I’m in the process of customing building a new computer system. I’ve concluded that I am doing this out of some deep sense of self-hate.
In any case, two weeks ago I finally got all my parts together and installed them. The computer came on briefly, then died. After much investigation, it turned out that the motherboard was defective. The company I bought the motherboard agreed, had me send back the old motherboard, and sent me another one.
Unfortunately, the cpu may have been damaged when I had to remove it from the motherboard. the “may” only refers to when the damage occured. There is no question, the cpu is now damaged and the company I bought it from blames me for it. My arguement is that I would not have had to remove the cpu if they had they sent me a working motherboard in the first place.
Putting a cpu into a mother board is not difficult. Attaching the heatsink on top of the cpu is a real pain. Removing the heatsink so you can remove the cpu is a pain that is reserved as a torture in hell. I had a horrible time getting that thing back out. A horrible time I would not have had to experience if the motherboard had worked in the first place.
So here’s my question, what options do I have against the company I bought the cpu from? They refuse to replace the cpu. Am I really in the wrong here?
Bonus question, the company sent me a new motherboard but did not send me any cables, ups ports, etc. They sent just the motherboard. Can I buy ups ports, sata cables, etc from somewhere? I’ve written them asking for the cables, but have not gotten a response yet and because of the cpu issue, our correspondence has grown rather tense, still polite, but tense.
As much as it sucks to break something when you’re working on a PC, I can’t find fault with the manufacturer for breaking the CPU. It can be done safely, and it’s the technician’s responsibility to make sure that happens. You need to break loose the seal between the heatsink and CPU before you lift them out of the socket–unhook the clips mounted on either side, and twist gently but firmly until the seal is broken.
I fried my 6-month old GeForce 256 back when they were hot stuff, and I was stuck with a lowly Voodoo Banshee for a year after that.
I had similar experiences when I attempted building my computer as economically as possible. I went to Pricewatch.com and ordered my parts from them. Some were winners (such as my $200 LCD monitor–$200 three years ago, mind you). Many stopped working within a month, such as some of my HDs and RAM. Some were defective in the first place… such as my OEM ATI Radeon 9500 which never worked properly (had sporadic freezes–was cured when I bought a retail Radeon 9550). Some were outright deceptive… such as the Logitech wireless keyboard I bought which had a Spanish layout (no big deal though, but very annoying when you want to hit the backslash). I eventually wound up losing a bundle.
Never build a computer to save money, and always buy all your items from respectable merchant such as Newegg.com. Stay far, far away from Pricewatch.com .