What does refurbished CPU mean?

Answer 1

maybe good maybe not i brought one from geeks it fried my motherboard they refunded the CPU price. i lost my motherboard and the cost of returning the CPU.

-tom

Refurbished = repaired. like any refurbished item there was a problem that the manufacture has attempted to repair and they are re selling the item at a reduced price. Occasionally the problem is not fixed and it can occasionally be responsible for further damage to related systems. Personally I estimate about 10-15% of refurbished items I have purchased have failed to preforms properly. Of these I have not personally had any damage other components, but know others that have had this problem.

Purchasing a refurbished item is a low risk method of getting something on the cheap.

Good Luck, hope this helped.

Unfortunately, in the US, the term "refurbished" does not have a set meaning. Businesses can legitimately use the term to cover any of the following conditions:

Returned - items which were shipped to the customer or bought at retail, and then the customer returned them, for any reason. This may include "open-box" returns - where the customer merely opens the box, discovers that item wasn't the one they wanted for whatever reason, or perhaps was missing something - "DOA" returns - where the item did not function immediately - or "malfunction" returns - where the item worked for some period of time before dying.

Repaired - items which either were sold to a customer who returned it for malfunction/non-function, or items which did not pass the seller's internal QA process. Generally, any item which fit under one of the other categories here which needed some sort of technical repair before becoming operational again.

Refused - technically returned items, this tends to be a special category to indicated that the customer didn't even open the item - it was either immediately returned (still in shrink-wrap or with unbroken shipping seals) or the shipper indicated that the customer refused to accept the item, usually because of obvious damage during shipment. Some jurisdictions allow the seller to re-sell the item as "new" if it was returned still sealed, but many others do not.

Used - this can cover a variety of cases, usually one where a customer has purchased the product and satisfactorily used it for some time then either sold it to another or returned it in exchange for some consideration (usually, a trade-in upgrade). It also covers "Display Model" items, which were new items being used by the seller to show off the features of the item, or items which the seller had been using for any other internal purpose. Many sellers use the term "reconditioned" to indicate used items which have had a "sprucing-up" cleanup and checkup performed on them. In the car world, the equivalent of "reconditioned" is "certified pre-owned".

The key here is that the customer has bought AND touched the merchandise - as soon as the merchandise leaves the possession of the seller (including being shipped), it can no longer be sold as "new".

If the seller is indicating an item is "refurbished", it is allowed to have some cosmetic flaws (dents, scratches, signs of wear). However, unless the seller specifically states that the item is sold "AS-IS" (it must be the exact phrase "AS IS") or explicitly lists known flaws in the item, the item must function identically to one which is new.

In the case of CPUs, repairing them is really not possible - even if it's just a broken pin. Also, absent specific manufacturing DESIGN flaws (such as the fdiv bug in 1st generation Pentiums), CPUs either work as designed, or fail completely. So, a "refurbished" CPU being sold is almost certainly either a returned "open-box", a refused item, or a used item having been pulled from a functioning system. You should be able to tell by looking at the item which is the case (the first two will look like brand-new, the last, even after cleanup, should still be obviously used).

Note that even if you are buying it as "refurbished", you have the same rights as buying it new, with the "AS IS" exception noted above. "AS IS" is the legal term for buying junk items; the seller makes no claim that they work in any manner, and the price should reflect that risk (i.e. any item sold AS IS should be priced at a fraction of a current, working USED equivalent). Otherwise, you have the right to return the item immediately (i.e. within a few days) after discovery that the item was Dead or malfunctioning. Sellers MUST refund your money (less shipping, but NO RESTOCKING FEE) for D-O-A/broken items returned immediately. Depending on the seller's policies, they may or may not accept returns for items which are functioning as advertised (and may charge a restocking fee). In the case of malfunctioning items, the seller usually has the option to repair, replace with an equivalent item, or refund your money, at the seller's discretion. For DOA items, the same choice applies, but at the customer's option, not the seller's.