Fed up with Abit

D

Deimos

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Aug 10, 2004
Messages
1,195
I've had my fair share of Abit motherboards, you could say I have been somewhat loyal, I have had all of about 7-10 abit motherboards in my computer history.

Mostly they were pretty good, but there has always been some sort of underlying problem, something wierd and obscure, or something common.

Just for interests sake, I'm going to list some of these wierd problems, I would like to hear other peoples experiences with what ever brand motherboard they have had, so please chime in with your problems over the years.

My first [H]ard core enthusiast system was an Abit KT7-133R with an XP2000+ and half a gig of ram (unheard of when it was new, the days of Windows 98, you had to "hack" 98 just to get it to run half a gig of ram). it was a beast, but due to the fact that I had a SB Live, there was a little issue called the VIA PCI latency bug, where, if you played sound while copying files from here to there, the files would be corrupted.

not long after that DDR came around, I upgraded to the Abit KX7333-R and a gig if DDR400, switched to the Thoroughbred B XP2000+ and overclocked like there was no tomorrow, however, something strange happened, when booting, my mouse would not detect (MS Intelli mouse) the problem occurred more if the mouse was plugged in to an extension cable, and you would have to unplug the thing several times to get it to work, after an expensive mouse upgrade (Explorer 3) problem solved, one more thing, my monitor would not power off when shutting down the PC, Expensive video card upgrade (Radeon 8500) problem solved, but why should any of this be a problem from a simple mobo upgrade??

A bit longer goes by and now I have an Athlon 64 with an Abit A8N and 2 gig of ram, only the ram I have has not been tested with my motherboard, and it throws errors when testing the ram, are we going backwards?? these are some of the most common memory modules around (Winbond) and they won't work on my motherboard??

One final gripe I have, I have a couple of servers, no video cards, I just use remote desktop, these motherboards are happy to boot without a video card, as long as you set the BIOS not to stop if no video is present (Asus and Soltek) after upgrading my mobo, I put my old on in one of my server and find out that Abit does not support this feature!! forget emailing them and asking for a BIOS update, they will NEVER reply (I have emailed them regarding numerous issues and never had a response), other companies are only too happy to help (I have had a response from Soltek within 24 hours).

So I'm fed up with Abit, next mobo is probably going to be Asus.
 
I only have experience with two boards: an Asus A7V600-X and an Asus K8N4-E Deluxe.

For whatever reason, the sound on both only worked when I had the latest Realtek audio driver. I can`t remember every detail, but I find I had to find the right combination of drivers or lack of drivers like Nvidia IDE driver for example for things to work well. It`s kind of sad in a way because it makes the whole business of building you own look difficult and annoying. The Asus K8N4-E Deluxe for example had a faulty chipset fan. I had to put on a Zalman NB47J and attach a 40mm fan on it (blue Coolermaster LED fan taken from a Coolermaster heatsink).
 
I'm sad to hear that ABITS support suckes. I was going to get an SLI board of theirs for my first build.
 
Able4 said:
I'm said to hear that ABITS support suckes. I was going to get an SLI board of theirs for my first build.
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I wouldn't go elsewhere just for that reason. ABIT's support does suck, but so does the support elsewhere. That's what the [H ] forums are for!

Sorry to hear of your disappointments, but some of those are chipset/software issues more than ABIT.

All manufacturers lay eggs, and ABIT has certainly done that, but I was just thinking that after about a year of flailing aimlessly and getting shelled by lesser knowns like DFI and Epox, the newer ABIT boards seem to have come around.
 
Don't be fooled, before I got my AN8 I got a real lemon, the AX8 (VIA K8T800 chipset) it was a complete POS, windows would not load on to my RAID array, when using the raid driver floppies I got errors during install, had to download the VIA raid drivers to get it to work, after loading windows, I found that while copying files through the network with the on board LAN, the network connection would stop working after a few seconds, couldn't ping out or in, no connectivity what so ever, had to reboot to get it to work again, then I found out that the chipset did not support dual core, took it back and swapped out for the AN8.

A few years back I upgraded from my KX7 to a AT7 MAX2, something dodgy was going on with that thing too, I spend nearly $2000 on new components troubleshooting prime95 errors, replaced CPU, bought an enermax PSU (top of the line back then) spend about $800 on top quality ram but it would still throw errors, I sent it back but because the problem was so random I couldn't get a return, I actually had to fry the board to get them to take it back, and the replacement worked fine.

If you looked at the bottom of the board you could see a cap had been replaced (soldering marks on the board) so now every time I get a new board I check for marks on it for signs of repair.
 
superkdogg said:
I wouldn't go elsewhere just for that reason. ABIT's support does suck, but so does the support elsewhere. That's what the [H ] forums are for!

Sorry to hear of your disappointments, but some of those are chipset/software issues more than ABIT.

All manufacturers lay eggs, and ABIT has certainly done that, but I was just thinking that after about a year of flailing aimlessly and getting shelled by lesser knowns like DFI and Epox, the newer ABIT boards seem to have come around.
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Yeah I guess I'll still get an ABIT, less then the asus but still sounds good and I think it will be perfect for my first build, just hope it fits in my case.
 
Asus has good support. when the chipfan crapped out(thanx alot FEAR), they sent me a new revised one that came in a few days free of charge and no questions asked
 
building computers for the last 8 years ive had my share of all brands of motherboards.the model of abit boards i had worked well and offered bios options found no where else.i have had abit boards go bad.the nf4 line of boards had problems out of the gate which was not like abit of years ago.im still a fan of abit but im a little more choosey when buying them these days.i wonder what the new an8 32sli board is like.its the a series that had so many problems.the layout of the board really sucks.what board designer would make such a layout.they miss oscar woo bad.
from my experience the best motherboard maker has got to be asus.ive used many of there boards and only had 1 board that was doa.i use asus in most of my customer builds and usually for my personal build.ive never had one fail in a customer build and thats after 8 years.for the most part there layout is superb and their bios gets upgraded frequently.i find them hard to beat.there not dfi o/clockable but for moderate o/clocks they work well.they are for sure quality boards.its hard to go another route when youve had the luck ive had with this brand.its literally hard to get any better.im sure there are other brands out there that perform as well and ive tryed some of them from time to time and have had good results but asus has been used by me for a long time.something thats hard to say and this is in all honesty i have never bought an asus board and been dissappointed with its performance or having the board fail.1 doa and it was taken care of quickly and no questions asked....just my 2cents from my experience with asus boards.
 
IMO, Abit has been going down hill for awhile now. I personally wish they would get back in the game here. Hopefully now that USI bought out their motherboard division, they may get back to being "top dog" again. But that may be wishfull thinking on my part. An Abit Marketing Manager stated in an interview that they were going to be looking into the mainstream and budget segments. Again IMO, they should have listened to their customers in the first place. How many times have I heard "why dont they do this" or "change this" but nothing was ever done. The enthusiast mATX boards are one area where I think Abit should have jumped on. I can guarantee Biostar made money there. Abit touted themselves as "built by overclockers for overclockers" for years. Thats how they got their name out there, they catered to what we wanted. Now ,with USI's help, hopefully we will see that again from them. I really doubt it, but hey, a guy can dream right? :D
 
I think all the manufacturers have pro and cons.
I've built about 500 custom PC in the pass using everyone from Trend to Supermicro...
About 100 of those were Abit and it really depends on the chipset and how early the builds are. Any company that sway from the reference design will risk complications and you as the buyer will pay for it if it is not tested enough so if you go and buy the first release then you will gamble on a lemon with any manufactures. We have been crying about how many bugs Miscrosoft introduces but we still use Windows for the most part especially for gaming...
All I can say is I have had my fair share of issues with every manufacturers. As for BIOS support, they are only obligated for BIOS upgrade for the life of their motherboard... meaning shelf life, when you stop seeing it at the store then they have no real obligation to make BIOS updates... they give you 1 year warranty of defect normally and in all manual state support for current products... With hardware moving forward so fast, 6mos is average shelf life for most motherboards. So stop complaining about old products needing drivers and BIOS support...
As for getting help, be smart and go around the email and phone screening. You have to understand about at least 100 users contact them a day with RMA request alone... Abit-USA only have a dept of about 7 for customer support and about 10 QA Engs, I have been there... in Fremont, CA. They are very helpful but most of the time your email and calls gets screen and dumped due to lack of info. Fill out the correct paperwork, they usually will contact you within 24 hours. As for BIOS, sometimes they will give you BETA BIOS if you know how to ask. As for the older motherboards you are trying to save... why?
 
As has been said already most problems are generic & you will see the same problems on motherboard from different manufacturers using the same chipset.

All the major manufacturers support is as good/bad as each other.
Having said that the Abit-USA forum is 1 of the best forums that I have found (DFI-Street is good too but imo doesn't have quite the same community feel - it can be a bit dismissive).

Abit's latest boards are looking very good & they are making all the right noises re. the USI takeover. Only time will tell if they live up to them.
 
Speaking of ABIT, I went on Newegg today and went to my wishlist. The AN8 32X wasn't their. I looked through all the ABIT boards and didn't see it. Is newegg not going to sell them for a while if at all?
 
I think that they have already had some & sold out.
The same with the AT8.
 
I've had no problems with my last two Abit boards. I'm going to be ordering another one tomorrow. Each manufacturer has it's own share of problems. The problem is that the consumer doesn't do enough research. Prior to buying my AN8, I searched several forums to make sure that the memory I was getting worked well with the board. Lo and behold, it worked flawlessly. Sure, you have problems with it, but for every person like you complaining, there are 100 others running it just fine and dandy. :)
 
newegg did have it as i was looking at it for a possible purchase.it was 209.00 a few days ago.id really like to read some reviews on this board.im torn between the asus a8n 32sli, msi diamond plus and the dfi expert and the abit 32 sli board.some reviews of the abit would be good as it seems they have been ignored with the run of nf4 boards.im really hoping this board is a good one for their sake.the layout isnt the greatest but i could deal if the board turned out to be a real winner.if i was abit i would have made sure this board came out with few issues and a great performer.im leaning to the dfi expert but lord knows its a picky beast.the msi has a nice layout,the asus seems good other than a temp issue,runs hot,the abit im hoping is gonna be the perfect board im looking for.
 
Once apon a time Abit made what was to me, the opitome of the ultimate motherboard, The AT7-MAX2, but like I said earlier, even my first one had a problem, the replacement works fine.

what made it good? the layout, the performance, the features, the look, the BIOS, the insane voltage possibilities (up to 3.3 Volt for the memory, leathal CPU voltage options) and I still have it.

Why am I trying to "save" my old boards? do you throw the old stuff away? I have 4 PCs and common sense is to upgrade the bast and trickle down the old gear to other PCs such as my HTPC, but since the board is not suitable for a server, it leaves me with less choices for upgrades, all I want is one feature that everyone else supports, and its a simple BIOS upgrade, this feature is not supported by Abit at all, yet every other manufacturer supports it and it would cost Abit very little to add it. (a few hours labour) yet when I email Abit (I'm in NZ by the way, and have to email Abit in China) I don't even get a response, what is up with that?
 
LOL...
LIke I said... you have to be smart. Why are you emailing CHINA? :confused: ;) :rolleyes: :eek: They have a QA and support dept in Fremont, CA. Do a little research guy. No wonder why they do not reply. OMG... get real.
And as for old stuff. Dude I have 6 PC, 1 game server, 1 multimedia server and 3 laptops. When I upgrade to my new system then I pass the old system down until they are useless. I try to sale it as much as I can. Right now I have 2 gaming PC, 1 work PC, 1 spare and 2 for the kids. When a board can not do what I need it will go on ebay... most of the time you can get a decent board for $50... you are funny. All this effort to save an old mobo... Why don't you spend about $69 and get the combo at Outpost for a 2600+, NF3 and HSF instead of bothering with all the crapping on a manufacturer because you do not get your way. Just curious, when you bought that mobo, did what every function you need exist? You every thought it can be a chipset or hardware limitation and that ABIT is not trying to screw you be you screwed yourself by not researching what you want?
Just FYI, I just bought a KN8-SLI and AN32X for testing... I currenty burning in a 3700+ and Opty 146. I will keep the better of the 2 and return what the rest. I tested HTT and it is hitting 340, no sweat. Very stable. I am hoping one of them to hit 3GHz+.
Another thing... I just lost 2 DFI board, my NF3-250GB memory controller is getting unstable, narrowed it down to issue with mobo, possible leaking cap and my NF4 SLI-DR PWM took a crap. Maybe I should start a thread to crap on DFI now???
 
Did I mention I live in New Zealand? oh yeah I did.

That means that I pay %50 more for my gear than you do, I don't have options for buying equipment from Newegg or the likes, we have a New Zealand ebay (Trademe) but finding a socked A board on there is like finding a small needle in a very large haystack, new Socket A motherboards cannot be purchased here any more (I already checked earlier today), and I am not interested in having someone from the US ship me a second hand board because %50 of the time it never arrives, not economical.

Current employment status is self employed so money is limited, and the fact that I have spent money on a board should mean I get at least SOME support, please keep in mind that I have requested this over the course of a FEW YEARS too, and also have sent numerous emails to the nz/aus devision of support, but that ends up in China, the boards are developed and produced in China, and also it is not unreasonable to expect there to be english speakers in the company doing support.

When comparing this to other companies support, such as Soltek, I know they are not a well known brand, however, I emailed china for support once and recieved a reply within a few hours, and after I resolved the issue I let them know how and they took the time to THANK me, thats 2 emails in the space of a day, and Abit does not even make an attempt Abit = teh suck

Here is another one for you, I have 3 ATI video cards, a Radeon 8500, 9800 and X850, all are still recieving updated drivers, and ATI have also replied to emails requesting support.

What I'm trying to say is, Abit is the only company that has failed to support thier products (for me anyway), they have failed to even respond with a simple "no" or "go away", when I was testing my brand new AT7-MAX2 for instability I emailed Abit and the people who make Prime95 (to see if it was a glitch in the software) and guess who emailed and guess who didn't, and guess what the problem was, Abit didn't even suggest to me ways of troubleshooting the board, no RMA number, nothing, the replacement board work like a charm, and the lack of any response from Abit speaks volumes to me.

I don't want to argue the fact that Abit sucks for support, I don't care that it doesn't support the features that I want for my server right now (that problem has already been worked around by an extensive rebuild session), what I want is people to know that if they have problems with Abit, they don't stand a shit show of getting support, you said it your self, they have 7 people for support in the US, that is pathetic, simple as that, and that is why I am sick of Abit.
 
One more thing about research, try researching the latest and greatest boards, let me tell you one thing, reviews for motherboards have no mention of support, ever.

go have a look at some Abit reviews, no one ever mentions support, review sites normally get review samples direct from the manufacturer correct? so if the reviewer runs in to problems, they have a contact inside the company to help out, consumers don't have that luxury, so why don't reviews include the support process in the review? will it ever happen?

So here it is, my 2c: if you get an Abit board, your pretty much on your own.
 
I've built many pc and ABIT is my fav as in brand.

I would say ABIT, ASUS + DFI are top. I had the easiest time putting up my DFI btw.

I choose ABIT over those simply because in my experiences they have been good OC'ers, stable and the nicest looking ones. Only complaint is placement of certain things, IDE and at times bridges.

Don't get me wrong, ASUS and DFI are great, but I would choose an ABIT then DFI then ASUS.

Fortunately, I've never really had to deal with any of them for support (serious issues). Small things there is DFI street and ABIT forums which help. Asus i dunno. Then again that is why H is here!!!

Hmmm though EPOX has come along way... Even Bstar with the new Tforce series.

I would stay away from Junkabyte and SOYO... ugh + worst support.
 
I had an AN8-Ultra for a little while. It worked pretty well, albeit unexceptionally, until a little while ago when it suddenly went insane for no apparent reason and wouldn't recognize IDE or SATA devices properly or boot to Windows. I had to send it back to ABIT and I went with the Biostar TForce4SLI in my sig. Too bad this new board turned out to be defective as well (bad RJ-45 jack), but that's another post for another time.

If you ask me, I think ABIT's still a good company - my RMA for the AN8-Ultra was processed so quickly I was amazed - but they've really got to get back in the game and start making it on their own like they used to. At the very least, the AN8 line should be a valuable learning experience for ABIT - valuable as in if they try to pass off product lines like the AN8's again then they could find themselves losing even more market share.

Enough with the overpriced Fatal1ty crap that nobody buys. Gamers don't care about Johnathan Wendell...because we're too proud of ourselves to care about him :p. But on a more serious note, the mark-ups on the Fatal1ty boards were obscene for what little more you got for your money (which overall amounted to nothing more than some shiny blingitty-bling and a bunch of little screaming fans).

Enough with the bad layouts. Cramming the memory slots together and placing the IDE connectors at such awkward positions are two big no-no's. Even the Fatal1ty series had the same design problems as the cheaper boards - which definitely didn't help their marketability at all.

And honestly, they should really make uGuru more than a marketing gimmick. The Guru software "suite", if you can call it that, is a collection of tools that are handy but could be easily downloaded off the internet for free.
 
Shorehn said:
And honestly, they should really make uGuru more than a marketing gimmick. The Guru software "suite", if you can call it that, is a collection of tools that are handy but could be easily downloaded off the internet for free.
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I found the uGuru software to be very handy. Very convenient to be able to control the BIOS from Windows, including voltage controls.
 
Deimos,

I take everything back... I think your problem is far more then just ABIT...
Maybe I am spoiled being in the US. I used to live in Santa Clara, CA about 15 minute drive to almost every single tech company... If I can nto get them on the phone I would go there and raise hell. I used to run my own consulting company building custom PC and maintaining them for small businesses, sort of an mobile IT.
Now that I am in WA... they are too far to drive to but at least I know how to get around things.

I had no idea what NZ was... New Zealand... wow, guess that is like being a techie in the farm country here... internet and rip off store is all you have? Maybe I was far out but hey... I really think ABIT is not your main problem but maybe where you live does not give much chance of support...? Next time get pay for warranty from the store you by it from so you can deal with them direct? Who knows.

Good luck guy, I would not want to be you.

For US support, ABIT is great. Worked with them for about 9 years, no complaints
BTW, 7 CS and 10 QA for a off-site dept is a lot. That is just their US support dept. That way you do not have to deal out of country. Most company do not even have that.
Shit I worked for a graphics card (GPU) company... at that time we were the nVidia of the world until Micron screwed us... anyhow, we only had 3 CS and 7 QA... and we were the corp office. What are you talking about.
 
Shorehn said:
At the very least, the AN8 line should be a valuable learning experience for ABIT - valuable as in if they try to pass off product lines like the AN8's again then they could find themselves losing even more market share.
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Strange, a lot of people would say that the AN8s are good boards :confused:

Enough with the bad layouts. Cramming the memory slots together and placing the IDE connectors at such awkward positions are two big no-no's.
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I agree with you that a bit more space between the DIMM would be good but I don't have any problems with the IDE connector placement.
 
I havn't had any problems with my 2 latest Abit boards... Course, they were the BH5 and BX5...

I've had flakes from a bunch of different brands... MSI, Gigabyte, DFI... hell, even the onboard Gigabit on my Asus P4C800-E Deluxe is flaking out (and I have a friend who's just started flaking as well... and my GF's onboard on her P4C800 Deluxe died a year ago....) But just like anything else, I think it's mainly luck of the draw... I've seen tones of people have no problems with very problem ridden tech...
 
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