Hi guys, just want to get some opinions on whether a used CPU I bought is ok to use or it's too risky to trust it. The CPU in question is an i7-2600k. When it arrived in the mail upon inspection I immediately noticed darker areas on the contact pads on the underside of the CPU. On closer examination it looks like some of the pads are damaged, possibly burnt. I've tried the CPU in a spare board and it seems to work but I did have some lockups in Windows, but I've since updated the bios and so far it seems ok. Please have a look at the pictures. On one I've circled some of the suspect pads. Sorry if the pictures aren't the best. Anyway, I'd be very appreciative to have your opinion on this and if you'd be happy using this CPU in your PC. Thanks Click to view full-sized image! Click to view full-sized image!
You've got a spare board, so long as you don't care if it dies or not then I'm not sure what your issue is? Put the CPU in the board and run some stress testing software on it for say 7 days straight... if it stays stable and doesn't crash the CPU is fine.
Upload the pics to OCAU Pix so we can see them. If it worked ok in your spare board it should be fine, just stress test it as luke o said. 12 Hour prime smalls should be enough.
My "issue" is that even if the cpu is working at the moment, that over time the damaged pads will continue to overheat due to the increased contact resistance that may further damage the pads and also the socket in the board that this CPU was intended for and then fail necessitating replacement of both board and CPU. Furthermore, why would I not care if my spare board dies. I don't have unlimited spare boards lying around (or spare money to buy more) so that I can fry it and chuck it out without a seconds thought.
Can't you see the larger pics when you click on the original links? Anyway, I've done as you suggested. Hopefully you can see the pics below. Click to view full size! Click to view full size!
No I cant. Looking at the pictures I wouldn't be worried about using the cpu. If you want to you should be able to clean the contacts.
Thanks, any idea of how to safely clean the contacts? I've tried an isopropyl alcohol swab but it made no difference.
Just letting you know once again as I've said in our pm that I would more then be happy to refund your money on the CPU,if you really are worried about it just let me refund your money and you send it back no problems at all.Just on the CPU I didn't have it that long and never even looked at the pads to be honest just used it few times it worked well.You don't need to worry anymore if its going to damage this and that just pass me your bank details and would deposits money straight away $150 + i would pay you $5 to post it ,your call before you go sanding pads.
Hi Bullants, I really appreciate your offer for the refund and even pay for postage. Trouble is I really want an i7 and I think this was a very good price so I'd have liked to keep it if possible. I wanted to get other peoples opinion on this before I got back to you with my decision. I've also searched online but haven't been able to find any instances of this kind of issue, apart from the early issue of some 1156 sockets causing burnt pads. I wasn't going to go as far as using wet & dry on this, but I had a much closer look at the pads under magnification and they look more like tarnish or just wear rather than being burnt. So I decided to take the chance of trying to buff them up using microscrub, which is a very mildly abrasive product that's used in relay contact cleaning. It has helped clean up the suspect pads considerably and I'm stress testing it now. So given the fact that I've had a go at cleaning it up, I don't think it'd be fair to return it now. Thanks again for your refund offer and thanks to all those who replied to this thread.
The pads all look fine, the reason some are more brown the others, is that the previous motherboard socket(s) had a few pins not connecting, so more power had to be sucked through the ones that where, there is alot of power pins in the socket, not all of them need to make contact for the cpu to be stable, it will last though its 10yr warranty(6or7left?) easy, if a board dies, it will be the boards fault not the cpu. Just dont try pumping crazy volts through it for overclocking and you will be fine
That's sorta one thought I had too but strangely it seems that the pins that are brown turned out not power or ground pins. Go figure.
i had 965 phenom II with very darkened data pins (almost burnt color) from a LN2 session @ 5.7ghz, while they are suppose to be signaling pins only, they can draw nearly half of a normal loaded power pin. I didn't think it was possible for the intel chips to do the same, but the evidence would suggest otherwise /shrug
I wouldn't worry about it, seen some chips of mine do this before, never affected anything. I would never use water or wet and dry on it. At most I would use isopropyl alcohol and a cloth. Everything abrasive you use will thin the pad out which will reduce the current capacity of the pad thus and increase the risk of failure if you're trashing it. When it's in the mobo socket and closed the pins on the mobo would scratch the surface tarnish and make good contact anyway.
