's slow at, the operating system, etc.
Many OEM systems running XP shipped with 256MB Memory, had
integrated video, and a ton of junk added by the OEM.
They're slow when brand new and only get worse after the
owner installs some 3rd party apps and various
driver/software for a printer or scanner, etc.
We can only assume you know how fast it should be, but might
it be that you are comparing to a different system with more
performance potential and no more, maybe even less overhead?
Regardless, some malware is notoriously hard to find and
remove, a clean OS installation is one way to find out -
preferribly one done with a windows disc instead of an OEM
image that reloads all the OEM bloat it "might" have. HP
business systems tend to have less bloat, Home systems more.
If it only has 256-512MB memory, adding addt'l 512MB would
be a good start no matter what else is wrong, unless the
machine would be scrapped soon making the expense a waste.
>Next up I
>opened up the machine to add a network card so I could get the latest
>updates for all the anti malware software and re-run all the scans. On
>opening it up I found a heat sink sitting at the bottom the case. It had
>fallen of what must be one of the important chipset chips. The heat sink was
>held on by a clip that went over the heatsink and clipped in to two loops
>soldered in to the motherboard. Unfortunatly one of the loops is missing.
>This is why the heatsink fell off. It is also why I can't refit it.
That is almost certainly the northbridge heatsink. It is
possible to pull the board, solder on another loop, and
refit it. The other alternative would be some kind of epoxy
or grease in the middle and an epoxy around the perimeter of
the 'sink, and a lot of pressure applied till the epoxy
sets. I would rather solder a new metal loop on personally,
if the epoxy doesn't set well leaving a good bond it is very
difficult if not impossible to remove the 'sink and redo it.
>
>Since discovering that, with the knowledge that the machine had been running
>with out the heatsink, I continued to update and rescanned the machine.
>Accoring to all the scanners the machine should be clean, yet its still
>slow.
>
>So, a few questions questions
>
>1) Is it possible that the missing heat sink is the reason for it being
>slow?
Possible yes, though it's more likely that would cause
instability, crashing or reset at higher load.
>2) Since the machine still runs, is it safe to still run it with out the
>heatsink being there?
No, not safe. It is possible that chip still runs within
it's max thermal ceiling but we can't really guess about it
very easily, if it were always true it wouldn't have had the
heatsink in the first place. See if you can get a reading
on the temp from the bios or some 3rd party software. I
don't know what would work best, I might try Speedfan among
other things and ask in an HP forum what anyone else had had
success using.
>3) Any ideas as to how to refit the heatsink with out the loops?
>
>Cheers
>AC
See above, or if there are holes you might be able to use
an aftermarket 'sink with push pins. You might want to
locate that missing loop since it is metal and could cause a
short if lying in the wrong place. Given typical location
of the 'sink, it could fall right down onto a card or lodge
against some surface mounted part, though moving the system
around would tend to make it fall to the bottom of the case.
Regardless, you should be able to examine where the loop was
to see if it broke or the solder joint failed. Making a
loop out of a piece of wire is pretty easy, what remains is
finding someone who would solder it on (or resolder the
original loop if it's intact) at a reasonable cost or free.
Pretty quick and easy soldering job if you'd already pulled
the board out so all they had to do was grab an iron and a
roll of solder. In less affluent areas you might be able to
negotiate a price around $10 and have it done while you wait
if it were a slow day and a person good at soldering were
present. I wouldn't suggest someone who had never soldered,
take on a project like this as their first one but with some
online tutorials Google can find, and a bit of practice on
scrap electronics first, most people with steady hands could
theoretically do this repair - though if using a spare piece
of wire you'd want to make sure it was cleaned off first to
remove oxidation so the solder wets it good, using fine
sandpaper or a steel wool pad should suffice.
On Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:37:16 GMT, "AC" <xxxx@xxxx.xxx>
wrote:
>Ah, so I can avoid the old loops and just glue one on? Cant I just get the
>glue and stick the old one back? Obviously after cleaning the heat transfer
>paste off.
If the chip is set in epoxy (dark grey or black plastic
looking top, maybe with only a circular heat spreader
exposed in the middle) then you can easily use a typical
thermal epoxy.
If the chip is a flipchip, typically a green raise PCB with
a (somewhat) dark bluish square in the middle, you could try
thermal epoxy but because that is a less mechanically sound
structure, it would be better to also use a thick layer of
epoxy around the outer perimeter of the bottom of the
heatsink so the flipchip itself is not the only portion
securing the heatsink.
As mentioned previously, soldering the old or a new loop on
would be the best option if it's a flipchip. Telling us
what chipset it uses would help determine that, but you
probably already know from seeing it, given the info I wrote
above.
On Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:41:17 GMT, "AC" <xxxx@xxxx.xxx>
wrote:
>
>"Darklight" <nglennglen@netscape.net> wrote in message
>news:j5qdnfE8GKr-S3HanZ2dneKdnZydnZ2d@bt.com...
>> do your self a favour reinstall the os and reformat the whole hard drive.
>>
>> thats if you have an installation software
>>
>> have you defragged the hard drive
>
>Absolutely, under normal circumstances I would. But there is so much
>software with out the original disks and user data is scattered all over the
>place I thought I'd have a go at cleaning the malware out. Plus, I've never
>seen a PC with so much malware on it I wanted to treat it as a challenge.
>
>Funnily enough I completely forgot about a simple defrag. This PC hasn't had
>any maintenance since it was bought so the file system must be all over the
>place. Cheers for the reminder.
>
>AC
While there may be more necessary to get the system into
good shape, putting the heatsink back on should be the first
priority. Such a problem can cause outright failure, it is
fortunate the system still seems to work and we can be
hopeful it hasnt' done any permanent damage.
"AC" <xxxx@xxxx.xxx> wrote in message
newsb4Hj.27580$5i5.1496@newsfe6-gui.ntli.net...
> Hi All
>
> I have a PC (HP Pavilion 430.uk) from a friend (no, really) that was
> riddled with malware and was running incredible slowly and doing all sorts
> of scary things.
>
> Having spent a day cleaning up the machine it still seems slow. Next up I
> opened up the machine to add a network card so I could get the latest
> updates for all the anti malware software and re-run all the scans. On
> opening it up I found a heat sink sitting at the bottom the case. It had
> fallen of what must be one of the important chipset chips. The heat sink
> was held on by a clip that went over the heatsink and clipped in to two
> loops soldered in to the motherboard. Unfortunatly one of the loops is
> missing. This is why the heatsink fell off. It is also why I can't refit
> it.
>
> Since discovering that, with the knowledge that the machine had been
> running with out the heatsink, I continued to update and rescanned the
> machine. Accoring to all the scanners the machine should be clean, yet its
> still slow.
>
> So, a few questions questions
>
> 1) Is it possible that the missing heat sink is the reason for it being
> slow?
> 2) Since the machine still runs, is it safe to still run it with out the
> heatsink being there?
> 3) Any ideas as to how to refit the heatsink with out the loops?
>
> Cheers
> AC
>
>
Heat and chips 
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