I Want to Cry...

[Skittles]

Its not exactly the morally right thing to do... I've been there, done it and got away with it!

He didn't do anything wrong unless he did what Ivan said.

[4_Series_Scania]

He didn't do anything wrong unless he did what Ivan said.

I think your missing my point.

[Iroquois]

He should get into contact with the manufacturer. I think it's an AMD.  See what they can do. Unfortunately customer service is pretty bad. I still have a copy of LOMAC I can't get rid of because it won't run on my computer. It's really hit and miss. He obviously can't contact the store.

I can relate to you Scorpion. I went to a rather unknown computer store in Burlington, Ontario. They were offering a cheap setup. An AMD Duron 950 with a K7S5A mobo. It was around $300 for the two including installation and tax. That's when the Duron still pulled it's weight. When I took it home the computer kept freezing. I took it back to the guy, he claimed he fixed it but it started freezing again soon after. I took it to a guy in town here. He said who ever installed it did a terrible job. The main power cables were hanging dangerously close to the fan and the mobo wasn't securly fastened to the case. These guys had also forgotten to reinstall the OS which is a must when installing a new mobo. Needless to say the thing burnt out after less than a year of use. I got a new K7S5A to replace it from a local dealer and I've never had a problem since.

[Scorpiоn]

I've installed all my hardware, just as all their booklets said (I even compared how to install the chip versus the motherboard's and the chip's instructions) and have done nothing to tweak them after.  No overclocking, no chip removal (AMD mentions the thermal material), no nothing.  Just had to reseat the GFX a few times because of discontinuity errors.  Everything is new and working by the book, except the GFX, which is old, but still working by the book.  Or was I should say.  I believe with software tinkering, not hardware.

Which still leaves the question, why in the world did the chip decide to go combust-o?  I have not noticed it being hotter.  In fact, in comparison with the older Dell, my new rig ran cooler.  PSU is more than sufficient, so the fans should all be well powered, all connections are solid (except for the aforementions GFX).  The mind boggles.

I thought LOMAC was Ubi Soft.

Anywho, what is the best course of action now?

[Iroquois]

LOMAC is Ubi. My problem was with EB Games though because they wouldn't take it back even though it was still within the 30 day return period.

[Ivan]

open the case and look for black burned spots...
if the bottom of the vidcard is green/yellow over the whole thing it wasn't the vidcard... If it has black spots somewhere it's probably fried

If the vidcard is OK, buy some thermal paste, and look under the CPU cooler if something got fried under there. Processors with spreaders tend to lose them if they overheat, but some have bad glue and the thing will get loose for no apparent reason.
losing the spreader could result in an overheat

[Gixer]

Not sure but I think its only Retail AMD CPU's that have any warranty.  You must be using the retail heat sink that came with the CPU too.

[Max-Burn]

Once you have fitted your PSU and all you get is a blank screen, it is probably your graphics card or you may have to re-insert your memory, I just have to knock mine slightly & my screen will go off!