Is it OK to run CPU without heatsink to flash bios?

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jfharper

Limp Gawd
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Mar 25, 2005
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I just need to flash the bios on my mb with the celeron cpu so I can run a different cpu. Is it safe to do without mounting the heatsink and paste ?
 
Most modern CPUs (ok, by that I mean anything semi-fucking modern - I.E. if you aren't running a CPU that is older than fuck from before the year 2000) will have a built-in sensor that acts as a catastrophic runaway thermal detector which will simply just shut down the processor when a thermal runaway situation is detected. So, you won't get much past the initial POST of your motherboard before it kicks in, making a BIOS update a bit problematic if the CPU is needed by your brand of mb for an update.
 
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the cpu may run a bit but when in bios my experience has been it goes to 100% you might get away with a heat sink no fan on it but i would not do a bare cpu unless i wanted to fry a cpu
 
old amds were some fire hazards lol intels should thottle and shutdown but not really worth the risk iv just sit a heatsink on a cpu befor and held it down with my hand while i had to jump in bios real fast and shutdown.
 
In before.....

This mobo is crap.... I was just flashing the BIOS and now it's dead and I have to RMA....

This CPU is crap.... I was just powering it up for a minute without a heatsink and now it's dead and I have to RMA....

.
 
In all fairness amd did throttle just not quick enough or to a state that having no heatsink is fine. The Intel chips were popping at first too until they decided the user base could not handle bare silicon chips and IHS were made common practice.
 
jfharper said:
I just need to flash the bios on my mb with the celeron cpu so I can run a different cpu. Is it safe to do without mounting the heatsink and paste ?
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You have 4 seconds or so without the heatsink. You can't even blow air on the die to cool it because you'd need a lot of pressure.
There's a lot of things you could try without beginning the flash process, though.
Like placing the mobo horizontally and putting a small metal/ceramic cup with water on the cpu with some TIM in between. That'll do for like 2 minutes. 4 when on the rocks :D

EvilWays said:
Where's the T-bird?
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They were retired because they didn't cook evenly, they tended to overcook on the sides and their failure rate was high. It took like 6 for one hotdog. A 4-Way P4 rig would be great though.
 
Technically it should be able to throttle low enough without problems. But I assume it would also prolong any BIOS update. But there is still a lot of risk factors sine BIOS updates is outside the normal operation scope.

Just seat the heatsink without paste.
 
It takes like 2 minutes to mount a generic heat sink - the biggest hassle is just cleaning up the bit of thermal paste afterwards. You don't even have to use good expensive thermal paste - pretty much anything will work there so long as there's a little something. Didn't they test crap like mayo and cheese and it worked (not that I recommend that, just sayin')

Is there a specific reason you don't want to do just that much minimum work to make sure it works ok? You obviously have a heatsink laying around, if your going to put a different CPU in it after the flash. It probably took you longer to post this question than it would have to just mounted the HSF and been done with it.
 
I have laid a stock cooler on top of a core i5 while flashing before. It runs hotter because it is only held down by gravity, no thermal paste or clamping pressure but it does work fine.

I wouldnt run bare.
 
Shadohh said:
I have laid a stock cooler on top of a core i5 while flashing before. It runs hotter because it is only held down by gravity, no thermal paste or clamping pressure but it does work fine.

I wouldnt run bare.
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How lazy do you have to be?

I don't get why some people need to goof off while running their expensive equipment.

It makes no sense to run a CPU with no cooling. To me this is like running your car engine with no oil in it.

"Gee, sure is a hot day out here changing my oil. I didn't put new oil in yet, but I think I'll drive it
down to the gas station with no oil to get a soda pop. It'll run fine."

People who take these shortcuts are the same ones RMAing lots of parts.


.
 
Spartacus said:
How lazy do you have to be?

I don't get why some people need to goof off while running their expensive equipment.

It makes no sense to run a CPU with no cooling. To me this is like running your car engine with no oil in it.

"Gee, sure is a hot day out here changing my oil. I didn't put new oil in yet, but I think I'll drive it
down to the gas station with no oil to get a soda pop. It'll run fine."

People who take these shortcuts are the same ones RMAing lots of parts.


.
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Dont be triggered brah.

It was an AMD stock cooler so it wasnt going to clamp down on a core i5.

I also ran it in the bios for 30 mins and watched how high the temp spiked before I flashed.

Since the proper cooler didnt show up in the mail I used the same cooler and method to install windows 8 and update it :D
 
Shadohh said:
Dont be triggered brah.

It was an AMD stock cooler so it wasnt going to clamp down on a core i5.

I also ran it in the bios for 30 mins and watched how high the temp spiked before I flashed.

Since the proper cooler didnt show up in the mail I used the same cooler and method to install windows 8 and update it :D
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Don't worry, it would fry before you even got into the bios to "watch the temps".

And just laid the cooler on top with no grease or pressure? That takes balls or a thick wallet....yikes
 
Bowman15 said:
Don't worry, it would fry before you even got into the bios to "watch the temps".

And just laid the cooler on top with no grease or pressure? That takes balls or a thick wallet....yikes
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It really wont fry before I hit the bios. The first time I tried I forgot to place it on the cpu :D
 
Shadohh said:
It really wont fry before I hit the bios. The first time I tried I forgot to place it on the cpu :D
Click to expand...

I think modern processors are able to shutdown by themselves before frying anyways to prevent things like you did.
 
Computers don't run 100% perfectly even when they are configured properly and not being abused.
Start abusing the parts, and you may very easily get unpredictable behavior including fatal failures.

You guys who advocate running CPUs with poor or no cooling assume that the thermal throttling or shutdown will always work perfectly.

Hey... it's your money, do what you want.

.
 
DrLobotomy said:
Ironically, I think there are some MB's that can be flashed with NO processor installed.
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It would be great for them to make that feature but the only boards like that I know had the BIOS on a removable chip and to do that required a chip puller and a new BIOS or a EPROM writer and a second PC with which to burn a new BIOS. I believe there also may have been an expensive stand alone flasher that exists too.


If the board supports something called USB BIOS flashback it can be done with no CPU or memory it seems to be an Asus feature in a select series of z97 based ROG boards
 
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jfharper said:
I just need to flash the bios on my mb with the celeron cpu so I can run a different cpu. Is it safe to do without mounting the heatsink and paste ?
Click to expand...

Oh HAIL no. It literally takes milliseconds to burn one up.
 
Just put a heatsink on top with no thermal paste. You know the crappy one that comes with intel.
Even though it's not recommended, there still is some contact, thus providing the bare minimum needed to make sure it won't overheat (immediately).

My brother had a corsair AIO 115 or whatnot which the pump failed 2 years after he got it. His computer still booted up and worked, it just would start throttling when he did almost anything. Idle temps were ok.
 
Lunas said:
It would be great for them to make that feature but the only boards like that I know had the BIOS on a removable chip and to do that required a chip puller and a new BIOS or a EPROM writer and a second PC with which to burn a new BIOS. I believe there also may have been an expensive stand alone flasher that exists too.


If the board supports something called USB BIOS flashback it can be done with no CPU or memory it seems to be an Asus feature in a select series of z97 based ROG boards
Click to expand...

The Asus Rampage 5 Extreme X99 board has the feature, and I used it with no CPU or memory mounted. I think the Asus Maximus VIII GENE Z170 I built also had the feature, but it shipped with a current enough BIOS I didn't flash it. I'd guess that at least the ROG range of Asus boards all have it now, but just guessing here.
 
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