CPU Contact pad discoloration

26th March 2010, 19:08

As many of y'all tend to do extreme overclocking all the time, I figured I'd post here for any advice and thoughts.

Has anyone noticed discoloration of LGA1366 CPU contact pads... just without any apparent socket damage? For any reason whatsoever? Also, any idea what sort of voltage/current/heat would be required to cause this discoloration of the contact pads?

I ask because I appear to have a board that turned nasty after one year of good hard use. At first I thought my own overclock/settings had eventually damaged my 920 with over a year of 24/7 Folding@home load... but then I saw what the motherboard did to my three week old Core i7 930 I replaced it with. With the 930 I was using 1.36vcore (by CPUZ), 1.60v RAM, and 1.225QPI/VTT @ 4Ghz under an Apogee GTZ.

The photos don't show it well, but the discoloration is more apparent in person and can even be visibly seen in a few of the same pads in the 920. The 930 is on the right, which is astounding given I've used the 930 for less than 3 weeks... much of that time not even overclocked.

Both CPUs are now damaged. The 920 is not stable even at stock frequency. The 930 now requires excessively high VTT for stability.... at stock the ASUS Rampage Extreme II is defaulting to 1.36v VTT just for stock operation.... when I first tested the 930 before installing it into the Gigabyte UD5, the Rampage defaulted to <1.20v VTT. Any thoughts?

29th March 2010, 09:21

Damage is worse than I thought, the 930 began giving quite a few "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered." driver resets unless I give it the 1.36 VTT/QPI voltage the Rampage defaults to.

That's $600 in CPUs and $250 for the EX58-UD5 up in smoke. Does anyone here have any advice before I call Gigabyte to try and get this situation resolved?

jmke · 29th March 2010, 09:43

I would contact Gigabyte at the least
I would also try to contact Intel RMA service: you used reference cooling and stock speeds. maybe they have had similar experience in the past

29th March 2010, 10:46

I didn't want to try Intel's RMA service given their CPU was fine... it was Gigabyte's motherboard that ruined both CPUs and therefore they should replace at least the new one.

I will ask Intel if Gigabyte refuses... but given the visible "scoring" on the CPU pads I suspect Intel will refuse.

leeghoofd · 30th March 2010, 20:44

Damn man that's real bad luck, are you sure the Swiftech block doesn't have a leak ? Hopefully you get a new board and two new CPU's...

30th March 2010, 21:59

Aye, there was no leak.

Probably did 15+ remounts when testing both CPUs in both motherboards trying to figure out the problem. The socket looks pristine, pins look like new. I would never suspect that it could kill a CPU in just a couple weeks.

Not sure what happened to the photo links, I think it resized the thumbnails.

26th March 2010, 19:08	#1
Kougar Posts: n/a	CPU Contact pad discoloration As many of y'all tend to do extreme overclocking all the time, I figured I'd post here for any advice and thoughts. Has anyone noticed discoloration of LGA1366 CPU contact pads... just without any apparent socket damage? For any reason whatsoever? Also, any idea what sort of voltage/current/heat would be required to cause this discoloration of the contact pads? I ask because I appear to have a board that turned nasty after one year of good hard use. At first I thought my own overclock/settings had eventually damaged my 920 with over a year of 24/7 Folding@home load... but then I saw what the motherboard did to my three week old Core i7 930 I replaced it with. With the 930 I was using 1.36vcore (by CPUZ), 1.60v RAM, and 1.225QPI/VTT @ 4Ghz under an Apogee GTZ. The photos don't show it well, but the discoloration is more apparent in person and can even be visibly seen in a few of the same pads in the 920. The 930 is on the right, which is astounding given I've used the 930 for less than 3 weeks... much of that time not even overclocked. Both CPUs are now damaged. The 920 is not stable even at stock frequency. The 930 now requires excessively high VTT for stability.... at stock the ASUS Rampage Extreme II is defaulting to 1.36v VTT just for stock operation.... when I first tested the 930 before installing it into the Gigabyte UD5, the Rampage defaulted to <1.20v VTT. Any thoughts?

29th March 2010, 09:43	#3
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,022	I would contact Gigabyte at the least I would also try to contact Intel RMA service: you used reference cooling and stock speeds. maybe they have had similar experience in the past __________________

29th March 2010, 10:46	#4
Kougar Posts: n/a	I didn't want to try Intel's RMA service given their CPU was fine... it was Gigabyte's motherboard that ruined both CPUs and therefore they should replace at least the new one. I will ask Intel if Gigabyte refuses... but given the visible "scoring" on the CPU pads I suspect Intel will refuse. Last edited by Kougar : 29th March 2010 at 10:51.

30th March 2010, 20:44	#5
leeghoofd [M] Reviewer Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 3,209	Damn man that's real bad luck, are you sure the Swiftech block doesn't have a leak ? Hopefully you get a new board and two new CPU's... __________________

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Intel K series relieve CPU multiplier limitation-Core i7-875K OC performance Review	windwithme	Hardware Overclocking and Case Modding	5	12th August 2010 20:18
Coolink Corator DS Gapless Direct Core Contact CPU Cooler Review	jmke	WebNews	0	24th March 2010 12:20
Corsair® Launches Air Series A70 and A50 High-Performance CPU Coolers	jmke	WebNews	0	2nd March 2010 10:05
Titan Fenrir CPU Cooler	jmke	WebNews	0	29th April 2009 11:16
[M] CPU Cooler Give-Away : Sunbeamtech Core Contact Freezer	jmke	WebNews	4	26th February 2009 18:02
SunbeamTech Core Contact Freezer CPU Cooler Review	jmke	WebNews	0	31st July 2008 09:48
Myth of CPU temperature	Sidney	General Madness - System Building Advice	2	25th December 2004 17:38
ABIT Unveils CPU Accelerator Technology on AA8XE series, AA8-DuraMAX and AG8	jmke	WebNews	0	10th November 2004 00:12
Increasing contact between Prommy cooler & CPU	Zax1972	Hardware Overclocking and Case Modding	5	29th March 2004 15:13
HOW-TO: find max FSB / CPU Speed	jmke	FAQ / INFO / HOW-TO	0	25th May 2002 18:13

29th March 2010, 09:21	#2
Kougar Posts: n/a	Damage is worse than I thought, the 930 began giving quite a few "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered." driver resets unless I give it the 1.36 VTT/QPI voltage the Rampage defaults to. That's $600 in CPUs and $250 for the EX58-UD5 up in smoke. Does anyone here have any advice before I call Gigabyte to try and get this situation resolved?

30th March 2010, 21:59	#6
Kougar Posts: n/a	Aye, there was no leak. Probably did 15+ remounts when testing both CPUs in both motherboards trying to figure out the problem. The socket looks pristine, pins look like new. I would never suspect that it could kill a CPU in just a couple weeks. Not sure what happened to the photo links, I think it resized the thumbnails.