ASUS RMA Hell Part II - MoBo Edition

H

hashish

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 8, 2010
Messages
291
Some of you guys may remember me from GTX680 fiasco with Asus. Well folks I am back. I decided to RMA my Asus motherboard P8Z77-V Deluxe because the BIOS kept crashing no matter if I reflashed and then I noticed a burned electrical trace associated with the one of the case fans.

So again I opted to cross ship because I couldn't be without a computer. I received my motherboard and hooked it up. I tried flashing the latest BIOS with the BIOS Flashback button (a neat little feature), but that wouldn't work. I figured because it was an old BIOS it wasn't working so I did it manually via the BIOS and now I was up and running but my front fan was not working. So I troubleshooted and decided to flash the BIOS again, but the flash back button still didn't work so I still had to do it manually again. Well after some more troubleshooting II determined it is definitely the fan header. So I called and I asked for a replacement, and they said once the get my first motherboard back, they'll send out the next one.

Well a few days after that phone call and still waiting for my replacement, my first RMA motherboard caught on FIRE!! It was literally on fire and It was that same bad fan header that started it. Nothing was hooked up to it and all of sudden is started smoking and then I see a flame from behind my motherboard. Well @#!% me sideways, if I wasn't there at the time someone could have been seriously hurt and I could have lost more than my motherboard.

2014-08-15163012_zpse451f78a.jpg


Just another friendly reminder not to buy ASUS products ever. EVER.
 
Last edited:
Well just got off the phone with Asus and they are not making any special arrangements for me other than providing me a shipping label for this smoking hot motherboard.

I @#$@ Hate Asus! I will never buy anything from them again.
 
Did you consider it might be the fan and not the board? Also did you change the name of the Bios file per the instructions? and with all due respect, why did you automatically decide it was the board? I've had many Asus boards over the years and never a problem with any. I'd venture to say that 99% of the problems people report with Asus boards are self inflicted, then they badmouth Asus when they deny an RMA because you bricked your board through ignorance. Not saying you did but this happens all too often.
 
Last edited:
I normally buy Evga because of their great customer service but their mobos aren't great anymore so I've bought asus. I have z77 and z87 asus mobos and I haven't had any trouble except for one bad board I returned to amazon. But the asus experiences here give me pause. Maybe next time I'll go gigabyte or Msi for my mobo. Thanks for posting.
 
or more to the point, do you smoke weed while assembling your computer?
 
I read all of these kinds of threads with a grain of salt. Especially when people have repeat issues over and over again. If you keep having the same problem with different hardware, it's probably you.

I have never had to RMA a single piece of computer hardware I have owned in my entire life. Not once.
 
I think I am on my 8-9 th Asus board (various models). I've had two go bad and both were RMA'd with no problems.

Bummer you are having bad luck on your end.
 
mothman said:
Did you consider it might be the fan and not the board? Also did you change the name of the Bios file per the instructions? and with all due respect, why did you automatically decide it was the board? I've had many Asus boards over the years and never a problem with any. I'd venture to say that 99% of the problems people report with Asus boards are self inflicted, then they badmouth Asus when they deny an RMA because you bricked your board through ignorance. Not saying you did but this happens all too often.
Click to expand...

Did you not read the post? He said nothing was hooked up to the header on the replacement board where it caught fire.

If a fan was so shorted out that it would cause the board to catch fire, it would most likely cause the wires to melt first... and it wouldn't be working at all. Plus motherboards will in general not even power up if a shorted fan or other shorted component is hooked up to them.
 
cyclone3d said:
Did you not read the post? He said nothing was hooked up to the header on the replacement board where it caught fire.

If a fan was so shorted out that it would cause the board to catch fire, it would most likely cause the wires to melt first... and it wouldn't be working at all. Plus motherboards will in general not even power up if a shorted fan or other shorted component is hooked up to them.
Click to expand...

Yes I read the post, I'm not one of these fucking idiots!............What are the chances of the RMA replacement board burning in the same place he noticed the burnt trace on the original board ? Wouldn't you first check for a short to the case or a shorted fan before RMA ?

This just smells like Stoner Stupidity to me, but please feel free to defend the right to drug and plug.
 
mls1995 said:
I normally buy Evga because of their great customer service but their mobos aren't great anymore so I've bought asus. I have z77 and z87 asus mobos and I haven't had any trouble except for one bad board I returned to amazon. But the asus experiences here give me pause. Maybe next time I'll go gigabyte or Msi for my mobo. Thanks for posting.
Click to expand...
I used to buy EVGA a lot as well, I stopped after z68 due to there late release of Ivy bridge bios. Since then Asus hasn't been bad to me with the past 5 boards I've used from x79 and z97 line. Sure, bad experience with the Rampage IV RMA but they eventually fixed it and it has been running well since November of last year. The other 4 boards haven't been an issue for me or the new owners who have them now. I don't like Asus much and would of loved to give other brands a try but Asus seemed to offer what I wanted. A overkill mATX board for my main system and a cheapish board (z97-P) that could overclock my Pentium. It does 4.7 @ 1.375v so I can't complain.
mls1995 said:
His username is hashish... OP do you smoke weed next to the computer?
Click to expand...
Shouldn't be a big deal if he does/doesn't ;).

The Mac said:
or more to the point, do you smoke weed while assembling your computer?
Click to expand...
Shouldn't add that much difficulty given tolerance with a user name like that :).

cyclone3d said:
Did you not read the post? He said nothing was hooked up to the header on the replacement board where it caught fire.

If a fan was so shorted out that it would cause the board to catch fire, it would most likely cause the wires to melt first... and it wouldn't be working at all. Plus motherboards will in general not even power up if a shorted fan or other shorted component is hooked up to them.
Click to expand...

It's weird indeed the OP's situation.

What kind of PSU he has would be nice to know. It's weird though how he says nothing was hooked to it but it still burnt in the same area.

mothman said:
Yes I read the post, I'm not one of these fucking idiots!............What are the chances of the RMA replacement board burning in the same place he noticed the burnt trace on the original board ? Wouldn't you first check for a short to the case or a shorted fan before RMA ?

This just smells like Stoner Stupidity to me, but please feel free to defend the right to drug and plug.
Click to expand...

I've had an RMA from EVGA come DOA twice, and a bent pin after an RMA with ASUS caused by them. These boards flow off the assembly, and are handled with less care then what we would give them. Bad products make it out to the consumer inevitably in forms like these, so we can't automatically assume it's entirely user error. Though given this site, I've seen some odd stuff where users have been on here 7+ years but never heard of an RMA when something dies or performing a bios flash.
 
Last edited:
OP, you sure you don't have a standoff under the mobo near that burn mark?

Traces usually don't spontaneously combust.
 
felt said:
How creative, did you come up with that yourself?
Click to expand...
I did.

Feel free to use it in any more "my Asus product caught on fire for the third time and it's totally not my fault in any way" threads. Oh, and maybe it would be better to spell spontaneous with a dollar sign as well.

A$pontaneousU$.
 
I must chime in and say my gene v also had a fan header regulator (not the fan header but the 3 pin SMD component near it, likely a vreg) light on fire and now the corresponding header doesn't work.

Meh.
 
I'm no expert but would all those flash bios failures have anything to do with it? Sounds like the bios may have got botched too in his process. I could see where it may brick the mobo but could it cause the dead fan header as well? As to the fire on second mobo all I can say is Wow!
 
Just be thankful you didn't find a floppy molex connector on your 4-pin fan header. I had a customer bring in a DIY system *this year*... Once the molex was unplugged, only the fan header was dead.

More useful, MAKE SURE you don't have a standoff under that fan header, or anywhere else under the board.
 
mothman said:
Yes I read the post, I'm not one of these fucking idiots!............What are the chances of the RMA replacement board burning in the same place he noticed the burnt trace on the original board ? Wouldn't you first check for a short to the case or a shorted fan before RMA ?

This just smells like Stoner Stupidity to me, but please feel free to defend the right to drug and plug.
Click to expand...

Saying to check the fan when there supposedly isn't a fan even hooked up to the header makes no sense.

Of course there could be a short to the case or something.. but that is not what was being discussed.
 
cyclone3d said:
Saying to check the fan when there supposedly isn't a fan even hooked up to the header makes no sense.

Of course there could be a short to the case or something.. but that is not what was being discussed.
Click to expand...

He said his front fan was not working when he got the new board. Therefore, I figure it was in use before it caught fire. (At least that is the way I read it.)
 
Sorry haven't had a chance to respond. FYI, I am an electrical engineer and no I'm not a stoner.

The header was bad to begin with. None of the bios flashes were ever bad, they couldn't be performed via USB Flashback feature because that button was defective.

I've been building systems for 20 years and I've never seen anything like this. At one while I worked IT in college I was responsible for like 15,000 computers. I've seen alot in my lifetime, but never a motherboard spontaneously combust and actually damage my case. The powder coating my case bubbled and melted.
 
Update, they were supposed to overnight a mobo to me yesterday with a return shipping label. On the phone right now and basically I was lied to again. No one actually went through that process and they still think I have to mail back this defective board first. Supposed to be in contact with a supervisor and I was hung up on.
 
I have no personal experience with Asus RMA, but I'd think that if the process were really as hellish as you suggest more people would be complaining here.
 
wabbitseason said:
I have no personal experience with Asus RMA, but I'd think that if the process were really as hellish as you suggest more people would be complaining here.
Click to expand...

I had to rma a 939 asus mobo where it developed some issues. It was pretty painless and took about 2 weeks total. Though that was about 6 or 7 years ago.
 
Just got a call back from Asus, apparently they will not guarantee that it is covered. They said they will look at it and try to determine what the issue is but they cannot guarantee it will get replaced. It was operational for 3 days, and they think it could have been my fault. My power supply is working perfectly fine and my fan is working perfectly in another system. They have never had problems.

To boot, they would not provide any shipping assistance other than a label. So I would have to go out and buy boxes, electrostatic bags, and bubble wrap. Robert Pryor at Asus (Pegatron) was rude and was not helpful at all. He would not put me in touch with his superiors and he would not escalate the issue at all. The turn around would be another 2 weeks to boot.
 
To answer some questions:

@Kritter So no stand off in the area. Only the ones that correspond to the mounting screw holes.

@mothman BIOS flashed fine via the BIOS tool, but not the flashback button. The button was faulty, the file was renamed properly with the renaming tool. That is not the issue. Board is not bricked Fan works fine, tested in other systems and currently working perfectly right now.

@mls1995 Nope don't smoke weed

@cyclone3d Yeah if the fan was bad, it would probably fail but it is working perfectly fine right now.

@mothman No one said the original burned trace was the same header. Actually the original burned trace was associated with the OPT. CPU header fan hooked up to an H100i (which never leaked). I'm not a stoner, I'm acutally an electrical engineer and honestly most here was agree with me that you sound like the idiot in the conversation.

@Shogon I have a brand new EVGA SuperNOVA 850. Works great and worked fine in two other systems with no issues. Actually it was an OCZ 650W power supply hooked up to the original. The 850W was used in another build of mine but I brought it over to this system (the intended system) with the new board because because I had to tear it down (rebuilding systems for no reason takes alot of time). Both PSU's still run perfectly fine.

@schmuckley I'm feeling that sentiment right now

@Skott Never a botched BIOS flash, the bios flash back button (if you are not familiar) lets you flash a bios directly from a fat32 usb drive. The button wouldn't respond so I had to to it manually from the bios. Not an issue there, just couldn't use the feature.

@Manofgod Once I figured out the fan header was completely bad I had no reason to use it so it remained disconnected. All other headers and all fans work perfectly fine.

BTW, the burn marks are at the PWM pin. My fan was a 3 pin anyways.

Also I've only RMA'd 4 computer components (of my own) in my life: one Asus Video card (you can see my other post about that experience), this Asus motherboard, and OCZ's early PCIE SSD's (which were terrible products replete with design failures and RMA's), and one Gigabyte motherboard whose Ethernet port went bad (man that process was a dream compared to Asus).

OK I think I am caught up. Let me know if you guys have any other questions.
 
wabbitseason said:
I have no personal experience with Asus RMA, but I'd think that if the process were really as hellish as you suggest more people would be complaining here.
Click to expand...

I am surprised that you have not seen any of the multiple threads here that are dedicated to ASUS' hellish support.
 
I can totally sympathize with you OP: I sent a ASUS board back to them 5+ years ago, I printed the exact instructions to replicate the issue I had. A 5-year old could follow these instructions and replicate the issue all day long. They sent it back saying they could not replicate the issue, I send it back, they sent it back again saying they couldn't replicate the issue. Ended up having to call up lawyer friend and he "convinced" them to replace the damn board.

I do tell people that Asus products are generally fine *when they are working fine* but if they have a problem, oh heaven forbid they have to RMA it. Asus really really needs to step up their RMA game and based on your problem it sounds like that honestly hasn't really happened.
 
So what's a solid board like ASUS was back in the day?

Heck maybe i'll get that crazy supermicro gaming board :p
 
Entilza said:
So what's a solid board like ASUS was back in the day?

Heck maybe i'll get that crazy supermicro gaming board :p
Click to expand...

Probably Gigabyte.

I had an EP45-UDP3 and I now have one of their x58 boards in the wifey's computer.

Neither board has given me any trouble... the EP45 board did spark a couple times near the RAM slots (resistors) which caused a reboot.. but the board kept on working so I never bothered RMAing it. It is still in use in a family member's computer.

ASRock has nice boards, but they generally don't have as many tweaking options in the BIOS as ASUS or Gigabyte.

I had one of their x58 boards and it didn't overclock very well... bclk was only good to around 190. I kept that board as a spare and bought an ASUS board which ended up being a lot better overclocker, but it died and then ASUS sent me a physically damaged board as a replacement. Then they basically told me to pound sand when it died after a week of use.. taking the CPU with it.

I contacted Newegg about it, and they offered to refund me the original purchase price for the board.

I upgraded to my x79 system when the replacement board died. I had already ordered my x79 board and 3820 from Newegg before I contacted them about the ASUS x58 board.

The reason I chose ASRock for the x79 board was because of the slot layout. All other x79 boards at the time had less than desirable slot layout or had other documented issues.

The ASRock x58 board I had is also still running fine in a family member's computer.
 
wabbitseason said:
I have no personal experience with Asus RMA, but I'd think that if the process were really as hellish as you suggest more people would be complaining here.
Click to expand...

LOL, you should do a forum search. Asus is known for its terrible RMA support.
 
Entilza said:
So what's a solid board like ASUS was back in the day?

Heck maybe i'll get that crazy supermicro gaming board :p
Click to expand...

Nothing is that solid anymore. Too many companies trying to pack too many under developed "features" onto their under designed boards. Even Intel is guilty now days. Used to be you cuold buy an Intel board, and not sweat anything, except not bieng able to OC anything.

I think you just spend what you are willing to part with, for the features and specs you want, and hope for the best.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top