this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2024
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[RMA] What is this lump on my friend's CPU? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by [email protected] to c/techsupport
48 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

EDIT: We decided not to pursue further diagnosis, because we wouldn’t know what the hell we’re doing anyway, and decided to start the RMA process instead. It might not even be the reason why the PC won’t turn on, but I’m not comfortable with putting that CPU back into his PC again. Once we get a replacement, we’ll see what happens. If it’s still busted, we’ll just take it to a local shop. Thank you everyone for your for your suggestions and insight, they are very much appreciated.

My friend called me to take a look at his PC that wouldn’t turn on. Upon inspecting his CPU, I noticed a silver bump at the bottom. I’ve never seen this. Can anyone tell me what it is?

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[–] teamevil 60 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Looks like a drop of solder fell on to it

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Wow, that reply was super fast. That was my first thought, but my friend doesn't know how to solder and doesn't own a soldering iron. Is it possible it was like this from the factory?

[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Was it new or brought used? Either way probably not the best for it so maybe get your friend to return it (unless they lied and did it themselves, haha)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

New. He bought it last summer in August, so it should still be under warranty. Yeah, my thoughts exactly. I've never seen this, so I kind of don't want to put it back in the motherboard for fear of causing further damage.

[–] Betch 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Wait so it had been running fine since August?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, that's the weird part. We were playing online without issue just a few weeks ago. His PC only died sometime last week.

[–] Betch 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

That is sooo weird. Unless that thing shorted and heated up so much that it melted the solder, in this case I'm not sure there's any extra harm in putting it back in the socket. I usually wouldn't advise this but if it was gonna cause damage it's probably already done.

At this point I think there is a definite possibility that this solder blob has always been there and that we may be barking up the wrong tree.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Unless that thing shorted and heated up so much that it melted the solder, in this case I’m not sure there’s any extra harm in putting it back in the socket. I usually wouldn’t advise this but if it was gonna cause extra damage it’s probably already done.

Fair point. I'm probably not going to experiment too much. I was just curious about the silver blob, because I've never seen this before. If I can't find any obvious faults, I'll just advise my friend to take his PC to a repair shop or something.

[–] Betch 4 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Alright, well if you want you can let me know what actually happens when you push the power button. Any beeps, lights, fan spins, clicking, demonic apparitions, just completely dead, etc.

Sometimes just reseating everything is the fix too.

[–] OldManBOMBIN 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

demonic apparitions

I chortled.

[–] Betch 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's funny until you see faces in the blue smoke.

[–] OldManBOMBIN 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Then it's a PARRRRTAYYYYYY

[–] Betch 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Oh it definitely can be depending on your preferences.

[–] OldManBOMBIN 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] Betch 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Hmm I had something different in mind. More along the lines of getting freaky with demons but hey inhaling the magic blue smoke is 100% valid too. I'm down.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That's very kind of you, thank you. I'm actually meeting with my friend again tomorrow. We'll try re-assembling everything and see what happens.

[–] Betch 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Awesome! Good luck!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Unfortunately nothing changed even after reassembling the PC. We're just going to take it to a local PC shop since they have more tools on hand to diagnose the problem. Thanks for your help, though!

[–] Betch 2 points 9 months ago

Yeah figures. As another user mentioned, this could very well be the issue that Gamers Nexus exposed a while back. That CPU might still be under warranty. Hopefully the PC shop will be able to sort this out for you.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

With a bit there the cooler probably isn't making good contact with the CPU, but if that was the case I wouldn't expect it to just die if it was working before. Though the higher heat may have caused permanent issues too, hard to say.

I have an all in one CPU liquid cooler that had a bracket on incorrectly but it still worked fine until I played with overclocking so that's all I base this comment on.

[–] keyz 48 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Last year GamersNexus covered something similar. Can't remember the exact video, but I think it was in the series of videos this one comes from https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fFNi3YNJXbY&t=0s.

Can't remember all the details, but (I think) something was causing a part of the die (I guess not near a temp sensor) to heat up way out of spec, enough to litterally melt the solder on the CPU, and have it drain out.

CPU is likely dead, and certainly not to be trusted. Is it an Asus or gigabyte motherboard? Potentially it's one that's affected and hasn't had the bios update that fixes the issue applied

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That's super useful information, much appreciated. MSI motherboard actually. I'll ask my friend when he last updated the BIOS, if at all.

[–] keyz 6 points 9 months ago

I would suggest not trying to use it anymore though, and just go straight to the RMA process for wherever they were purchased. Or maybe post on the GN discord to see what they say (annoyingly they don't have forums or anything, just a discord and subreddit).

If this is just something that's come from somewhere else, you don't know where else this mysterious metal may have gone, and there's a potential fire risk on your hands at worst, or a mobo that could fry any cpus (or memory, etc) plugged in.

If it's indeed the issue talked about by GN, it's dead, and if it's not completely dead, it's actively dying in an irreversible way.

If it's some other, new issue, I still can't imagine plugging it back in will make anything better.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

That's not it. Even if the overheating melted something in there, it wouldn't just ooze out to some spot and form a neat blob without a trace.

[–] keyz 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The photo is almost identical to one shown in one of the GN videos. Gonna be a bad internet denizen today though and ask that you take my word, because I really can't be arsed to try to look up specific videos and times.

If you don't take my word, thats completely understandable, but as I said, cannot be arsed with looking it up, so I'll just accept that you don't believe me.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

That's fair. Though I still do believe you since everything you said seems completely plausible. I'm skimming through GN's videos right now, but there are loooooads. Hopefully I'll find it eventually, because I really am curious. In any case, my friend and I decided to start the RMA process as suggested in your other comment, because if nothing else, the CPU looks really dodgy. Thank you for your time and insight!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

It could actually, the Heat spreader is usually bonded to the Chip with some form of Indium Solder, which usually has a melting point of up to 210°C (most compositions are around 120-140°C).

Solder likes to form a similar ball around traces and components, since the solder does not stick to the silk screen of the PCB.

And I remember that this is exactly what happened in the Gamer Nexus video, the Indium Solder was melting due to Overheating.

[–] CrayonRosary 4 points 9 months ago

Yes it would. That's exactly how solder would bahave in this case. The fact that you call what is obviously solder... "something"... means you don't know what you're talking about.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's not a tumoh.

[–] bjg13 4 points 9 months ago

It's not a toober. Back to da choppa!!!

[–] einlander 16 points 9 months ago

Was he using liquid metal thermal paste?

[–] Betch 14 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Damn, I've never seen such an obvious defect on a CPU in my life. What the hell happened there lol. How can that pass testing and leave the factory?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Honestly no clue to both questions. So, it's a defect from the factory then?

[–] Betch 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I mean unless your friend bought the CPU used and got scammed, or they were somehow soldering something above their CPU while building the PC I don't see how else this could've happened outside the factory.

It looks to me like maybe extra solder got squeezed out during the heatspreader or surface mount component soldering process.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Nah, he doesn't own a soldering iron. So, it's safe to say that I shouldn't put this back in the motherboard, yeah? It still does fit in the socket, but I'm worried it'll cause more damage when we turn on the PC.

[–] Betch 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That blob isn't liquid is it? It's actually solid?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Yeah, it's solid. I tried poking it a little as soon as I noticed it.

[–] bhamlin 9 points 9 months ago

It's a toomah!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

So based on the other comments, I would check the cooler and anything else that was above the CPU to see if something got too hot and dribbled solder on the CPU. Also is the socket next to that drop clean, or are there other smaller droplets nearby?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Everything on the cooler and motherboard seems to be clean. No droplets around the socket either. We've decided to start the RMA process, because troubleshooting a CPU is a bit out of my wheelhouse and also I'm kinda lazy. Thank you, though!

[–] supernicepojo 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Considering it looks like a blob of metal it could be a type of thermal interface compound that gets spread on the cpu before installing a heat sink. Something like cryonaut liquid metal, I dont believe it ever solidifies.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

We can cross that out, then. The lump is solid like a little metal bearing.