Intel Celeron P1053 CPU Gold Recovery - Page 2

Hey thanks for that Calgarytech, as soon as you mentioned the 'Gold under the cap' i knew it was something i had mentioned before.
And the SMF reference with my ( well not my ) pic in it. Lol. Im famous now.

I had a look at my CPU, theres a bit over 200 of those capped pinless & another 200 pinned CPU of that size.
I took 5 pinless ones & put them cap down on the flat top stove & in less than a minute they were popping & smoking & i took them off, scraped the ceramic capacitors off the underside since their solder had melted anyway.
Then used a knife to quite easyly pop the Copper heatsink cap off.
3 of them had the Gold plated underside with a 7/8 inch square of Gold plated to it with that Silvery metal thats also stuck to the CPU die itself, which is still on the fibre circuitboard.

That silvery solder, i dunno what it is actually, but its soft, very very soft, my thumbnail will easly score marks into it. I have never seen such a soft metal before.



The 5 CPU i picked were completely random, so i expect its ratio of Gold plated underside is 60%, but that could easly change.
The others (2) just had the grey plasticy heatsink paste you often see on normal chips, some stuck to the underside of the cap, and a very shiney top to the actual CPU die.

I chipped the dies off 3 of the fibre bases & found the 8nteresting side has a layer 9f solder or such over it, so i put the dies into some HCL acid to dissolve it off.
I want to get the very pretty CPU to use for escrap jewellery. I have trued normal chips & the dies size & looks & colour vary a lot & finding nice CPU dies is quite random along with getting them off cleanly and clean.

The 'gold paint splash' reference i made was from the older eproms, under those chips, you can see the chip die thru its plastic window, you can see if its got the 'gold splash' of paint under it, or if its just Silver paint ( actual Gold & actual Silver in the paint splash )
They also had Gold or Silver wires connected to the chip die.
'Gold & Gold' ( splash & wires ) are worth more obviously.

It takes a LOT of Silver to make up anything of value, i picked the Silver wires off a 2 pint icecream container of Sanken audio anps ( the large flat black resin capped, Aluminium heatsink backed Audio power amp in most car stereos & midrange home audio amps.
A hour later i had something like 77 cents worth of Silver wire.
I was quite proud to post my results & findings, but hadnt got around to doing the math of it untill somebody else did & posted it. LoLz @ me.
They still get saved up & picked open & the Silver wires picked out & added to the Silver electrical contacts i have. They are there anyway, its a habit of getting every tiny bit.

The pinless CPU? Id still be selling mine to a escrap buyer. I trued the Gold recovery thing & it took lots of time, chemicals that are not cheap here, though i got the HCL acid for free.

The time, and the fact i only got thru the first stage of recovery of Gold, theres many other steps, more & more expensive chemicals & more different setups, electroplating, molds, gas torches etc etc.
Its simply easier to sell it to a escrap buyer. And much much safer.
2 of the Gold plated underside heatsink chips were..
Intel '04
346 sl811d malay
3.06ghz/256/533/04a
Q607a230

&
Intel '05 e6550
Intel core duo
Sla9x costarica
2.53ghz/4m/1333/06
3809 a20

I dont know much if anything about models of CPU & i do worry that im ruining a perfectly good desirable CPU.
Though i doubt it, there would not be a chip later than 2015, i doubt if theres any or many past 2008

Originally Posted by eesakiwi

Last night i stripped one of those CPU down. I honestly think that that soft 'silvery metal' is Lead solder, though its very soft.
It melts like lead solder does ( maybe its 'Tin' solder ) drops & splatters like solder does, in a cigarette lighters flame.

Is it possible that the soft metal is Indium? I know it is used in some CPU's.

It could be Indium, its abnormally soft, like i can quite easly score it with my thumbnall & theres no way i can do that to solder.
Even Silvers too hard to do that too, but i did wonder if its a high Silver solder, dunno yet.

I got a email back from the guy in Aussie who buys escrap. It would cost too much to send the CPU with the Copper heatsinks on them to Aussie, from NewZealand.
He says that the Gold amount on those Copper caps is quite low & that the value 8n them is mostly the actual Copper value, the CPU itself does add some value, but on a typical Gold fingered contact PCB level of value.
I guess when they melt down & refine the Copper that thats when they get the Gold off it. Thats standard practise, thats when they get the other metals back from the electroplating refining sludge, they will get the Silver & such back from the Silver solders left on Copper piping & what else that they get off slightly dirty Copper.

So im only going to send him the Purple Ceramics CPU, but i will work out postage to see what the $ return is on the Green fibre CPU if i send them as well.

If its anything, its worth it, I still end up with a Kg of Copper Domestic heatsinks though ( inc Gold, LoL )

He didnt mention anything about the rest of my escrap. I guess its not worth it.
Coronas just arrived in NZ, mostly by airplane on its host already, but theres a few cases locally already, scarey. Given that 3 weeks ago was the first case, fotp, now in the last 7 days its jumped from 3 to 20, mostly fotp.
Supermarkets were packed with people today but plently of stock, except for what I wanted, which was Methylated spirits... To distill down to clean ethanol. I have been using it as a cleaner for the last 6 months.

Oh, and those CPU, i heated them up in the stove to remove the cap. A couple or 3 got too hot & boy does it stink!!! Its going to take a week or more to get rid of most of the smell.
So if doing it again, do it outside, with a solid hotplate, no flames or it burns.

You would have to dig through the archives but TJ mentioned something about baking the cpu's in the oven awhile back.

Maybe a heat gun would work outside ?

A hot sand pcb board heater would probably work & give you just the right temperature control.

Our grocery store has been doing a phenomenal business this past week. We're about to offer curbside pick up & expand home delivery for those who aren't feeling well. A lot of folks have dug out their credit cards so that they can buy in bulk. That way they can stay home & self isolate till this thing blows over.

You can pop the caps of very easy with a flat screwdriver and a hammer

I heated the Aluminium caps on the purple ceramics CPU ( K6 ?) to get them off & that worked well. It did remove the actual CPU die ( chip ) off the ceramic since to was stuck to the Aluminium cap.
But thats ok, i keep any bare chips i can get anyway.

But boy did that hot/burning fibreglass stink.
I do know that since i did something similar years ago, ever since then if i get too dehydrated i can smell it in my sweat.
It smells toxic to me, even if I cant smell it properly, if im standing in one spot for a bit, leave that spot & return back there, i can smell it badly.

So that heating thing is definately only being done outside on a windyish day.
I sorta counted out that the CPU ( except for the ceramics )would pretty much pay for the postage to get them to Brisbane Australia.. Maybe a bit more to help offset the ceramics postage cost.
Its not going to make me rich I tell you.

BTSP? I will 'scope out the prices of the K5 CPU online, they are attractive, also the others.