Return.

andrean wrote on 2023-06-07, 07:01:

Greetings! […]
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Greetings!

I've purchased an Athlon XP 2500+ CPU and it arrived in the state as can be seen on the attached picture.
The central chip seems intact, but of the surround 11 smaller compoments, two look like they're broken. I am not sure about the purpose of those surrounding components, and I'd like to know if I should return the chip to the seller, or they do not matter?
So far I've tried the CPU, it posts, and I was able to run a memory test with it, but that's about all I've done with it.

Thanks for any advice!

i'm interested in its apparent continued functioning, for instance how does cpu identifying and testing software evaluate the chip?

but aside from that, even if it functions it's damaged

Thanks for the replies, I shall return it. I am testing it on an Asus A7V8x-X motherboard, and interestingly, the BIOS reported a CPU change when I inserted it, but it didn't autodetect the correct CPU settings (FSB and multiplier) to match the declared baseline CPU frequency of 1833MHz. It offered the range from 800 to 1200MHz , and I had to switch to the Manual option and set the multiplier to 11x and FSB to 166 to get the default frequency. I wonder if this is due to the damage itself that can be seen on the picture.
Another thing that occurred during the memory test is that the system just shut down after about an hour and a half of work, where I assume the CPU might have overheated. After that,it still turned back on and continued operation.

andrean wrote on 2023-06-07, 09:00:

I had to switch to the Manual option and set the multiplier to 11x and FSB to 166 to get the default frequency. I wonder if this is due to the damage itself that can be seen on the picture.

That's normal for the BIOS not to recognize an XP-M, most of us manually enter the values and a few of us unwashed need to use the wire trick to unlock the higher range of multipliers.

andrean wrote on 2023-06-07, 09:00:

Another thing that occurred during the memory test is that the system just shut down after about an hour and a half of work, where I assume the CPU might have overheated. After that,it still turned back on and continued operation.

It could be caused from the damage but probably not since it's still posting. Probably heat related as you said. Regardless, return it as damaged especially if you bought it without that damage being disclosed. Cite the flakiness in operation as a possible result of the visible damage.

Those are filtering/decoupling caps, cpu should work even without them but can have some degree of flakiness in operation, depending on how good/bad the motherboard is. BEST OPTION IS TO RETURN IT, but cost is a element also, if you have to pay for returning the product, it might be cheaper (for me at least) to find a dead socket a cpu (plenty of free dead duron/sempron/athlon's) and replace the caps if you have the soldering skills and some tools.

bogdanpaulb wrote on 2023-06-08, 23:24:

Those are filtering/decoupling caps, cpu should work even without them but can have some degree of flakiness in operation, depending on how good/bad the motherboard is. BEST OPTION IS TO RETURN IT, but cost is a element also, if you have to pay for returning the product, it might be cheaper (for me at least) to find a dead socket a cpu (plenty of free dead duron/sempron/athlon's) and replace the caps if you have the soldering skills and some tools.

I toyed with athlons not so long ago and indeed you just need to resolder new caps.
bogdan is absolutely correct, otherwise return the item.

Nexxen wrote on 2023-06-09, 00:47:

bogdanpaulb wrote on 2023-06-08, 23:24:

Those are filtering/decoupling caps, cpu should work even without them but can have some degree of flakiness in operation, depending on how good/bad the motherboard is. BEST OPTION IS TO RETURN IT, but cost is a element also, if you have to pay for returning the product, it might be cheaper (for me at least) to find a dead socket a cpu (plenty of free dead duron/sempron/athlon's) and replace the caps if you have the soldering skills and some tools.

I toyed with athlons not so long ago and indeed you just need to resolder new caps.
bogdan is absolutely correct, otherwise return the item.

Yup return costs depending on where you live can be exorbitant and make it simply not worth the effort, for my self I would just replace the caps from a similar model donor, should be a nice CPU to repair and keep.

I had a XP2500+ system back in the day and even at 1.8Ghz it was a really solid rig, had so many good times with that system.