I recently built a computer for someone. It was just for general use, not gaming or anything, so I went with fairly simple specs. Because they wanted an insanely quiet computer, I went with an NHD15S. The problem is that cooler causes flexing in the motherboard that makes the CPU not make contact with the socket. Is there a not overly janky way that I could fix that without getting a smaller cooler? I know flexing is the issue because it works for a while with the big cooler, but eventually won’t boot after being shut down, or crashes in weird ways and then won’t boot, and the mobo lights always show a CPU and dram light. The box cooler has no issues, but is louder under load.
Edit: it does boot with the large cooler if the system is on it’s side. I followed the mounting instructions carefully.
Edit 2: Solved. I was overtightening.
Is it mounted correctly? Usually motherboard flex from a cpu cooler is due to tightening things too much or mounting incorrectly in some way like using the wrong mounting hardware or the wrong holes/slots on the mounts.
I could be overtightening. I will try to be careful not to.
Edit: It appears you were right. Thank you.
Awesome, glad you got it working!
I don’t think it’s possible to over tighten a noctua heatsink. They have hard stops and you’re supposed to tighten it to those stops.
https://noctua.at/pub/media/proslider/banner_lga1700_home_3.jpg
Ignore that it’s the intel one, but you can’t really overtighten this mount. I just thought, OP you have the backplate installed right?
Something else is wrong with your system if an NH-D15 is causing the system to not boot. The flex from the heatsink shouldn’t be perceptible.
Are you missing a bunch of motherboard standoffs or something? Is your CPU not socketed fully somehow?
Review the manual again and redo installation. The cooler is not properly installed.
I never knew overtightening was a real issue until it happened to me. I was going to send back my motherboard until I saw someone suggest to loosen the screws of my heatsink.
That actually worked.
Fabricate a support bracket or turn the PC on its side.