VeeshanVault

I have an older MB, an ABIT BD711. Just 20 minutes ago I was playing WoW and heard something sort of snap and bounce around inside my computer's case. Cracked it open and found a small bit of curved wire with a piece of plastic bridging between the wire, sort of like an 'A' but with a curved top. Looking at the board, I found something similiar. Here's a picture of the board, with a red circle where the piece, I assume, flew off of.



Now not shown there is a big heat sink over the chip right by where the part broke off. The sink has 2 metal arms on either side of it that are being held down by, you guessed it, the part that broke off. The sink is still very securely on, and the one arm is still held down. The one where the loop broke off is just sorta hanging there.

Now, I'm no expert by any means, so I'm wondering... wtf happened? Did the strain of holding the arm down finally get to be too much and it just popped off? Is that all this part really does? Do I have any risk of further problems? The computer's been making an awful lot of noise lately, but I'm 99% sure it's just the fans, mostly the video card fan, and I'm replacing those (part comes in tuesday). A little worried I guess. Can't really afford to go buying new shit here.

Could be that the heat sink is being held on by the cooling paste. If the motherboard's not in a desktop case, I'd lay it flat to avoid putting too much strain on the retainer that isn't broken.. it's not impossible that the uneven pressure caused by the remaining retainer will level the heat sink off over time too, so it's probably a good idea to keep an eye on things, and treat any 'random' crashes as a probable heat issue.

Being held down in a tensioned position was ultimately too much for the strap and it gave way. I assume the post on the mb is not damaged. Perhaps you can jury rig a new one out of stainless steel wire and shrink tubing (a straightened paper clip and some electrical tape even), or email Abit and see if a replacement can be obtained.