EDIT: We decided not to pursue further diagnosis, because we wouldn’t know what the hell we’re doing anyway, and decided to start the RMA process instead. It might not even be the reason why the PC won’t turn on, but I’m not comfortable with putting that CPU back into his PC again. Once we get a replacement, we’ll see what happens. If it’s still busted, we’ll just take it to a local shop. Thank you everyone for your for your suggestions and insight, they are very much appreciated.
My friend called me to take a look at his PC that wouldn’t turn on. Upon inspecting his CPU, I noticed a silver bump at the bottom. I’ve never seen this. Can anyone tell me what it is?
Last year GamersNexus covered something similar. Can't remember the exact video, but I think it was in the series of videos this one comes from https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fFNi3YNJXbY&t=0s.
Can't remember all the details, but (I think) something was causing a part of the die (I guess not near a temp sensor) to heat up way out of spec, enough to litterally melt the solder on the CPU, and have it drain out.
CPU is likely dead, and certainly not to be trusted. Is it an Asus or gigabyte motherboard? Potentially it's one that's affected and hasn't had the bios update that fixes the issue applied
That's not it. Even if the overheating melted something in there, it wouldn't just ooze out to some spot and form a neat blob without a trace.
It could actually, the Heat spreader is usually bonded to the Chip with some form of Indium Solder, which usually has a melting point of up to 210°C (most compositions are around 120-140°C).
Solder likes to form a similar ball around traces and components, since the solder does not stick to the silk screen of the PCB.
And I remember that this is exactly what happened in the Gamer Nexus video, the Indium Solder was melting due to Overheating.