Dell Dimension 4600C heatsink Alert! Chipset heatsink not detected. System Halted
I had an older DELL Dimension 4600c come in today. I have come to know that the HS2 clip shown here
comes loose and causes the heatsink from the north bridge to come loose and give you a chipset error message “Alert! Chipset heatsink not detected. System Halted”
How do you fix this issue?
Buy some Thermal Adhesive from Newegg.com
and mix a tiny amount (instructions) on top of the northbridge shown here
set the heatsink on top of the northbridge and allow the Themal Adhesive to bond. FYI, this is a PERMANENT BOND and will not come loose anytime soon. Just to be on the safe side you might set something heavy on top of the heatsink, just to make sure it is nice and snug. Let it sit for 24 hours before trying to apply the HS2 clasp and heatsink fasteners. The heatsink makes a circuit and tells the motherboard BIOS the heatsink is attached by the metal fasterner on the heatsink. The possibility of the HS2 clasp coming loose from the fastener is stil great and since the connection is needed for the system halt not to occur, we need to complete the circuit. Here we can do 2 things; we can bend the fastener on the heatsink so it completes the circuit but applies little presure to the HS2 or we can run a single copper wire from HS2 to HS1 either of which will work.
I have a 2006 Dell Dimension e310 (3100) that is getting the same message. The heatsink clips (HS1 and HS2) are firmly attached to the mobo and the solder joints on the back of the mobo are intact. Running copper bell wire between the clips does not solve the problem. Does the heatsink bond to the chip matter, or only continuity between the clips? This is driving me crazy.
Thanks,
Ken
The heatsink could be removed and as long as the clips are seated firmly and making contact with the soldering points, it should not give the error message.
Thanks, I assumed that but wanted to check with an expert. Given that this problem won’t go away by jumping the mobo clips, could I have a bad mobo? This all started while diagnosing a “no start” condition after an electrical storm (no fans, no lights, no beeps), and discovered that the internal PCI modem had two “burn spots” on the PCB. After removing the modem, the PC begins to start as normal but halts with this error message during POST. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Ken
A couple things pop into my head:
1. The north bridge is burned.
2. The heat sync may not be cooling the north bridge.
You could try; Thermal Adhesive, 3rd party heat sync, replacing the motherboard, or upgrade to a new PC.
I appreciate your quick reply. I’ll try reattaching the heatsink with thermal adhesive.
hello! thnx for the tips
i have both hs1 and hs2 claps broken. and you state that i need to fix the connection to work, and one option is by using a copper wire. how do i do that? i figured out how to glue the heatsink though. have another question, what would happen if glue two heatsink chips together, one top of the the other?