Hello,

I am glad I decided to investigate why the DreamPC from 2006 failed to work..

It's motherboard was replaced some time ago with a backup motherboard and it had little usage. A couple of days ago it failed to boot and started beeping non stop.

Today I investigated thoroughly and broke down the entire PC and I made a discovery:

Artic Silver 5 leaked from the processor heatspread onto the motherboard.

This could potentially be the problem and could potentially be causing a short circuit. Maybe it's also the cause of the strange smell (maybe artic silver 5 causing short circuit on PCB and smell is from PCB/hotspot), though I believe the smell might be coming from slightly open capacitators.

I have made a quick little video about it so you can see it with your own eyes, plus some pictures.

Let me know your thoughts on this discovery:

Some further questions:

1. How to best clean Artic Silver 5 from the motherboard/PCB ?

2. Do you believe the motherboard will work again ?

(The processor still has to be further investigated/the heatsink removed to see if there is more artic silver 5 leakage. Potentially the CPU might be dead because of it.)

3. I believed Artic Silver 5 was non-conductive ?! I am wrong, is it conductive ?!?

4. Can Artic Silver 5 become conductive if it heats up a lot ?

5. Can Artic Silver 5 become conductive over time ? Maybe contaminated ?! Or structure changed because of heat ?

6. Does Artic Silver 5 have an experiration date ?

(One optional question: New CPU cooler from Noctua comes with it's own thermal paste interface material, any idea if it's any good ?)

Youtube Video Link:
https://youtu.be/ZkGKNMIm9E0

Picture Folder Link:
http://skybuck.org/Hardware/DreamPC2006/ArticSilver5Leakage2023/

Best Picture Link:

http://skybuck.org/Hardware/DreamPC2006/ArticSilver5Leakage2023/DreamPC2006ArticSilver5Leakage0BestPicture.JPG

Some dark spots can be seen on the artic silver 5, it looks burned.

Glad I did not touch that part (to keep evidence), on the left side I did touch it, little finger bulge/cave visible.

Bye for now,
Skybuck.

I suspect the electricity/electric field flowing across/through these PCB lines may have played a role in this failure.

Perhaps these electro magnetic fields change the substance of the Artic Silver 5 somehow and make it conductive ?!?

Or perhaps I am jumping the gun and need to investigate processor further/first ! ;)

Bye for now,
Skybuck.

Nice screw driver trick to remove Scythe Cooler safely:

Video link to screwdriver trick:

https://youtu.be/zuSj1uFdU4I

Use screwdriver, place it horizontally on the metal spring holding the metal clip on the plastic.

Then push down the screw driver gently to give way for the clip to come off..

(Slight warning, after detaching one side, (as I was filming this trick to explain it, right after filming) the cpu cooler spring upwards and de-tached itself automatically, because of the weight of the cooler on one side it fell to that side, kind of funny, hopefully no damage to cpu ! ;))

Bye for now,
Skybuck.

P.S.: I think I used this trick before but completely forgot about it ! ;) Very good trick ! ;)

On 9/28/2023 10:31 AM, Skybuck Flying wrote:
> Nice screw driver trick to remove Scythe Cooler safely:
>
> Video link to screwdriver trick:
>
> https://youtu.be/zuSj1uFdU4I
>
> Use screwdriver, place it horizontally on the metal spring holding the metal clip on the plastic.
>
> Then push down the screw driver gently to give way for the clip to come off.
>
> (Slight warning, after detaching one side, (as I was filming this trick to explain it, right after filming) the cpu cooler spring upwards and de-tached itself automatically, because of the weight of the cooler on one side it fell to that side, kind of funny, hopefully no damage to cpu ! ;))
>
> Bye for now,
> Skybuck.
>
> P.S.: I think I used this trick before but completely forgot about it ! ;) Very good trick ! ;)
>

Arctic silver, is not magnetic. A fair amount of
the cooling power of pastes, comes from the Boron Nitride
(a ceramic particle that conducts heat). A small amount of
silver is added. But, it is claimed, not enough to
provide a conduction failure mode. If anything, it
can affect capacitive circuits. It may also affect
a high impedance circuit. There aren't too many pins
on a CPU, that fall into this category. At least 30%
of the electrical connections on the CPU, are for Vcore
and Ground (1 volt at a hundred amps).

If you look up the MSDS (Material Handling Data Sheet),
it gives the names of some of the components of the AS3/AS5 mixture.

The "beeps" on the computer, like three beeps, that takes
a running CPU to make those beeps. You program the beep.
You shut it off. You program the beep. You shut it off.

If the CPU was "dead", then no audio signal would come from
the transducer the BIOS uses.

An example of an alternate sound maker, is on an Asus board
that has "Bitching Betty". That is an EEPROM and a DAC, which
generates programmed sound samples, in response to logic signal
inputs. That is an example of a circuit for giving warnings,
that requires "less intelligence".

But regular motherboards, if you have no RAM sticks loaded,
it can give the "RAM failed" beep pattern. And it can do that,
because the BIOS code is register based, and does not need
RAM during the early phases of startup. RAM must be "commissioned",
and one of the steps, is doing a "special write" to the DRAM
controller to set the CAS value. And the memory controller also
has a register for CAS. Both the memory chips are told what
value of CAS is being used, and the memory controller is told
what value of CAS to use. When these are matching, and the
rest of the registers are programmed correctly, the CPU then
turns on the memory and starts testing it.

If the motherboard makes any response at all, chances are the
CPU works. And some other part, is not working.

The reason the motherboard beeps the thing "once" for a successful
start, is to show the owner of the machine, that the beeper works.
That's why it gives the startup beep -- it's the equivalent of lamp test.

If you have a PCI bus Port 80 card, and it is stuck at 0x00 or 0xFF,
then that means the CPU is dead. But as soon as the BIOS starts
writing status updates to Port 80, the visible LED code will change.
And again, changing Port 80 values, means the BIOS code is running.

Paul

Thanks for the advice.

Cleaning of paste did not help, the computer keeps beeping.

There was some paste near processor pins.

It's also possible the cpu metal holding the gold cpu pins started oxidizing creating short circuits on cpu.

For now hypotheses:

1. Perhaps something wrong with power supply;
1.1 After recent thunder storm
or
1.2 Living room light short circuits/wolfram.

2. Motherboard partially damaged/malfunctioning;
2.1 Short circuit tiny components due to paste/artic silver 5
2.2 Evaporated condensators
2.3 Cooking due to heat

3. CPU partially damaged/malfunctioning
3.1 Short circuits
3.2 Heat damage
3.3 Paste creeping inside

I can and will try older/other motherboard.

Bye for now,
Skybuck.

On 9/30/2023 1:33 PM, Skybuck Flying wrote:
> Thanks for the advice.
>
> Cleaning of paste did not help, the computer keeps beeping.
>
> There was some paste near processor pins.
>
> It's also possible the cpu metal holding the gold cpu pins started oxidizing creating short circuits on cpu.
>
> For now hypotheses:
>
> 1. Perhaps something wrong with power supply;
> 1.1 After recent thunder storm
> or
> 1.2 Living room light short circuits/wolfram.
>
> 2. Motherboard partially damaged/malfunctioning;
> 2.1 Short circuit tiny components due to paste/artic silver 5
> 2.2 Evaporated condensators
> 2.3 Cooking due to heat
>
> 3. CPU partially damaged/malfunctioning
> 3.1 Short circuits
> 3.2 Heat damage
> 3.3 Paste creeping inside
>
> I can and will try older/other motherboard.
>
> Bye for now,
> Skybuck.
>

Examine the tops of the motherboard capacitors around VCore circuit.
There should be two "banks" of capacitors. One side filters the +12V
feeding VCore. The slightly more numerous ones would be filtering VCore.
Look at the top of the capacitor where the "X" or "K" is in the
top of the can, for brownish color indicating a leak.

Sure, it could also be the PC power supply. I just replaced one
that was making 11.6V on 12V, which is not really all that bad,
but it was pissing off the new hard drive. So I put in another power
supply.

The smell could even come from the PC power supply.

Paul

After intense PC surgery:

First time I have truely lost a personal computer (PC).

Most likely cause of death: Too much CPU thermal paste interface material (Artic Silver 5) short circuiting the CPU pins damaging the processor.

Second likely cause of death: CPU Overheat due to CPU Ventilator failure.

Third likely cause of death: CPU metal pin contact oxidation. (It was a warm year)

Fourth likely cause of death: Power supply anomaly

Autopsy: Beep failure on both motherboards.

Last processing task: Windows 7 Ultimate + VM Workstation 8.X(5?) + Windows XP

Bye for now,
Skybuck.