[black sunshine]

My pc shutdown so I opened it up to find the heatsink sitting on the videocard. Now, there are four hooks attached to each corner of the motherboard where the heatsink sits but I only have two "arms" on the heatsink itself but it looks like that's how it was meant to be so I'm not concerned about that. My problem is that one of the hooks is missing and I haven't found it loose anywhere in the case.

I can't afford to just take my pc into a repair shop and have them fix it so I'm hoping to find an option that I can do myself. I've already done some research and from what I've read so far, it's my understanding that Arctic 5 thermal adhesive will help me "permanently" set the heatsink back on the board. I'm also led to believe that the arms and hooks, on the mobo and heatsink respectively, close a circuit that allows the pc to boot up. If this circuit isn't closed then the pc won't start up to protect it from overheating. Am I completely wrong about this?

How would I go about trying to find a replacement hook? could I try to rig something or does it have to be the exact same thing? If so, could I pop out one of the two hooks on the board that I'm not using or would that just present another problem?

I'm generally thinking that I could just hopefully rig something with the hook, possibly even bending the arm on the heatsink to touch the board easier, then use the Arctic adhesive to keep the heatsink attached to the board.

I'm not amazing with computers but I'm not lazy and have already spent quite a few hours trying to find a solution to my problem. I can't solder but my father can possibly help with that if it's needed. I've included a few pictures so you can get a better representation of what I'm faced with. I'm sorry for the long post but I'd really appreciate any insight or advice any of you can give me.

Thank you in advance

ps: To the best of my knowledge, the motherboard in question is an Intel Pentium 4 2.6GHz with 800MHz Bus on a i865G Based Motherboard.

[KanoakaVirus]

Have you tried re attaching the heat sink yet but using the 1st and 4th clips and applying new Tpaste?