A "WTF" Emergency Situation

Jigsaw · Post by **Jigsaw** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 2:55 pm

Ok guys I realise this isnt 100% to do with quietness but you all know what youre doing and should be able to help.

As some of you read in another thread I had I was having some cooling issues. I realised this was primarily to do with the position of my new 8800GTS card right next to the southbridge controller and the heatpipe. It was basically adding even more heat to an already warm part of the system.

To combat this I had the insanely bright idea of moving the card to my second PCI-E slot.

After a lot of faffing about It finally went in. I turned computer back on and nothing. No POST beep. FAns spun up. It all sounded good but no POST and nothing on the screens. After a frantic few hours swapping around graphics cards and trying everything I could think of i resigned myself to the fact I had either blown up my graphics card or the motherboard.

I resolved it to the motherboard. Put a new one on order and requested an RMA on the old one.

New motherboard came today. I plug everything back in. Get it into the case. Moment of truth.....

Same problem.

At this point I do what any good geek does and cry a little inside and wonder what in the fk is wrong.

Then it dawned on me that it could be the CPU...

I grab an ancient Athlon XP 2100 and stick it in....

It boots.

First time.

So my super duper Opteron 180 is buggered. I look on the underside and realise some of the thermal grease had splurged a little and some of the pins at their base had a little line of the stuff.

When attempting to attach the Notcua To the CPU I also had a minor 'moment of complkete panic' when I accidently bent a pin when removing the stock HSF which had become glued.

However after very carefully bending the pin back straight the CPU was fine for about 4 weeks.

So ladies and gents what do i do and what in the hell caused my cpu to die?

It was fine before I moved the graphics card and now its Â£110 of useless highly concentrated sand.

I dont know if its salvegable but if any of you have any ideas as to what happened or anything I could try to ressusetate it I would be eternally greatful.

NyteOwl · Post by **NyteOwl** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 5:17 pm

Have you tried thouroughly cleaning the thermal paste off the pins? This is especially important if it is something like Arctic Silver. If it is Arctic Silver you may have permanently damaged the processor as AS is conductive.

ANother possiblity is that you may have shorted something on the bottom of the mobo which affected the processor (based on what sounds like problems seating the video card.

There are many possibilities. Try the CPU in a different machine after cleaning it up. If it still doesn't run, grind off the pins, drill a hole and you have your self a new key fob

ddrueding1 · Post by **ddrueding1** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 6:09 pm

Cleaning off the thermal compound is a good start. Be sure to do what you can with the socket as well. Did you try re-seating the CPU first? Or a straight swap? The Opty might work after being taken out and put back in.

Jigsaw · Post by **Jigsaw** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 11:14 pm

Its cleaning of the pins im worried about. How the hell do i do it?

I have some AKASA TIM cleaner thats a 'citric based solvent'

I didnt use Arctic silver btw. IT was the akasa equivalent. Its definitly the processsor though. Ive actually got a new motherboard in the pc now so nothing has shorted out

I read somewhere that a toothbrush(!??!?!) can be used to clean it ??

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 5:35 am

Jigsaw wrote:Its cleaning of the pins im worried about. How the hell do i do it?

1) Soak it well in 90% isopropyl alcohol, then blow it off vigorously using canned air. Repeat as necessary.

-or-

2) Flush with iso alcohol in a squirt bottle, blow off with canned air to dry.

-or-

3) Spray off well with "electronic contact cleaner" spray from Rat Shack or your friendly local electronic supply shop.

It's easy enough to do and you really don't have to worry about breaking anything.

EndoSteel · Post by **EndoSteel** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 8:27 am

Jigsaw
I grab an ancient Athlon XP 2100 and stick it in....
Sorry for the offtopic, but how did you manage to stick a socket A processor into S939?

NyteOwl · Post by **NyteOwl** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 12:28 pm

When using contact cleaner read the label carefully. Most are fine but there are some that also have a contact lubricant in them.

EndoSteel <chuckle> good question

Jigsaw · Post by **Jigsaw** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 2:59 pm

Heh Its been so long since Ive used the old processor. Turns out the one i said i put in was the 'one before the last one' i used....

I actually put in an Athlon64 3000+

I soaked the chip in the solvent stuff from Akasa, I then got a toothbrush and very very very carefully ran the bristles down the chip to clean off all the crap.
I then used a hair dryer set to cold and sat there for 10minutes drying it off.

Popped it back in...
booted

same problem..

I then cleaned it off completely and I plan to destroy it at some point with a hammer or turn it into a keychain. Piece of crap.

I have however found an ingenius way of solving the problem which involves building a pc for my brother using my current mobo the tagan psu i replaced with a silent corsair, my memory etc and him giving me around 150 quid (all he would need is a graphics card and a case) Then I can buy a new asus AM2 board and a cpu with memory for around 200 quid and back to rock and roll

Expensive cpu death though

Thanks for all of your help guys. The difference between dual core and single core is so apparant when you go back :/

Acreo Aeneas · Post by **Acreo Aeneas** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 8:45 pm

Erm. What performance difference between dual-cores and single-cores? I can't think of many programs that use the second core (or 3rd or 4th for that matter). Perhaps it is due to an increased L2 cache, higher FSB, better architecture? (I apologize for the off-topicness)

You need to make sure that you don't overapply any sort of thermal compound onto your CPU. If it starts burping out the sides when you put on your HSF, then you've put too much.

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 3:40 am

Hey Jigsaw was your Opteron an OEM CPU or a boxed Retail CPU.??? If it was a retail it has a 3-year warranty so dont turn it back to sand just yet.

Andy

merlin · Post by **merlin** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 10:08 am

andyb wrote:Hey Jigsaw was your Opteron an OEM CPU or a boxed Retail CPU.??? If it was a retail it has a 3-year warranty so dont turn it back to sand just yet.

Andy

Ahem...warranties are NOT for your mistakes. Globbing a bunch of thermal material to kill your cpu is not the maker's fault! As they say, chalk it up to user error and move on.