feipoa wrote:

If the CPU pins were straight, the CPU should just pull out of the socket with one's fingers. From my experience, CPUs which have sufficiently bent pins may require some prying to to remove, even from a ZIF.

From my understanding, the pin Artex attempted to solder back on was the pin which originally contained solder on it.

Same here. The other day I spent a couple hours straightening pins on a couple Socket 478 CPUs... what a chore. I was able to get them to go into the socket fine with a bit of coaxing, but since the pins were not perfectly straight it was still quite tricky to get them back out of the socket after testing.

I've had to do the same thing in the past with other CPUs and the story is always the same.

That Cyrix CPU certainly looks and sounds like the CPU pins were bent when it was installed in the socket before Artex received it.

My guess is that it was "fixed" back in the day and then after it was installed in the socket and actually working, it was not removed for fear of it breaking more pins.. and if that is the case, then it should have been mentioned in the auction. Whole thing sounds kinda shady to me.

That being said, if I had sold some retro gear that expensive on eBay, I would have 100% taken macro shots of EVERTHING before shipping it.

I also suggest to check the web for the last picture in the listing because it may as well be taken from the web.

Dreamer_of_the_past wrote:

I also suggest to check the web for the last picture in the listing because it may as well be taken from the web.

What is with the sticker in the last pic that looks like it has a date of 1-3 15 (Jan 3rd, 2015 ?) Certainly not anywhere near 10 years ago.

Artex wrote:

feipoa wrote:

From my understanding, the pin Artex attempted to solder back on was the pin which originally contained solder on it.

No soldering was attempted at all. The soldered pin fell off in my hand and when I started removing pins from the donor 486 in advance (thinking I could do the work), that's when I contacted you as I realized the project would be completely over my head.

Whoops - I must have read something wrong at some point. Its only been a few weeks and my memory is already distorting things; imagine what 10 years will do!

Dreamer_of_the_past wrote:

Artex, you may want to file a police report as well. I know it's a bit pain in the ass, but it worth it because in the end after when its all over you will get your money back.

You sure the police would even take the report? I had a contractor who took my deposit and I never heard from him again. I talked to a neighbour, who is a police officer, and he mentioned that this is a civil issue for the courts, not the police. I spoke with a lawyer, he said the same thing. Perhaps in some countries, you might file a police report, but not where I live.

feipoa wrote:

You sure the police would even take the report? I had a contractor who took my deposit and I never heard from him again. I talked to a neighbour, who is a police officer, and he mentioned that this is a civil issue for the courts, not the police. I spoke with a lawyer, he said the same thing. Perhaps in some countries, you might file a police report, but not where I live.

You may be right. I don't know for sure. As to me I am willing to try everything I can when a fire of justice starts to burn inside of me. What is really sad is that Artex got scammed by both the seller and PayPal. In my opinion if eBay and Paypal can not guarantee a safe buying/selling experience then perhaps they should not be in this business. Let's hope the BBB will take care of this.

I sympathize with Artex. He has a long history on this thread and is a big collector of vintage computer hardware. I don't see him destroying the CPU and trying to cover it up the way that's being insinuated by the seller. Hopefully there's a mundane explanation for everything.

Having said that, let's leave as much of the accusing out of this as we can. Considering recent history, I don't know how much patience the mods will have for posts expressing vociferous frustration about the transaction. The story about this CPU being fixed is great, and pictures of the CPU and motherboard will help tell the story. Would you guys be agreeable to a limitation along those lines and deal with the rest via PM or something off site?

gdjacobs wrote:

I sympathize with Artex. He has a long history on this thread and is a big collector of vintage computer hardware. I don't see him destroying the CPU and trying to cover it up the way that's being insinuated by the seller. Hopefully there's a mundane explanation for everything.

Having said that, let's leave as much of the accusing out of this as we can. Considering recent history, I don't know how much patience the mods will have for posts expressing vociferous frustration about the transaction. The story about this CPU being fixed is great, and pictures of the CPU and motherboard will help tell the story. Would you guys be agreeable to a limitation along those lines and deal with the rest via PM or something off site?

Well this is a good suggestion. And I agree, lets hope this will get fixed in a neatly manner.

And about the mods (and I'm not talking on their behalf or anything) the no trading allowed bit is kinda due to prevent drama like this.

When I received the CPU, there was another pin which was about to fall off. It had a crack at the base. I believe a mixture of corrosion and forced insertion caused a highly weakened state to the pins.

Tetrium wrote:

And about the mods (and I'm not talking on their behalf or anything) the no trading allowed bit is kinda due to prevent drama like this.

Quoted for truth. Though thankfully (so far) it's not quite so bad as that other thread of recent memory.

If someone thinks I would take a rare, highly sought after, insanely expensive processor and destroy it by shoehorning, forcefully prying and cranking a screwdriver into a socket thereby bending pins and breaking others, attempting a shoddy solder job... and then create a whole thread full of pictures after spending hours back and forth with PayPal and Ebay (deep breath) then that person clearly is misinformed...and I'm certainly not going to give this guy any more fodder.

I've contacted my credit card company tonight and after spending yet another 45 minutes on the phone, they have credited my account for the full amount (temporarily) pending their own investigation. We'll see what transpires...

In the meantime, I look forward to creating a new build thread and I appreciate everyone who has come to my defense and who have supported me in this situation.

Thanks Stiletto!

Artex wrote:

In the meantime, I look forward to creating a new build thread and I appreciate everyone who has come to my defense and who have supported me in this situation.

Looking forward to it. I think you can safely call it the Revenant.

Not to hijack this thread, but why can't the mods make the registration process on Vogons more difficult similar to Amibay? I would also suggest to check all new registered users in the last few months. I am sure this troll has created multiple accounts and this will continue.

Artex wrote:

I've contacted my credit card company tonight and after spending yet another 45 minutes on the phone, they have credited my account for the full amount (temporarily) pending their own investigation. We'll see what transpires..

Glad to hear that. I would have done the same thing, but I have money on Paypal, so it probably wouldn't work in this case.

Artex wrote:

In the meantime, I look forward to creating a new build thread and I appreciate everyone who has come to my defense and who have supported me in this situation.

It's about time! Long time no see new builds from Artex.

Artex wrote:

I've contacted my credit card company tonight and after spending yet another 45 minutes on the phone, they have credited my account for the full amount (temporarily) pending their own investigation. We'll see what transpires...

That is essentially what happened to me back in 2002. I don't know exactly what the credit card company did to research, but it was ruled in my favour.

This is kind of ironic... I just received a rare 386 upgrade CPU with missing pins which require soldering back on.
Re: The TI486SXL2-66 (PGA-132)... & repair!

feipoa wrote:

This is kind of ironic... I just received a rare 386 upgrade CPU with missing pins which require soldering back on.
Re: The TI486SXL2-66 (PGA-132)... & repair!

Ouch....
Looks like I will have to stack up on these
CPU Case Container for AMD Socket A 462 754 939 940 AM2 AM2+ AM3 AM3+ Qty10 New

But there is good news...

"eBay is happy to announce plans to further improve the customer experience by intermediating payments on our Marketplace platform. In doing so, eBay will manage the payments flow, simplifying the end-to-end experience for both buyers and sellers. We have signed an agreement with Adyen, a leading global payments processor, to become our primary payments processing partner. PayPal, a long-time eBay partner, will be a payments option at checkout for eBay buyers."

feipoa, btw what is a good all-around 486 CPU? i486 DX2 66?

Dreamer_of_the_past wrote:

feipoa wrote:

You sure the police would even take the report? I had a contractor who took my deposit and I never heard from him again. I talked to a neighbour, who is a police officer, and he mentioned that this is a civil issue for the courts, not the police. I spoke with a lawyer, he said the same thing. Perhaps in some countries, you might file a police report, but not where I live.

You may be right. I don't know for sure. As to me I am willing to try everything I can when a fire of justice starts to burn inside of me. What is really sad is that Artex got scammed by both the seller and PayPal. In my opinion if eBay and Paypal can not guarantee a safe buying/selling experience then perhaps they should not be in this business. Let's hope the BBB will take care of this.

For international disputes, the BBB will be pretty useless since it doesn't have jurisdiction outside the USA (it might work out for the Paypal side of the story).

File a report with your local police station, give them all of the seller's contact details *AND* the contact details of the local police station in the seller's place of residency. As it concerns a fairly large sum of money, your local police department may very well contact the seller's local police department if you suggest it to them.