Just realized my heat sink fan hadn't been working.

[xcaliber]

Ok so I just realized my heat sink fan hadn't been working. I finally got around to getting my stat monitors working and I realized that my cpu was running waaaaay over temperature. I openend the side of my case to find that the fan on the heat sink for my i7 3770 wasn't turning. I made sure power was connected, but then I realized that the wires for the power were too tight to the heat sink and they were stopping the blades from turning. It must have been pulled too tight in the factory. I was so focused on getting osx to load that I didn't even pay attention to whether or not my heat sink was working properly...amateur mistake I know

This has been like this for a week or so now. Anyone have any input on the type of damage that might have been done, if any, to my cpu? Should I contact newegg and try to get an RMA just incase? Everything seems to be running fine still, but I just don't want to find out in 6 months I should have done this. Anyone else ever have a problem like this?

 

[potemkin]

What kind of heat sink ?
This is amazing.
You must have some fantastic case fans and ventilation in your box.
They must have cooled the CPU.
The board should probably not even posted.
There are BIOS settings that control fan for CPU.
Generally they are set to shutdown CPU if temp is too high.
CPU fan does not kick in for a few seconds at post. (temp reaches a certain point)

At various times and on various machines HW monitor would show one temp ridiculously high. (enough to melt lead)
The latest version does not do this.

I assume you were using stock CPU cooler. Wire routing has clips that keep it away from fan on fan housing.
Once wire leaves fan housing and goes to where it plugs into motherboard is where problems can occur. If too loose and routed improperly it may jam blades. You need wire zips to keep it out of the way sometimes. Too tight is usually not the problem. You should hear fan in any case.

Make sure you have proper BIOS settings for fan control.

As far as assessing damage look for programs that stress test CPU and watch temperature.
Check around for posts that involve over clocking. They usually use a program that tracks temp and CPU load.
This may give you a clue as to what condition your CPU is in.

Your Intel warranty is good for three years.
I do not know how Intel evaluates the return.
They can probably tell if heat damaged. They will check fan to see if it works. If fan works they may assume improper installation and do nothing.

If this is a socket 1155 do not remove CPU from motherboard if at all possible.
The leaf shaped pins in the socket are very fragile. Swapping CPUs can result in non functioning motherboard.
The old 775 socket with pins in CPU was better than pins in sockets of 1155. I have bent pins twice in motherboard and had memory problems as a result.