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I bought a 'tested working' server that wasn't

Dedicated Servers by FlowSana 5 replies 242 views
FlowSana

Member OP

SRE

2 #1

1. EBay listing: "tested working" Dell R640, 2x Xeon Gold 6248R, 256GB DDR4-2933, 8x 1.92TB SATA SSD
2. Price: $1,850 USD, seller "Tech liquidators midwest"
3. Arrived with bent rail kit, both PSUs showing amber fault, iDRAC 9.00.00.00 reporting "CPU 1 initialization error"

Diagnostic steps taken:
- Reseated both CPUs and all DIMMs per Dell E41S service manual rev. 2023-08
- Swapped PSU slots, tested with known-good PSU from lab stock
- Updated iDRAC to 9.05.00.00 via SD card (Lifecycle Controller)
- Error persisted; CPU 1 VRM showing 0.87V instead of 1.20V nominal

Seller claimed "it worked when shipped." eBay Money Back Guarantee case opened 2025-12-03. Seller offered $200 partial refund to close case. I declined.

Current status: eBay sided with buyer. Full refund issued. Server held for return pickup.

Recommendation: Always request boot video with timestamp, specific iDRAC/iLO version visible, and CPU-Z or dmidecode output before purchasing used server hardware.

It's always DNS. Always.
armstrongvds

Member

ARM Enjoyer

#2

Why you buy from ebay. The server from Contabo refurbished is 1890 with warranty.

Why gamble when hostinger.com has tested r640. I learned hard way too.

one small ping for man...
SingaporeRep

Member

Benchmark Addict

#3 
# yabs on "tested working" R640
CPU: Intel Xeon Gold 6248R @ 3.00GHz
Cores: 24c/48t
Single: 1084 | Multi: 23411
RAM: 256GB DDR4-2933
Dsk: 4K-8K IOPS read, 2K-4K write (expected 50K+)
Net: 0.00 Gbits (no NIC detected in OS)

Decent chassis, meh everything else. Board probably cooked.

fio, iperf, geekbench. results or gtfo.
armstrongvds

Member

ARM Enjoyer

#4
FlowSana said:
IDRAC 9.00.00.00

Actually, the correct abbreviation is iDRAC with no version appended as a suffix. You mean iDRAC 9, firmware version 9.00.00.00.

Also, "dmidecode" is one word, not "CPU-Z or dmidecode output" with implied separation.

Your semicolon usage in point 3 is correct. Most do not achieve this.

one small ping for man...
pablo

Member

#5

Wey I bought from same seller last year

Motherboard was dead on arrival wey they didnt even test it

My dispute took 3 weeks wey ebay finally refunded but I had to pay return shipping wey

Never again!

@FlowSana good that you got full refund

declarative or death
MARIA3

Member

1 #6

I buy from KnownHost now. They send video boot with serial number visible. Regards.

Actually I make a checklist for used server buying. Want me to post? Regards.

pablo said:
Same seller

O sea, we need to share bad seller list somewhere. Por cierto, I know forum does not allow it. But maybe private message is okay? Vale.

Good luck with return, FlowSana 😊

siesta first, deploy later

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