At 18:18 03/13/01, Bill Cohane wrote:
>You can look around for what's called a "Universal
>Retention Mechanism". You can get them from various
>vendors for a dollar or two each. (You'd probably pay more
>than the cost of the "URM" just for the shipping.) It can
>however be difficult getting the old retention mechanism
>off the motherboard. As long as you don't move your
>computers around too much and subject them to rough
>treatment (as in shipping them), the processors should
>stay in place without any retention mechanism (unless
>of course you are using a humungous heat sink on the CPU).

>Regards,
>Bill

    Oddly enough, I just encountered this problem a few hours before
reading this post.  My motherboard actually came with a "Universal
Retention Mechanism already installed (although the manual gives
directions for installing it too), but the URM doesn't seem to do much
to lock the Pentium III into place.  It does tend to hold it in a
vertical position (perpindicular to the MB), but apparently only due to
spring-loading, not a solid lock like you get with Pentium II.  [Like
Dr. Dean Kukral, I too had to bend a few capacitors to get the CPU case
to fit.]
    According to the directions, there are supposed to also be "two
black plastic pegs" and "two black plastic supports" which attach to the
MB to brace/support the entire URM-CPU-heatsink-fan assembly.  These are
apparently provided with an "Intel-boxed processor kit", but not with
OEM processors.
    Since the entire assembly seems to be fairly solid without these
supports, I have been wondering for the past few hours if I could get by
without them, especially since the CPU board will be hanging vertically
(so gravity shouldn't be too serious a problem).  Based on previous
responses to this post, I guess the answer to this is probably a
qualified "yes", provided the computer isn't moved around too much.  I
hope so anyway!

Bob Castorf


At 16:16 03/13/01, Dr. Dean Kukral wrote:
>>I, too, have had problems with my last two upgrades
>>to P3.  While the P2 brackets worked great, the P3
>>did not work at all.  I even had to bend aside some
>>little capacitors on the mb to make the cpu case
>>fit.  (I do not recommend doing this!  I was luck y
>>that I did not ruin anything.)  Both of my computers
>>now have their processors just hanging there!  I do
>>not move them much, so the only thing to work them
>>loose is vibration.  So far I have had no problems.  One
>>of the processors is a P3  300, bought when it first
>>came out, so it is several years old.
>>
>>Dean Kukral  [log in to unmask]
>>
>>
>>----- Original Message -----
>>>From: "Bill Nussbaumer" <[log in to unmask]>
>>>Sent: Sunday, March 11, 2001 3:24 PM
>>>Subject: [PCBUILD] Processor retention - important?
>>>
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I just installed a 500Mhz Pentium 3 Slot 1 into an Abit BH6
>>> motherboard.  The processor retention mechanism that came with the
board
>>> doesn't hold this processor in place - (i.e it's as if I just
installed
the
>>> processor with no retention mechanism at all).  Although my initial
failure
>>> at boot up led me to deduce that I'd not inserted the processor
>>> sufficiently, since then, the computer has worked fine.  Is a
retention
>>> mechanism for slot 1 processors essential?
>>>
>>> TIA,
>>>
>>> Bill Nussbaumer

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