Scratching CPU cores?

[Guest]

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

 

[Guest]

Haven't experienced the XP's yet but my 'test bench' machine has a 1gig with pits deep enough to catch a pin in [a long life of changeouts] with no ill effects.

Working on computers is what you do when you get tired of glowing in the dark.

 

[Guest]

Ahhhh, many thanks. That at least takes some weight off my mind and lends hope for the future =)

Cheers!