| Author |
Message |
Andrei Judzewitsch
| | Posted on Sunday, February 17, 2002 - 7:46 pm: | |
Hiya all,
Recently I had occasion to RMA my motherboard. In doing so, I had to remove my CPU and heatsink (which were bound together by the thermal interface material that came with the heatsink).
So I plucked them apart and sent the motherboard on it's merry way. I then set about cleaning off the melted thermal pad, scraping the larger bits off the heatsink fan and using a pair of tweezers for the blobs around the CPU core, then using 99% isopropanol on Q-tips for the rest.
The heatsink went swimmingly, as did the majority of the CPU core. Until, plucking off a stray piece of thermal interface material, my attention was distracted and I put a little (about 1/2 mm long, not very deep) scratch onto the CPU core (on the edge about 1/4 of the way from one of the corners, running perpendicular to the edge).
Now I am on tenterhooks about whether the CPU (an Athlon XP 1800) will work or not when the prodigal motherboard returns. If someone could enlighten me on 'how much scratch is too much scratch' and put me out of my suspenseful misery (one way or another) or even provide some preparation for jubilation/despair I would be most grateful.
Many thanks in advance,
Andrei |
E.S.
| | Posted on Monday, February 18, 2002 - 8:35 am: | |
As long as the core itself is not breached you should be O.K. I don't recommend using TIMS as a heat transfer medium just for the fact you described. Heatsink compound is a better solution and IMHO does a far better job. |
BrokenAthlonXP
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 19, 2002 - 5:07 pm: | |
Gads, good luck man. I know the feeling of having a brand new broken CPU. |
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