So, the story goes as such . . . I build a pc for dad in law . . . use arctic silver . . . ummm, can't remember which number, but it is the one that you can see the silver suspended in the medium . . . definately NOT white.

Dad-in-law's pc starts rebooting randomly, fitting more of the profile of a dying PSU . . . so we send him my old PSU. He puts it in . . . it works for a while . . . and suddenly the pc stops booting . . . power flows, fans start, the drive spins up . . . . but nothing else. There's no beeping or anything. So, he packages up the pc and sends it us.

I get said pc, and test it by firing it up . . . fans, disk and all, but nothing else. So, I pull the drive cables first . . . fans spin up, but nothing else happens. So, I pull the RAM. Once again, fans but nothing else.

So, I go for my old AMDXP1900+ and swap it in. It now beeps slowly and steadily, so I check up the pattern. No Ram! Woo! We're getting somewhere!! I put the ram in, power it up again and there's the bios!

So, I go take a better look at the heatsink and chip . . . And notice first off the thick layer of WHITE crap on the bottom of the heatsink, with NO contact marks from anything but the four pads . . .

I look closely at the cpu and realize that there's NO thermal compound on the die except for a thin white stripe on the right side of the die . . . Looking at the rest of the chip, tho, there are no outward signs of burnout, so I pull out my secondary computer and open her up . . .

And proceed to spend 2 and a half HOURS cleaning the dust colonies out. I REALLY should have done this eariler . . . but I persist . . . cleaning, dusting and doing some cable management, and the pc looks 100% better . . . so I swap out the cpu's to test . . . and get the EXACT same effect. Power flows, but nothing else happens.

Now, for the sad part . . . the cpu was an OEM processor that no longer has coverage. Dad-in-law has said that he's willing to buy a replacement as it's only $76, but I'm still torked off that somehow, somewhere, either he or someone he had work on his computer WIPED the thermal paste COMPLETELY off and reapplied VERY poorly.

So, we have a dead cpu that is going to become either a paperweight (If I can get the epoxy resin to encase it inexpensively) or the wife is going to figure out a use for it in her art projects ("This would be awesome for texturing clay!")

My question is should I attempt to RMA this through the egg, even though it's well over thier 30 day support window?

Oh, and as a side note, after last night, I can NOT put enough emphasis on how important REGULAR cleaning of your case is!!

D

That sucks!

While it's a kick in the guts that someone messed with the CPU, I personally wouldn't feel right trying to RMA it - as it's not a product fault as such

I'd be hunting for the idiot that did the damage though....

yeah, i'd be pissed...you should find the person that did this and you should complain arghargh!

It'd be like one of those action movie scenes where the hero has the badguy thrown down, both bloody and sweaty, goodguy's gun to the temple . . . only I'd be holding the chip, pinside to the temple . . . "WHY?!?!"

*laughs*

Well, the wife and I are going to find SOMETHING to do with it . . . I'm really into the epoxy resin paperweight . . . the most perfect looking 'burnt out' chip I've ever seen.

You could give RMA a shot, but if it's past the warranty you probably don't have a chance. Still, you could always try. Even the bean counters slip sometimes.