Have I destroyed my Tbird 1000?

[swirus]

Hello,

A couple of days ago I took delivery of a Thunderbird 1000, Epox motherboard and Coolermaster heatsink. I assembled it and ran it in an old system box for a couple of days. Then I decided I wanted to swap the thunderbird with the Duron 750 I have in my main system, and make the Epox based system my second choice.

When the Tbird arrived it was much as depicted on all of the hardware sites. However, when I removed the Coolermaster, it took with it most of the greenish goo which encases the top of the chip. Now, apparently, I can see the naked silicon. I don't know if any of you have used the coolermaster solution, but it has a solid 'thermal interface' which forms a close seal with the surface of the chip. It appears to have bonded a little too closely and damaged the chip packaging.

Picture follows, apologies for quality, but you'll get the idea...

[img="http://www.swirus.clara.net/tbird.gif"]

So I have a few questions...

1. Do you think the chip is still usable?
2. If yes, what actions should I take when re-mounting the CPU?
3. If not, do you think I have a reasonable claim against the supplier because:
a) The thunderbird was defectively packaged, causing a weakness in its sealing
or b) The coolermaster thermal solution is pants and has damaged my processor.

Whatever happens, I shall avoid Coolermaster solutions in future... Thanks in advance for any advice.

Regs,
Swirus

[wolfman]

Was it that way when you recieved it? Or is your heatsink touching only the corner? I would like to see a perfect match between both surfaces. Or is it backwards?

[TranceBear]

Well that looks just like mine when I tokk of my nasty coolmaster off. It is that factory goo they put on the bottom of the heatsink to help in cooling, like a cheap Artic Silver. I just took mine of with some mild rubbing alcohol. Throw that crappy heatsink away if you ever want to overclock.

[dozier768]

hey bro i wouldnt worrry bout what it looks like the question is does it run? if so then use it lol if not toss it or try and warranty it. GL acetone works best to remove that stuff BTW

[Rob Cork]

I'd put some good thermal compound like Arctic Silver on it, and try to fire it up - I expect it'll work, but if it doesn't then you definitely have a good claim against Coolermaster I'd say. Still, seeing as you won't know whether it's dead without trying it, I'd say you have nothing to lose. Let us know how it goes.

[swirus]

Thanks for all your comments.

I've decided to try and get it replaced before I attempt remounting it - the company I bought it from are not particularly contacable, but I'll try on Monday.

If it does still work, it is missing a significant amount of its protective covering, and this may impact on its future life and reliability. I'll only try it if I can't get a replacement.

I'll feed back on how I do.

Thanx all,
Swirus

[swirus]

I don't know if anybody's interested, but I thought I would follow up my original post.

The company I got the chip from were unhelpful, so I tried remounting it. I got a globalwin heatsink, and carefully removed the pink pad of death with a plastic scraper (no scratches) and isopropyl alcohol. I used arctic silver as an interface. I checked that Arctic Silver is not electrically conductive before applying.

It's now running happily at it's rated 1Ghz, reporting 102 degrees F under 100% UD load, which I believe is a touch hot.

thanks for your advice,
Swirus

[Oni]

102F under full load? thats GREAT!