Fried my Athlon XP 1900 like bacon in less than 2 seconds!! ARGH!!!!

[ahsumdude]

Freaking greek tragedy!!!

I had a Soyo Dragon K7V plus with a XP 1900 OC's to 1.74. Decent OC however not great considering I have a MCX462 on top of it.
I read a few good reviews about the Shuttle AK35 with numerous voltage tweaks. Vcore adjustments to 2.3volts had my name all over it. I figured with a little extra juice (1.95 or so) and I should be able to get a 1.8 OC.

Received the board yesterday. Took it into the office today to exchange mainboards with a friend of mine. Immediately, I noticed that the four holes around the socket are smaller than the soyo. This sucked because the sleeve washer did not fully insert into the holes. Not only that, f**king shuttle decided to place smaller transitors right up against the holes. So, not only do you not have grounded holes like MB mounts but the holes are not even large enough to accomodate the sleeve washers that swiftech recommend you use. You can't place metal standoffs on traces. Not a good idea. Unfortunately no red flags were raising.

The tragic thing is I hadn't noticed that the sleeve washers weren't properly seated because of the small holes on this goddamn mainboard. Little did I realize there was a millimeter air gap between the core and the heatsink after I screwed it down on the standoffs. Incidently the northbridge heatsink pin also is too close to the socket and these large heatsinks overlap them. That's crap also!

Well, I installed all my cards, hooked all the cable up, shook everyone's hands, patted myself on the back and proceeded to turn on the power. .......nothing but black screen which seemed like an eternity. My friend said he smelled something and immediately jerked the power cable. Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! too late!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Utter quiet had befallen us as we stared at each other! You could hear a pin drop before I screamed and cried in horror. Only a family member suffering such a fate would have made me feel worse.

We removed the MB and soon discovered the design flaw of this f**king board. We removed the heatsink and there it was... a small light brown soot mark on the artic silver compound. Core looked great though. Not a mark on it. Athlon XP thermal protection is a f**king OXYMORON that AMD has perpetrated on us unsuspecting few. Ha! I wanted to scratch my eyes out. It certainly would have been less painful!

EVERYONE BE FOREWARNED! DO NOT BUY A SHUTTLE AK35 IF YOU WANT TO INSTALL A MCX462 OR PAL 8045! You will cetainly F**k yourself up the back side.

I broke the news to my wife earlier today. She expressed sympathy however I'm certain she did not fully understand my grief. She did later on today call to see how I was feeling and indicated that I could order a new CPU. She truly is blessed!

As I was writing about my tragedy tonight my wife asked me if we were going to have a memorial service this weekend? She asked me if she needed to prepare some snacks and drinks for funeral reception. She's such a dear!


Newegg must love me!

 

[Yossarian]

A moment of silence for the loss of your loved one. That sucks man.

 

[pressureEze]

I feel your pain. About 10 months ago I had a "friend" volunteer himself to help me install my heatsink on a 1200 tbird and he didn't seat it properly. We turn the thing on, starts to post, then freezes. I ask him what the smell is and he says that's how the new tbirds smell when they're breaking in for the first time. What a dick. It's not really the loss of the chip that got me, so much as the fact that I was going to be without my PC for a week or 2. Actually, the fact that I touched the chip and burned some skin off wasn't too nice either...

 

[ScrapSilicon]

 

[Raspewtin]

 

[Sniper82]

Well I fried a 1gig@1.2. I just had put a Alpha Pal6305(think thats right) and it didnt seem like it was cooling right with the spacer on. Well I took it off because I thought more air would flow through the heatsink. Well I didnt know the screws shot right through the bottom of the heatsink(what was the designer thinking). Well the screws lifted the heatsink just a hair off of the core. I turn on the PC and about 4 secs it shuts back down. I thought oh no. So I checked the heatsink and saw that it was lifted off the core. I knew right there I killed the CPU. The mobo and everything would power up but the PC would not post.

It was kind of my fault but in a way it wasnt. It was strange though because the core looked fine and I didnt smell anything burning.

 

[JellyBaby]

OK so don't buy AMD or Shuttle stuff. Got it.

Seriously, AMD needs better thermal management and a better retension mechanism and sooner rather than later. Nothing wrong with making things more idiot-proof.

 

[John]

<< Athlon XP thermal protection is a f**king OXYMORON that AMD has perpetrated on us unsuspecting few. >>



If the motherboard supported the feature there would be no problem. I am not sure why motherboard mfg's are dragging their feet.

 

[Mikewarrior2]

well, athlon XP thermal protection should primarily be on-CPU, not on motherboard, that way you don't have to worry about mb manufacturers that don't support thermal protection schemes.



Mike

 

[Lord Evermore]

<< It was kind of my fault but in a way it wasnt. >>



Actually, no, it's entirely your fault. The instructions tell you to use the spacer, and while they may not explain why, it's explained in various places online (noise reduction). Plus, how could you not notice that the screws had come out the other side of the heatsink?

It's easier for them to just drill straight through than to try to drill precisely so that the holes are deep enough to provide a good pull on the fan yet not cut through the bottom of the sink.

Don't blame the manufacturer for you misusing the product.

 

[Sniper82]

Well I got no instructions because I bought mine off the forums. I know before I removed the spacer I reseated the heatsink,cleaned it and tried the fan both sucking and blow onto the heatsink. Still same temps. It was sad because my cooler master kept my CPU cooler. After burning the 1gig up I used the heatsink for target practice.

 

[IQJUMPuw]

Wow, Ahsumdude, I'm really really sorry that had to happen to ya. I know how it feels, cuz I lost my CPU like that too before.

I was installing Athlon T-bird 1.4GHz with my friend and when I turned the power on, all we saw was a black screen with a smell of something burning, but we were too stupid to know that was a smell of my CPU burning, so we kept trying... HAHA... We finally gave up and took out the CPU again and the thermal grease was kinda brownish... HAHA... I learned my lesson and installed my second T-bird right. Whew~

Second one was when my roommate got a Athlon XP 1600+. I let him install Alpha Pal8045 to Epox 8HKA+ when we turned on the computer, it booted up alright, but holy schemack, the CPU Temp was 68C I thought it was okay so we kept booting up, but his Hard Drive wasn't working, so we took out everything again and I saw that the heatsink was kinda crooked. My friends and I freaked out and installed it right again. WHEW~ Nothing burnt. Booting up at 41C now.

I think you really gotta becareful with AMD CPU's. They are simply awesome. They can outperform Pentiums for less than half the cost. So you need good cooling devices and an experienced friend who can help you install it.

AMD Athlon Thunderbid 1.4GHz
Epox 8HKA+ Motherboard
Crucial 256MB PC2100 DDR RAM
Gainward GeForce3
Western Digital 40GB ATA100/7200RPM HD
Seagate 40GB ATA100/7200RPM HD
Alpha Pal8045 Heatsink (I highly recommend this heatsink. It's hands down the best heatsink out in the market right now)
CPU Temp: 41C idle & 45C under load
3Dmark2001: 7405

 

[Lord Evermore]

I'm pretty sure the coolermaster I was using kept my CPU cooler than the PAL6035 as well (I did notice a couple of degrees cooler with the PAL fan sucking instead of blowing). However I swapped out the motherboard and the processor along with the heatsink (t-bird 1G to 1.2G Palomino), so I don't have direct comparisons (and haven't had the desire to swap heatsinks just to test).

But it's still not Alpha's fault you used it wrong.


Less than half the cost is no longer true of AMD vs. Intel. A retail P4 1.6A is 157 on mwave, and the lowest cost for an AthlonXP 1600+ on Pricewatch is 107, and that's an OEM. While one might argue that an XP 1500+ or even a bit lower can outperform a P4 1.6A, the cost difference is still not half, and you should probably go with AMD's ratings when comparing. Also the 1.6A can reach over 2GHz overclocking.

 

[Budman]

<< well, athlon XP thermal protection should primarily be on-CPU, not on motherboard, that way you don't have to worry about mb manufacturers that don't support thermal protection schemes. >>



Well-said mike, thermal protection & core protection should be used.

I don?t know why after going from SlotA to socket A that they didn?t start using those heat spreaders like on the K6's.

Having a K6 type protection on the chip would have saved a lot of cpus from cracked & chipped cores too.

I love AMD cpu's for the design inside the chip but the outside of the chip is an other matter.

 

[Pabster]

The whole heat spreader issue is a timeless debate. I've yet to see a cracked core that wasn't caused by human negligence -- improper mounting / force being applied. I've never chipped, let alone cracked, a single Athlon core -- and I've installed hundreds.

Would a heat spreader "help" prevent such human negligence? Certainly. But, just as importantly to many, it would hamper overclocking efforts. Much as users are now removing the heat spreaders on Tualerons to reach higher clocks...

 

[DARRIN]

 

[BD231]

Jesus that really sucks man. AMD's heat solutions are horrible, but it's probably why their procs are so cheap. I hope AMD pick's up on this issue

 

[Jhill]

What are the 4 holes around the socket for? I just niticed im not using mine. I have my motherboard mounted by another 9 holes. (K7S5A)
Someone please tell me before I screw something up.

 

[Raspewtin]

jhill don't freak those holes are used for specific types of HSFs, some use clips, etc, some use those holes on spring loaded screws (like the alpha 8045 for ex)

 

[insdav3]

hmmm fried my 1700+.... the core actually fell of it was so bad. heh

 

[Dreadogg]

Thought that I fried one also yesterday, installed the volcano 7 on a XP 1600 on a MSI K7N420 in a enlight case. It was a hard fit had to take the fan off and install it after i put the removable motherboard tray in, it still was a tight fit booted up and got all for red leads which means processor fail or installed wrong took the tray back out unseated the heatsink smelled every thing looked ok relized that I must have rubbed the cmos jumper aginst the bottom of the case while installing the removeable motherboard tray nocking of the little green jumper put it back on and wola I was so happy!

 

[human2k]

THe AMD engineers need to go spend a nite with some Motorola engineers and ask him to teach em how to employ their awesome heat "technology" that they have in the new G4's.

 

[CurtOien]

Don't you people double check your work before you hit the power switch?
Companies can't be blamed for your carelessness.
I notice most of you are new and I wonder if you're just inexperienced or here as Intel propagandists spreading FUD.

 

[SuperSix]

<<

<< Athlon XP thermal protection is a f**king OXYMORON that AMD has perpetrated on us unsuspecting few. >>



If the motherboard supported the feature there would be no problem. I am not sure why motherboard mfg's are dragging their feet. >>



Well, two things..

1. It's a poor thermal protection design to begin with, doomed to fail. The mobo manufacturers know this, and don't want to spend the $$$ on the R&D required to implement it.
2. AMD has no control over the motherboard manufacturers.

And to the original poster.. SUcks you didn't follow the directions and/or use common sense, don't blame the manufacturers for your mistakes.

 

[navir]

i know what you feel...just fried my athlon XP 1800+