OT: thermal protection of Celeron??? fan failure....

[ryan roopnarine]

okey dokey...my sister's computer (which had a virus) was exhibiting behavior very similar to boot record shenanigans, so i assumed it was another virus. the processor in this case is celeron 1.3 in an hp box. after disconnecting the hard drive to see how long it would run on an ntfs boot disc, i found that the thing froze within another additional 10 minutes of the period it would with the hdd connected, after which i took the cladding off and saw that the fan was not functioning. I know that AMD stuff will fry within minutes, as evidenced by the tom's hardware vid and test, but that the PIV was supposed to be able to throttle down, and from all the information i can get my hands on, the celeron of similar vintage is supposed to do the same as well. i'd estimate that between 10 and 35 of the overheat freezes occured. my question is....this comp has a 2 year extended warranty on it that expires in august (comp usa). if it wasn't under warranty, i'd just get her to bite the cost if its damaged and buy another celeron for it. firstly, should i be concerned about permanent damage having occured? secondly, should i just be pushing those clowns for a carte blanche processor replacement? no offence to c-usa employees, but it was their aggressive nonsensical tactics that got my mother to purchase the somewhat unnecessary protection for a soon to be obsolete box. thanks.

[mike wong]

there are various types of "caulking" that can be spread between the Hot spot on the CPU and the heat sink of the cooling fan. the stuff helps in heat transfer.

also many CPUs have temperature sensor outputs connected to the motherboard. they can be set up to warn you of impending overheating.

[Rick L]

I would think the processor might be damaged. If you have a warranty, I would ask for a new processor. However, they will run diagnostic software to see if your processor is really damaged or not. If you have Norton’s Utilities or similar software, you could test the processors yourself. I use PC Check by Eurosoft to check hardware issues. It will test the core processor (CPU registers, stack manipulation, address modes, processor flags, integer arithmetic, BCD operations, bitwise operations, flow control, string operations, processor I/O), Maths Co-Processor on Pentium class FDIV and FIST (round and chop, exceptions, load and save, instruction set), and MMX extensions (data transfers, packed arithmetic, packed comparisons, data conversion, logical operations, shift operation). If any of the listed above fail(s), you have a bad processor. If your processor passes all of above, I would still demand a new processor. Your damaged processor will eventually burn out much sooner because of heat damage.

[632 Regal]

you cant ask for a new processor, after all your not qualified to work on a computer. I dont care if you own a computer repair and service joint your not qualified to make that diagnosis to comp USA.

Take the box in, dont tell them ANYTHING and ask for them to fix whatevers wrong and walk away, act stupid but inform them not to repair anything that will cost money. Remember you dont know ****! How do I know this... all I know is I dont know **** and I got one repaired. Wasnt mine, I build my own since 97, just a favor for a friend that self diagnosed their pc and was told it was not covered cause they opened it up.

Think about my logic before you void the warrantee, if so just get a new processor and be on your way, this time go into the bios and set the shut down temps about 20 degrees above normal CPU temp and call it a day. OH and dont ever have your pc plugged in without a fan!

PS, I use premium silver thermal compound, it works so far.