My dad touched the bottom of my CPU.

[CiB0rG]

Hello, guys! I'm actually working on a new PC which is almost ready (I'm waiting for a CPU cooler to arrive because I bought the CPU without the stock one), but I'm still using my (very) old rig.
Today, I opened my old PC to take a look at the cooler and see if it could be made to work on a 1150 socket, but the pushpins were not attached to a metal bracket, so it turned out to (sadly) be a no go. Anyway, we decided to take it off, clean it a bit and replace the old thermal paste, which had been sitting there for years. My dad took the CPU out to wipe it and I saw him for a moment touch the bottom side and instantly yelled at him to not do that and that it could damage the CPU, but he said it's okay and just put it back in. Actually, the temperature went 5 degrees C down while gaming, but... I played a couple games of League of Legends and things in the game were not showing where they actually were. Champions teleporting around the screen. Skillshot spells going wide (on the screen) but actually hitting me and so on. I went on and restarted the game but it didn't go away. Started a second game and the problem got even worse. I repaired the game and found nothing wrong and it's still like that. My question is, is it possible that the CPU is making bad/wrong calculations because it got damaged and if that's true, can I fix it (clean it)?
EDIT: The CPU is an old Core 2 Duo E8500.

 

[Robbmrp1]

It all depends on if there was any residue or oils placed on it as those could interfere with it.

I had a similar situation a couple of weeks ago....

I was swapping out an air CPU heatsink for a water cooled all in one kit and got a tiny amount of thermal paste into the socket area under the CPU. I hadn't noticed it and booted it back up. It wouldn't boot at all so I knew there was something wrong. I wiped off the bottom of the CPU(I7 2600K) with some alcohol and let it dry. I also swapped out the motherboard as it was 3 years old and the system runs fine.

 

[mudpuppet]

Gonna quote the Overclock forums here... "More than likely youre fine, so long as you weren't running a few laps on carpet beforehand." If the only issue you're having is with the game, then chances are the issue is lag related. Play some other games and see what's going on. I would bet that it's more your paranoia that is getting to you than anything. Network issues and the interaction between clients would cause you to think you're one place but the game to register you in another. Battlefield 4 would be an example where you are hiding behind cover, but still take a bullet to the skull though you've been behind cover for almost a full second.

 

[Saberus]

If you're that worried that your dad's skin oil is messing with things, take it out and wipe it down with alcohol, let it dry, then re-install. But as others have said, what you're describing is lag, not CPU malfunction.

 

[CiB0rG]

I'm pretty sure there's no thermal paste in it, we actually had barely enough to put the cooler back. My dad thought he had more left, but anyway.
It does look like lag, yes, but my internet is doing quite well, my loading times in the game were very fast (I restarted the game during a match to see if the issue goes away and it loaded way faster than I expected), that's why I highly doubt it's a connection issue, but we'll see. A few days from now (hopefully tomorrow), I won't care that much, but I was wondering whether this could be a CPU failure and is it maybe worth cleaning up.
Btw, is there any software that could check if my CPU is making calculation mistakes? I believe that could help.

 

[Snipergod87]

FYI is your CPU was making calculation mistakes that often you would be BSoDing every few seconds if it would even boot up. I have touched the bottom of CPU's before by accident and clean it with the high % isoproponal.

In general if your CPU is not touching all the pin's (except for a select few) than your system will not boot.

 

[CiB0rG]

Another thing I just noticed is that the CPU only goes up to 2534 MHz with any game I play, rather than its normal 3.16 GHz. I've deleted Mass Effect 3 which I finished a few days ago, so I can't see how the PC would handle that, but trying to play The Witcher (1) which is supposed to run smoothly made me want to puke because of all the stuttering.

 

[CiB0rG]

Well, after another reboot of the system HWMonitor now says that we're back up to 3.16 GHz and League doesn't have the issue anymore. I guess it was indeed the CPU not working properly, but I don't know why.

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

I dropped CPU's, I touched them both on the heat spreader, and under it. It should be avoided because you don't want to zap it, which is why people recommend you to use ESD bracelet, but even then, I zapped many components, and they never died. It's very hard to physically damage components. As for the extra heat caused by touching it... Really? If you just had crisps, then yeah, it's going to make a difference. If your CPU was really damaged, you wouldn't be able to boot, there is no inbetween dead and alive.

Loading times aren't affected by your connection. That's primarily your hard drive. Your computer is probably from 2008, so it's running a pretty slow drive, unless you had it replaced with something better.

Just like the others said, the issue you're describing is called rubber banding, and is related to your latency. If you have a dusty computer, clean it, because the NIC can overheat too, and that it's restarting constantly, or your anti virus is causing it. Also, keep in mind that you're on a very low end system, judging by todays standards.

 

[CiB0rG]

I dropped CPU's, I touched them both on the heat spreader, and under it. It should be avoided because you don't want to zap it, which is why people recommend you to use ESD bracelet, but even then, I zapped many components, and they never died. It's very hard to physically damage components. As for the extra heat caused by touching it... Really? If you just had crisps, then yeah, it's going to make a difference. If your CPU was really damaged, you wouldn't be able to boot, there is no inbetween dead and alive.

Loading times aren't affected by your connection. That's primarily your hard drive. Your computer is probably from 2008, so it's running a pretty slow drive, unless you had it replaced with something better.

Just like the others said, the issue you're describing is called rubber banding, and is related to your latency. If you have a dusty computer, clean it, because the NIC can overheat too, and that it's restarting constantly, or your anti virus is causing it. Also, keep in mind that you're on a very low end system, judging by todays standards.

As I said right in the message above yours, it WAS indeed the CPU not running properly and it had underclocked itself in a few consecutive boots for no obvious reason after being taken out of the mb. It is back to normal now.
Also, in the op I stated that I'm currently building a new rig and I'm only waiting for a CPU cooler to arrive, because I don't have any coolers that I can put on a 1150 socket mb, so even if this one is damaged, it wouldn't matter much a few days from now. Btw, you'd be surprised how good an old PC with nothing overclocked inside can perform even after that much time, if taken good care of.

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

Again, if the CPU wasnt functuining properly, it wouldnt even let you boot into Windows. If your CPU isnt pushed hard enough, you wont reach its max frequency. However, the problem you described was never caused by your CPU. Glad you got it working.