I had a socket 1156 system running as a server. I also had such a system running as my desktop PC. Since I just recently got a new desktop PC I figured that I would use the old desktop system as a server as well.
I really enjoyed the thought of doing this since I then would have had two almost identical servers, which in turn could have been setup for some redundant high availability service.
The CPU cooler which was mounted at the desktop PC’s mainboard was pretty large, and it had to be replaced or otherwise it wouldn’t have fit in the 4U rack chassis. While replacing the cooler I also cleaned the CPU and put some new thermal compound on it. All done and I tried booted the system. The monitor attached to the system showed nothing.
A red LED lit up on the mainboard. Uh oh.
Memory problems I thought at first. I started debugging the system but nothing seemed to get it running.
The CPU cooler was really the only thing that had changed. I dismounted the cooler. Everything seemed to be OK. I removed the CPU from it’s socket as well. Now I remembered. While I was cleaning the CPU, I happened to get a really small piece of paper stuck in the socket (don’t even ask me how). Obviously I removed the paper but I never checked to see if something had become damaged. The paper was really soft after all and no force had been applied when it got stuck, or so I thought at least.
It seems as something really got damaged.
You see that? Four of the “pins” do not look like they should.
Blah. Crap. Crap. Crap. >_<
This screwed up my plans. Buying a new socket 1156 mainboard is really expensive now since it’s end-of-life or whatever. I guess I could try finding one at Ebay or something tho…