Did I fry my i5?

[Notafanboi]

So I am building a new pc and I am planning on reusing my i5 3470 in my new upcoming build. My current build has a virus and I took it to my university's tech center thinking that they would only need my HDD, however they said they would need to turn the full system on in order to back up the files and reinstall windows. The stock Intel cooler is broken, so it was not making contact with the surface of the CPU. I told the tech center guy twice that I was worried about turning it on because of this, but he eyeballed it and said it would be fine. Sure enough, a minute after booting a blue screen comes up saying "windows error" and the system shuts off. Did this guy fry my processor? Or will it be okay?

 

[miner_1130]

So I am building a new pc and I am planning on reusing my i5 3470 in my new upcoming build. My current build has a virus and I took it to my university's tech center thinking that they would only need my HDD, however they said they would need to turn the full system on in order to back up the files and reinstall windows. The stock Intel cooler is broken, so it was not making contact with the surface of the CPU. I told the tech center guy twice that I was worried about turning it on because of this, but he eyeballed it and said it would be fine. Sure enough, a minute after booting a blue screen comes up saying "windows error" and the system shuts off. Did this guy fry my processor? Or will it be okay?

At this point, I think it's safe to say you've damaged your processor.

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

Your CPU is fine. Running it without a heatsink will only trigger the automatic shutdown. Modern hardware can't simply fry itself.

 

[migronesien]

So I am building a new pc and I am planning on reusing my i5 3470 in my new upcoming build. My current build has a virus and I took it to my university's tech center thinking that they would only need my HDD, however they said they would need to turn the full system on in order to back up the files and reinstall windows. The stock Intel cooler is broken, so it was not making contact with the surface of the CPU. I told the tech center guy twice that I was worried about turning it on because of this, but he eyeballed it and said it would be fine. Sure enough, a minute after booting a blue screen comes up saying "windows error" and the system shuts off. Did this guy fry my processor? Or will it be okay?

At this point, I think it's safe to say you've damaged your processor.

No, it's not. CPUs normally just shut down the system if they get to hot to prevent getting damaged.
Don't start your PC until you got a working cooler installed. CPU is probably fine.

And holy shit, never go to this place again. Tech dude seems like a complete idiot. Starting a PC without a working CPU cooler wtf. Also not being able to get the data from the HDD without the rest of the system dafuq. Just connect it to ANY pc and that will do the job. There are also USB adapters for that.

 

[Epsilon_0EVP]

Blue screen usually means driver error. So you're probably still looking at improperly configured hardware, or a software issue. It's very unlikely you would damage the processor by just turning on the machine; as has been said here, there are too many protections for that to happen.

 

[miner_1130]

So I am building a new pc and I am planning on reusing my i5 3470 in my new upcoming build. My current build has a virus and I took it to my university's tech center thinking that they would only need my HDD, however they said they would need to turn the full system on in order to back up the files and reinstall windows. The stock Intel cooler is broken, so it was not making contact with the surface of the CPU. I told the tech center guy twice that I was worried about turning it on because of this, but he eyeballed it and said it would be fine. Sure enough, a minute after booting a blue screen comes up saying "windows error" and the system shuts off. Did this guy fry my processor? Or will it be okay?

At this point, I think it's safe to say you've damaged your processor.

No, it's not. CPUs normally just shut down the system if they get to hot to prevent getting damaged.
Don't start your PC until you got a working cooler installed. CPU is probably fine.

And holy shit, never go to this place again. Tech dude seems like a complete idiot. Starting a PC without a working CPU cooler wtf. Also not being able to get the data from the HDD without the rest of the system dafuq. Just connect it to ANY pc and that will do the job. There are also USB adapters for that.

Not saying you've fried it, but maybe you've damaged it a little bit.

 

[Notafanboi]

I agree migronesien, the guy was an idiot. I guess they will just hire any student who applies with any minimal tech experience. The reason they had to turn on the system was a legal issue; I didn't have my key for windows anymore and they needed to get it from the system before they could legally reinstall windows after wiping my HDD. I should've just stopped the guy but he insisted that it would be fine to turn it on. I'm very relieved to hear from you guys that it will probably be fine, as it will be a shellshock on my wallet if it is dead.

 

[Epsilon_0EVP]

Once you re-install the heatsink properly, try making sure you can get to BIOS. If you can, I would then just re-install Windows. If you do have any data you need to preserve, you will need to connect the HDD to another computer, get the data off, and then do the re-install. I'd suggest using a Linux USB for this, since you know the HDD has a virus on it. Better safe than sorry.

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

Yes, it's a myth that's floating around, that a CPU instantly fry itself. If you can turn it on, it means your CPU is working, because if it wasn't, hitting the power button wouldn't do anything at all. If you see anything on screen, at all, your CPU is working as intended.