Question How safe is it to buy a used motherboard?

[Yellowblueberry]

This might be sort of a OCD driven question and might seem silly to some, but researching some things about buying used hardware brings up some questions.

For example: how likely is it for a used motherboard bought from a private seller (not refurbished from some store or similar) on an online used marketplace to be compromised with some sort of malware? Is it something worth worrying about when buying used?

There's a lot of opinions on buying used motherboards from the perspective of likelihood of something on it being broken or failing due to fragility and relative complexity of the part, but what if a used motherboard is in good, working condition, are there still possible reasons to avoid buying used even though it might be cheaper? Are possible risks from BIOS/UEFI malware realistic? Something a seller might have picked up unintentionally or, even worse, left intentionally? Or is that unlikely?

Is there even a way to reliably scan, check if the motherboard's firmware is original from the manufacturer?

Would updating the firmware be good enough way of ensuring that a used motherboard is safe? Or would even that not be enough? Is it sill just better and safer to buy a new motherboard even if the used one is in working condition?

What kind of risk might such malware pose? Am I being overly cautious or is it something worth considering and worrying about when buying used?

Thanks

 

[Lutfij]

If you bought new, you'd have access to warranty and give you peace of mind in the event the board turns out to be dead on arrival.

There's nothing wrong buying used but when you're unable to identify if a board has any short comings, in the form of maybe an internal problem with the board(that came faulty from the factory) or possibly an electrical/thermal problem that only shows itself when you've taxed the board for a certain number of hours, then you have no other option but to go for a refund/return, if that opportunity is available.

If you're buying used, then you should verify that the board is known to be in working condition. Speaking of used, where are you buying it off of?

Motherboard's BIOS are rarely compromised. You don't need to be worried about that. If the BISO on the board is corrupt then you can look into a CH341A BIOS programming toolkit or a new BIOS chip and resolder the chip onto the board but why would you bother with all that? If you did the resource calc, you're better off buying a new motherboard than spare hardware/contraptions.

 

[USAFRet]

compromised with some sort of malware?

Highly unlikely.

 

[Yellowblueberry]

If you bought new, you'd have access to warranty and give you peace of mind in the event the board turns out to be dead on arrival.

Sure, but 30-40% cheaper is not an insignificant amount.

Motherboard's BIOS are rarely compromised. You don't need to be worried about that. If the BISO on the board is corrupt then you can look into a CH341A BIOS programming toolkit or a new BIOS chip and resolder the chip onto the board but why would you bother with all that?

I agree replacing the chip is not an option and in that case new would be a better choice. It's more of a question of likelihood of someone selling a working used motherboard with compromised BIOS.

Would it make sense to just reflash the BIOS anyway for the peace of mind?