Just how easy is it to damage a processor?

S

Standpoint

[H]ard|Gawd
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Mar 23, 2005
Messages
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I recently was putting in an Athlon XP 3000 in a system, and I was putting on the CPU fan. It was a Masscool, and it had the worst method of locking it down to the motherboard. You had to push down hard with a screwdriver in a slot to get it on, and while I was pushing down, it put a 1mm scratch in the green of the processor, on the top edge of where the AMD sticker was. Then when I was trying to get the sys to work, it would not even load to the BIOS, just a dark screen. I narrowed the problem down to the processor. I was wondering if this could have damaged the processor, or if it was maybe no good to begin with. The scratch is very small, right on/next to the sticker, but I did see a little copper in the scratch.

Any opinions?
 
Try the processor in a different (working) machine.
Try a different processor in the same (non-working) machine.

If its the processor, then yeah, a little nick like that killed it. :(
 
I dunno if it you mechanically damaged it, but make sure it's firmly seated, it took me a couple of tries to get mine in right.
 
Welcome to Socket A. I've givin myself more than a few grey hairs over the HSF installation. The real worry is that the die on the XP chips is exposed-- angle the HSF the wrong way during application, and even just a little bit of pressure will chip the die. Instant dead CPU. Though I've never chiped the die, I did once put a scratch in the green like you did. Still worked fine after that though.
 
The secret has always been to hold the HSF Square against the core with one hand while prying the clip into place, that way you don’t chip the core.

Most people don’t use a large enough screwdriver, which is why they slip off. Believe it or not the pressure spec calls for something like 600 psi between the core and the HSF when installed properly.

A lot of the chip substrate (the green stuff) is circuit board. Sometimes a scratch means nothing, sometimes it means an X chip. Core wise, I’ve chipped huge pieces off with no problem, and yet I have one you can barely see the damage and it’s dead.

Sorry, I don’t possess a road map for the safe areas ;)
 
Thanks everyone. I am making a feeble attempt to RMA the processor, hopefully I can get a new one. I hope the egg is in a good mood in a few days..........
 
A XP is extremly easy to damage - I cracked the core on mine (or rather my kid Brother did ... ) by tightening the screws to the VAPO unevenly...
 
I just killed an Athlon XP 2800+ today, crushed it with my Zalman CNPS-7000 cooler.

I immediately knew because I could see a darkened imprint of the core on the back of the processor, in the area in the middle of all the pins. $100 down the drain, yay!
 
its just that easy to damage em.

i cracked the core on an old 2200+ sad to see it die but ah well its in cpu heaven or something now
 
oh yea, i just chipped my 1600+ palomino processor. little of silicon fell off from the corner when i was cleanin it. btw, it is still workin fine.

Advice: don't press too hard like a hulk. all u have to do is put the clamp on the back then push the front clamp with push down hole like using screw to do so. should take around 1 sec snap in. after that u shouldn't have any problem with it. :)

I wasn't being clear at all. hope u understand wat i mean.
 
Standpoint said:
So are the newer processors(post socket A) sturdier?
Click to expand...
athlon64's have a heat spreader so its impossible to chip the core. Personally i miss the exposed cores :p
 
Are you sure the system's not booting due to the processor? I built Athlon XP 2400+ system yesterday, and it wasnt posting. checked everything twice, and couldnt find the cause. All connections on motherboard were ok, video card worked fine in another computer, ram was installed right, and worked in another computer. When I finally got it to work, the problem was there was the ram was installed properly, but there was no contact between at least some of the pins on the ram, and the Dimm.
 
Well I tried putting the processor in my rig, its an AMD rig w/ a 266 FSB. I figured it should read the processor but missread the speed. It wouldn't post in my rig either. Im not sure though if Im correct on this because my mobo doesn't support a 400MHz FSB.
 
A friend of mine has a Duron 850 with a chip in the core. It's on the very edge. He can still get that Socket A Duron up to 1.2 ghz.
 
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