Two GA-7VKML's and one very crispy Athlon

[dood]

I've recapped a number of these, and these two will be no exception, once I renew my supply of caps. However, an oddity in this case was the complete toasting of an Athlon processor. My guess is, the caps shorted, and the machine was allowed to run long enough to superheat the proc. Odd, since the fan was in good working order and clean of dust. Anyway, here's some pics, with a link to the rest at the end.


It's dead, Jim. GSC has claimed another one.


Who likes the dark chips? This one's been in the fryer too long.


Compared to the same processor taken out of the other identical board. Both procs are AXP1900+

Full album of pics - http://www.king-nerd.com/dood/images...lbumName=7vkml

[davmax]

Re: Two GA-7VKML's and one very crispy Athlon

Great photos. Sick caps and massive CPU melt down. Suspect a MOSFET or two may be shorted this usually cooks CPUs. Like to know what you discover.

[zandrax]

Re: Two GA-7VKML's and one very crispy Athlon

I saw some photos of overheated Athlons: die was completely burnt, but the pga socket looked fine.
The glossy looking area on your dead one is due to melted thermal pad or due to a melted coating layer? The first is probably caused by a big overheat, the latter by a massive short as Davmax points out. Dead in both cases

Zandrax

[Harvey]

Re: Two GA-7VKML's and one very crispy Athlon

Sell it on eBay as "untested"

[zandrax]

Re: Two GA-7VKML's and one very crispy Athlon

Sell it on eBay as "untested"

Hmmm: who is so dumb to buy an obviously fried cpu?
Better idea: clean it, cut all pins, make a hole in the package ad sell it as an hi-tech necklace. Nice gift, isn't it?

Zandrax

[shadow]

Re: Two GA-7VKML's and one very crispy Athlon

Sell it on eBay as "untested"

Nice idea!

[Harvey]

Re: Two GA-7VKML's and one very crispy Athlon

Hmmm: who is so dumb to buy an obviously fried cpu?

Zandrax

Seemingly 80% of eBay users if some of the obvious rubbish I've seen sold for stupid money is anything to go by.

[willawake]

Re: Two GA-7VKML's and one very crispy Athlon

whats in the bag?

[zandrax]

Re: Two GA-7VKML's and one very crispy Athlon

I don't trust the "It should work, but I'm unable to test it because..." motto:
- if you sell something, sell it as "tested and working" or "only for repairs", listing bad and good parts. If you can't really test, sell it as "broken" and price it very low;
- any amusement park barker's hipe such as "it's beautiful", "best of its class", "if you are lucky you can get a working piece for a few bucks" gives me nerves: I look for specs and working satus, not ads, and usually the buyer is unlucky at 101%;
- if you sell something you know it's damaged passing off broken for untested, you are trying to cheat me and don't deserve my trust.

Said this, if dood plans to sell it, I hope it will sell it as broken: perhaps a cpu collector may be interested.

Zandrax

[dood]

Re: Two GA-7VKML's and one very crispy Athlon

I would never sell that processor. Either I'll drop it in the board and it will magically work (HA!), or it'll go right in the rubbish bin. It amazes me how deceitful people can be...

It'll be a little while before these boards get recapped... I'm out of all the caps needed, and need to get some ordered. As soon as I get paid

[dood]

Re: Two GA-7VKML's and one very crispy Athlon

whats in the bag?

Bag?

[willawake]

Re: Two GA-7VKML's and one very crispy Athlon

what is the *object* to the left

[shadow]

Re: Two GA-7VKML's and one very crispy Athlon

I don't trust the "It should work, but I'm unable to test it because..." motto:
- if you sell something, sell it as "tested and working" or "only for repairs", listing bad and good parts. If you can't really test, sell it as "broken" and price it very low;
- any amusement park barker's hipe such as "it's beautiful", "best of its class", "if you are lucky you can get a working piece for a few bucks" gives me nerves: I look for specs and working satus, not ads, and usually the buyer is unlucky at 101%;
- if you sell something you know it's damaged passing off broken for untested, you are trying to cheat me and don't deserve my trust.

Said this, if dood plans to sell it, I hope it will sell it as broken: perhaps a cpu collector may be interested.

Zandrax

You are one good individual that is fair.

However in the world of business, the big $ counts. It does not matter how you get the money. It does not matter if it is through deception or through cheating, people will do it because it is possible. I know we are talking about a simple auction here, however many make a business out of it and quite simply nothing matters if you get the cash and the customer is happy buying crap.

Therefore if it is possible to sell trash and get a good amount of money out of it, people will do it and let others buy crap off them that they got for nothing or close to nothing and make a nice profit.

Unfortunately many people would see it this way. I have never done anything like this because I try to be a good guy, however I know others feel differently and are ruthless when it comes down to the money.

[dood]

Re: Two GA-7VKML's and one very crispy Athlon

what is the *object* to the left

Ah, yes... that's my bottle of Tums. Bad caps give me indigestion!

[shadow]

Re: Two GA-7VKML's and one very crispy Athlon

Great photos. Sick caps and massive CPU melt down. Suspect a MOSFET or two may be shorted this usually cooks CPUs. Like to know what you discover.

You can always count on Choyo caps to leak. That reminds me that I should check up on my Gigabyte board with Choyo caps again soon to see how they are holding up. Hopefully they are not leakers yet.

[zandrax]

Re: Two GA-7VKML's and one very crispy Athlon

Unfortunately many people would see it this way. I have never done anything like this because I try to be a good guy, however I know others feel differently and are ruthless when it comes down to the money.

I'm not much interested in money: once I can live decently, I don't need anything else.
What I hate is greedyness: selling something as "untested" is a way to get money and to avoid any responsibility. IMHO is a lack of respect, and I don't respect people who don't respect me. Unfortunately there is someone who doesn't share my thoughts.
Not a personal offence: your and Harvey's posts are a joke of course, but it is something not to be too proud.

Zandrax

[shadow]

Re: Two GA-7VKML's and one very crispy Athlon

What I hate is greedyness: selling something as "untested" is a way to get money and to avoid any responsibility. IMHO is a lack of respect, and I don't respect people who don't respect me.

I fully agree.

However I do agree with selling items that are genuinely untested. This could happen because they do not have all the resources to test the equipment. For example I think it was one of Pentiums recent threads contained an auction for an untested hard drive array. It was stated that it was untested because they do not have any SCSI hard drives to test it. Now tell me what is wrong with stating that something is untested when it was not? However it is a completely different story if it was tested and was a dud and is then being sold without the hard drives as 'untested'.

I guess what I am trying to say is that it is a very fine line between something being genuinely untested and someone being 'temporarily blind' or 'negligent' in telling you everything that they know about a product. This is where human greed comes into play and it truly is disturbing at times. It is just so easy to just write or leave out a few words that would completely change a persons opinion of a product, add to that that the Internet is largely anonymous (in terms of your true identity on something like EBay) and I am sure there are some bad apples in a crate apples.

EDIT: I think I can predict your reply!
State that the buyer should presume the item as being broken, however it has not been tested and as such it could be good if you are lucky.
Am I close?

[zandrax]

Re: Two GA-7VKML's and one very crispy Athlon

I fully agree.

However I do agree with selling items that are genuinely untested. This could happen because they do not have all the resources to test the equipment. For example I think it was one of Pentiums recent threads contained an auction for an untested hard drive array. It was stated that it was untested because they do not have any SCSI hard drives to test it. Now tell me what is wrong with stating that something is untested when it was not? However it is a completely different story if it was tested and was a dud and is then being sold without the hard drives as 'untested'.

I guess what I am trying to say is that it is a very fine line between something being genuinely untested and someone being 'temporarily blind' or 'negligent' in telling you everything that they know about a product. This is where human greed comes into play and it truly is disturbing at times. It is just so easy to just write or leave out a few words that would completely change a persons opinion of a product, add to that that the Internet is largely anonymous (in terms of your true identity on something like EBay) and I am sure there are some bad apples in a crate apples.

EDIT: I think I can predict your reply!
State that the buyer should presume the item as being broken, however it has not been tested and as such it could be good if you are lucky.
Am I close?

Anecdote: 3 weeks ago a guy asked some informations about the old Nintendo Nes in the it.comp.retrocomputing newsgroup. He wanted to sell his old console which rested about 10 years in his car box: it was dirty, lacked some cables, cartidges' box were muffled and he didn't want to try it; despite this, he asked a price evalutation.
Most people asked about console's appereance (e.g. any broken parts?) and claimed that nes' are quite common so they are low priced; some others stated they were unable to price it unless they colud at least see some photos of both interior and exterior parts.
Someone wrote about sellers' responsibility: "There are two ways you can sell this console: claim it's a beautiful Nes which used to start before you put in your car box, you don't have enough time to test it now so sell it as untested without warranty. Offer a low cost, not insured shipping and state you won't accept a negative feedback, following the classic "as is" policy.
OTOH you explain you fear to plug it into mains beacuse it rested in a wet environment for years, so the buyer should at least open it, clean the inside and check capacitors, perhaps even use a variac since its power section may be damaged. Advertise it as an old electronic equipment, not as a toy: the buyer is expected to be a collector or an expert hobbyst. Offer an insured shipping and care its package." [this is my rough translation]

There are two ways: you can be deceitful and avoid responsibilities, but don't expect people to believe you; you can be honest and write item's descriptions as complete as you manage to, with both pros and cons.
I like the latter.

Zandrax

[Gendo Ikari]

Re: Two GA-7VKML's and one very crispy Athlon

That poor Athlon! ;_;

Strangely enough I found an IDENTICAL Athlon XP 1600+ in a rescued curb computer after a bad storm, to one I already had. Still works too. God, My PII 400 still works..in fact the Pentium's on my desk prob work too, LOL