PSA: Check the CPU Pins if you're buying Ryzen chips secondhand...

[tommoose13]

Hats off to AMD for making CPUs that run 99% OK with missing pins.  

 

About a month ago, I bought an ASUS TUF X-570 PRO with a Ryzen 7 3800XT from a guy off of Kijiji for a steal of a price.  Guy gets it posted to BIOS in front of me so I know it works.  Comes with all accessories in box, so I think I've got a big win on my hands. 

I spend weeks troubleshooting why I have no onboard audio on my new build, thinking I might've just got a bad motherboard.  Trying to figure out the board SN#, I noticed the wmic output did not match the label on the box I was given... Took the machine apart to check the board label only to find no board label. 

At this point I figure OK, since it's mostly dismantled anyway I may as well reseat the CPU just in case it's got dust in the socket or something...  Pull out the chip and discover one severely bent pin, and two pins sheared clean off.  AM4 pinout diagram confirms the two pins missing are HD Audio controller clock/sync related, so I now know why I have no OB audio.  
Thankfully, this is the one problem that could've arisen that's of no issue for me (I have a few different types of USB audio interfaces laying around) but seriously...

[tldr] If you're buying a mobo/CPU combo used and it's a Ryzen chip, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ALL OF THE PINS BEFORE YOU BUY!  POST is not 100% working and I learned this the hard way!

Pic of the finished upgrade:

[CerealExperimentsLain]

Question: Just curious, cause while the guy totally should have shown you the problem, did the 'steal of a price' offset the additional money you'd have to pay for a PCIE sound card?  (Assuming you're not dropping in a SoundBlaster AE7 or something else top tier)

[tommoose13]

34 minutes ago, CerealExperimentsLain said:

Question: Just curious, cause while the guy totally should have shown you the problem, did the 'steal of a price' offset the additional money you'd have to pay for a PCIE sound card?  (Assuming you're not dropping in a SoundBlaster AE7 or something else top tier)

The volume of discount I got between the MSRP retail price of both would cover an AE7 plus a decent new keyboard.  I was originally planning to upgrade my 4th gen i5 to a B550/R5 3600 combo, but at just $140 more the secondhand X570/R7 3800XT was just too good of a deal to pass up.  

[Tech87]

That sucks you received a system like that, and that the seller was not upfront about any problems, assuming they knew, which they may not have.

 

To be honest though, I would never unmount my heatsink and take my cpu out of the socket for a buyer.

I would rather sell to someone else.

[CerealExperimentsLain]

11 minutes ago, tommoose13 said:

The volume of discount I got between the MSRP retail price of both would cover an AE7 plus a decent new keyboard.  I was originally planning to upgrade my 4th gen i5 to a B550/R5 3600 combo, but at just $140 more the secondhand X570/R7 3800XT was just too good of a deal to pass up.  

Yeah one can live with that.   Especially as there are way cheaper sound card options.

[tommoose13]

1 minute ago, Tech87 said:

That sucks you received a system like that, and that the seller was not upfront about any problems, assuming they knew, which they may not have.

 

To be honest though, I would never unmount my heatsink and take my cpu out of the socket for a buyer.

I would rather sell to someone else.

If you're selling the system as a whole that's totally fair.  If I were to buy a pre-built secondhand in the future I might request an OS booted to ensure it's 100% working before purchase.  In my case it was a board and chip on a testbench with no heatsink included; would have been nothing to pop it off and do a double-check.

[Tech87]

2 minutes ago, tommoose13 said:

If you're selling the system as a whole that's totally fair.  If I were to buy a pre-built secondhand in the future I might request an OS booted to ensure it's 100% working before purchase.  In my case it was a board and chip on a testbench with no heatsink included; would have been nothing to pop it off and do a double-check.

Oh yeah for sure.

If I was purchasing just a cpu, then I'd want a physical inspection, a boot into OS, and a benchmark as well.