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?
Damn, I’ve never seen such an obvious defect on a CPU in my life. What the hell happened there lol. How can that pass testing and leave the factory?
Honestly no clue to both questions. So, it’s a defect from the factory then?
I mean unless your friend bought the CPU used and got scammed, or they were somehow soldering something above their CPU while building the PC I don’t see how else this could’ve happened outside the factory.
It looks to me like maybe extra solder got squeezed out during the heatspreader or surface mount component soldering process.
Nah, he doesn’t own a soldering iron. So, it’s safe to say that I shouldn’t put this back in the motherboard, yeah? It still does fit in the socket, but I’m worried it’ll cause more damage when we turn on the PC.
Considering it looks like a blob of metal it could be a type of thermal interface compound that gets spread on the cpu before installing a heat sink. Something like cryonaut liquid metal, I dont believe it ever solidifies.
So based on the other comments, I would check the cooler and anything else that was above the CPU to see if something got too hot and dribbled solder on the CPU. Also is the socket next to that drop clean, or are there other smaller droplets nearby?
Looks like solder. Soldering irons are pretty cheap. You could try getting a cheap one and melting it off; but if you’ve never soldered before I’d recommend watching some videos on how to handle it so you don’t just make things worse.
![[RMA] What is this lump on my friend's CPU?(lemmy.ml)](https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/ac0d8c0a-45b4-417a-aa53-f5185f0e6494.jpeg){kind=link}
It’s not a tumoh.