It Finally Happened... Dead CPU

It's happened, happened in annoyingly mundane circumstances, but happened nonetheless... I've killed a CPU.

The first CPU I've ever ever killed, and I've toyed with and worked with CPU's since about 1994, juggling them and building systems, basically as soon as I was introduced to modular PC's at college I was playing about with them fitting parts and drives and replacing things in the great beige boxes.

So what was I doing to finally kill a CPU?

Well, before I explain, let us just lament the chip, it was my Core 2 Quad Q6600, a chip I paid release week prices for, which served me throughout my time playing Eve-Online and World of Warcraft, the chip on which so many gaming marathons in Day of Defeat was carried out and the first chip I really played about with understanding the out of order execution of the new Pentium architecture Intel had foisted upon us (and which I'd tried to ignore for many moons).

Late July 2006 it arrived, I installed a then whopping 1GB of RAM into it and Windows 98 was stuck on it until November when it received Windows Vista, and it worked a charm, equipped with a further 3GB of RAM to a total of 4GB.  Two GTX 8800 graphics cards in SLi it was a beast in it's day.

It led a long and fruitful life in gaming and productivity for me, and so last night 2nd May 2020, a full fourteen years of service later it has gone to silicon heaven.

How did it die?  Right, well, I've been setting up a CCTV system, the neighbours continue to be a source of perturbation for us.  So I had the Q6600 set up in a case with 4GB of RAM streaming to YouTube, however it ran so hot, like a really really hot.  So the plan was to take it out that cramped case, put it into a Bitfenix case with a large 775 cooler.

I get it on the bench, test boot, all fine, remove the ssd and stow it and get to work, all the power out and off, all the cables out the way, unscrew and lift the mobo out, I get my test bench PSU and test boot to the BIOS, all fine.  But I can hear a loud noise, like a whine... I figure it's the power supply, so swap to another power supply, and still hear the same noise... Ohhhhh... what the heck is that?

I reduce to the minimum RAM, and boot... Nothing, what happens is the fan spins a moment then off.... Spins, then off... Spins then off... Oh oh...

I changed the RAM, so change it back... same thing. spin, stop, spin stop... No post.

This whine is getting louder each time I turn on....

I have no idea what it is, I'm suspecting a capacitor or coin whine, I'm suspecting the power supply, not the board.

So, I remove the cooler, and swap a different socket 775 chip into the socket, boots to bios fine, no problem.... Oh oh.... I'm suspecting the CPU is bad.

A visual inspection, it looks fine... I trust the Q6600....

I put it back in, power on again and the whine reappears but instantly goes away, and I smell burning.

Power all off, pull the chip... and sure enough one of the underside surface mount components has gone, I can see its blistered and bubbled up... That CPU is dead, at least to me.

I have no idea what's cause this, I suspect it was age combined with being in this constrictive case and getting so very very hot.

I've decided to retire all my core 2 based machines, I have (well had) three... The Q6600, a X5472 and the wall mounted PC.... The wall mounted project is a little difficult to directly change, I may continue as it is, but the rest of them are to go, they're running too hot and too inefficiently, a now old sandybridge chip will be far more energy and performance efficient.

RIP Dude - First Anniversary

I can't believe it's been a whole year since my beautiful best boy had to leave us...

I miss you everyday my big yellow beauty.

http://megalomaniacbore.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/rip-dude.html

The Day of Your Death

I've been quietly contemplating life, or rather the lack of it, since the last episode of DrWho, which until they explain a few things is treading a fine line of insulting a fair few people with it's "Connected to the Burning body" line; regarding Cremation & the soul...

And a thought, probably a common thought, struck me...

Once you've passed your first Birthday, you've lived through the date on which you'll die... Technically we could say your Fourth Birthday, to ensure you've lived through a 29th February also (and yes I have a cousin born on that date!)

What a singularly depressing thought, we spend so much time thinking about our date of birth, but never really consider our date of death.  Perhaps some do, but of natural or unexpected causes, what a mystery we all lead...

It could be today...

I often post blogs a head of time, so there maybe items in my queue which will go out post-mortem, I may be a posthumous poster... 

Ghost Hunting - TAPS

Last night, lost for something to watch for 10 minutes, the wife and I put on one of those Ghost Hunting shaky camera bullshit programmes, some bunch of blokes called "TAPS" running around an old French fort somewhere or other.

Anyway, they kept saying they were seeing things, and kept saying they were hearing things, but they were never on camera, or the camera was shakier than a chronic masturbator in full swing.

But, one of the tests was just hilarious one fellow and a lass put a torch on a set of steps and they asked "any spirits present to flash the light if they are French"... and the light flashes... "Are you a soldier"... and the light flashes... "Did you serve here".. the light flashes...

They're saying they've just made contact with the dead, they've just proven life after death, or existence after death... They've just proven everything the owner of this site wanted to prove.  There's a shed load of other supposed detecting kit near the torch, but they say there's no jiggery pokery going on... Right... Okay... Lets say I believe you, you've dropped this into my viewing, and I believe you, you've just proven life after death!

And they completely ignore this test later on, when they come to review and hand over the evidence to the site owner, they have a shakey picture of a light supposedly dimming and brightening "as if someone is walking past the light" and they they have footage of "my t-shirt being touched from behind"... it looks just like he's moved his shoulder to me... All right, you've shown them that, now show them the proof of life after death!....

Nope, they don't show that footage again, they completely ignore it and it's been ignored by the summing up.... In fact the chap and lass who collected that footage, don't appear again in the whole show!

I find these kinds of shows so annoying, so.... pathetic and annoying.... Don't watch them folks, they're full of shit.