So I bought through a second-hand site a Ryzen 2200g CPU with B450M motherboard that had a defect: one SATA connector was damaged. No big deal, who connects more than 2 storage media to SATA anyway. For 55€ it was a steal, that's more or less the price of the CPU only.

And then it arrived and when I mounted it, the motherboard did exactly nothing when I tried to fire it up.

But what is this?



MOLTEN PLASTIC? Holy crap, it appears to be everywhere.
So I unmounted the stock cooler.

This is not a rice grain of thermal paste:



This motherboard it ruined. I could open the socket, but the paste was in the metal and since this is a 50€ motherboard and thermal paste is conductive (I think) and a PITA to remove, you have to be a dumbass to try and save it and potentially expose your other hardware to shortcuts.

The CPU wasn't much better off:



Not only is it covered in thermal paste on the sides, there are three pins missing (top right) and a bunch of bent pins. Whoever mounted this, should be shot on sight.

The Ryzen 2200g looks ruined as well, but I set myself on a path to repair it. Not so much because it is worth my time and effort, but for the challenge.

So I cleaned it up as much as I could with isopropyl alcohol and a small brush and straightened up the bent pins.

In this process, one of the bent pins turned out to be broken as well, so here is where I am now:



Decently clean, all pins straight up and 4 pins missing (3 on the right-front, one on the left-front)

[to be continued]

I'd say good chance the paste was not electrically conductive, even the cheap silicone ones from a few years back weren't, tho not impossible the guy just used some **** he had around the house from an nondescript jar lol

missing pins are a problem. I've seen a cpu with 1 missing pin work sort of fine but once in a while there would be some random error and bsod.

I think in the current state there's next to 0 chance you will have a stable system or even hope to get it to boot.

what you can try to do is get another junk amd cpu, rip some pins off it and populate the now empty holes in the mobo socket with those. should work...mby

well now you know why it was so cheap

That's the plan. This week I hope to pick up an Athlon 64 for 2€

The motherboard may be salvageable, I'd try wiping off what you can and then cleaning the rest of the goop with isopropyl alcohol and an anti-static brush. That looks like basic thermal goop which is non-conductive. I'd honestly expect you to have better luck reviving the board than the CPU.

ye the board should be fine
cpu depends if you can get it to make contact with the new pins you salvage
mby try and sand down a bit the bottom of the pins so you get flush metal on metal contact
once you tighten the heatsink, that should be enough clamp to get them to stick

OK then, I opened up the AM4 socket and cleaned the cover and the inside.

When I get my Athlon I will report back.

Interesting challenge to get it working and my money back from the seller, based on the fotos and vids I made pre cleaning

If I win one challenge only, I will be happy

Yeah, if that was sold as working with only a broken SATA port you should definitely get your money back. I can't think of a way someone could break those pins off and not know it. Likely tried to remove the heatsink and pulled the CPU out of the socket due to thermal grease surface tension.
I wish AMD would move to an LGA socket like Intel for AM5, though those have their own failure mode with bent pins in the socket, but generally CPU cost is higher than mobo so I'd rather have a dead mobo than CPU.

I managed to pick up an AMD Athlon 64 for 2€




It looked pretty damn new for a 2005 chip




We cook on gas, so I cooked the corner of the chip. It resisted pretty well, but at the end the pins started falling off



Now all that remains is to take my cleaned motherboard, drop 4 pins into the holes in the right places, take my cleaned up 2200g with 4 missing pins and place it into the socket.

What could possibly go wrong?

welp the Ryzen is scrap atm so you only have a working cpu to gain
or 2 eur to lose
at the very least you can now tell stories of that cpu you once cooked
keep us posted, this is most entertaining

I only had a little time yesterday. I started off doing things in the wrong order. First thing I did was put the pins in the socket:



Only to find out that the CPU would not drop into the socket by gravity. Pins all look straight, so I had to take off the plastic cover off the socket and did it the other way: placed the plastic cover on top of the CPU and pushed and it fit well, but I needed to apply some force. The holes aren't what they used to be. So I placed the cover back on the socket and put the 4 pins in their locations, placed the CPU and pushed it in. That was a scary moment.

I mounted the cooler and then came the big moment, I switched on the system.

CPU fan spun, but no image

Now I have to decide whether I want to expose a new CPU to this motherboard or a new motherboard to this CPU and continue finding out if either piece is working.

I think the board works but the cpu is good as dead
idk what to tell you, the guy def knew the state of what he was selling, just what you have to deal with sometimes when buying products that are not sealed in box. I had to deal with a lot of shady or crazy ppl over the time with my keyboard and mouse fetish.
if the board works, that's a 40-50 eur board on its own so w/e, take the cpu loss, laugh it off and get a new one

OK, this might be an unexpected update



This is my 2200g running Prime95 for more than 15 minutes and passing all tests at a comfortable 65ºC.

Before Prime95 I also ran Furmark to test the GPU.

The problem of not booting wasn't the CPU. It is one of the memory slots. It doesn't matter what RAM I put into that slot, my computer refuses to boot. So I have ended up with a working Ryzen 2200g CPU and a motherboard with one working RAM slot.

I wonder if the not operational RAM slot could be related with the CPU or is that 100% motherboard related?

the plot twist xD
could be cpu too who knows at this point
you kind of want dual channel tho

It's probably the CPU. The memory controller for modern PCs is on package with the CPU, not in the motherboard chipset like in the old days.

At this point, I'd probably chalk up working at all as a win and use it as a low perf secondary system, for browsing an email, etc.

Well, I upgraded the bios and I can plug in a 3200g. Why not?

headtrauma got it right. I tried a 3200g in the mobo with both ram slots filled and it started fine.

So the CPU is handicapped after all.

superglue tf out of those pins and sell it on ebay in "Like new" condition ^^

That's not how I roll

This project has finished, but I've started a new one. A Ryzen 1600 with broken pins. I haven't seen pictures. I will report back when I have it

you seem to be enjoying this

It was pretty interesting.

Now I bought a B350M mortar motherboard, 2 fans and the mangled Ryzen 1600 for 72€ shipped.

If I cannot save the CPU I lose a bit. If I can fix it, I will replace my current intel 7700 with it and sell the intel CPU + mobo and more than double my investment.

ye I noticed used Intels go for more than they should

Today I received the B350M Mortar Arctic motherboard with the 2 ventilators and Ryzen 1600 that was damaged.

There were two pins missing and a dozen of pins bent because the seller sent the MoBo to me with the CPU jammed into the socket. ****ing nitwit

The socket had damaged a little and I had to open the holes with a needle. But I quickly managed to put my Ryzen 2200g into it, unscared of using a bit of pressure, because it is a limp CPU anyway.

Then I went on to work the Ryzen 1600. Took me about 20 minutes and a Swiss knife to straighten up the pins. I dropped 2 pins in the socket and placed the CPU. Added a GPU and fired it up and it seemed to work fine, except that the SATA1-2 in the Mobo didn't recognize my HD. Very minor problem.

So that appears to have been a good buy for 68€ shipped

I haven't fully tested the CPU yet, because I needed to MoBo for another system that I can now sell off to a guy that is waiting for it. But another mobo is in the mail and with that one I will test the Ryzen 1600 (unfortunately it was not he 1600 AF).

that little arrow on the IHS is pretty elusive

Confirmed

I sold my i7-7700 + Mobo + 16GB RAM DDR4 2400 + CoolerMaster air cooler for 250€

I paid 80€ for the RAM+Mobo+cooler so that's 170€ for the CPU
Ryzen CPUs of the same speed go for way less.

The market still hasn't adapted to AMD being the top dog, so now is a good time to dump your Intels and get value for them