In message , EBuyerdotcon
writes
On Fri, 4 Jul 2003 10:04:49 +0100, "nigel. carron"
wrote:

Who knows - after all given AMDs cores ability to disintegrate at will -
the CPU could have been fine when first tested - damaged when removed or
when retested. AMD CPUs have a basic design fault IMHO - INTEL p3S AND
Celeron IIs didn't have such fragile cores - I moved from AMD to P4s for
two reasons excess heat & core fragility on AMD cpus makes them far less
attractive than a P4. Last PC was a 2000XP and TBH until CPU was in and
tested fine I wasn't sure it was not going to end up damaged. I may
insist on P4 cpu's and board's in future


I personally struggle to see how anyone can chip a core installing a
heatsink. (little story follows)

When I built my current PC i was stupid enough to get a thermo-sonic
thermo-engine HSF. The base of it has a circular bottom around the
size of a 10p piece. Getting this to fit dead center on the cpu is
potluck because you obviously can't see the center when you fix the
sink into place.

Earlier this year my northbridge fan packed in (Asus A7v266-E) so i
replced it with a zalman heatsink instead, to do this I had to remove
my mobo. On putting everything back together my pc wouldn't post, beep
or nothing, the fans spun up but the monitor didn't come on, nada. I
tried switching it on over 30 times with varied results.

I eventually took it down to my local pc shop who had my pc for a
weekend and couldn't figure it out either.

When I got it back by sheer luck I got it to boot up on one occasion
for a short time with just my board with the essentials plugged in on
a chunk of cardboard, before failing again. After much hair pulling it
turrned out the cpu heatsink had moved less than 1mm during me
replacing the northbridge fan and wasn't touching the core completely.

After cleaning up the core, applying some arctic silver and putting
the HSF back on it worked fine perfect and has done ever since.

Now if anyone was going to break a cpu core it'd be me, the force
required to fix the thermo-engine is thumb breaking, yet after as much
abuse both physically and thermally my cpu has recieved it still works
fine. (Wether my mobo has thermal protection is anyones guess).

I can't understand how this group in general is so quick to judge folk
when it comes to returning cpu's, its like its a predetermined thing.
"The CPU is DOA, its the user installing the heatsink to blame".


EBuyerdotcon "Made the wrong choice, didn't you?"
www.ebuyerdotcon.co.uk

Sorry but that's one pile of carp - if the Thermo engine wasn't touching
an Athlon CPU it would NOT stop it switching on - and the core would
self destruct in seconds - far more likely you had a short somewhere and
the rebuild cured that problem. But to suggest the AMD CPU detected no
cooler and refused to boot is IMHO - rubbish..

But yes TEs were nasty pieces of junk.. As were a lot of AMD heatsinks
hard to fit without damaging cores..
--
njc AKA (Paypal & nochex e-mail)