One of the biggest problems we face when buying a computer component is factory defects, something that in principle should not happen due to the quality control that these types of components usually go through, but that does not free us from 100% of this happening.
This is what happens if a motherboard does not have all the socket pins
As we all know, PC components can have various faults that cause them to not work as they should, and this may seem strange to us since obviously a new computer should not work badly, at least at first. In this case, we are going to talk about the problems that a computer can present when it does not have all the pins of the socket, and although it may not seem like it, we can add a processor to a socket that does not have all the pins, and it works, although obviously not as it should.
In the sockets of the latest generation based on the format LGA (Land Grid Array), we find the pins located on the motherboard instead of on the processor, something that allows us to reduce the problems when incorporating a processor for obvious reasons. These pins are extremely delicate as we can expect, and a blow or rub can end up breaking or bending them, but there is also the possibility that they come with a factory defect and that they do not include some of the ones they should have.
Computer performance is greatly reduced
If you want to know what happens when one of these pins is not where it should be, you don’t need to look any further. We are going to tell you first-hand what the practical experience of putting a computer of this type into operation is like, since curiosity is often what leads us to do tests that we would not consider at first. From the beginning when we assemble the computer we can see that things do not go as they should, and if we start installing an operating system, for example, we will notice how it goes extremely slowly, which is normal.
This means that the installation process can take a long time, and something that normally should not take more than twenty minutes or half an hour on a computer with the latest generation components, can take more than two hours, including all the subsequent configurations. Once the installation is finished and we access the operating system we can see that it really goes extremely badly, obviously the applications take a long time to load and the system itself takes a long time to start, but it still works without any problems. issues, There are no reboots, blue screens or any kind of problem beyond the performance.
One of the things that can draw our attention the most is that an OS like Windows detects from the beginning that something is not right (a core fails or the processor does not make contact at all), and what it does is greatly limit the power of the processor, in this case it reduced the GHz by half, limiting he use of the CPU at a maximum of 57%, in the following image you can see a prime95 Stress test, in which you can clearly see how the memory is working at its maximum but the CPU remains above this value.
There are still ways to remove this limitation by modifying a value found in the registry, specifically in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesamdppm or intelppm depending on the brand. In the Start parameter that appears on the right, we can change the number 3 to 4 to make Windows use it, which allows us to make the CPU work with the maximum possible power, but maintaining the base clock speed of the processor.
This allows us to make the CPU operate at maximum possible power, but will still maintain the base speed of the clock that is configured, if we try to apply a profile of overclock or similar, as we can imagine, it will not work, and although in the monitoring programs it will appear as having a much higher clock speed, it will remain at the base frequency, in this case 4.2 GHz.
If we try to do different things benchmarkswe will see that the score it offers us is well below the usual, in fact we can see that the comparison of a really current CPU such as the Ryzen 7 7800x3D is not capable of surpassing that of an Intel Core 2 duo E8500.
In general, if we try to check the rest of the components and so on, it will show us that everything is perfectly fine, working as it should, even the processor itself will show us that it has the appropriate speed as we have seen previously, but obviously it does not work as it should.
In the end, a couple of pins can make all the difference, so if you were wondering whether a PC can work even when not all the pins on the motherboard are present, the answer is yes, it can, although it will have a performance similar to that of a computer from more than 16 years ago.