Ok, I used the rear end (rounded) of the handle of a spoon and pried the HSF off of the CPU. Here's what they look like taken off:

Bottom side of HS/F - should I remove the mess the factory put on it?

The CPU, separated from the bottom of the HS/F - is it damaged, or is this how it's supposed to be? How do I tell if the CPU is roasted (toast, as you say)?

AlienBZ wrote:

Ok, I used the rear end (rounded) of the handle of a spoon and pried the HSF off of the CPU. Here's what they look like taken of […]
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Ok, I used the rear end (rounded) of the handle of a spoon and pried the HSF off of the CPU. Here's what they look like taken off:

Bottom side of HS/F - should I remove the mess the factory put on it?

The CPU, separated from the bottom of the HS/F - is it damaged, or is this how it's supposed to be? How do I tell if the CPU is roasted (toast, as you say)?

Yes, you need clean surfaces before you apply new thermal compound or else the old stuff will interfere with heat transfer.

Anyway, the CPU has tiny numbers near the notched corner - 26351. Are these ID numbers? There is no brand/name/logo of any kind on the CPU.

All the CPU information is beneath that heatsink tape that is left in the middle of the CPU.

You'll probably be wanting to get that tape off the top of the CPU, too. Don't go nuts with the thermal compound because it spreads out when pressure is applied. You don't want it oozing out and dripping all over the motherboard when you reinstall it. That stuff is too expensive to waste.

Hey I have that heatsink! It came on a slotket with a Celly I'm not using. It was really messy to clean that thing up when I moved it to a S7 rig...

What you're going to want to do is clean as much as possible with rubbing alcohol, and then you're going to need some wet dry sandpaper, a very flat surface, and a bit of time. That tape doesn't just scrape off. Actually maybe it does if you're patient enough, but you'll need some sort of scraping tool, and it will very likely gouge the surface. I recommend you lap the bottom of the heat sink with the wet dry.

Will the crap come off of the CPU? You probably don't want to lap it, the risks are considerably more pronounced.

A third alternative is to just get as much of this crap off as possible and just squirt some thermal compound on there and put it back together. That's probably the best option, especially since K6-2's don't get super hot.

sliderider wrote:

You'll probably be wanting to get that tape off the top of the CPU,

Yep, I found the ID after I scraped that tape off with my fingernail, but in the process while trying to hold the CPU by the edges, some of my finger-parts accidentally touched the pins several times. I hope my fingers didn't damage this CPU?

AlienBZ wrote:

Yep, I found the ID after I scraped that tape off with my fingernail, but in the process while trying to hold the CPU by the edg […]
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sliderider wrote:

You'll probably be wanting to get that tape off the top of the CPU,

Yep, I found the ID after I scraped that tape off with my fingernail, but in the process while trying to hold the CPU by the edges, some of my finger-parts accidentally touched the pins several times. I hope my fingers didn't damage this CPU?

Not very likely, unless perhaps you weren't touching any metal objects and moonwalking on your carpet right before touching the pins 😜
It also depends on your local weather conditions and how dry your skin is and the clothes you wear.

AlienBZ wrote:

Anyway, the CPU has tiny numbers near the notched corner - 26351. Are these ID numbers? There is no brand/name/logo of any kind on the CPU.

This number is the AMD package number. I once found a whole list of them, probably on cpu-world or something

Btw, it's not of any practical use to us retro hardware huggers 😜

AlienBZ wrote:

Yep, I found the ID after I scraped that tape off with my fingernail, but in the process while trying to hold the CPU by the edg […]
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sliderider wrote:

You'll probably be wanting to get that tape off the top of the CPU,

Yep, I found the ID after I scraped that tape off with my fingernail, but in the process while trying to hold the CPU by the edges, some of my finger-parts accidentally touched the pins several times. I hope my fingers didn't damage this CPU?

If the pins aren't bent, the cpu is fine 😀.

If you're anally retentive you could clean them with alcohol so in 150 years the oils on your fingers won't be there to risk dirt or oxidation. I seriously doubt it would do much to clean them though.

I've used a CPU as a comb before and it still worked (don't do that though, it was dumb).

Btw, I found it easy to remove that odd graphite tape (or whatever that is) with an old telephone card. An old credit card should work also, main thing it's a stiff plastic card thingy.

This should scrape off easilly. It's that pink bubblegun junk that's a b1tch to remove 😜

Btw, I never bother with sanding heatsinks. Only did it once because there was some thermal goo that would not be removed using any normal cleaning agent I had in the house

SavantStrike wrote:

If you're anally retentive you could clean them with alcohol so in 150 years the oils on your fingers won't be there to risk dirt or oxidation. I seriously doubt it would do much to clean them though.

I've used a CPU as a comb before and it still worked (don't do that though, it was dumb).

Last I heard most ICs naturally degraded beyond usability within 100 years. Guess we'll find out weither or not that's true in about 2075...

Why would you use a CPU as a comb? The lack of static would mean it'd suck at it! 🤣

@AilenBZ
Seems you have a Super Socket 7 system there with that AMD K6-2. Keep that CPU even if you decide to trash the system for a better board.

Dant wrote:

Last I heard most ICs naturally degraded beyond usability within 100 years. Guess we'll find out weither or not that's true in about 2075...

Personally I don't even believe this. For once, it's too early to actually know if this is the case at all. Is there any scientific basis for assuming this will happen? Or is it just theory?

And besides, for us 2075 isn't really relevant anyway, so I'm not too worried 😜

Dant wrote:

Last I heard most ICs naturally degraded beyond usability within 100 years. Guess we'll find out weither or not that's true in a […]
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SavantStrike wrote:

If you're anally retentive you could clean them with alcohol so in 150 years the oils on your fingers won't be there to risk dirt or oxidation. I seriously doubt it would do much to clean them though.

I've used a CPU as a comb before and it still worked (don't do that though, it was dumb).

Last I heard most ICs naturally degraded beyond usability within 100 years. Guess we'll find out weither or not that's true in about 2075...

Why would you use a CPU as a comb? The lack of static would mean it'd suck at it! 🤣

@AilenBZ
Seems you have a Super Socket 7 system there with that AMD K6-2. Keep that CPU even if you decide to trash the system for a better board.

I was still a teenager and I had a sexy Willamette Pentium 4 rig, and I had this Pentium 1 cpu sitting on the shelf. I figured I'd never need it again so why not use it as a comb. In my mind, there would always be a pentium system on the curb free for the taking. Now I wish I'd stocked up on some parts back then, including a 486.

I think the chip may have cursed me. I'm not going to be able to comb my hair with a cpu in another 10 or 15 years either 😳.

There's a valuable lesson to be learned here though. Only abuse crappy components no one will want. Like, ah who am I kidding, just build a monument and fill it with retro hardware.

Tetrium wrote:

And besides, for us 2075 isn't really relevant anyway, so I'm not too worried 😜

Not for me, probably, as I'll probably be somewhere on a space cruiser going from planet to planet and helping other folks with their computers (seriously) as I likely will not even be alive by then (I'll be 58 come Aug 2011).

SavantStrike wrote:

Like, ah who am I kidding, just build a monument and fill it with retro hardware.

My attic! 😁

Can't wait till it's done. It's a lot less chaotic now but still has lots of work left to be done.

It must be....my own private little kingdom of retroness 😁

Listen, I don't know if it's different with 486's but I have held a 486 wrong so many times and it has never killed it. I know how to hold a cpu but I did it mostly because I was lazy and I have some spare 486's laying around.

Tetrium wrote:

Not very likely, unless perhaps you weren't touching any metal objects and moonwalking on your carpet right before touching the pins 😜
It also depends on your local weather conditions and how dry your skin is and the clothes you wear.

No, I wasn't touching any metal, unless my bare feet were in contact with the black metal finish of the kitchen barstool I was sitting on (don't exactly recall, though). Also, I don't think it was too dry weather-wise in our area - sort of humid, I think, and I was wearing a cotton shirt and polyester slacks - did I do ok on this?

AlienBZ wrote:

Tetrium wrote:

Not very likely, unless perhaps you weren't touching any metal objects and moonwalking on your carpet right before touching the pins 😜
It also depends on your local weather conditions and how dry your skin is and the clothes you wear.

No, I wasn't touching any metal, unless my bare feet were in contact with the black metal finish of the kitchen barstool I was sitting on (don't exactly recall, though). Also, I don't think it was too dry weather-wise in our area - sort of humid, I think, and I was wearing a cotton shirt and polyester slacks - did I do ok on this?

Kinda like dosguest said, it's not easy to kill a chip. But it's not impossible either and a PAIN to diagnose. No real reason to not bet on the safe side, since ESD is so easy to prevent 😉

My socket A 2800XP has been through three fried Asus motherboards and two dead graphics cards. Still runs great on it's fourth "coronary." Those hardware failures were largely in part due to an interesting combination of lightning storms, fans dying, and me overclocking it like a boss. No carelessness on my own part, of course. 😉

Tetrium wrote:

Personally I don't even believe this. For once, it's too early to actually know if this is the case at all. Is there any scientific basis for assuming this will happen? Or is it just theory?

And besides, for us 2075 isn't really relevant anyway, so I'm not too worried 😜

IIRC they said that the actual silicon the ICs are made out of degrade like that over time, but again who would know until the 2070's when the first silicon ICs DO turn 100...