Test physically damaged CPU. Dangerous?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

Hi.

I damaged a CPU while trying to put a heatsink on it. I stabbed it
with a screwdriver and now a small piece of the surface of the die is
missing, exposing some golden metal inside.

Am I right in thinking that the die is the large part of the CPU, i.e.
the brown/green part surrounding the small metal cube (that's what I
broke)?

Is my CPU completely screwed?

Is there any chance I could damage any part of my computer by putting
the CPU in the motherboard and testing it?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

On Thu, 22 Sep 2005 02:30:22 GMT,
davsanchez@btinternet-dot-com.no-spam.invalid (daveywavey) wrote:

>Hi.
>
>I damaged a CPU while trying to put a heatsink on it. I stabbed it
>with a screwdriver and now a small piece of the surface of the die is
>missing, exposing some golden metal inside.
>
>Am I right in thinking that the die is the large part of the CPU, i.e.
>the brown/green part surrounding the small metal cube (that's what I
>broke)?

The die is a very small part of the CPU, usually right in the middle
under that metal cap. In many chips the metal cap is actually a
decent amount larger than the actual CPU die. Most dies are somewhere
around 1cm^2, which is pretty darn small. On some CPUs (ie the P4 or
Athlon64) the die is covered by a much larger metal heat spreader to
covers most of the whole package.

The brown or green part surrounding the die is just for packaging and
pin-out.

>Is my CPU completely screwed?

I'd give it about a 50/50 shot of working.

>Is there any chance I could damage any part of my computer by putting
>the CPU in the motherboard and testing it?

If something is shorted on the CPU than it is possible to fry the
motherboard voltage regulators. Most voltage regulators and power
supplies are pretty good about protecting themselves though, so it's
relatively unlikely. The rest of the system should be safe enough.

-------------
Tony Hill
hilla <underscore> 20 <at> yahoo <dot> ca

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

Oh thank you, thank you thank you.

That's everything I wanted to know. I think I'll risk it.