Asus "repairing" mobos under warranty

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reb00tin

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I'm curious what kind of experience people are having when returning defective mobos to Asus USA.

I returned a new M4A78T-E with multiple defects to Asus RMA Dept in Jeffersonville, IN. A couple of weeks later I received the same mobo which Asus claimed to have repaired, and it was just as defective.

Then I called them again, this time I sent it to their RMA Dept. in Fremont, CA with a prepaid FedEx label. Two weeks later, I got the same mobo back, with a "repair" form saying “tesk ok NTF”. The mobo is still defective.

We have some of the best technicians in the country and when they return hardware as defective, it IS defective. Also, I know that hand-testing individual parts, de-soldering defective components and soldering new ones is economically unfeasible. So frankly I don't believe Asus repairs mobos (why bother when they produce them for $5 in China).
 
It's a snowy day, so I had some time to arrange for a 3d RMA. Let's see what happens this time...
 
How do you determine that the mobo is at fault anyway ?

Shipping a HD costs $10 for a RMA, so I assume a mobo would be in the $15 range, so you have done this 3 times ?

As for your question, the last Asus I had to RMA they sent a refurb back to me around 5-6 years ago.
 
Last time I sent in a mobo I got different board back, whether it was a refurb or new I couldn't tell. (a8n-e)
 
reb00tin said:
I'm curious what kind of experience people are having when returning defective mobos to Asus USA.

I returned a new M4A78T-E with multiple defects to Asus RMA Dept in Jeffersonville, IN. A couple of weeks later I received the same mobo which Asus claimed to have repaired, and it was just as defective.

Then I called them again, this time I sent it to their RMA Dept. in Fremont, CA with a prepaid FedEx label. Two weeks later, I got the same mobo back, with a "repair" form saying “tesk ok NTF”. The mobo is still defective.

We have some of the best technicians in the country and when they return hardware as defective, it IS defective. Also, I know that hand-testing individual parts, de-soldering defective components and soldering new ones is economically unfeasible. So frankly I don't believe Asus repairs mobos (why bother when they produce them for $5 in China).
Click to expand...

Ask for a cross ship RMA so you get a different board and send the old one back (if they have the same board in stock). I had sent one in expecting it to be replaced and they sent it back NTF.

I like Asus as most of their boards are good, but their RMA service isnt perfect. When I did a cross ship there was a sheet with info on their tests of the board (P6T Deluxe) indicating they tested it with 4GB of RAM. Keeping in mind that this is a triple channel X58 board they obviously tested 2x 2GB sticks meaning they only tested 2 channels. The board works fine, but you think they would be thorough.
 
How are you sure it's defective? It was new, so I assume you've never got it up and running. It is possible you're setting it up incorrectly? If you send it back a 4th time, insist they send you back a refurbished one, so you can be assured you're building it right.
 
reb00tin said:
I'm curious what kind of experience people are having when returning defective mobos to Asus USA.

I returned a new M4A78T-E with multiple defects to Asus RMA Dept in Jeffersonville, IN. A couple of weeks later I received the same mobo which Asus claimed to have repaired, and it was just as defective.

Then I called them again, this time I sent it to their RMA Dept. in Fremont, CA with a prepaid FedEx label. Two weeks later, I got the same mobo back, with a "repair" form saying “tesk ok NTF”. The mobo is still defective.

We have some of the best technicians in the country and when they return hardware as defective, it IS defective. Also, I know that hand-testing individual parts, de-soldering defective components and soldering new ones is economically unfeasible. So frankly I don't believe Asus repairs mobos (why bother when they produce them for $5 in China).
Click to expand...
Went through the same ordeal, but I received the same motherboard back with no information in the included work form. When I powered it up noticed the same exact issue, called them up and found out they couldn't reproduce the issue.
What was frustrating was I provided specific details on how to reproduct the issue and included a replacement motherboard resolved it. My guess is all that necessary documentation they require, is never looked at.
 
lgestle said:
Went through the same ordeal, but I received the same motherboard back with no information in the included work form. When I powered it up noticed the same exact issue, called them up and found out they couldn't reproduce the issue.
What was frustrating was I provided specific details on how to reproduct the issue and included a replacement motherboard resolved it. My guess is all that necessary documentation they require, is never looked at.
Click to expand...

Yeah, they did nearly the same thing to me. I called them back and after dealing with a few different people trying to arrange a replacement, they just hung up on me. When I resubmitted the RMA after that they didn't even respond. At which point I decided to never again buy an Asus product.

Just got my Gigabyte mobo back from their RMA in under a week. Fixed. Glad it wasn't an Asus board.
 
Asus replaced my original motherboard with a crap one where one of the mosfet made noises based on what's on the screen. That was highly annoying, but I didnt bother to send it back and be without a computer for ANOTHER 2 weeks.
 
What does "NFT" mean? If I wanted a repaired/recycled/used mobo I can get one from ebay for $20. When customers spend $150-300 for flagship products they want new and defect-free.

This mobo has several defects, I don't see how Asus could miss them:

- Power switch defective. Pressing power button crashes/hangs or reboots any OS. In text mode it just reboots, you can't turn it off.

- Core unlocker defective, will unlock when cold, 2 minutes later core unlocker fails.

- “Hypertransport Sync Flood Error”, OS randomly crashes & reboots.

- Intermittent USB detection failure at boot time, means OS boots with no mouse.


The defective power switch afflicts several M4A__ series mobos. People were posting about it in the Asus forum but moderators kept deleting the threads! Several threads survived, including one from a guy in Bulgaria who figured a way to repair the defect:

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...d=1&model=M4A79XTD+EVO&page=1&SLanguage=en-us


http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...rd_id=1&model=M4A78T-E&page=1&SLanguage=en-us


http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...rd_id=1&model=M4A78T-E&page=1&SLanguage=en-us


http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...d=1&model=M4A79XTD+EVO&page=1&SLanguage=en-us
 
BTW, I also posted on Hard forum when I first bought the mobo. I think the power button problem stems from a feature Asus added when they first introduced the AM3 product line: They hard-wired the power switch to act as an overclock button. They have since dropped it, probably fearing class-action suits in europe and elsewhere.
 
I just sent M4A785TD-V EVO to Jeffersonville for repair. Hope I have a better outcome than you did.
 
Sounds like the power switch may be a common issue but are the rest of the problems stemming from using the board with a processor that you're attempting to unlock the disabled cores?
 
FunkZ said:
Sounds like the power switch may be a common issue but are the rest of the problems stemming from using the board with a processor that you're attempting to unlock the disabled cores?
Click to expand...

Kinda looks like it.

They're not gonna do anything about the power switch but it didn't seem like a problem when he purchased the board 1.5 yrs ago.

The defective core unlocker may stem from an uncooperative CPU.

Every RMA has a chance for screw-ups but he's sent his to two different locations with no problems found.

There's two sides to every story. :)
 
Does the board work fine with all hardware running at spec? (CPU - appropriate number of cores&clock, RAM at spec) If so, it might just be your other parts.
 
Old Hippie said:
Kinda looks like it.

They're not gonna do anything about the power switch but it didn't seem like a problem when he purchased the board 1.5 yrs ago.

The defective core unlocker may stem from an uncooperative CPU.

Every RMA has a chance for screw-ups but he's sent his to two different locations with no problems found.

There's two sides to every story. :)
Click to expand...


I'm a software guy but I had my technician double-check it, we're certain the board is defective. When it came back from Asus they hadn't even cleared the CMOS. So it looks like Asus did nothing.
 
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