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Semi-fried CPU: I gotta vent!

B

Brats

Member
Ugh. I fried my previous Athlon classic, and decided to get a 1.2G/266 and Iwill 266 mobo. Well, I've been battling a cpu-temp problem with this setup, using a Volcano II HSF. Last night I noticed something, I'd put the HSF on backwards! There's a cutout on the one edge of the HSF to accomodate the socket, and the clip for this HSF "suggested" I put it on one way, but that put the HSF on top of the CPU core and only two of the pads! The core should've been crushed, but it wasn't.

So, noticing this, I took the HSF apart and reoriented the clip (the socket on the Iwill is very near the PS, so it's not really possible to clip the HSF on with the clip in the default position.

I put it back together, spread some ASII on the core, clipped the HSF onto the CPU, and booted. It came up, then hung. I did it again, and it hung again, so I checked everything, looked okay, and brought it up into the BIOS's "Health Monitor". I watched the CPU temp jump to 70C and before I could shut it down, the system shut itself off, and caught a whiff of the classic burnt electronics coming off the board.

Pulling apart the HSF I found the CPU burned, the top of the core was fried along the edge, and the ceramic around the core is bubbled!

Assuming all was lost, I nonetheless cleaned it all up, set it up again, and powered it on. It booted, and the core rose to the mid-60's. I underclocked it, and fiddled with the HSF/core some more, and now I can run my 1.2 at 1.1, but it's running anywhere from 50-60C.

Gads! Looking back, I did it right, reorienting the HSF and clip was the right thing to do, but for no reason I can figure, that initial setup let the chip fry.

I don't get it, and I'm bummed. 🙁 I can live with a 1.1 system, but it was oc'ing to 1.35 fine before, although it would hang when the CPU temp went above 50 (hence my notion to set it up better last night). I don't have a lot of faith in the CPU right now, obviously.

Man, these things can be finicky! I'm glad the 1.2's are selling for $111 now, but I've only had this chip for a week or so (and paid $140 for it).

Sorry, just had to vent! Next thing I'm doing is getting a top-grade HSF, and a shim. Wish I'd have done that right off...
 
The point of pressure of the clip (the curve of the clip that pushes the heatsink onto the CPU) is suppose to be right above the CPU on the heatsink, so that the maximum amount of pressure from the clip is squarely above the CPU.
 
the Alpha PAL6035 with the "new" clip is pretty easy to apply...check it out at 2cooltek.com
 
Brats,
You fried your Athlon Classic and now this.
You should slow down a bit, read instructions and check your work.
When you had that on backwards, the heatsink was only touching one side of the CPU.
 


<< Brats,
You fried your Athlon Classic and now this.
You should slow down a bit, read instructions and check your work.
When you had that on backwards, the heatsink was only touching one side of the CPU. >>



Well, uh, thanks for the advice, I guess 😉. But in my defense: 1) The Volcano II didn't come with instructions, and new as I am to Socket A's, I didn't realize there was an orientation to follow (lesson learned!); 2) Despite being put on backwards, my temps were reasonable at 44-50C; 3) And, most importat, it was only when I correctly reoriented the HSF that the chip fried, in about 15 seconds no less. I truly don't get it. I checked the imprint left by the Artic Silver on the HSF and CPU and there were no contact gaps. It really is perplexing.

The stability problems I'm having now are temp-related, and due, at least in part, to the top of the core not being flat. I thought about lapping it, but it may just be best to send it back to newegg (depending on their return policy, of course).
 
THere's nothing wrong with Volcano2....it's working great on my 1.2Ghz. I don't know what else happened, did you take off the thermalpad V2 comes with? that sticker? Somebody have burned their CPU before b/c they didnt' take the sticker off.
 
I put my parents machine together, and knowing little about heatsinks, bought a superorb. They suck.... Anyway, I put it on backwards too, so that half of the base was actually over the plastic base of the socket. Anyway, this install placed enormous pressure on one side of the die. When I decided to trade my own AFJA (....?) T-bird 1GHZ for their T-bird (I hoped that it would be AXIA, and it was) I had a hell of a time removing the HS. I really should have cut the clips, but I stupidly put ridiculous amounts of pressure on the die, and managed to chip off a corner before I removed it. I was all ready to make a cool keychain, but on impulse I threw it into my system. I was ecstatic. Anyway, it runs fine now, even overclocks to 1.4 from 1 without any extra voltage. Anyway, this is not to brag, just to say to say that what happened is not stupid, just unfortunate. I am very happy with my system, considering that the older T-bird only go to 1.08 at standard voltage. I am running kinda hot at 52c though, which is after torture. NB IMHO.
Beast
 


<< THere's nothing wrong with Volcano2....it's working great on my 1.2Ghz. I don't know what else happened, did you take off the thermalpad V2 comes with? that sticker? Somebody have burned their CPU before b/c they didnt' take the sticker off. >>

I don't think there's anything fundamentally wrong with the Volcano II, it worked until I &quot;fixed it&quot;. No, it's something I did, has to be, but for the life of me I don't know what it could've been (I even lapped the base of the TII and polished it. So, I wasn't using the stock thermal pad, I was using Arctic Silver II). The only reason I said I'd wished I'd gotten a better HSF was because I was looking at doing just that because this CPU tended to get flaky when it hit 50C or so. I wanted a better cooler to keep it stable.

Thanks for the tip though. It's almost funny to hear someone burnt up their CPU because they didn't take the sticker off the thermal goop! I say &quot;almost&quot; because I've just gained a new appreciation for folks who fry their brand-new processors!... 😉
 
AdamK47 - 3DS --

<< The point of pressure of the clip (the curve of the clip that pushes the heatsink onto the CPU) is suppose to be right above the CPU on the heatsink, so that the maximum amount of pressure from the clip is squarely above the CPU. >>

Adam, to use an overused phrase ... &quot;You are the Man!&quot;

So, I scraped down my burnt T-Bird chip (by &quot;scraped&quot; I mean I took the hard edges off the ceramic where it boiled up). And I looked at the HSF orientation and it turned out you were right -- the point of pressure on the clip (coupled with the HSF cutouts to fit the socket) demanded I rotate the clip. In all cases before that, the point-of-pressure for this clip was not on top of the CPU. I hadn't thought to look for that.

Bottom line: This clip setup on the Volcano II when mounting it on a Iwill KK266 mobo requires that you pull the power supply to get the clip mounted properly. Granted, not my first assumption with this (or any) HSF/mobo, but that's how it is.

So, where am I? With my &quot;fried&quot; chip, ceramic bubbled up and that less-than-reassuring smell of burnt silicon, well, props to the T-Bird. Despite the burn, I'm now running at 1.44G with a CPU temp of 44C (unloaded). The system's hung, though, even at a lower cranking. But, before your tip Adam, I couldn't get this system to run for an hour, even underclocked below 1G.

I don't know where this will go, will the CPU continue to behave? Will it smoke? Etc.

Thanks,

Brats
 
I have put together over 50 systems, Intel and AMD. I never broke anything before last week, broke the plastic tab on the socket and then proceeded to fry a Duron 600 and a T-bird 750 that both ran 1000+. Don't feel bad, it happens to the best of us, just figure out what went wrong and try not to do it again. I hope I learned my lesson, luckily a duron 750 and a chrome orb will fix my problem for only $50. If your cpu is working fine, don't touch it or even breath on it, just let it run like it is and hope for the best.
 


<< If your cpu is working fine, don't touch it or even breath on it, just let it run like it is and hope for the best. >>



I wish I could do that with my T-Bird w.chipped corner, but alas I have to RMA my new motherboard. Will it still work? I hope so. It should. Still, I am nervous every time that I install a HS, even one without crazy pressure required
 
<< If your cpu is working fine, don't touch it or even breath on it, just let it run like it is and hope for the best. >>

I took my HSF and reapplied the thermal grease and notices a 3-5F drop in temps. Between that, re-routing some wires, and tweaking my case fans airflow (and cleaning off one of the fine wire mesh grills) I dropped 12-14F over the weekend. (I typically idle at 98-100F now)
 
This whole chipped core thing is weird. I install and remove the heatsink on my Duron countless times without injuring it. My friend with a Chrome Orb has done the same. If you take your time and be careful, everything will work.

Brats, that's what I call one hell of a burn in! You never know, maybe you discovered a new technique for breaking in a processor: putting the heatsink on backwards! I am glad your CPU is running well now.
 


<< ...Brats, that's what I call one hell of a burn in! You never know, maybe you discovered a new technique for breaking in a processor: putting the heatsink on backwards! I am glad your CPU is running well now. >>



Thanks, maybe I'll extend my &quot;burn in&quot; techniques to the next new car I buy: I'll drain the oil and hit the freeway in 1st gear for a couple hundred miles... 😉

Well, I've learned my lesson, check &amp; double-check everything before firing up the system after making changes. I really didn't have much experience with 1G+ processors and their HSF needs (my previous Classic was a box version including the HSF). I killed the Classic out of sheer negligence: I'd upgraded the case-hood fan and in the process swapped the cpu fan and hood fan connections (FAN1<=>FAN2), and didn't bother to verify the cpu fan was working (it should've, they were both 12V 3-pin headers, and the hood fan worked fine). The hood covers the cpu/mobo (picture here) so I couldn't see the cpu fan, and, like I said, simply neglected to question whether the fan was working when the system started acting up. But, at least in that case the heatsink was still properly affixed to the cpu! Took a couple days for that system to burn up. Not like the few seconds my T-bird went up in smoke.

Anyway, thanks to a tip from &quot;Adam&quot; here, it seems I've got my T-bird running (@1.3G right now). I'm amazed that a chip with burnt edges can still run like this! Pure dumb luck. This is using the Volcano II, but I'm looking at the Blizzard S370, and some others, as a replacement. The VII is kind of a pain on my KK266 because, to get the proper orientation the &quot;screwdriver end&quot; of the VII must facing the case PS, and there's no room to fasten the chip without pulling the PS. (And, this is the reason I had it inverted in the first place, it didn't occur to me that the proper way to install the HSF meant I'd have to pull the PS to do so! Bad assumption on my part).

Thanks,

Brats
 
This is a CLASSIC😀

but seriously, sorry to hear u fried ur birdie.
one of my friends burned out a duron and another burned out a P!!!. All committed that classic mistake.
sorry to rubbed it in.😛
 
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