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Why would a used CPU go bad?

11K views 284 replies 62 participants last post by  Ceadderman 
#1 ·
Ok so I have, currently, a second chance offer on a 3570k on eBay that was being sold "for parts".

The price is $62 including shipping.

As the seller stated when I asked him details about it...

"DigitalStorm installed a CPU water cooler. I got a couple of blue screens, sometimes the computer froze, many times it just shut down. Right before I replaced it, many times it didn't seem to turn on at all and then at times randomly it would boot to BIOS or Windows again. I'm not really sure what's wrong with it and definitely don't have the know-how to fix it myself, but I thought I would list it as not working/sold as-is and maybe recoup a bit of money."

AND

"It had a standard overclock from DigitalStorm.

The PSU was: http://www.ebay.com/itm/141716544091?ssPageName=STRK:MESOX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1561.l2649

I'm not sure what the temperatures were.

I cannot discern any bent pins.

It began crashing like once per couple of months. It might have been another issue like Windows. But then it started crashing daily. Before I replaced it, it was hit or miss whether I could launch Windows or the BIOS."

Would a bad CPU even be a thing to begin with? He replaced it with a different one (a locked 3.6 GHZ one) and apparently the crashing went away. But from the way it sounds it could be a bad PSU, poor thermal contact, anything. Should I stay away from this?

Thanks!
 
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#3 ·
Short of user caused damage, odds of a processor being bad are very low.

In all my many years of doing this I have had one CPU show up dead on me, it was actually a 3770K, and then some fifteen or so years ago knew of a dead processor due to human error. The guy tried installing his shiny new FX processor slightly backwards.

Either way,

Worth a gamble to me for $60.
 
#5 ·
Assuming it isn't a scam with a known dead CPU, I'd say it is worth the $60. Unless something obvious happened to it (water damage, damage from power surge/lightning/faulty PSU, bent/broken pins) it should be fine, and the BSODs were likely related to another component that wasn't happy with the overclock he was using.
 
#7 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by hiemal View Post

So I should go ahead and give it a try then?
redface.gif
Depends on if you trust the guy to not be deliberately scamming you, but yes you should. If he isn't lying about what happened, the likelihood of actual damage to the CPU is near 0.
 
#13 ·
He bought a pre-built rig, something was wrong and he didn't demand a refund?
Or RMA the chip?

I agree that a dud cpu is uncommon, even among overclockers but that seems weird.
 
#14 ·
I suppose it probably does seem odd, but maybe it was because it was out of warranty already. Given they were released in 2012, three years later...

I don't know. We'll see what testing reveals. The listing for it has the actual CPU shown and there doesn't appear to be any physical damage to the bottom of the CPU.
 
#16 ·
Honestly, from what I've seen doing some basic googling killing/frying a CPU with overclocking is nearly impossible unless you just chug it full of voltage. All modern day CPU's have some form of temperature control, to prevent heat damage. It honestly just sounds like something else wasn't happy with the overclock anymore.

And seeing as it's a prebuilt rig with pre-done overclocking, I don't think the voltage would have been high enough to kill it either... but again, who knows. Anything is speculation until I actually receive it and test it.
 
#17 ·
Well. I got the CPU today.

And I wasted $62 on a brick, I think.

Installed the CPU in my mobo, and it doesn't POST. At all. I can take out ram sticks and everything else and no beep codes. Swapping it out with a celeron and it posts, beeps and actually responds to me.

Great. How the heck did this person manage to destroy his CPU? There's no physical damage to it at all.
 
#18 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by PostalTwinkie View Post

some fifteen or so years ago knew of a dead processor due to human error. The guy tried installing his shiny new FX processor slightly backwards.
lol I know a guy that jammed a socket 1156 cpu into a 1155 board and bent some pins and fried the board but the cpu was ok :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by hiemal View Post

Well. I got the CPU today.

And I wasted $62 on a brick, I think.

Installed the CPU in my mobo, and it doesn't POST. At all. I can take out ram sticks and everything else and no beep codes. Swapping it out with a celeron and it posts, beeps and actually responds to me.

Great. How the heck did this person manage to destroy his CPU? There's no physical damage to it at all.
your bios supports it right?
 
#20 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by hiemal View Post

Well. I got the CPU today.

And I wasted $62 on a brick, I think.

Installed the CPU in my mobo, and it doesn't POST. At all. I can take out ram sticks and everything else and no beep codes. Swapping it out with a celeron and it posts, beeps and actually responds to me.

Great. How the heck did this person manage to destroy his CPU? There's no physical damage to it at all.
Contacts on the bottom clean? Maybe he tried to remove the IHS and just super glued it back?
 
#21 ·
Indeed, are you running the lastest BIOS?

P67/Z68 need a ME firmware upgrade in order to work with IB.
 
#22 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by hiemal View Post

It's an Asrock Z77 Extreme3, so I think so?
Did you reset bios before installing or posting
 
#23 ·
Yeah, I cleared the CMOS and everything. Did the standard check and test for motherboard stuff.

It's not the Z68 or older edition. It has a Z77 chipset so I would assume it supports Ivy bridge out of the box, plus it has the latest bios revision.
 
#24 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by hiemal View Post

....no.

I was curious as to how something like this could potentially go bad.... is it just the CPU deteriorating, or what?

No need to be a smart ass. It was a genuine question.
theres the probability of deterioration.

current wears the copper traces themselves, specially on the joins, like sharp pipe-bends can cause a pressure drop.
this effect is called electromigration, and is purely driven by how intense the flow of current through the chips.

and the other is when theres pockets of hot-spots in the chip that is hot enough to influence nearby transistors.
these can be caused from simple defective transistors to as complex as high amounts of currents leaking through tunnels.
these hot-spots of course won't show up on the temperature sensor, since its just a tiny spec of dot, but none the less can influence the chip's stability later on.

but from what you've said so far, its probable that he burnt the chip though a high OC attempt.
though L2N would've left some signs, its probable if its only CLC or Air Cooling gone badly done.
for example, Haswell can get fried by the latest Prime95 stress test on a stable OC.
 
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#25 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by epic1337 View Post

but from what you've said so far, its probable that he burnt the chip though a high OC attempt.
though L2N would've left some signs, its probable if its only CLC or Air Cooling gone badly done.
for example, Haswell can get fried by the latest Prime95 stress test on a stable OC.
How could that be possible though if modern CPU's have thermal protection? And according to the seller it was water cooled, so that further doesn't make sense.
 
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