So one of my friends brings his computer into my room telling me it doesn't work. I open the box, take a look inside and one of the plastic things (no idea how it's called) located on the mobo, near the CPU socket, in which the cooler is fixed, was broken and the radiator wasn't making contact with the CPU so there was no cooling. I thought for sure that the CPU was burned. I mean, after all, it had a fucking hole in it !

Anyway, I decided to give it a try. So, I repair the plastic thing, fix everything up, I boot it up and the computer works.

Anyone seen anything like this before ?


(click image to enlarge)

Looks like a drilled hole... Mainly because it's perfectly round...

I know, I was thinking it was there before and when the CPU heated, a thin layer of material came of, revealing the hole, but I'm not sure.

I really have no idea what to think about it.

Yea, i needed to make a hole in my p3 in order to make a keychain...

It's completely normal. All pentium 4s are manufactuered with that hole.

Check out the last page here [page 8]
http://developer.intel.com/design/quality/Pentium4/intelp4p478_part1.pdf

Heh, looks like it thanks for the info sinetific.

I'd like to see the bottom half:) If there are no leads, or solder points, circuit pathways on the back around that hole, yea it could be for heat issues, or to hold a proprietary heat sink. Of course some dumb ass could have drilled it too:D

But I'd be suprised if the hole was through said pathways. It would be cool, you might get freeze ups from certain tasks, and processing demands. or if the pathway is for like cacheing. It would just degridate speed a bit is all imo.

*shrug* I really wanna see that back:D

I think they use the hole to signify pin 1. Many ICs have a hole or divit to do that

Well if you look at the guide it also has a missed pin heh...