My heat sync casing broke. I cannot latch the heatsync to the processor. Is there anywhere that I can find a casing? I recently lost my job and this computer is my life line to my job search. If anyone knows of store or website where I can get just the casing please respond

Thank you,

try looking at newegg....thats probably the best known site around here for parts

what heat sink part broke? The part that is attached to the mobo, or the part that attaches the heat sink to the base?

http://www.pcloft.com/pe4so478remo.html

If that is not the piece that is broken, then any heatsink fan that attaches to that 478 pin bracket will be easier to find that the top clip.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=ENE&N...;maxPrice=

most of those will work with the bottom retainer

The blue casing that has four screws and you clamp the heat sync to the base. I can't clamp the heat sync because th casing broke where the clamps are supposed to latch.

Then the best thing for you to do is to remove the motherboard and take the retension clip out. Buy another heatsink and fan, and mount it onto the motherboard.

Had the same problem with my 2350. Cheap plastic. I dont think you can get from Dell but i found a site that sells them for $1.99. plus shipping (I bought a couple just in case) hope this helps http://tekgems.com/
good luck.

I use to have a Dell 4550, had a crap green air duct from the heatsink to exhaust fan, very cheap and could have broken easily. Dell has to do a better job with using quality cooling components.

And by the way its a heatsink not a heatsync just to let you know.

I just had this problem with a customer's computer. At first I thought it was the power supply, but when I replaced the ps I noticed the heat sink flopping around. In addition to replacing the base as described in this thread, I found two other solutions:

1. Temporary, kludgy -- leave the tower unit on its right side and let gravity hold the CPU heat sink in place. This works, but makes the unit less than user friendly, especially the CD/CDR drive(s).

2. Unscrew the base from the mobo and rig a length of insulated wire to act as the clip "hook" held in place by the mounting screws. With two of the four plastic hooks broken on mine, this fix worked fine and should hold up for quite a while.

I no im late on giveing an answer but for every one else that has this problem its a simple fix.This retainer is a defect from Dell,plastic over time gets weak from the heat and breaks.You can find them on eBay but what i did was clean the heatsink then litely sand the edges with a lite sand paper,reclean then put apoxy glue around the edges of the heatsink and retainer and put it back in place,,put a small weight on the heatsink and let it sit untill the apoxy cures,viola its back up and running.Mine has held in place for over a year now,good luck.