The problems with used items caused the motherboard to fail just a month after buying it.
The problems with used items caused the motherboard to fail just a month after buying it.
Hello all, Recently I've been aquiring used parts testing them out and building pc's with them, mostly with the aim to make use of spares I have to make room. I bought a MSI 970A-G43 motherboard, as I was going to pair it with an FX-6300, 8Gb Samsung DDR3 and a XFX R9 290 I already had, when I bought the motherboard last month off ebay it was in excellant considition, super clean and when initially testing, worked fine with the cpu and ram , even benchmarked it. Now it's been siting in case since as I was awaiting a io shield as it didn't come with one. Yesterday I decided to test other FX-6300, FX-6350 and a Phenom II X4 I have got for other parts I have, however before I even got to testing them (ended up testing them with another motherboard), when the computer was powered on, blank screen followed by a burning smell. Immediatly turned off and inspected the PSU, thankfully my 750w Corsair PSU wasn't the culprit. I tested again on a table with the side panel off to see exactly what was the issue and saw the smoke on the mosfet near the ram slots. I probably shouldn't of powered on the second time in retrospect. Anyway, I've tried the ram and cpu seperatly in another board and both seem to be dead although neither has any physical damage unlike the motherboard. The GPU has also survived (thankfully I was using a HD 6770 to test anyway as the XFX was packed away). So for a £27 motherboard, I'm now down a £60 CPU and £20 odd Ram, not a good exchange. Is there anyway, that these parts might be recoverable? (ignoring motherboard), I've only tested in one other board but I get a beep error with the ram and blank screen no error code with the cpu. I also think I'm out of luck when it comes to ebay arent I? It's been a month after purchase so you don't think I have any chance of a refund? This was mostly to vent but also point out the issues with used hardware, especially after some googling apprantly MSI were known for poor mosfets on AM3+ 970 boards ¬_¬ should of stuck with ASUS or Gigabyte..
Unfortunately it's not likely that you'll recover the CPU if 12V went strait to the core. RAM would require you to desolder whichever chips got fried and that would be more expensive than just buying new RAM. There's always a risk when buying 2nd hand parts. I usually only risk buying used CPU's since they're quite robust unless I plan for all the parts to be used.
Sure, I've always had no problems purchasing refurbished CPUs or GPUs. It's tough to find any 970 or 990 models here unless they're very costly from certain sellers.
Just because a CPU shows no visual signs of damage that doesn't mean it's good, same goes for RAM sticks. From what you've posted it only fried the one MOSFET around the RAM slots, could be you had a bad stick that caused it to fry and may have zapped the CPU too. Been there, done that with bad chips and sticks and it bites everytime it happens. Now - As said above there is always a risk when buying used, that's just how it is. The board was working great before but as everyone knows there is no way to guarantee how long something is going to last, could be that MOSFET was on it's last leg and went out, taking the CPU and RAM with it. BTW if one gets popped it could in turn kill a good board when tested, I've had that happen before as well with one chip becoming a literal board eater - That one got tossed. If you know how to solder you could replace the bad MOSFET and try the board again. That will depend on "How" it went bad, some MOSFETS when they go will literally fuse themselves to the traces underneath the PCB surface making removal all but impossible for the average person to fix. Some I'd fixed, others I wasn't able to due to that issue but the only way to know is to try and remove the bad part. If it does come out without any real issues then it's probrably fixable from that standpoint. However since it's an MSI there is a chance fusing did happen, depends on the exact style MOSFET used. One of the flat 8 legged MOSFETs will tend to fuse, the older 3 legged style MOSFETs are much easier to replace since they don't have a real tendency to do that in comparison. If in doubt, just replace the board and for AM3+ setup I'd suggest an Asus board instead. MUCH better overall for that socket then MSI and I've had both makes for it. Out of 4 MSI's for AM3/AM3+ all are dead, out of 5 Asus board for that only one died, the other four are still going strong and that's while being ran with chips on LN2 for world records. Good luck.
It seems like the components were likely connected together, probably due to the motherboard being the main point of integration. The only recent change was the motherboard itself. At this stage, I’m planning to recycle them and take away the lessons learned. I’ve always used ASUS or ASRock boards, and the ones I still have are still functioning properly.
I also have an old AM3 motherboard. One that still works is my brother's, which has an AM2 socket. It went through three RMA attempts, but we don't use MSI anymore for safety. A solid sabertooth would be perfect.
Consensus reached – a 2.0 or 3.0 Sabertooth with RGB under PCI-E latches would be ideal and reasonably priced. The Crosshair V / Crosshair V-Z offers the best overall performance but comes at a higher cost relative to Sabertooths. If customization is possible, the Crosshair provides it, though adjustments can become complicated due to its extensive settings. A Sabertooth already delivers ample features without unnecessary complexity, making it easier to manage if you're unfamiliar with the BIOS.