Elizabeth Boston wrote:
>
> Tonight I cooked a processor...
>
> I had an AMD Thunderbird 800Mhz processor in a Chaintech 7AJA motherboard.
>
> The only jumpers on the board were set to auto, and I read the directions carefully, but
> about 30 seconds after starting it up for the first time, the setup screen froze, and then
> I smelled burning. After turning the power off and investigating, I found that the bottom
> of the processor (the side with the pins) had a burnt spot, and a foul smelling oily
> substance had oozed out of the top of the processor onto the heat sink.
>
> Has anyone had this happen to them?
>
> Do you think it is the processor, or the board?

At this point in time I suspect it could be the Mobo and CPU. If one
component fired, I suspect it could have caused damage to the other
components. I wouldn't assume that because the CPU fried that the Mobo
was unaffected. I've experienced this several times before myself and I
had to go toe to toe with Intel to get it resolved. What I experienced
was some metal fragments stuck in the CPU slot that caused a short and
consequently fried other components on the Mobo. I've also experienced
this with memory sticks. The instance of this happening is rare but none
the less it does and  happen.

When I get new components I will inspect them under a magnifying glass
and also blow the slots with air to ensure they are clean. Call me
paranoid but as we have all learned, it is experience that dictates how
we build systems.

I would suggest starting with the supplier for a replacement and if that
fails, go directly to the manufacturer. Neither one would want bad
publicity I think.

Sincerely,

Frank Suszka
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