[coreboot] [off topic] Opteron CPU missing chips on the bottom

[Timothy Pearson]

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On 02/20/2018 11:50 AM, Duncan wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Taiidan at gmx.com:
>> On 01/31/2018 02:16 PM, Timothy Pearson wrote:
>>
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>>> Since you've mentioned the remaining lands are also misaligned, I'd
>>> throw that CPU away.  You currently risk burning out the multiphase
>>> regulator and/or attached peripherals (RAM, PCIe), depending on if the
>>> lands are now misaligned enough to put voltages where they don't belong.
>>>
>>> Those lands are very robust; the only way I can think of to chip off one
>>> or two would be putting the CPU land-side up and dropping something on
>>> it.  For more extensive damage, it's possible the CPU was repeatedly
>>> overheated at some point in the past as well.
>> The expert has spoken!
>> Thanks for the advice all.
>>
>> I will add a section to the wiki about insisting on a bottom photo for
>> used G34 CPU's.
>>
> Should be noted a number of the 62xx series CPUs appear to have two
> capacitors missing, and I've never seen one without these missing - e.g.
> https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AMD-Opteron-OS6344WKTCGHK-12-Core-Server-CPU-2-6GHz-Socket-G34-115W-Lot-of-2/122838000876?epid=131636979&hash=item1c99b724ec:g:yb0AAOSwU4FaIPU8
> 
> Not sure what to think in this case, given the rest of the capacitors
> appear entirely intact.
> 

You are correct in that the capacitors on the bottom of the package may
be partially populated from the factory.  Looking for missing capacitors
alone is insufficient to determine if damage has been done; high
resolution photographs of the bottom of the chip are required to see if
pins are chipped off, corroded, if a populated capacitor has broken off
(look for any damage to the pads), etc.

- -- 
Timothy Pearson
Raptor Engineering
+1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line)
+1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard)
https://www.raptorengineering.com
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