Okay, so I exchanged CPUs with khuilman (2000+ Palomino for a 2100+ Thoroughbred), booted my computer, and everything worked perfectly. After browsing around in Windows for a little while, I soon noticed that when I had put his CPU in, I had forgotten to insert my copper shim as well, because it was sitting on my coffee table. So I shut the computer off, put the shim in, and fired it back up. This time everything booted up fine, except I had no video. I tossed in a different video card (knowing it wouldn't solve the problem, but I had hopes anyway since I need to buy a new card in a couple of weeks), and it still didn't work. I plugged in my PC speakers to my motherboards integrated audio, and got the report "System failed CPU test! System failed CPU test!"

I have an Asus A7V333 motherboard, with the latest BIOS from their site (I made sure to update my BIOS before we exchanged processors, because the old BIOS that I was running didn't support Thoroughbred processors.

Basically I want to keep the new CPU if possible - I figure if it booted up and ran fine once, then it should be able to do it a second time, a third time, and so on. But if necessary, I'll contact khuilman and try to get my old CPU back.

Any ideas on what to do?

Have you tried reseating the proc? Just take the chip out and put it back in as carefully as possible.

Yeah it's been reseated a couple of times. I even went so far as to actually take the shim off of my proc and restart the computer, just because knowing my retarded fucking luck, that would have solved it... But it didn't.

Sounds like your processor is dead or very unhappy. Is there any thermal goop on the metal contacts on the top of the chip? You might try the processor in other machines if you have them, although I wouldn't relish the idea of removing and reattaching that many heatsinks.

I doubt the processor is dead... Cause it booted up fine the first time. And yeah, I put Arctic Ceramique on the base of the HSF and on top of the CPU core, so thermal connectivity isn't a problem.

It's almost like my motherboard "forgot" the new BIOS I put on it or something.

It sounds to me like your shim was to big and yes you might have killed the CPU.
you would have been better to leave the shim out.
really thows things are useless, they seal in the heat the little pads are much better.
the only exeption is with chilled cooling when you need to keep off condensation

How could my shim be too big? And I realize they're pretty much useless, but when I built my computer a couple years ago and I wasn't experienced with building computers, it seemed like a good thing to buy.

That was me. Obviously.

Shims are not universal. I can't remember exactly but i remember when i was thinking about getting one it wasn't going to fit my barton. someting to check into

Hmm... Interesting. Any ideas on where to check to see if my shim is compatible with a Thoroughbred core? Cause I don't remember where I purchased it at online, as it was a couple years ago.

Get an inside mic and start measuring clearances. Calipers could work too. (in a pinch.)

So I tossed in an old 900MHz T-Bird processor to see if my CPU had actually died, and lo and behold... My PC fired right up. So apparently by some act of hatred from God I had managed to fry a CPU by touching a copper shim to it.

I'm gonna call AMD tomorrow about getting an RMA to replace the CPU, since it's still under warranty (it's only like 3 days old anyway). I might have to lie and just tell them it was DOA or something.