Is my CPU pooched?

[Red Rider]

Can someone out there confirm if my worst thoughts have come true? I installed a third party cpu cooler on my Opteron 175 about a months ago and for about 2 weeks or so i've been getting BSOD's all the time. Upon inspecting the CPU and the cooler I noticed some marks on each of the corners almost looking like burn marks. As well, the thermal paste which was used was ALL over the place. Since then I have gone back to my 3700 and none of these errors have reoccured.

I tried cleaning the 175 up the best I could but still get BSOD's whenever I try booting up. Has my CPU gone to the Opteron gods in the sky? Is there some way that maybe I can revive it as I haven't even been using this CPU for 4 months yet.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

 

[videopho]

Not much of an advice here.
It's fried, unfortunately.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Are you using the 3700+ in the same motherboard as the Opteron? If so, that definately helps to limit other possible factors.

Inspect the pins on the Opteron. Make sure none are broken, bent, or missing. Then, break out a magnifying glass and check the spaces between the pins. See if any dust, dirt, metal flakes, or thermal paste is stuck between any of the pins, or along the edges.

What CPU cooler are you using with it? Is it possible you aren't tightening the cooler down enough, or you're putting it on too tight? Also, it's very possible it's overheating. Try using Arctic Silver 5 (if you haven't already), and put on a very thin layer - paper thin, infact. From the sound of it, you had paste going everywhere, which could mean two things - #1 you put too much on, and it's lowering the thermal performance, or #2 - you put too much on / the cooler is a bad design, and some of the paste got between the pins of the chip.

Edit: if you try all of that, and it still doesn't work, I could test the chip out for you in my own 939 setup, if you wish. Shipping would be the only hard part (you'd have to pay - my chariety only goes so far ), but it would be a good last resort before you assume it's dead.

 

[SickBeast]

Try adjusting the clockspeed/voltage in the BIOS. If it will post, chances are it should still be functional.

 

[Red Rider]

Yeah, the 3700+ has been put back into the same motherboard that I was using with the Opteron. Only when I try using the Opteron after cleaning it up etc and reinstalling it will I start getting the various BSOD's ranging from Page faults, IRQ errors, core timing (this one was new after installing Vista) plus many other errors which I've lost track of.

I did look at the pins on the 175 and they dont appear to be missing or bent. I did my best to clean up what ever paste happened to get between any pins and also between the heat spreader and the rest of the chip. So yeah, there was a little too much paste applied when installing the new cooler. The cooler in question is an OCZ Vindicator. From what I see there is no way for me to adjust how loose/tight the cooler goes on.

I'm wondering if AMD would RMA this chip cause I'd hate to have to pay for another...

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: Red Rider
I did my best to clean up what ever paste happened to get between any pins and also between the heat spreader and the rest of the chip. So yeah, there was a little too much paste applied when installing the new cooler.

No, there was many, many times too much paste applied. How to install thermal paste.

I'm wondering if AMD would RMA this chip cause I'd hate to have to pay for another...

No, they won't. First of all, you weren't supposed to use any heatsink except the one supplied with the cpu. Secondly, you were the one that shorted out the processor, by using half a tube of thermal paste. Sorry man, but since it's your mistake, you take the loss, not AMD.

edit: Oh, and welcome to anandtech.

 

[Red Rider]

Couldnt have been many many times... I only installed the cooler once on the opty.

Thanks for the link. I will make sure I follow it next time. I've never had a problem in the past with applying paste, but then again its been paste and not the "grease" that came with this cooler.

Lol, thanks for the welcome

 

[Red Rider]

Hey videopho, I see in your sig that you're into FS as well. Do you play FS9 on your x2 3800 and if so what are your framerates like? I'm just looking at my options incase I cant "revive" my opty.

Originally posted by: videopho
Not much of an advice here.
It's fried, unfortunately.

 

[myocardia]

videopho doesn't post here in cpu's/overclocking much at all. My San Diego 4000 @ stock speed (1MB L2, 2.4 Ghz), with 2x1 GB of 2-3-2-5 RAM @ 200 Mhz, and a 7600 GT gets these FPS in FS2004, though: 72.6 on the tarmac @ SEATAC, 120.8 on the climbout, facing Mt. Rainier, and 239.1 fairly close to Mt. Rainier. That's with everything on the Hardware tab maxed, filtering @ Trilinear, everything on the Scenery tab maxed, except Autogen @ Normal, and Terrain Mesh Complexity @ 75, and Ground Scenery Casts Shadows turned off. Oh, and that's with 2xQ AA & 8x AF forced through the nVidia drivers.

FS9 doesn't require a very fast system, these days. If you're having framerate problems, it's most likely because you've got AA/AF forced through your video card's drivers, but are also trying to tell FS9 to run AA/AF, also. That won't make anything look any better, but will affect your framerates. Oh, I also took screenshots @ my 19" CRT's max resolution, but even @ 1600x1200, there was only a few FPS difference, if you were wondering. Let me know, and I can upload them, and post links.

 

[lyssword]

sorry for being "evil" but try to rma it. But it might fail for reasons myocardia mentioned

 

[Amaroque]

Just buy a new CPU. AMD CPU's are dirt cheap nowadays anyway.

 

[videopho]

Originally posted by: Red Rider
Hey videopho, I see in your sig that you're into FS as well. Do you play FS9 on your x2 3800 and if so what are your framerates like? I'm just looking at my options incase I cant "revive" my opty.

Originally posted by: videopho
Not much of an advice here.
It's fried, unfortunately.

I've played both FS9 & FSx on both of my rigs.
FS9 with Megascenery add-ons will penalize the frame rate but my 7900GTX (on rig#1) handles with ease, very much all the eye-candy turned on. The game averages > 50-60 fps.
As for the FSx I play this game very much on my rig #2 (8800GTS-640mb) and trying to avoid the rig#1 whenever possible.
Even with such a power house as my rig #2, this game averages ~ 20-40fps with Megascenery add-on (DFW area and soon will be Southern CA).
BTW I live in 2 different places so rig #1 and rig #2 do not live under the same roof all the time.

 

[videopho]

Originally posted by: myocardia
videopho doesn't post here in cpu's/overclocking much at all. ..

I've posted here much more often than you think , espcially ever since I've completed building my 2nd rig.
I'm in the process building a 3rd (e6400 based) one for my son who is going to college in the Fall.

 

[videopho]

Originally posted by: Amaroque
Just buy a new CPU. AMD CPU's are dirt cheap nowadays anyway.

I agree but...
I am in the process of building another e6400 based rig (just bought an e6400 @ FS forum for $120) and I happen to have an extra ECS mobo (brand new) laying around that I bought as a combo at Fry's in spring. So it was a close call but a few bucks are the fewer bucks saved.

Before pulling the trigger on the used e6400, I was weighing between the AM2 (x2 6000) or L775 (e6400) on this build but elected to stay with L775 for future upgradabilties.

 

[betasub]

Memory errors exclusive to an individual (Athlon64 family) CPU might be a result of a failure in the on-die memory-controller.

What Vcore and VDIMM were you using on the Opteron set-up?

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: videopho

Originally posted by: myocardia
videopho doesn't post here in cpu's/overclocking much at all. ..

I've posted here much more often than you think , espcially ever since I've completed building my 2nd rig.
I'm in the process building a 3rd (e6400 based) one for my son who is going to college in the Fall.

Umm, you hardly ever post in here. Who are you trying to kid?

 

[Red Rider]

I was thinking of returning it and "playing dumb" but I'm sure they have ways to figure out it the problem is user or product. If I were to RMA it, could I just send back the CPU only, or would they expect the stock cooler as well?

 

[Red Rider]

Originally posted by: Amaroque
Just buy a new CPU. AMD CPU's are dirt cheap nowadays anyway.

I have found a Opty 180 for approx $200CDN and I'm tempted to purchase that chip. Ponders long and hard over this one...

 

[Red Rider]

Originally posted by: betasub
Memory errors exclusive to an individual (Athlon64 family) CPU might be a result of a failure in the on-die memory-controller.

What Vcore and VDIMM were you using on the Opteron set-up?

I've just been using the default Vcore and VDIMM settings. Although I did have it overclocked a little via the FSB. Was running at about 2.4Ghz, nothing major.

 

[Red Rider]

Originally posted by: myocardia
videopho doesn't post here in cpu's/overclocking much at all. My San Diego 4000 @ stock speed (1MB L2, 2.4 Ghz), with 2x1 GB of 2-3-2-5 RAM @ 200 Mhz, and a 7600 GT gets these FPS in FS2004, though: 72.6 on the tarmac @ SEATAC, 120.8 on the climbout, facing Mt. Rainier, and 239.1 fairly close to Mt. Rainier. That's with everything on the Hardware tab maxed, filtering @ Trilinear, everything on the Scenery tab maxed, except Autogen @ Normal, and Terrain Mesh Complexity @ 75, and Ground Scenery Casts Shadows turned off. Oh, and that's with 2xQ AA & 8x AF forced through the nVidia drivers.

FS9 doesn't require a very fast system, these days. If you're having framerate problems, it's most likely because you've got AA/AF forced through your video card's drivers, but are also trying to tell FS9 to run AA/AF, also. That won't make anything look any better, but will affect your framerates. Oh, I also took screenshots @ my 19" CRT's max resolution, but even @ 1600x1200, there was only a few FPS difference, if you were wondering. Let me know, and I can upload them, and post links.

I wasnt having real framerate problems per se. After doing a fresh install of FS9 plus adding Ultimate Terrain USA, I was getting 50 - 60 FPS, no traffic, in the default cessna at SeaTac and it improved to about approx 70 on climbout with the 3700 I am using right now. My vid card is a Sapphire X1950 Pro AGP, hence my desire to prolong staying with the 939 chip for as long as I can. It has always amazed me how people have been able to acheive these kinds of numbers with machines "similar" to mine and I see myself struggling to have 30 FPS with all sliders to the right plus traffic.

 

[videopho]

Originally posted by: myocardia

Originally posted by: videopho

Originally posted by: myocardia
videopho doesn't post here in cpu's/overclocking much at all. ..

I've posted here much more often than you think , espcially ever since I've completed building my 2nd rig.
I'm in the process building a 3rd (e6400 based) one for my son who is going to college in the Fall.

Umm, you hardly ever post in here. Who are you trying to kid?

Chill out dude...You seem to take things way too literally.