So. Here's a picture of the mobo: http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Articles/Sources/B/Biostar TA770 A2+/Images/b20071105_1.jpg in this image, to the left of the proc socket, there is a heatsink labeled "biostar" that snapped off when I was intalling my very large and intensely obnoxious to get clipped on arctic cooler proc fan. All I did was nudge it. When I tried to get it back down to see if the plastic thing would go back in, the other one snapped out, too. I believe it's my fsb, but I have no real idea. I need help identifying it, and I need to know: If I lay my tower on it's side, will it function at all without the pressure the clips would have given it? How can I fix this with at home parts? I'm broke for a little while and can't order anything. This has been hell. I got a new proc and new powersupply, thought the power supply failed, and then win7 was giving me MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION errors every time it ran, I was all set to pursue a possible resolution and this happens. my computer is out of commission completely. before I deconstruct and await when I can buy a new mobo, I'd love to find something I can do to permit my computer to work without risking damage to my components. (some mobo risk is OK - if it won't damage the rest. Heh. This thing is on it's last legs.) So any help you can provide in identification of the problem so I can google better or a solution would be just amaaaazing. Thank you for reading my massive, rambly message.
That is the northbridge, or "Chipset". You can get arctic silver 5 and use that to glue the heatsink back on.
i have some arctic silver left over from my new proc, excellent to know. I didn't know that actually formed any kind of bond - will that actually allow me to use the pc as a tower again, or not quite strong enough? EDIT: I had just enough in an older tube, and not a moment too soon, I hate my laptops keyboard! and I'm dying to get back to muuuuusic! You are my savior! I await yours or anyone's reply on if it actually works as a "glue", if not, no real loss. I'm still replacing it soon, but now it won't be as gruelling a wait! I think I just need a bios update, and a reactivation, from here, and i'm gooooood to go.
I can't find the edit button again... does it disappear after some time? I just wanted to update this with the info I got from loooots of searching on the internet. Arctic silver 5 is not a glue, by any means, however, it should work to fix a busted off chipset like this. If it's a dell PC though, keep searching. Also, arctic silver makes several glues just for this kind of thing - they can't really be removed after, though. But yeah, nice to know, because it took me so long to find out!