Damaged motherboard

[Danielx]

Hey I bought a used supermicro x9sra from eBay and it arrived damaged. The socket mount for the CPU is damaged and one of the memory slots is damaged. It looks as if the heatsink screw was ripped right off the motherboard and by doing so the surface of the motherboard circuits has been indented. I put some electrical tape underneath the mount and it posted without any errors. I don't have a cpu cooler at the moment for a square 2011 but should I be concerned if I replace the mount and actually used this motherboard would there be a potential for a short or a fire?

The purchase was refunded but the seller abandoned the motherboard and didn't want a return. I did buy a x9srl-f afterwards.

 

[Chris Moore]

That's a shame, but eBay has a very good buyer protection program. I bet the seller will take it back. If they don't, open up a case with eBay.

 

[joeschmuck]

Well first of all I would contact the seller and request a refund and for them to pay to return postage. That is pretty bad damage. Would it cause a fire, possibly but unlikely. While it may have posted, you still haven't done any burn-in testing to ensure there are no failures and even then those tests may not tell you of a problem. I think your memory interface is questionable with the DIMM socket damage. If the price was too good to be true, well there you have it.

Good Luck!

 

[jgreco]

Hey I bought a used supermicro x9sra from eBay and it arrived damaged. The socket mount for the CPU is damaged and one of the memory slots is damaged. It looks as if the heatsink screw was ripped right off the motherboard and by doing so the surface of the motherboard circuits has been indented. I put some electrical tape underneath the mount and it posted without any errors. I don't have a cpu cooler at the moment for a square 2011 but should I be concerned if I replace the mount and actually used this motherboard would there be a potential for a short or a fire?

Professionally, I'd call that completely unacceptable, and I'd likely never buy from that vendor again as it speaks to a careless attitude.

Will it start a fire? Not likely. Will it cause other problems? Quite possibly. Is it not the thing you were sold? Definitely not. At a minimum, get a refund or replacement.

 

[Danielx]

Sorry, I should've mentioned that the seller did refund me and didn't want me to return the motherboard. I did buy a x9srl-f immediately afterwards. I was just wondering others opinions on it.

 

[Chris Moore]

Sorry, I should've mentioned that the seller did refund me and didn't want me to return the motherboard. I did buy a x9srl-f immediately afterwards. I was just wondering others opinions on it.

That is a bit different. It is effectively a free part, so if you're willing to give it a try, test it through a series of burn-in testing and see if it works reliably.
If it's not reliable, don't use it, but it might turn out to be usable.
Only testing will tell.

Edit: Not that I am advocating for the use of this board, but the tests here might help you decide if it is worth keeping.

Building, Burn-In, and Testing your FreeNAS system
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/building-burn-in-and-testing-your-freenas-system.38/

 

[joeschmuck]

Sorry, I should've mentioned that the seller did refund me and didn't want me to return the motherboard. I did buy a x9srl-f immediately afterwards. I was just wondering others opinions on it.

Yes, if they refunded you then they must sell questionable parts. Playing around with this motherboard is fine however I'd never use it in a system I depended on working. So if you built up a server to test software on, that is one thing. If you place FreeNAS on it and plan on it keeping your data safe, I wouldn't recommend it. Honestly, I'd drop it in the recycle bin and this way it wouldn't tempt me to spend more money on it.