[Odie812]

Hey everyone,

I just got back to school, and I had to ship my computer here...

So I get the box and I hear some rattling, quickly open it up and discover that during shipping my SLK-800 came off the CPU and was rolling around the inside of my box. No sweat, everything was okay, EXCEPT

When putting it back on, I noticed some chips in my 3000XP around the edge of the die..

I reseated the HSF with some new arctic silver 5 and booted up, no beeps thankfully, but now I get all kinds of corruption errors when downloading and doing large file transfers. My temperatures have also gone about about 10 degrees Celsius...

Is this from the CPU die? If so, what can I do about it?

I bought it from newegg, it's the Athlon XP 3000+ 400FSB OEM version, and I dont know if they'll take it back.

My baby!

Odie

[JaY_III]

they wont take that back...
and that heatsink is too heavy to transport your computer with it attacked...
AMD has guidlines for stuff like that...

Does it work underclocked?

[ookabooka]

I transported mine fine, u just have to make sure u lay the computer down sideways, so the heatsink rests on the chip, not hanging off the side. . . it seems hard to believe though that this would cause corruption errors and heat problems, I would think that it would either work, or not work. Try brushing the core off a bit, trying to smooth out the edges or soemthing, maybe thats why the heatsink isn't making good contact. As far as the corruptions go, perhaps your hard drive was damaged as well. . .. I just can't see how a nicked cpu would do that, I would expect it to release the magic smoke that makes it work.

[Odie812]

Where do you guys get your fine grit sand paper... the 800-1600 grit stuff?

[JaY_III]

I get mine from Canadian Tire... but i dont think you have too many in Boston

Check out hardware stores or Auto Body places.

[Odie812]

Nevermind, I'm just going to buy an easyPCkit. Thanks

[Odie812]

Originally posted by ookabooka
Try brushing the core off a bit, trying to smooth out the edges or soemthing, maybe thats why the heatsink isn't making good contact.

What do you mean "smoothing out the edges?" Don't I run the risk of making it worse?

[Yuriman]

If you sand the core you WILL kill it, almost garunteed. I would say dont make the same mistake twice. Get an slk900-U or one that uses bolts, transport it laying down, and/or buy a 2500+. It will do 3200+ speeds easily.

[Odie812]

I thoroughly and carefully cleaned the die again tonight with lint-free cloths and a razorblade, and the problems still exist, so it looks like I'm getting a new processor.

I may actually be able to get UPS to cover it since I insured the computer all together.

If not, then would it be good to get the 2500+ despite the slower clock speed? Or...

I've noticed that the 3200+ processor at newegg is only dollars more than the CPU I own. Is this worth it? It is, afterall, faster, and I would hardly need to overclock. I don't intend to upgrade to Athlon 64's for at least a year to two years.

Ideas?

ODie

[disk11]

It depends on how much risk you are willing to take. If you want garenteed speed, get the 3200. If you are willing to do some tweaking, get the 2500.

[zip22]

if your heatsink was loose, couldn't it have damaged your board, and might that cause problems? im just thinking you might be focusing on the cpu too much

[PingSpike]

zip22 raises a good point. Get another cpu from your friend or something and put it in for a bit and see if the problem still exists. Although its probably the cpu, since a chipped core is unlikely to survive in complete working order. You also mention higher temperatures which I've heard other people say their cracked core cpus had as well. Also, don't rule out the rare but indeed possible situation, that more than one thing was damaged. (i.e. board and cpu)

I don't know if you'll be able to get UPS to cover it or not...it sounds more like bad packing to me than package mishandling. When my PC has to go somewhere, *I* take it there. Its my baby and I don't trust the UPS man to take care of her like I would.

[Yuriman]

The 2500+ is garunteed 3200+ speeds, even if its locked. Just change the FSB from 166 to 200 and BAM you have a 3200+.

[Odie812]

After I got the computer here I put in a brand new Abit NF7-S 2.0. Same problems: blue screened on Windows XP installation. I then, out of consideration that it could have been my hard drive instead, tried to install XP both on my SATA Raid and my IDE drive and my SATA drives individually: all blue screened on installation. I swapped out my Buffalo PC3200 with my Corsair XMS PC3200 and the same problems come up: blue screens on installation.

So, new board, new memory, new hard drives... same issues. I'm pretty convinced about the CPU. I did get the temperatures to settle down a bit after I cleaned the heatsink and CPU. Also, I think my heatsink needs a good lapping. I'll probably end up buying a new CPU and live happily ever after. Thanks for all of your input. And yes, needless to say, I've learned a valuable, valuable lesson.

Cheers,

Odie

[Duke3d87]

Odie, newegg might acccept it. They took mine back. I told them that i chipped the core because the stock heatsink didnt work becuase the thermal pad never melted