Need hardware help ASAP!!!

#1 Man that sounds bad. A cracked CPU package probably means at some time the heatsink gave out and the package overheated.

All I'd say is, get a new CPU/Heatsink combo.

Running a cracked CPU is BOUND to be risky. I'd get it out of there ASAP.

CPU's are cheap as hell right now anyway, so go for it and get a new one.

Phil.

#2 I know, shoulda woulda coulda but..
the heat moniter should/could have told you about this.
Every decent board has one dont it?
:( I know its no solution but it's for next time maybe...


was it hooked up? does it exhist?

with a cracked chip the replacement sounds like what will be happening.

but try to keep it cool it might turn out allright :)

#3 Cheap maybe but not when you are a 17 year old when 75% of your paychecks go to college (not a bad thing, just leaves me with $50 every 2 weeks). I want to go the intel route but it's expensive for the same power (a pentium 4 1.7Ghz is $170 plus i'd have to get a mobo while a amd XP 1800+ would only be $108). :/ guess i'm kinda forced to go amd route.. I really wish they would take a hint from intel.

of course this time i'm buying a amd certified heatsink. I was thinking the DC1206BM-L/610-T by dynatron. I had a heatsink that was shaped like an orb, which is NOT recommended :/. all i can think of is when i was using the mobo (having it upright while in the comp) prolly put pressure on the bottom. ****
oh well newegg doesn't ship till tomorow i believe so i have some time to decide.

--KallDrexx

#4 No the hardware sensors don't know if a cpu is chipped or not (mind you 99% of the time i can't get to bios now). It was stable at about 47C (a little hot but far from overheating). *sigh*

well off to work so i can pay for this crap :/

--KallDrexx

#5 Matthew,

For your motherboard to overheat like that usually means that a localized "hotspot" was allowed to form in your system. This is beyond the overheating that would have taken place if the fan on your processor chip failed. I would strongly recommend that when you rebuild your system you rearrange the cards and cables in your system to allow better airflow. You might also wish to invest a couple bucks in another large fan to blow air out of the box - you can usually find a spot on the motherboard where another fan can be plugged and a spot on the chassis where one can be attached.

Also, make very sure you get a good contact transfer glue when you put the heatsink on the chip. If the thermal transfer paste is ineffective that will cause the chip to crack just as if you do not get the entire aluminum cooling surface in contact with the chip or if you use too much paste.

Those round coolers fail because they cause disproporionate stress - cooling part of the chip while leaving other parts uncooled. Get a unit that covers the whole top surface of the chip.

Oh yes, before I forget, unless you have a really good power supply (250-300 watts) and good airflow don't try overclocking even a little bit. A marginal voltage power supply is more likely to make your overclocked machine fail with really bad results.

Make sure you have no open slots in the back of your machine where you have taken a card out and failed to put one back in. This open area causes more harm than good, disrupting the airflow and creating hotspots. The fans on your system depend on the chassis being closed, except where the intake areas are placed. The chassis is modeled to draw air across the memory, processor chip and cards. Disruption of the airflow by cables, wires and open slots generally causes most heat related failures. Older systems have been over engineered. I have had systems in which the processor fan has failed and the system ran continuously 24 hours a day for a couple years until replaced by a bigger machine. The newer systems follow the old designs but the higher temperatures generated by the processors make them more vulnerable.

One last tip, If you can keep at least one slot free from the video card - that card can throw so much heat that it can make an adjacent card fail.

#6 I dont' remember mentioning overheating... *shrug*. Either way I'll take your points into consideration but rememeber that my problem has to do with cracks in the cpu core caused by a fan that's not AMD Certified..

Yeah i saw I said it was Far from overheating =D don't worry we all make mistakes.
--KallDrexx

#7 AMD runs hot ..
like a Mopar ..
except the Dodge can handle it :)
is this a duron?
duron's always crack.

this is heat related I know of no other ways to get a crack on a chip from a heatsink
(unless you put it in like that?)

heat is the evil here, keep it cool it wont crack.
keep it cool it might still run fine.
as for the heatsink and processor did you have heatsink compound between them?
the temp. moniter if hooked up would have shut you down if it was too hot to run..
(with some annoying beeps)

#8 arg It's not overheating as I've never overheated except once when i hadmy old caase. I have a heatsink that is shaped like an orb, both of which are not AMD cert and i know why. There is too much down pressure on the cpu when the cpu/mobo is hanging upright in a tower. that is why.

--KallDrexx

#9 I have three AMD systems which I have built at home, and I have never had a problem with heat. I have a Duron 700, overclocked to 800Mhz, which runs so cool that it doesn't need a system fan, and it has a cheapo

#10 If the CPU is properly installed onto the socket, it won't get bended/cracked by Heatsink (AMD certified or not). The heatsink may make some *scratches* on the cpu, but won't crack it.

CPU packages (all IC packages) can take tempreture over 170^C without problem. The chance of causing by overheating is very small, most CPU will cease fuction before going into that kind of tempreture.

If you sure it's the CPU that cause problem, and/or you sure those are *cracks*, not *scratches*, you should power down the computer and take out the cpu carefully. then send it back to where you bought it for a warranty. In most cases, it's caused by improper installation or CPU manufacturing.

#11 I can't send ti back because AMD gave this to me for free because of some problems with a past dealer. (didn't know the reputable dealers back then, long story). Eitehr way most companies ad dealers dont' cover cracks caused by system installation. My AMD XP 1700+ (underclocked at 1600+ ran from 46C-55C, with my old case I would run it at 1050Mhz at a bit higher temp with no problems. (long time ago). It is possible that in putting my floppy drive in or something i shook the case and the heatsink wobbled a bit, causing the cracks. I know it's the cracks that are casuing this (or at least very sure) because the last time I had this problem there was a crack smaller than one of these.

The only time I had this comp overheat was in the beginning of febuary before i got my new case and I realized my proc was underclocked at 1050Mhz and tried upping it to 1600+ (mind you that's still underclocked). In bios it immediatly went up to 66C and continued to rise slowly after that. When in windows and games I don't know how hot it was (didn't use the software then) but it overheated. I clocked it down untill I got a better case.

I RECENTLY got this floppy drive and put it in, which is why I think it wobb\led and cracked the processor (As I mentioned before i can feel a STRONG centralized downward pull from the clips at the end).

and YES i'm usre they are cracks. I've seen cracks before.
--KallDrexx

#12 kall, those cracks are from overheating... the chip wont crack cause of the pressure of the heatsink.. UNLESS when installing it you act like an idiot and let the heatsink move a bit thus creating more pressure on one side.. but your is cracked on both sides.. it more surely is an overheat problem... and if it is cause of the pressure then you should get a good heatsink next time... but if you claim it isnt overheat then i dont know why u complain about amd not having protection and intel does... this was your fault.. not the chips fault...

#13 Exo you actually can crack the die on a CPU when applying your heatsink clamps. This is especially notorious on AMD chips.

If Matthew bought a "retail box" cpu then he has a good chance that he can RMA the chip and get a replacement from AMD. If it is an OEM cpu that he installed himself then he is definately SOL because warranty does not cover this (plus OEM warrenty is pathetic to say the least).

Logan

#14 Yeha I've cracked my first amd chip applying a heatsink, but i'm tired of how extreme Exo comes out to be sometimes and didn't bother to respond. Basically what happened with this chip is taht I bought my first XP 1700 from a company online i found through pricewatch (i dont' do that anymore, i find reputable dealers like newegg.com). The chip cracked because of the 2nd time I tried appling it on (did it a second time cause the first time i thought it was broken and sent it back with mobo, tho all that was wrong was i had too little wattage in my psu). They wouldn't replace it as they don't cover damage casued by installation by me. I called up an AMD dealer in tampa florida nad talked to the representative and they had no record of them buying parts from AMD, and they suggested that like most companies they got their dealings on the black market. AMD felt bad fro me and sent me a free "sample" chip with no warranty at all. That is the chip that just died. Therefore there is no way to return it.

The chips are in the corner so they are easy to spot as chips. NOw that I think of it I think the chipping was a gradual process, as the computer has been slowly and slowly been acting up (freezing while doing tons of processing in games or mult-compilation) to gradually longer reboot times and last week every once and a while It wouldn't boot up, and now it won't boot up at all except once in a small while. I gave up trying. Therefore it could be that it's been slowly chipping away all this time, which is what I think was happening.

--KallDrexx

#15 Sad story there Kall and unfortuntely it sounds like you are hooped. Your best bet in my opinion is to find a local store, buy the CPU from them and make them install it for you.

Then after that if you ever touch your heatsink again we here at GG will force you to gnaw your fingers off with your teeth, as a preventative measure of course :)

Logan

#16 No wonder it over-heated when you clocked it up to 1600 :) An Athlon XP 1700+ isn't supposed to run at 1700Mhz, thats just the relative speed, the actual clock speed is much lower. It's to do with their new quantispeed architecture (or whatever it's called). You can find the actual clock speeds on the web somewhere. On startup, your BIOS will show you the real clock speed, it's maent to be much lower than 1700.

I can't beleive you managed to get it to 1600Mhz, thats got to be equivelent to well over 2Ghz :)

#17 LOL @ both of you. I bought the cpu already (will be here tomorow) but, heh I was thinking of having compUSA deal with thatcrap andhave them install it, then, I realized that htat'smore money i don't have. =p. This time i'll be REAL carfull ;). anyways (forgot if i mentioned this) i think itwas a gradual process ever since I put a floppy drive in (slowly wobbling back nad forth and such)

--KallDrexx