Chip issue

[manimal]

I have two G0 quads and found an odd issue with my newest chip. I just pulled the HSF off and found small little flecks in the surface of the chip. I for the life of me cant figure out what it is. I always use AS cleaner and thought it was some dried AS5 from the last application. This chip literally has only been in use for 2-3 hours. Its my newest chip and the system I installed it into has a bad motherboard-evga 680i so I had to RMA it. I just got my replacement board in and found the little flecks on the chip. I tried to clean it off with the AS cleaner and also tried a dab of ispropyl alcohol wich didnt remove it. My wife has our digital camera with her so I cant take a picture of this but will post it when shes back.


The chip is really new and I am wondering if anyone has ever gotten a bad chip that had this kind of surface defect. Come to think of it for this application I usd Mx1 for the first time so it is possible that it dried into these flecks but I would assume one could clean that off.


Any Ideas? I would love to put this thing back together but am afraid to at the moment.



M

 

[Quiksilver]

Kind of sounds like the IHS is chipping off or something and the specks that you are seeing is the copper underneath, but I could be wrong though.

 

[manimal]

Would that be from a bad chip? The bottom of my hsf has some specs too.

 

[dmens]

please take a pic. if damage has been done to the substrate it should be ok, unless the damage is within tens of microns to the device layer, in which case the cpu might not run at its rated speed. and if the damage is at the device layer, then the cpu is definitely dead.

 

[Idontcare]

Sounds like "metal fretting" to me.

I have to lap my G0 and my Tuniq120 because the two metal surfaces fretted (my fault, must have slighty shifted the HSF on the IHS to cause the fret in the first place).

Fretting is basically metal-on-metal friction induced spallation.

http://www.corrosion-doctors.o...-fretting/fretting.htm

http://corrosion.ksc.nasa.gov/fretcor.htm

http://www.epi-eng.com/BAS-Fretting.htm

 

[BladeVenom]

found small little flecks in the surface of the chip

Do you mean the heat spreader? Or the actual chip underneath the heat spreader?

If your just talking about the plating on the heat spreader, it's probably just defective plating. Some people grind the plating off for better contact and conductivity.

Here's a lapped heat spreader.

 

[manimal]

Thx for responses everyone, Now that I look at the surface it definately seems like metal on metal contact. Metal fretting sounds very interesting, It does sort of look like metal shavings and upon very close inspection it does appear like its what Idontcare mentioned. The zalman 9700 shifts a little when moved and could have very well caused the problem. I moved to a tuniq a while ago on my main machine and the zalman was moved over to this machine.


I guess I have no excuse other than to lap it. Once lapped it shouldnt be a problem. I wonder if I had never noticed if this would have effected longer term use of the chip, I wager it would have run hot.