Cooked processor?

Hi,

I think I may have damaged my new AMD processor and just want to confirm with someone before i discard it.
I just received my new Phenom 9850 and I know it is compatible with my board ASUS M2N-SLI. I flashed my Bios without problem. When I installed it I may have put the heatsink/fan not correctly but it looked ok and I put some thermal grease, I think initially i put it in the wrong direction but it was nicely in contact with the CPU, I may also have put too much paste. Anyway idle in the Bios the temp was 40 Celsius. I booted Window and lauched Speedfan to check the temp and it was around 50 55 Celsius i think then my system started to slow down so i rebooted. Same thing again except that i saw a temp in Speedfan of 95 Celsius. When i saw that I switched off the computer directly from the computer supply. My computer still works with my old CPU Athlon X2 4200+ but if i try to boot with the Phenom, i can still access the Bios but then when Window launches (I can still see the Windows logo) a black screen appears and then nothing. Is my processor cooked?
There was no smoke or anything like that (smell, burn marks) but i can sort of see around the metal part some sort of thin black melted-looking plastic or silicon...)

Thanks!

I thought that I would give you an update on my Phenom that heated up a bit a few days ago...It could be helpful for other people around here.

So it seems the CPU had reached close to 100 degrees celsius and I was not able the fully launch windows the day i tried to install the CPU so the next day i talked to my IT guy at work and sent an e-mail to AMD.

My IT guy said that i had probably damaged the CPU but the fact that i could still see the Windows logo screen was a good sign that it was still working... He also said that I may not be able to pass this screen (I would get a black screen) because the CPU was locked fr a while to protect it because of the high temperature it had reached. He said that I should try to clean everything well (CPU and heatsink) and try again.

Here is what the AMD guy replied to my e-mail:
"Thank you for contacting AMD.
I recommend that you clean off all the thermal compound from both the heat sink and the processor (use a dry cloth for this). Once both are cleaned, apply a small dab of thermal compound to the center of the processor (about the size of a grain of rice), and re-attach the heat sink & fan. Based on the picture you provided, I believe the processor has too much thermal compound. Too much thermal compound can insulate the processor, increasing its core temperature, and possibly over heating it. Also, once you boot the system up, I recommend that you reset the motherboards BIOS.
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
If you have any questions, please reply back to this email or contact us at 408-749-3060 (US CPU Support) or 44-1276-803299 (EU CPU Support).
Best Regards,
Kevin"

I also talked to him on the phone and he said that it was difficult based on the picture i sent him to say if the CPU was damaged, he said however that he thought i had put too much thermal compound. He did not mention anything about what i thought were melting marks and now I think those black lines are actually part of the normal architecture of the CPU.

Anyway yesterday i tried to do exactly what they were suggesting. I cleaned both the heatsink and the CPU carefully with toilet paper, cottonbuds and 100% alcohol for some parts and made sure there was not any thermal paste residue anywhere. I removed my old Athlon and placed the Phenom in the slot. Placed carefullly the heatsink, this time in the right direction (the fan blowing toward the back of my case) with a very small amount of Artic 5 thermal compound.

Then I switched the computer on with the case open. Initial temperature in the BIOS was 25-27 celsius which is good. I reset the BIOS and Windows launched no problem. Idle temp in Windows was around 35 I think. I tried to put some load by lauching some web browser and the temp was very stable. I then did some some demanding tests: Cinebench and 3DMark06 first with my SLI set-up and it was stable with peak temps (Speefdan) at 55 top.
I tried to do the 3DMark06 test with a single GPU too and for some reason I ad a black screen crash, i was a bit worried but i rebooted and did the test again succesfully.

I then played Fallout 3 for about 1 hour, at some point i had another black screen crash but again the computer rebooted fine and i could play for another 30 min without a problem. The settings for the game were 1440x900 with all other settings to max I had a FPS at 60 most of the time (i think i would not go higher because of some sort of upper limit specification by some piece of software). Second time i played with the case open and i noticed a drop in overall temp by about 3-4 degress celsius. Maybe that is the way to prevent the crashes when i game...? I hope the crashes are not going to become regular but at least i did not completely burnt my $100!

Anyway, a CPU hat I thought fried, was not (by the way Upendra09 i don't know why you seemed so sure of it...), it is working (although maybe not optimal i dont know about that) and gave me a nice boot in performance (I got a nice 4000 points extra in 3DMark and besides improving the CPU score it also enhanced the perf of the 2 GPU).
This was the first time I was doing that and in fact it is a bit more complex than I thought, you have to eb very precise and careful and slowly put some load on the CPU to make sure the temp is stable. The contact between the CPU and the heatsink is crucial! DON'T PUT TOO MUCH THERMAL COMPOUND!!! I did and it insulated the CPU from the heatsink thus giving me super high temps.


Here are some useful links for those who are in the process of upgrading their CPU.
Videos from AMD:
http://support.amd.com/us/System-B [...] ideos.aspx

Nice instructions from Artic for both Intel and AMD CPU/coooler (good description of the amount of thermal paste to put)
http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic [...] ctions.htm


Hope this helps some of you.