Hello.. Im in the process of getting a new motherboard and was taking out my processor. Upon viewing it, i found that there seems to be a darker color brown around the chips on the top of the processor. i found that keeing your finger on the top of the chip for too long leaves a mark (i guess from oils or something) that resembles the color found around the chips. i dont know if this is anything to be worried about or not. I have an athlon 2600+ and the reason im getting a new motherboard is because of my computer resetting itself 1nce and hour now, and ive checked my processor temps and they have never gone above 110 f degrees, which i know isnt high at all, and i have a heatsink and fan made for an athlon 3200+. Any advice is greatly appreciated as i do not know alot about processors.

I highly doubt there's anything wrong with your motherboard. The constant resetting can be caused by several things...the blaster worm for instance. Or a weak PSU...or overheating...before you get a new board, you should investigate & maybe save yourself some cash. Also, you shouldn't touch the CPU core...contamination from oils from your skin or even fingerprints can have an adverse effect on cooling. The CPU core & bottom of the heatsink should be perfectly clean...with no traces of oil, fingerprints, lint, etc

The constant resetting is not by windows: its not the blaster worm. Its not ram or my PSU, ive replaced them both. Its been happining since I bought the computer. It also has its locking up alot too, and windows has no idea it was reset by looking at the event viewer. its an ecs motherboard which was 30 bucks, the cheapest i could get, and i can't think of anything else that it could be. it even freezes up in the bios. plus none of the system sensors work correctly.

did you try updating the BIOS?

Hey, if none of your system sensors were working correctly, how do you know it wasn't overheating? Maybe you didn't have the HSF installed correctly?

Yes I have: and i know because i have a heatsink installed correctly with everything i need and once it restarts it can go for hours (before it became more frequent) through games and everything before the next restart. it will restart even when idol. I'm getting a new motherboard anyways.. and all im really concerned about is the spots on the chip. any help there?

The Brown spots you see on the processor are damage from overheating. You will need to replace the processor.

I don't know if I agree that it's damaged. For the most part, a CPU works, or it doesn't...there's no in-between. Those spots may be from overheating, or may be from stray bits of thermal paste, I don't know...but if the CPU was working when you took it out, I wouldn't be concerned...

Hi,

I got the information regarding Brown spots indicating damage from overheating, which will cause erratic behavior from the AMD technical pages.

yourfriend411,

I stand corrected...looks like you're right...I did a google search & there's all sorts of info about browns spots on AMD CPUs as a result of overheating...

cooldj,

Looks like that's what your problem is...probably not the mobo at all (though it could be that too). More than likely it was an improperly installed HSF, either not seated correctly on the core, or too much or too little thermal compound. Plus with your temps being reported incorrectly, you never thought it was overheating at all. You might wanna try another CPU in that ECS board & see what happens...

"You can recog­nize overheating by e.g. brown spots on bottom side of the CPU, different colors on the chip surface/destroyed support pads, heat conducting pastes spread all over the package"

http://www.jasa.be/Info/amdwarranty.htm

ok thanks for your input. i'll email the people who built my computer for me and see what they say.. if i can get a new processor, because im a poor student and can't afford to buy a new one :P.