Why would a Password jumper be permanently removed?

Rastonian

Member
Hi, I may have made a school boy error in my first used PC purchase. This is a technical question and a request for how bad a deal I made on the 790 purchase lol?!

I visited on 28/11/2018 a small local PC repair company rated 5 star in Exeter as my Advent DT-2213 had a fault.

The PC man said the 1155 motherboard was faulty and 1155 motherboards were hard to get hold of due to age. So PC man said not really worth repairing the Advent and the Advent was mostly made with mostly rubbish parts/awful case layout options etc.

So he talked me into a Dell refurbished, Dell Optiflex 790 SFF i3 2120 with 120 GB SSD, for £250 with 90 days warranty (although the £250 included at least 2-3 hours of checking my Advent for faults and sales chat etc, plus the lad was a nice guy and he seemed to talk straight etc). He did not want the money that day and was not pushy.

However, before the sale was made, I asked if the i7 2600 from the Advent can be fitted to the Dell 790, PC man said no, I said why? PC man said not the same connection for the processor, 1155 is needed.

However Q1 I discovered a day or two ago, after reading up in the 790 SFF, that the i3 2120 fitted in the 790 I bought is also a 1155 connection, have I been duped here? (Especially as he said the Advent was not worth repairing as the 1155 motherboards are hard to get etc, due to age, yet he then sells me the 790 which has the same dated 1155 motherboard in). Plus discovering on my own that the 790 was around 2011/2012 was a little annoying.

Q2, On the day of sale when the PC man loaded the PC to show me it working, the PC would not load and the screen said roughly, 'Passwords can not be set/changed as they have been deleted and the Password Jumper has been removed etc'. (When I queried this, PC man said the password jumper is not needed/not important) PC man then did some work on the PC whilst I watched and then the PC loaded, still showing the 'password jumper error message'. So is the password jumper important/needed now and in the future?

Q3, Why would the password jumper be removed anyway?

I am taking the PC back tomorrow to have a chat with the PC man, but I was just curious if I have been stitched up, thankfully I have paid by credit card so I can cover any problems with refund, so I of course am not looking for help with refund etc (if I go that path), I am just aware how much knowledge is available online and if anyone could give any advice/info that would be great, thanks.

Usually I am super careful with anything I buy, but due to wanting to try a local seller for a PC to avoid long distance repairs in the future etc, I went with the seller with the best reviews locally, I am just hoping I have not been burned for being a PC user with little technical knowledge lol.

Thanks in advance, From Richard.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Hi, I may have made a school boy error in my first used PC purchase. This is a technical question and a request for how bad a deal I made on the 790 purchase lol?!

I visited on 28/11/2018 a small local PC repair company rated 5 star in Exeter as my Advent DT-2213 had a fault.

The PC man said the 1155 motherboard was faulty and 1155 motherboards were hard to get hold of due to age. So PC man said not really worth repairing the Advent and the Advent was mostly made with mostly rubbish parts/awful case layout options etc.

So he talked me into a Dell refurbished, Dell Optiflex 790 SFF i3 2120 with 120 GB SSD, for £250 with 90 days warranty (although the £250 included at least 2-3 hours of checking my Advent for faults and sales chat etc, plus the lad was a nice guy and he seemed to talk straight etc). He did not want the money that day and was not pushy.

However, before the sale was made, I asked if the i7 2600 from the Advent can be fitted to the Dell 790, PC man said no, I said why? PC man said not the same connection for the processor, 1155 is needed.

However Q1 I discovered a day or two ago, after reading up in the 790 SFF, that the i3 2120 fitted in the 790 I bought is also a 1155 connection, have I been duped here? (Especially as he said the Advent was not worth repairing as the 1155 motherboards are hard to get etc, due to age, yet he then sells me the 790 which has the same dated 1155 motherboard in). Plus discovering on my own that the 790 was around 2011/2012 was a little annoying.

Q2, On the day of sale when the PC man loaded the PC to show me it working, the PC would not load and the screen said roughly, 'Passwords can not be set/changed as they have been deleted and the Password Jumper has been removed etc'. (When I queried this, PC man said the password jumper is not needed/not important) PC man then did some work on the PC whilst I watched and then the PC loaded, still showing the 'password jumper error message'. So is the password jumper important/needed now and in the future?

Q3, Why would the password jumper be removed anyway?

I am taking the PC back tomorrow to have a chat with the PC man, but I was just curious if I have been stitched up, thankfully I have paid by credit card so I can cover any problems with refund, so I of course am not looking for help with refund etc (if I go that path), I am just aware how much knowledge is available online and if anyone could give any advice/info that would be great, thanks.

Usually I am super careful with anything I buy, but due to wanting to try a local seller for a PC to avoid long distance repairs in the future etc, I went with the seller with the best reviews locally, I am just hoping I have not been burned for being a PC user with little technical knowledge lol.

Thanks in advance, From Richard.

Basically, you've been ripped off imho, the PC isn't worth anything like that kind of money, it's completely obsolete, and although you don't list the full specs, it's very likely that it will only have 4Gb RAM which would just about be enough to run the OS, let alone any software. It's likely got XP on there which isn't supported, so you'd have to buy a new windows license for a modern OS which would cost a further £50 or £100 if you wanted to be current. Plus you'd have to upgrade the RAM which would be expensive as it's legacy RAM, that's even IF you could get hold of it. Basically, to get it up to scratch to be able to run a modern OS, you'd be paying out around £200 (estimated) and even once you'd done that, performance would still be poor.

And yes, they are the same LGA1150 sockets, so you could have just bought a new processor.

I think the reference to the Password Jumper is that they've tried to clear a BIOS password by flipping the jumper switch on the motherboard (imho, again, shady as if acquired legit, the seller would have given passwords). It sounds like they've forgotten to put the jumper back on. You won't be able to boot the PC until that's rectified.

For the same money, you can buy a brand new entry level laptop from PC world, which whilst not being incredible components, would be vastly better performing and have more features like webcam, wifi etc.
 
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Rastonian

Member
Basically, you've been ripped off imho, the PC isn't worth anything like that kind of money, it's completely obsolete, and although you don't list the full specs, it's very likely that it will only have 4Gb RAM which would just about be enough to run the OS, let alone any software. It's likely got XP on there which isn't supported, so you'd have to buy a new windows license for a modern OS which would cost a further £50 or £100 if you wanted to be current. Plus you'd have to upgrade the RAM which would be expensive as it's legacy RAM, that's even IF you could get hold of it. Basically, to get it up to scratch to be able to run a modern OS, you'd be paying out around £200 (estimated) and even once you'd done that, performance would still be poor.

And yes, they are the same LGA1150 sockets, so you could have just bought a new processor.

I think the reference to the Password Jumper is that they've tried to clear a BIOS password by flipping the jumper switch on the motherboard (imho, again, shady as if acquired legit, the seller would have given passwords). It sounds like they've forgotten to put the jumper back on. You won't be able to boot the PC until that's rectified.

For the same money, you can buy a brand new entry level laptop from PC world, which whilst not being incredible components, would be vastly better performing and have more features like webcam, wifi etc.

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I should have put the info sorry.

It has 4GB of ram, but it has Windows 10 installed, with Microsoft office (although I already have Microsoft office). The password jumper was removed on purpose the PC man showed it me (although no explanation given for the reason, but the PC does run and is very quick.

The reason I am taking back is the internet stopped working for a while with socket error messages coming up after less than 48 hours of ownership etc, so I am going to debate the other parts to my concerns with him tomorrow.

So if Dell really did refurbish the 790 (he had 3 of them), removing the password jumper on purpose is very odd in your opinion?

Thanks for the quick reply.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Hi, thanks for the reply.

I should have put the info sorry.

It has 4GB of ram, but it has Windows 10 installed, with Microsoft office (although I already have Microsoft office). The password jumper was removed on purpose the PC man showed it me (although no explanation given for the reason, but the PC does run and is very quick.

The reason I am taking back is the internet stopped working for a while with socket error messages coming up after less than 48 hours of ownership etc, so I am going to debate the other parts to my concerns with him tomorrow.

So if Dell really did refurbish the 790 (he had 3 of them), removing the password jumper on purpose is very odd in your opinion?

Thanks for the quick reply.

The password jumper is used to reset the BIOS password: https://www.dell.com/support/articl...assword-on-your-dell-desktop-computer?lang=en

This is not set by dell, it's set by the user.
 

Rastonian

Member
The password jumper is used to reset the BIOS password: https://www.dell.com/support/articl...assword-on-your-dell-desktop-computer?lang=en

This is not set by dell, it's set by the user.

Thank you, I just read that link.

The 790 was owned by Dell PC man said and then refurbished and got from his supplier etc.

And just one more silly question, why if resetting the passwords and so in is possible, what would be the reason for the PC man to remove the password jumper? If his story is true, I realise this is asking for a speculative answer etc, he showed me the little blue plastic jumper saying it was not important, is it important?

Apologies and thank you from Richard.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Thank you, I just read that link.

The 790 was owned by Dell PC man said and then refurbished and got from his supplier etc.

And just one more silly question, why if resetting the passwords and so in is possible, what would be the reason for the PC man to remove the password jumper? If his story is true, I realise this is asking for a speculative answer etc, he showed me the little blue plastic jumper saying it was not important, is it important?

Apologies and thank you from Richard.

Well I would say it’s important. I have no idea why he left it off, just seems really needless unless leaving it on was causing problems.

Btw, you can pick that model up from various sources on the internet for £125.
 

Rastonian

Member
Well I would say it’s important. I have no idea why he left it off, just seems really needless unless leaving it on was causing problems.

Btw, you can pick that model up from various sources on the internet for £125.

Thanks, I know, I saw the prices from £65 to £220 online for roughly the same model.

I made the rare mistake of trusting an excellent reviewed company that I have never had dealings with.

Thanks for the help.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Thanks, I know, I saw the prices from £65 to £220 online for roughly the same model.

I made the rare mistake of trusting an excellent reviewed company that I have never had dealings with.

Thanks for the help.

I'd always be wary of buying second hand stuff from a small shop like that, they have large margins they have to meet and just can't compete with online competitors.
 

Rastonian

Member
I'd always be wary of buying second hand stuff from a small shop like that, they have large margins they have to meet and just can't compete with online competitors.

I see, I shall avoid after the refund. Hopefully this lad will not play with me with the refund, it is only 6 days since purchase, I have never done a chargeback on a credit card, but if he is going to play silly buggers with me and not refund, then charge back it will have to be.

Thanks again.
 
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