Q: I have heard of a bad cpu ruining a good motherboard, but I didn't think a bad motherboard could ruin a good cpu. Now, unfortunately, I think I have 2 bad mobos and 2 bad cpus from trying to swap out parts on a working computer. Would anyone say this doesn't sound right? My good cpus were tested in 2 different motherboards (ruined by the same bad cpu) and both times the pc would freeze after about 2-3 min even in bios. And temperatures were fine as I monitored them in bios, but still got the freeze. Now one cpu/mobo combo seems to constantly power cycle and the other seems to run fine but I get no signal output. And the vid card and memory are verified good in both pcs.
A: Kind of rare to get a bad cpu,( Not impossible, but rare!) Usually the mobo is the culprit. Electrolytic capacitors on the mobo, are the number one source of this. One's around the expansion card slots are in a series circuit, and it usually takes more than one, to make the mobo take a nose dive. One's around the cpu are voltage regulator's for the cpu, and it only takes one of them, to kick the mobo to the curb. How to know if you have bad 'caps'? When a cap goes bad gas develops inside. This causes the electrolytic paste to expand out of the cap. It will ooze out of the seals, or the X on top. Look to see if any of the cap X's are slightly pushed up, or split open. Look above and below the plastic sleeve on the cap, for a brownish, yellowish ooze. (Also out of the X's) I suppose in theory, if a voltage regulator cap went in a weakened state, or just plain dropped, it could cause too much voltage to reach the voltage pins on the cpu, causing the components inside to fry. (Circuits inside a cpu are based on nanometers. Nanometer=1 billionth of a meter, approximately. A human hair is approximately 3 thousandth thick! .003! For just one example, too much voltage going across just one of these tiny circuits will cause resistance. Electrons start bumping against each other, trying to move across the circuit. Friction,{ Bumping into each other}, causes heat, and electron migration will result. Resistance causes heat also, and will be involved in this scenario.{Too many electrons try to cross a tiny circuit. They 'bottleneck' in the circuit, causing resistance} {Electron Migration: The electrons jump across from the circuit they are supposed to follow, to another nearby circuit they aren't intended to be on.} {If you're fooling around with a cpu that isn't based on the nm, you're messing around with a seriously OLD cpu!} Still don't see the theory of a bad cpu can cause a good mobo, to go bad. The caps are rated in a much higher voltage, and TO ME, would fry the cpu before it would fry the cap. Have any links, so that I may use deductive reasoning, and sift this info out for myself? (Bad cpu can make a good mobo go bad. Sound's like the title for a horror movie! lol! "See bad Cpu's make good Mobo's go Bad." "See what happens when a good Mobo meets a bad Cpu!" lol!)