NO Video and broken heatsink on Motherboard

I can not get any video! I opened the case and first thing I saw was a small aluminum

heatsink resting againg against the AGP video card. A wire runs through the middle of the

heatsink and acts as a spring which is supposed to be held onto the mainboard by what looks

like circuit jumpers with a hoop on top. One of the clips was also missing, but I found it

laying on the motherboard. Question, should I assume heatsink shorted video card? Can i just re-glue

the heatsink back on the motherboard? Motherboard is marked PV50-VX in a Sony desktop pc.

Thanks for any advice!

The heatsink goes on the Northbridge Chipset.
Without it the chipset over heats.
If one of the little U's came off of the motherboard you need to find it & remove it from the case so it doesn't short anything out.
The easiest way to fix it is with double sided thermal tape ,

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sekisui-5760-Dbl-Sided...id=p3286.c0.m14

Unplug the computer
Wait a minute & clean the chipset with a piece of paper towel & rubbing alcohol
Clean the heat sink also
Cut a piece of the tape to just fit the heatsink
Put it on the heatink & then stick the heatsink on the chipset.
Just let the wire part just hang out, don't try using it !
Provided the chipset wasn't damaged it's good to go.

I keep a supply of the double sided thermal tape for just such repairs.
It also works on video card coolers as long as they aren't real heavy !

NEVER use thermal tape to on a CPU heatsink !

The other way of fixing it is to try & epoxy the U back on.
Messy & usually doesn;t work out well .

Edited by fairjoeblue, 01 August 2009 - 04:25 PM.