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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Looks like a drop of solder fell on to it
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?
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)
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.
Wait so it had been running fine since August?
Yeah, that’s the weird part. We were playing online without issue just a few weeks ago. His PC only died sometime last week.
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.
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.
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
That’s super useful information, much appreciated. MSI motherboard actually. I’ll ask my friend when he last updated the BIOS, if at all.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
It’s not a tumoh.
It’s not a toober. Back to da choppa!!!
Was he using liquid metal thermal paste?
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?
Honestly no clue to both questions. So, it’s a defect from the factory then?
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.
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.
That blob isn’t liquid is it? It’s actually solid?
Yeah, it’s solid. I tried poking it a little as soon as I noticed it.
It’s a toomah!
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?
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!
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.
We can cross that out, then. The lump is solid like a little metal bearing.
Looks like solder. Soldering irons are pretty cheap. You could try getting a cheap one and melting it off; but if you’ve never soldered before I’d recommend watching some videos on how to handle it so you don’t just make things worse.
Yeah, you’re going to ruin it and void your warranty if you do that.
Just add flux, hold it upside-down and heat it up. Easy peasy. Can’t ruin it further anyway.
Desoldering braid
![[RMA] What is this lump on my friend's CPU?](https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/ac0d8c0a-45b4-417a-aa53-f5185f0e6494.jpeg){kind=link}