It went POP...3 seconds later it died.....help?!

[frankyzee]

All,
I had an issue I was wondering if anyone else had. I picked up a A7V and a 1.1 Tbird with 512 of Micron CAS2 PC133 memory. After getting it to actually run (had to set DIP switches just to get it going, but at <1100Mhz), I was happily installing Windows and heard a loud &quot;POP&quot;. Glancing over at my new computer, I could see that the heatsink had popped off (the retaining spring actually broke the plastic retaining tab on the socket462). I could not get to the power supply quick enough to shut her down and about three seconds later my screen went black (ugh). The wonderful smell of burnt electronics oozed out of the case and she was dead, Jim.
The board has been sent back for an RMA swap (I hope!), but I was just wondering has anyone else heard of this or encountered it? I really hope I'm the only one......

Thanks ahead of time for any help!

Frank

 

[jsbush]

Ahh that's gotta hurt!

Edit: They don't replace boards if the clip on the socket is broken because it's the users falt. You might be lucky, they didn't do it for me though.

 

[slpaulson]

I can't say that I have ever heard of that happening. What heatsink were you using?

 

[Usul]

What temp where you running @ ?
What HSF?
Should give more than 3 sec, if it was not o/c.

And whst about the tbird? Toasted?

 

[aznmist]

I think this is a case of heatsink misinstallation...never force a heat sink on..

 

[frankyzee]

Thanks for the feedback. I sincerely hope it was a case of me installing it incorrectly, however, I don't think this was the case for 2 reasons:

If I had broken it during installation, then ok, I screwed up and broke the damn thing...fix-> Just need a new motherboard.

If I had misinstalled the heatsink and fried the processor, once again, my fault...fix-> Just need a new processor.

But this was odd, it popped off after about 60 minutes of working (honestly!). I have never seen anything like this before. I thought the clip pressure was too tight, but after checking AMDs specs on the processor, it should indeed be 16+ lbs of force (not to exceed 24lbs, I think). So either the clip pressure was too tight or there was some defect in the tiny plastic tab that holds the 16+lbs of force (does anyone else see an issue with a tiny plastic tab holding this much force???...maybe it's designed that way).
I was not overclocking the beast, I was actually underclocking it by reducing the FSB speed to 95Mhz (it would not even boot otherwise). This gave me less than 1100Mhz, but it was over 1000Mhz, so I was happy with it for then.
It was purchased from Mwave.com (whom I still recommend), so we'll see how good their customer service truly is.
This kind of stuff seems to only happen to me sometimes...argh! lol

Frank

Edit: The Tbird is history (I let the smoke out). That was the bad smell. The heatsink was the generic one that came with it (have since ordered a FOP32 and Arctic Silver).

 

[Usul]

If it did not post @ standard speed, good chnche of a defective chip.
RMA it, and... try again!!! P)

 

[Yoshi]

If your system would not POST at rated speed and the tab for the heatskink broke I think you had the heatsink improperly installed or the chip was not fully seated or both. If it were me and things did not go as expected without overclocking I would have stopped right there to find the cause. I really doubt the chip is bad since they are 100% tested for speed rating purposes. Poor seating in the socket could have been the result of a bent pin, but you should have noticed that installing the chip.

Geez, you really thought oh well 1000Mhz is ok for now, I'll look into it later!!! Were you in that much of a hurry to benchmark or what??

 

[Bignate603]

AMD says that a 1ghz one can fry in 8 seconds uncooled. I guess yours went even faster.

 

[frankyzee]

Not that I was in a hurry to benchmark this thing, just wanted to get it up and running. POST kept failing at 1100Mhz, so I figured I could throttle it back and test it later (maybe I had -something- set incorrect in the BIOS...was my thought). The seating of the chip was as easy as could be..lever up, chip in (no resistance at all), lever down...'twas easy. I dunno what went wrong with the popping heatsink. I actually wished it had occured during installation, least I would have been able to more easily put the blame on myself (and I'd probably still have a good processor).
In the absolute worst case, it's really only another $400.....argh!!!

Frank