CPU Damage?

[mpan]

Hello, I have no where else to turn but to the messageboards at Tom's Hardware. I'm in a predicament, you see. A couple days ago, I turned my computer on and left the room for a while (I'm running an Athlon 1.2GHz). When I came back, there was a smokey haze in the room, as well as a burning smell. I promptly shut the computer off. Since then, I've been able to determine that a failing CPU fan must have been the cause, since the CPU fan fail-safe was starting to kick-in and turn the computer off at boot-up due to the bad fan. I played with it for a while and got it to boot again, however at rest the CPU temp hovers around 53 degrees Celcius.
Before I discovered all this, I thought that I had fried my mobo and CPU, so, I ordered a new AthlonXP+ 1800 and mobo, along with a Volcano7+. Now that I know it was the bad fan causing the problem, though, I'm wondering if I can just pick-up the Volcano7+ and cancel the rest of the order and save some money (it's still in the processing phase).
So, my question is: Is there any way to test and see if the CPU is damaged? It still runs and boots-up and everything, it's just really hot. Though, the smoke and burning leads me to believe that something may have gone a little wrong in there (unless that was just the fan burning-up). It's late, so, if I've been incoherent, I apologize. Thanks much for any help anyone can provide!!

 

[lhgpoobaa]

hmm
sure it was your cpu?
not your PSu doing something funny

as for testing your CPU.

A. look for physical damage. discolouration, lifiting of surfaces. bubbling, scortch marks etc

B. run a program like Prime95 and its built in torture test.
it stress tests the cpu and crashes when calculation errors occur. make sure that your CPU works and isnt producing errors.

if prime95 runs ok then it must be something else, or u safely avoided the problem

<font color=purple>All advice I offer has been
Audited by Arthur Anderson.</font color=purple>

 

[mpan]

Thanks much!! I've got this Prime95 torture test running right now. It's been going for quite a while with no problems, so, hopefully everything is okay. There's still a hint of that burning smell on the air, though. I'm not sure if it's the fan or maybe the goop burning off the bottom of the heatsink or something else entirely.

Also, I don't think it's the PSU because I swapped it out for a diffrent one and the same thing was happening. Thanks again!!

 

[lhgpoobaa]

well if u can get thru all the tests so that it starts again on 1024k size u sould be ok.

but even so i would take your system apart and TRY to find out where the smoke came from.
check in the psu too.

smoke isnt good.

<font color=purple>All advice I offer has been
Audited by Arthur Anderson.</font color=purple>