Has anyone had this problem?

I don't know if I am unlucky or what. Recently I bought two new CPU's a 1200 and 1400 TBirds I assume anyway that is what I was told, eitherway it does not matter. When I installed the processors both chips had the same thing happen. If you look at the processor with the AMD logo center top, the upper left hand corner of the chip broke off ( almost to the point it is invisible to the naked eye) thus rendering the CPU useless. The first time it happened I thought OPPS (stupid) the second chip (1400) this was a different story. I looked over the chip at 100X mag under my microscope before install I noticed the corners lacked much support but they were intact. I installed the chip very carefully it did not boot. I removed the heat sink and here it was the same corner chipped with the same results. Comments ??? I am at a loss and going broke. By the way I have several other AMD processors one 600 I know has been in and out 50 times and it seems to never show none the worse for the wear.

With your kind of luck, I'd use a non-conductive shim. Just stick it to the CPU before you put your heatsink on and that way, the sink won't go anywhere when you put it on, hence no chipped corners.

And if I were you, I'd try to get those processors RMA'd.

Welcome to the forums.

You could always start using a copper hs.

Sorry to hear about those dead chips that would not be fun. As far as the RMA I am wondering if AMD would even warrenty a chip with a chipped core?

I actually busted the corners off of my 1.4 when removing my hsf, but fearing the worst, i tried booting, and it worked fine. that was 2 weeks ago, and everything is still running smooth.

Qualtran,
Just curious which corner(s) did you break off your 1400? And has anybody out there ever returned a chip in this condition direct to AMD that is?

What HS is that Pepsi?

HS was what the OEM chip(s) came with otherwise known as a paper weight. Cool something or other. It should be renamed to not so cool ......core chipper. At this moment I am using a Vantec FCE-62540D. The 600 Duron (with the zipper on it) runs between 32 and 35 C with it. I nicknamed it Zipper because it has been in and out of MB 200 times in the last two weeks to test things that...... well seem to be not working out so well. Too bad the pencil trick does not work on chipped cores like it does on the L1 bridges,..... humm naaa not even worth trying. Going back to crying in my beer..see ya later.

That's hated, I feel for yeah! Looking at my old Duron (AMD UP) the top left corner is chipped, the top right is chipped big time! The bottom left corner is chipped about halfway to the other side. I think all this happen, when I was trying to put a silver orb on. But believe me or not it still works like a charm.

Try http://thinkgeek.com orhttp://pcmods.com for a shim so you dont crack the core
you'll have to look around for it at these sites though

Sorry was busy for a couple of days needed time to ease the pain,........... thanks for the posts......... I can't believe you guys broke off corners off the core and were so lucky that the thing survived...... must be living wrong ... I'll look into the other safe guards before I install another AMD. The funny thing is the chip is so small to look at it you would not know it was there. :.......(
Either way no luck with RMA on the processor I have a call in but I doubt it will get me me a new 1400... later on guys.

i would suggest www.hardcorecooling.com
get one if their annodized shims

Well..
There is a good end to my troubles. I got up the nerve to call my friend back (again) an (OEM Dealer) to tell again him what I did (what happened) his reply; " No problem I can RMA the 1400 for you" ............ So the new 1400 is in and working perfectly..... Thanks for the advice guys ... I owe ya.
Pepsi
P.S. Nothing special added I just installed the chip and set the HS as usual ...it works....

Congrats on the good news. Glad you got it up and running.