Chip damaged?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dave C.
  • Start date Start date
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Dave C.

Shiva said:
Hi,

I just installed a TV-card and I accidently scratched a chip with a metal
object. I can see a scratch on the edge of the chip, but luckily, everything
is still working.. That is, up to now!
I don't know much about the internal circuit of an average chip, but is it
likely that is damaged and that I can unexpected errors every now and then?
Bear in mind that it is on the edge of chip, hopefully there isn't much
circuitry over there.

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

Even if there is no circuitry in a particular part of an IC, there still
might be traces in that area that can be damaged. That is, the pins of the
chip need to connect to the internal circuits somehow.

But there are so many things that can cause unexpected errors. Do the
unexpected errors happen ONLY when you are using that TV-Card? What do the
errors say? Is it possible your TV card software is messed up? Is it
possible your TV-Card drivers are conflicting with other components of your
system? A TV-Card can be a difficult install. If you don't get it right,
you can have problems. The errors may or may not be related to a damaged
chip. -Dave
 
Shiva said:
Hi,

I just installed a TV-card and I accidently scratched a chip with a metal
object. I can see a scratch on the edge of the chip, but luckily, everything
is still working.. That is, up to now!
I don't know much about the internal circuit of an average chip, but is it
likely that is damaged and that I can unexpected errors every now and then?
Bear in mind that it is on the edge of chip, hopefully there isn't much
circuitry over there.

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

Well, in the first place, it's unlikely you've scratched a 'chip'. Those
black things, with silvery colored leads coming off of them, have a 'chip'
*inside* ('chip' being a slang term for the small silicon die that looks a
lot like, well, a 'chip' of something). The 'outside' (often plastic but
ceramic is also used) is simply the packaging that holds it all together
and protects the insides. (Sometimes, on the big buggers, the leads are on
the underside and, so, not visible when mounted on the circuit board.)

So, unless you put a silicon valley sized gouge into the thing, you never
came close to scratching a 'chip'.

OK, so you scratched the paint job. On the surface, pun intended, that's of
no consequence. The bigger question is if you did anything else along with
the 'scratch': like if it extends to one, or more, of the leads and
compromised the bond with the circuit board trace; or if enough pressure
was applied to the package during the 'scratching' that flexing caused one,
or more, of the leads to break bond with the circuit board trace (damn hard
to tell with the big buggers because the connections are hidden on the
underside). If that happened then the lead could be just 'sitting' on the
trace, making connection sometimes and not others as it's position shifts
ever so slightly from things so minor as changes in temperature. In which
case it could seem to work at times and not work at other times.

Off hand, I'd say that's unlikely and that you have a driver problem.
 
Hi,

I just installed a TV-card and I accidently scratched a chip with a metal
object. I can see a scratch on the edge of the chip, but luckily, everything
is still working.. That is, up to now!
I don't know much about the internal circuit of an average chip, but is it
likely that is damaged and that I can unexpected errors every now and then?
Bear in mind that it is on the edge of chip, hopefully there isn't much
circuitry over there.

Thanks in advance!
 
Shiva said:
Thanks Dave and David. I think there is no problem at all. The chip is not
severly damaged and I do not experience any problems (apart from the
TV-card).

The TV-card, a Terratec Cinergy 400, never caused any problems in my
previous computer, but unfortunately, it locks my new computer up every now
and then. I'm not even able to use the mouse and keyboard anymore once it's
being locked up.
I've installed the most recent driver but this didn't help me either.
I'm afraid the card doesn't work very well on my as-rock p4vt8+ motherboard.
OS is Windows XP SP2, BTW.
But if anyone has any more idea's, please say so!
Click to expand...

It sounds like an IRQ conflict. As a quickie, make sure it isn't in the
first PCI slot; that shares with the AGP port. And if your motherboard has
5 PCI slots, 4 and 5 share so don't put it in one of those along with
another card. (PCI is a 4 slot system and extra slots are 'expanded' from
one of the existing slots).

Then you have the problem of on-board devices which, although 'on the
board', are equivalent to having a 'card' plugged in. The problem being how
to figure out which slot they're 'expanded' from (I.E. sharing with).

You may need to specifically assign an IRQ (perhaps 2, depending on how it
works) to the PCI slot with that card so they're exclusive to it.

Also, make sure your BIOS is set to "O.S. not PNP." It sounds backwards,
since Windows supports PNP, but turning that off forces the BIOS to assign
IRQs at boot rather than leaving them indeterminate for the O.S. to handle
later (the O.S. can always change them any time it feels like regardless of
that PNP setting).
 
Thanks Dave and David. I think there is no problem at all. The chip is not
severly damaged and I do not experience any problems (apart from the
TV-card).

The TV-card, a Terratec Cinergy 400, never caused any problems in my
previous computer, but unfortunately, it locks my new computer up every now
and then. I'm not even able to use the mouse and keyboard anymore once it's
being locked up.
I've installed the most recent driver but this didn't help me either.
I'm afraid the card doesn't work very well on my as-rock p4vt8+ motherboard.
OS is Windows XP SP2, BTW.
But if anyone has any more idea's, please say so!
 
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