E-bay situation - question

[datwater]

I purchased an HP DV2000 on e-bay - as-is - knowing it had a bad Geforce 7200 GPU. I purchased it thinking I would either be able to reflow the chip and repair it, or that I would use the parts in a barebone or another machine. It was listed as a Core 2 Duo, 2GB ram, 60GB HDD. I e-mailed the seller before I bought it and got the product number, but as it was a configure to order laptop, HP didn't have the exact specs. I asked him if he was sure it was a C2D, and not a Core Duo or even Core Solo, as can be found in many DV2000's. He assured me it was a C2D, and further, that it was iether a T7100 or T7200. Good enough.

Got the laptop yesterday. Followed the service manual to strip it down to nothing and pulled the motherboard out. Checked the CPU - it's a T2400. Checked the RAM - it's 2 X 512 = 1gb. Checked the HDD - it's 80gb. I was pretty disappointed. Tried to reflow the board anyway since I had it apart, but the reflow was not successful. I only connected the power and LCD in order to test this. I don't feel like putting the damned thing back together. I'm certainly not going to pay $100+ for a new motherboard for it. The parts are not what I feel as though I paid for. Should I request a full refund, and as such, have to reassemble the laptop and pay to ship it back? Should I request a partial refund? Should I let it lie?

 

[isekii]

What does it mean "reflow the chip" ?

 

[datwater]

You can google it - there's youtube videos showing you how to do it. Basically there is a poor thermal design. The heatsink over the cpu is also over the gpu, but there is a significant gap (2mm) which they filled with a foam pad. The gpu heats up, and it actually retracts toward the copper on the heatsink, which makes the contacts on the ball grid array separate from the board. The gpu no longer contacts the board. Reflowing the chip means heating it up such that the ball grid array loosens up and seats properly again (hopefully) and then you put thermal compound and a 2mm copper shim in between the gpu and the heatsink to fill the gap. It's what repair services do when you send them your dv2000 / dv6000 / dv9000 boards for work exchange.

 

[Goldbug]

The CPU was explicitly not what was promised. Tell the seller you want a full refund including $20 for return shipping. Put it back together, return it, and get the refund.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

I think you're absolutely entitled to a full refund, but you must return the gear in the condition in which it was sent to you.

 

[olds]

Once you found out it was not up to specs, you should have stopped. Since you went further, I'd ask for a partial refund.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Once you found out it was not up to specs, you should have stopped. Since you went further, I'd ask for a partial refund.

yeah i dont understand why the OP kept going. i ordered a laptop on ebay once and as soon as i realized it didnt have as much ram as was specified, i sent an email immediately to the seller and he gave a partial refund to cover what was missing, and then some.

 

[datwater]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Once you found out it was not up to specs, you should have stopped. Since you went further, I'd ask for a partial refund.

The only indication would have been the ram or hdd - which had HP P/N's. I implicitly trusted that the item was as described. I did not realize the unit was not as described until it was completely disassembled, which, if you have ever taken apart a DV2000 unit, you know that's the only way to see what the CPU is. Once I discovered the CPU was not as described, I looked up the item numbers on the HDD and Memory.

I will probably reassemble it, yes. I have e-mailed the seller and told him I am disappointed that it was not as described. I didn't ask for anything from him - I am just waiting to see what his offer is or if he even cares.

Believe me, if I had known it was a T2400 instead of a T7100 or T7200, I wouldn't have gone to all the trouble to remove the motherboard.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

If it had a bad GPU I presume it wouldn't boot into windows... therefore you would have to take it apart to see what the specs are...

 

[olds]

Originally posted by: datwater

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Once you found out it was not up to specs, you should have stopped. Since you went further, I'd ask for a partial refund.

The only indication would have been the ram or hdd - which had HP P/N's. I implicitly trusted that the item was as described. I did not realize the unit was not as described until it was completely disassembled, which, if you have ever taken apart a DV2000 unit, you know that's the only way to see what the CPU is. Once I discovered the CPU was not as described, I looked up the item numbers on the HDD and Memory.

I will probably reassemble it, yes. I have e-mailed the seller and told him I am disappointed that it was not as described. I didn't ask for anything from him - I am just waiting to see what his offer is or if he even cares.

Believe me, if I had known it was a T2400 instead of a T7100 or T7200, I wouldn't have gone to all the trouble to remove the motherboard.

Yet you still tried to reflow it after taking it apart and identifying the parts.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat

Originally posted by: datwater

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Once you found out it was not up to specs, you should have stopped. Since you went further, I'd ask for a partial refund.

The only indication would have been the ram or hdd - which had HP P/N's. I implicitly trusted that the item was as described. I did not realize the unit was not as described until it was completely disassembled, which, if you have ever taken apart a DV2000 unit, you know that's the only way to see what the CPU is. Once I discovered the CPU was not as described, I looked up the item numbers on the HDD and Memory.

I will probably reassemble it, yes. I have e-mailed the seller and told him I am disappointed that it was not as described. I didn't ask for anything from him - I am just waiting to see what his offer is or if he even cares.

Believe me, if I had known it was a T2400 instead of a T7100 or T7200, I wouldn't have gone to all the trouble to remove the motherboard.

Yet you still tried to reflow it after taking it apart and identifying the parts.

It's not like he could break it any more...

 

[datwater]

No video means I could not even tell via BIOS or anything - it had to come all the way apart.

 

[bozack]

Ask him to refund the cost of the laptop and your initial shipping charge, you cover return shipping to him in the condition the unit was in.

As a seller who recently got burned on a laptop transaction I am probabily not the most objective source (buyer dropped the laptop and damaged it only to use pay pal to get a full refund and I am stuck with a broken laptop that sold for half as much).

 

[olds]

Originally posted by: PlasmaBomb

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat

Originally posted by: datwater

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Once you found out it was not up to specs, you should have stopped. Since you went further, I'd ask for a partial refund.

The only indication would have been the ram or hdd - which had HP P/N's. I implicitly trusted that the item was as described. I did not realize the unit was not as described until it was completely disassembled, which, if you have ever taken apart a DV2000 unit, you know that's the only way to see what the CPU is. Once I discovered the CPU was not as described, I looked up the item numbers on the HDD and Memory.

I will probably reassemble it, yes. I have e-mailed the seller and told him I am disappointed that it was not as described. I didn't ask for anything from him - I am just waiting to see what his offer is or if he even cares.

Believe me, if I had known it was a T2400 instead of a T7100 or T7200, I wouldn't have gone to all the trouble to remove the motherboard.

Yet you still tried to reflow it after taking it apart and identifying the parts.

It's not like he could break it any more...

No but going further constitutes acceptance of the item.

 

[Q]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Once you found out it was not up to specs, you should have stopped. Since you went further, I'd ask for a partial refund.

Yes I say this, I voted for full but this makes more sense

 

[olds]

Originally posted by: Quintox

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Once you found out it was not up to specs, you should have stopped. Since you went further, I'd ask for a partial refund.

Yes I say this, I voted for full but this makes more sense

Of course it does, I said it.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Originally posted by: datwater
No video means I could not even tell via BIOS or anything - it had to come all the way apart.

No one is arguing about that. It's just that after you found out what the specs are, you continued to try to fixed it.

What you should have done is just reassemble everything back together right there and then and wait for the seller to get back to you.

 

[datwater]

Originally posted by: Schfifty Five

Originally posted by: datwater
No video means I could not even tell via BIOS or anything - it had to come all the way apart.

No one is arguing about that. It's just that after you found out what the specs are, you continued to try to fixed it.

What you should have done is just reassemble everything back together right there and then and wait for the seller to get back to you.

While I understand the principle, I also don't see as any harm has been done - the laptop is the exact same now as it was when I got it. Boots to 3 beeps and no video. The act of disassembling it and reassembling it had been done. Applying heat to the GPU to attempt to reflow it - when the GPU is already dead anyway - has no real bearing.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

you chose to work on the laptop after you determined it was not what you thought you bought. That constitutes your acceptance of the item as delivered in my opinion. You are SOL.

You made material changes to the item while it was in your possession. You can never return the item in the same condition it was when you bought it.

 

[frostedflakes]

Originally posted by: PlasmaBomb
If it had a bad GPU I presume it wouldn't boot into windows... therefore you would have to take it apart to see what the specs are...

So what? Are you saying that this absolves the seller from the responsibility of accurately listing items? If the seller was unsure about the specs, he should have either stated this in the auction description or not listed the item at all.

Although I do agree that trying to reflow the board after finding out the specs were not correct was kind of bad, though. This shows that you would have probably been happy with the laptop (despite incorrect specs) had you been able to get it working.

Really I think you both kind of screwed up on this one, maybe you and the seller can meet half way and do a partial refund or something like that.

 

[PottedMeat]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
you chose to work on the laptop after you determined it was not what you thought you bought. That constitutes your acceptance of the item as delivered in my opinion. You are SOL.

You made material changes to the item while it was in your possession. You can never return the item in the same condition it was when you bought it.

If I were the seller and knew what you tried to do I'd say you damaged the item and is not entitled to any refund. The bad description on the sellers part doesn't really matter now.

Let it go and sell the parts.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: datwater
No video means I could not even tell via BIOS or anything - it had to come all the way apart.

You could hook up an external monitor(I'm assuming this has a VGA out port) to check it out.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Originally posted by: datwater

Originally posted by: Schfifty Five

Originally posted by: datwater
No video means I could not even tell via BIOS or anything - it had to come all the way apart.

No one is arguing about that. It's just that after you found out what the specs are, you continued to try to fixed it.

What you should have done is just reassemble everything back together right there and then and wait for the seller to get back to you.

While I understand the principle, I also don't see as any harm has been done - the laptop is the exact same now as it was when I got it. Boots to 3 beeps and no video. The act of disassembling it and reassembling it had been done. Applying heat to the GPU to attempt to reflow it - when the GPU is already dead anyway - has no real bearing.

In your attempts to try to fix it, you could have damaged something. I'm not saying you lack the skills to make any repairs, but just that freak accidents could occur, or you could have unintentionally caused damage to some other component on the board.

The mislabeled hardware specs is one thing, and you should be compensated for that somehow. You trying to fix it after already knowing it was the wrong stuff is another.

Again, I have no idea how much compensation you should get or what you should do, but I'm just saying that if you want to argue on the basis that you got the wrong parts, then you should have stopped completely the moment you found about it.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Originally posted by: lxskllr

Originally posted by: datwater
No video means I could not even tell via BIOS or anything - it had to come all the way apart.

You could hook up an external monitor(I'm assuming this has a VGA out port) to check it out.

If the GPU is dead, then an external monitor wouldn't help either. You would still get no video output.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Originally posted by: PottedMeat

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
you chose to work on the laptop after you determined it was not what you thought you bought. That constitutes your acceptance of the item as delivered in my opinion. You are SOL.

You made material changes to the item while it was in your possession. You can never return the item in the same condition it was when you bought it.

If I were the seller and knew what you tried to do I'd say you damaged the item and is not entitled to any refund. The bad description on the sellers part doesn't really matter now.

Let it go and sell the parts.

The bad description still matters because he paid for certain parts but received lesser ones. He should still receive some kind of compensation for the lower spec hardware.

However, since he made an attempt to fix the GPU, he should NOT be allowed to return it.