Core2 CPUs damaged?

[imipenem]

A co-worker recently asked me to look at 2 of his personal PCs that stopped working. The short story is he somehow fried the motherboard in PC A in the process of troubleshooting he swapped CPUs. PC A still didn't boot with CPU B, so he put CPU B back into PC B. Then put CPU A back into PC A & CPU B back into PC B. Now neither booted. The first thing I did was disassemble the PCs and make sure the CPUs were properly seated. Everything looked fine so I began troubleshooting - I always start by trying to boot with CPU, RAM, and graphics. Nothing on both PCs. So I remove the CPUs. This is the first time I have EVER removed a socket LGA 775 CPU from the motherboard. Both CPUs have tiny dimples on the contact points. Is this normal OR did my friend damage the CPUs from repeated reinstallations?

 

[oynaz]

It doesn't sound likely. Can you post a pic?

 

[RebateMonger]

Those contact points are solder bumps, which are likely indented by the corresponding pins on the motherboard socket.

 

[AmberClad]

I'm not sure about the C2Ds (mine won't be arriving until Thurs ), but my LGA775 Pentium 4 does have very tiny dimples in the contacts.

I reseated it twice this weekend after giving my Zalman a good scrubbing and then adding some cable sleeving. I remember staring at the underside of the P4 to make sure I hadn't gotten thermal paste there, so the tiny dimples are fresh in my mind. I don't think that in itself it an indication of damage; I myself have only reseated this proc 4 times in its lifetime and yet the dimples are there.

 

[imipenem]

Thanks, then I will RMA the motherboards and go from there....

 

[Captmorgan09]

Dimples are normal for the contact points. The pins on the socket are supposed to slightly dig into the CPU contact points to make a good connection. After a few insertions, you will see little dimples.

In the motherboard factories, they use the same CPU for hundreds if not thousands of insertions without any issues. I myself work on developing test packages for LGA775 motherboards and have never seen a CPU go bad due to too many insertions, only the socket will sometimes have bent pins which cause the board not to boot. If that happens, you're screwed.