My buddy just got himself a new pc. We were piecing it together, so it is all different parts that we got. Well his cpu burned up. Right from when we started the computer. It didn't even work once. I was wondering if it would have been anything that we did. We coated the top with arctic silver just where we were suppose to. Will too much do anything?? It didn't look like it spread anywhere either. Plus we got some on the other part of the top of the CPU. We wiped it off really good. I didn't think it would have fried it. I mean i put together 2 and i did the same thing to one of them, but i cleaned it off. It is running fine. Well if i could get some input that would be great. My buddy is pretty upset about it and i feel really bad about his processor frying up.

Are you sure it burned, maybe it was DOA.

Was the heatsink attached properly, without any rocking.

did you have a sniff to see if you could smell burning, or tried another cpu in the board, the board could be doa.
Then try the cpu in another system.

You have to try several angles... thats unless you know the cpu is burnt out ------ then you will have to replace it

Thats all that i can think of

except....

If the system wont post, try changing the ram

The CPU is toasted:
1. I smelled it burning
2. It was a nice blackish color on the bottom.
3. It really sucks, cause i was helping him put together his pc.

The heatsink was on good, made sure of that. Am i right in what i was thinking and telling him that the CPU was DOA????

Arctic Silver, unless it is a fake fabrication, isn't electric current conductive, so there is no worry if it spilled over, I think the CPU was DOA (it is impossible to mislead an Athlon CPU into the socket. Were there any pins bent/broken/missing on CPU?

Also check if PSU is alright.

PSU???? Well i think you are meaning the socket. Well i looked at it and looks all well. No pins looked like they were missing or anything. The Processor was OEM though. So does it look like it was DOA???? I sure hope so. I don't want to think it was anything i had done.

Slim chance, but maybe your voltage is bad.

Athlon processors dont burn up instantly. Usually they take the het a for a bit then freeze, like in POST or maybe OS bootup.

I would exchange this processor, and possibly get the mainboard checked.

No, PSU is a Power Supply Unit, it might've killed the CPU as well. Voltage supplied by PSU could've been too low and current too high that might did it.

how do i check the power supply, It is brand new. A 400w power supply. It says it is for a Pentium 4, will that make of a difference????

I was under the impression that Arctic Silver WAS conductive. Isn't elemental silver the best conductor known to man? Even in the instructions it says to make sure none spills because it could bridge two connectors.

lackluster, don't beat me down if I am wrong...

My father in law is an electrician, and according to him, pure copper is the best conductor known to man.

Just thought I would toss that in there...

And it could make a difference, I doubt it would, but it could. AMD approved PSU's are all I go for.

To check it, toss it in a working computer. huh huh, after saying that, it sounds like a very bad idea. ZAP! There goes the "working" computer, now what?, huh huh, maybe you should wait and see if someone has a better idea

I'll take your fact over mine, MasterC. My electrical skills are bordering on NULL. I'm just spitting out what I read in a (electrical) textbook.

Maybe the mistake of mixing up AT & ATX components was made here?

For one thing copper is not the best conductor known to man.... it is cheap and readily available and has good conduction. That is what makes it better.

Gold is the best conductor. It is excellent, but it is very expensive and not as available, so in a round about way it isn't. Why do you think it is such a big thing to have gold plated connectors???

Silver is a medal, and i think most all medals have some sort of conduction, but maybe the company did something to make it not... who knows... cause i don't

ATX or AT????? hmmmm Well if i am not mistaken ATX plug in for the motherboard won't plug into an AT motherboard or vice versa. Everything is ATX, that can be

If the Chip wasn't even booting, then there is a good chance there was something wrong and we didn't do it, It didn't instantly burn up. I remember some stuff from my PC maintence course heheheh

Oh yeah, one other thing..... It must have been dam hot cause the arctic silver 3 completely dehydrated

RacerD, because I got curious, I decided to find a reliable source and find out for myself. You are very correct.

Gold is THE BEST solid conductor of electricity, but is not used for several reasons, 1 is mentioned above (is more expensive and hard to procure) another is that gold is very soft. Soft stuff moves. This is not good if it is not "covered" or coated with a more sturdy/solid metal or composite.

Silver is next. Silver is also very good, but falls under some of the same ideas of gold. It's soft.

Copper is 3rd in the chain game, and is 70 times more conductive than the next item on the list of conductive materials. Copper is stronger than the 2 above metioned, and is used in more cases because of it's extremely low price, and it's ability to last longer. It's less prone to corrosion than the other 2 listed, and is therefore more "universally" a better conductor.

Those are the best solid conductors.

Not that this would help you any, but it's good knowledge for anyone interested.

Cool