A bargain hunter has arguably landed one of the best deals PC enthusiasts can get: the Reddit user bogertonn
bought an AMD Ryzen 9 5900X processor which currently costs around $350 for just $3.
He found it at a local shop that sells returned Amazon products. The catch? The CPU had a few bent pins and two were missing entirely. With his story, Bogertonn proves that such a circumstance does not immediately mean that the processor is defective.
The player from the following article has a completely different problem with his CPU. Can you quickly see what the problem is from the matching picture in the article?
Big blunder in PC construction – but how quickly can you find it in this picture?
The high-end CPU is almost fully functional
A lot of pins were bent on the CPU. But that doesn’t mean they’re defective. (Image: Reddit / bogertonn)
Since he only paid 3 dollars for the Ryzen 9 5900X, bogertonn simply tried his luck himself and bent back the crooked pins. In the worst case, he bought a three-euro key fob. The process only took about an hour.
It was only then that he noticed the two missing pins. Nevertheless, he put the supposedly defective processor in his PC with hope. The PC didn’t start on the first try. On the second try, after taking the CPU out and putting it back in again, it finally worked. So the lucky bargain hunter bought a Ryzen 9 5900X at a ridiculous price.
As it turns out later, the two missing pins are AZ_RST_L and AZ_BITCLK only responsible for on-board audio. Therefore, bogertonn can currently only use USB audio. He plans to buy a PCI-E sound card soon. This would give him a fully functional PC with a high-end CPU at an extremely low price.
If you want to see his reaction after his PC starts for the first time with the repaired CPU, you can watch his video:
link to YouTube content
Should you try it yourself?
The Reddit user was lucky that the two missing pins were not absolutely necessary for the CPU to function. Nevertheless, this shows that you don’t necessarily have to write off an AM4 CPU immediately if pins are bent or even a few are missing.
If you want to try it yourself, you only need a suitable tool to bend the pins back. A magnifying glass can also be very helpful.
For example, a ballpoint pen with a removable refill would be recommended. You can place this over the pins and bend them back. You have to be careful here, as the small pins can also break off. In our experience, that doesn’t happen too quickly.
If pins are missing or you accidentally break one, you can use the Pin-Map from AMD themselves to see what they are responsible for.
Bogertonn was very lucky that the two missing pins were only for on-board audio. (Image: Reddit / Bogertonn)
So if you can buy a cheap CPU that is listed as defective, you could possibly get a real bargain – with a little luck and sensitivity. The endeavor also only succeeds if bent pins are the problem. The fact that bogertonn’s PC didn’t start up the first time shows that sometimes reinstalling the CPU can help and you shouldn’t give up immediately.
Note, however, that only so-called PGA (pin grid array) CPUs have the pins on the processor. This is the case with all AM4 processors. The new AM5 processors do not have pins, but metal pads and use the LGA socket, which is also used in Intel processors. The pins are in the mainboard. Fixing the pins in a broken motherboard is more difficult, but not impossible.
What many players also struggle with are defective controllers. Our colleague Alexander Köpf had a problem with the bumper of his Xbox Elite Series 2 controller. Instead of sending it in, he also took matters into his own hands and repaired it himself. You can read about how he did it here:
My noble controller has an annoying problem, but I was able to fix it with an incredibly simple trick
Have you experienced something similar and brought a supposedly defective product back to life? Tell us your stories in the comments!
