I ran into a P4-2ghz system with a little problem today. The little piece of plastic that holds the heat sink/fan in place had a corner broken off of it. Because of this, it would not sit flush with the processor.
My solution? 2 large pull-ties around the heat sink and the bottom of the plastic bracket to hold the seciton with the broken corner in place. So far it has worked OK.
even though it may seem to contact fully, it probably doesnt as the as the clips apply a LOT of pressure(which it needs) so that it gets good contact, if it does not youll burn out the processor.
you should go buy a whole new heatsink, most good ones come with a new bracket to mount it to the motherboard, or if its the clip on the fan/heatsink unit itself(i'm not clear which you meant) then you can just get another stock intel one for like $5 on craigslist, but i would sugest buying a vantec or zalman one, theses are quiter AND will work much better making the processor last longer(and other components as the case wont get as hot, making those last longer to) hope i helped or at least clarified something
the intel motherboards that we use at the school that i work at, will actually warp under the pressure of the heatsin.
Its not a "little" bit of a warp but a very significant bulge on the back of the motherboard where the cpu is. Apparently it is normal too, but man, it sure looks disconcerting.
I dont' think that zip ties are as efficent. The p4 will probably run fine, but it may actually be clocking itself down due to the less efficent heat transfer. The p4's are very good at dropping down to compensate for bad cooling at the expense of speed.
It was the motherboard bracket that was broken. I put a lot of pressure on the ties, and seems to work OK. It's tight enough that using the lever on the side that was broken doesn't flex like it used to at all.
As a backup plan, I bought the cheapest replacement mobo for it I could find that still supported SDRAM.
Well if i remember correctly, the brackets can be replaced, you just simply remove the motherboard, and then remove the existing broken bracket from behind the motherboard and buy a new p4 heatsink assy complete with the motherboard bracket.
Shouldn't take more than an hour to do the whole job.