Placing my CPU

[Delias]

Now, I've watched plenty of videos on how to build your system, and the Newegg one is very informative and the one I was watching at the time of building my computer. Anyways, I went to put my CPU into my motherboard, (YES, STEP FUCKING 1) and noticed there was A LOT more resistance when putting the arm down. Like, A LOT. Not just "Oh man, it's pushing back slightly, better back out." As in like, it was at a 90degree angle and would not go further unless I pushed with enough force to snap the mobo in half, which I have no plans of doing. Before I head back to the computer store and ask them what the issue is, any idea here?

Yes, it was put in correctly.
At least I'm assuming so. I did it the way the Paul from newegg TV said to do, and it really only goes in one way because of how it lines up.

[Deleted]

My experience is the same, you actually have to apply quite some pressure but then they'll fit nicely. In your case I don't know, sorry.

[Delias]

I understand that you need to apply pressure, but from everything I've seen that pressure should be needed when the arm is more than halfway down, not when it's all the way up.
Also, if I apply any more pressure I will be scraping the CPU.
When I remove the CPU and put the protective cap (whatever it's called) thing over the pins, it closes fine.. but if the CPU is in correctly I can't think of why it's unable to close properly.

[Triggered Fridgekin]

As long as the socket your processor has is the same which is in your motherboard and you can confirm that it is sitting in properly, you will likely have a fair amount of resistance which would indicate it's likely not properly aligned which could potentially damage the pins.

Does the processor itself seat without issue and is flush when you drop it in the socket? Come to think of it, what socket are you using?

[vesseblah]

The processor has small holes in left/right sides that line up with nothces on the socket. If you can drop in the processor so that the notches match and you can wiggle the processor by just a fraction of an inch but otherwise it sits snugly in the socket it's in the right place. Pushing down the lever does take surprising amount of force and it clearly resists you. Might be hard to push it down with pinky finger alone, but it will go down with one or two fingers.

Also there's a small metal locking bolt on the motherboard and you need to slide the metal frame on top of processor under it or you can't push the lever down. That might be something you missed when pulling up the lever.

[Zanno]

I would definitely make sure that the CPU has been placed in the slot correctly. Most of the time, CPU's have a notch cut out on one corner so that when you set it in place, it's almost idiot proof and you can only seat it in one position. I'd make sure that it's been seated properly before closing the "lid".

I've had this issue before and it's because I didn't line up the notch on the CPU to the MB. The notch is small, but it's easy enough to notice. Hope that helps.

[Delias]

It was in the locking bolt, and the pressure that I had to apply in order to push it further was enough pressure that I could hear a SCRAPING sound if I pushed. Pretty sure it isn't that I didn't apply enough force.

And yes, the notches were lined up. There are two notches in the CPU and mobo, there is only one way it will even go in.


I realize that it is idiot proof, and that's why it's so frustrating.

The CPU is a 2500k, which needs an LGA1155 socket, and the mobo is a z68, which is an lga 1155 mobo.

[vesseblah]

It was in the locking bolt, and the pressure that I had to apply in order to push it further was enough pressure that I could hear a SCRAPING sound if I pushed. Pretty sure it isn't that I didn't apply enough force.

Cracking noises are normal, but not scraping noises... If you put the metal frame under the locking bolt, does it move freely when the lever is up, or do you already need to apply pressure to get that far?

[Delias]

I don't know what you mean by that. If the lever is pointing straight up, I already get resistance. Not sure if that answers what you're asking.
Like, significant resistance. Even when it's that high up. I start getting the scraping sound at about an 80degree angle, which is nowhere near where I should start getting resistance.

[vesseblah]

Also, once you have the CPU in place, the small bumps on the metal locking frame will have scratched small marks on top of the CPU, so little bit of metal scratching is also normal.

[Delias]

I see the scrape marks, but I would assume those are meant to appear when the lever is most of the way down, not pointed straight up.. no?

[vesseblah]

I don't know what you mean by that. If the lever is pointing straight up, I already get resistance. Not sure if that answers what you're asking.
Like, significant resistance. Even when it's that high up. I start getting the scraping sound at about an 80degree angle, which is nowhere near where I should start getting resistance.

Yeah, I meant that you should be able to push the lever down to about 50-60 degree angle before getting any resistance. Which sounds like something is not aligning as it should.

[Delias]

But if everything is in correctly, and I'm having that issue.. what could be causing it?
Should I just be taking it to where I bought it a couple hours ago and asking them to look at it?

This computer made me 100% piss broke, so if they end up needing to charge me to look at it, I'm fucked.

[vesseblah]

You could ask nicely if they can take a look. Probably will not ask any money if there's nobody else in the store taking their time.

I'd say there's 50/50 chance you aren't using enough force and there being something physically wrong with it. Unless you can't bribe some friend who has previous experience from doing it, getting it to the store would be safer.


Or if possible, you could take few good quality pictures, drop those to imgur.com and put links here and we could guesstimate if everything looks normal or not.

[Delias]

None of my friends with more computer knowledge than I have live anywhere near me.

[dlouhys]

***Assuming you know for a fact you have the correct CPU for the correct motherboard ***

The Core i3/i5/i7 CPUs take quite a bit more pressure to lock into place than previous processors. If it's your first time installing one it may seem a little unnerving if all you have dealt with is ZIF sockets. There are a few locking mechanisms that can get stuck a bit and sometimes you can jiggle the arm, or the top of the locking mechanism to get it to line up better so there is less resistance.

[Delias]

Again, from seeing other people mount this processor in multiple boards, none of them have been getting resistance nearly as early as my processor is.
If they are, they're hiding it damn well.

[dlouhys]

Can you take a close up picture of the CPU laying in the socket and post a link? There might be something that sticks out like a sore thumb.

[Delias]

I've already re-boxed the processor and mobo, as I'm leaving for the store at some point in the next 10minutes to have them take a look at it.