Refurbished CPU's >> What is the process to refurbish one?

[dahunan]

Does the manufacturer just retest the CPU and find nothing wrong with it or do they actually repair it?

I have always wondered about this.. when I see a refurb CPU at newegg.. I think.. how can they actually repair a CPU.. they are so damned small.. seems like it would be way too expensive to actually tear it all apart and try to repair some physical part of the chip ..

Anyone know the answer?

 

[OdiN]

You can't actually take the thing apart really...not that I know of. Perhaps you could resolder some of the resistors or whatnot that are on the top/bottom of the chip if they were damaged. Other than that, about the only thing you can do to a die is go in and cut some traces with a laser I believe...but that wouldn't really fix anything worth doing that I don't think. I don't really know for certain as I'm not an engineer but I know that you can resolder some of the larger components that are on the chip.

 

[myocardia]

A refurbished cpu from newegg is just a cpu that was returned by someone (most of the time, because it didn't overclock as high as they thought it should). It was RMA'd, with some excuse, and was tested when it was received, and found to be working properly (at the stock speed, of course).

edit: Another reason cpu's get returned is that people do the research after they buy the part, and discover that it won't run in their motherboard (Prescott's and Barton's come to mind, with older mobos).

 

[White Widow]

You can't repair a CPU. All these refub CPU's have been returned or pulled from returned systems.