Maximus VII Formula installation ended rather unexpectedly!

magictoaster

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 6, 2005
Messages
454
I received my Maximus VII Formula yesterday and it all ended rather unexpectedly (to say the least):

http://i.imgur.com/pm0h9ih.jpg <-- Burn marks on the back of the motherboard near the IO/shield.
http://i.imgur.com/q3yXiFQ.jpg <-- Slight discoloration on the back of the motherboard where the mPCIe Combo III connector is mounted.
http://i.imgur.com/MIL6JPw.jpg <-- Burned mPCIe Combo III connector on the motherboard.
http://i.imgur.com/QPWUW2k.jpg <-- Burned pins on the mPCIe Combo III card.

The mPCIe Combo III card and its connector on the motherboard started melting. This happened when I tried to power-up the motherboard with only the CPU and memory installed. I have doubled-checked everything that could explain the issue (that I could think of):

- Motherboard making contact with the case (it did not)
- Superfluous motherboard standoffs making contact with the motherboard (no the case)
- Malfunctioning PSU or defective PSU cables (I tested the PSU with the same cables and everything is working perfectly)
- mPCIe Combo III installed the wrong way (that would be really difficult since it's keyed to only go in only one way)

Luckily the CPU and Memory are working fine (I tested everything with an 'old' G1.Sniper 5 last night just to make sure).

I have requested an RMA from the vendor (NCIX) and they sent the pictures to their vendor relations team for approval. Never had any issues with NCIX so this will hopefully end well (even if the 'vendor relations team for approval' part doesn&#8217;t sound encouraging). Any idea what I could have missed that would have cause this?

Edit: Strangest thing is that the board was still powering up and cycling thru the usual boot codes (but it was stalling at debug code 99). I did not try to power-it up again without the mPCIe Combo III card since I was to afraid it would simply catch fire or ruin the CPU and/or memory.
 
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Hopefully it doesn't turn into RMA hell with burn damage. Asus doesn't like to take responsibility for that, but hopefully NCIX helps you out.
 
It looks to me like the insert shorted against the socket.
I hope you don't have to argue with ASUS about this.
If ASUS gets involved you will undoubtedly be implicated in the damage.....ie Customer Induced Damage and you will be rejected.

ASUS will blame you.

They will say YOU inserted the card incorrectly and caused electrical damage which is not covered in their warranty.

If I was you I would do my damnedest to work with NCIX.

You can try your hand with contacting Raja the ASUS rep here on the forums, but the last time we saw burn damage, it was a guy who had a GPU flame up on him and it took a huge thread on this forum to get ASUS to finally see that the guy did nothing wrong.

Initially Raja tried to blame the guy, too.

The guy had to really stand his ground, but eventually ASUS saw the light.

All I can say is good luck, and I hope you have excellent documentation.:D
 
It looks to me like the insert shorted against the socket.
I hope you don't have to argue with ASUS about this.
If ASUS gets involved you will undoubtedly be implicated in the damage.....ie Customer Induced Damage and you will be rejected.

I was thinking that it was possible that I could have inserted the card incorrectly or incorrectly inserted the EATX12V_1 connector. I'm far from infallible! ;) But I'm pretty certain that I check that everything was OK before pushing the power button... I'll try not to lose much sleep over this and see what NCIX and/or Asus can do (if anything).

In the meantime I think I'll order an EVGA Classified or FTW since it's stock and I've always wanted to try one of their motherboard again...
 
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That mobo looks magically toasted. :D

I'd second siding along with NCIX for now and see what light they can shed on this problem. Going directly head on with Asus is a big no.
 
Quick update if anyone is interested...

I have heard back from NCIX and so far no one told me to go forth and multiply. Asus asked NCIX to find out how was my system setup (bar with power filter, components setup, and so on).

Nothing unreasonable and out of the ordinary. If Asus is being difficult (and I have absolutely no reason to believe they are based on the exchanges I've had so far) NCIX is not letting it show. I guess it is positive&#8230;
 
Quick update if anyone is interested...

I have heard back from NCIX and so far no one told me to go forth and multiply. Asus asked NCIX to find out how was my system setup (bar with power filter, components setup, and so on).

Nothing unreasonable and out of the ordinary. If Asus is being difficult (and I have absolutely no reason to believe they are based on the exchanges I've had so far) NCIX is not letting it show. I guess it is positive&#8230;

The seller.....NCIX, should have taken this board back already, no questions asked.
It's generally a seller issue in the first 30 days, unless indicated on their website.

ASUS is going to attempt to frustrate you until you give up, if past problems on this forum are any example.
You will undoubtedly get the same board back if they are the RMA depot, with a little note saying "CID" ie "customer-induced-damage". Or fire is not covered under their warranty. Pick one.
 
It appears that for issues like this they work with Asus before accepting an RMA (probably because it is more complex than a simple DOA).

Sorry if I did not make it clear but NCIX are dealing with ASUS, not me. I'm only dealing with NCIX for the time being and since I have never had a bad experience dealing with them I'm more than willing to give them the time to work things out (within reason).
 
It appears that for issues like this they work with Asus before accepting an RMA (probably because it is more complex than a simple DOA).

Sorry if I did not make it clear but NCIX are dealing with ASUS, not me. I'm only dealing with NCIX for the time being and since I have never had a bad experience dealing with them I'm more than willing to give them the time to work things out (within reason).

It's good to have someone between you and ASUS.
I only had one bad board from them, and I simply sent it back to newegg and they sent me out a new replacement, no questions asked.
 
It's good to have someone between you and ASUS.
I only had one bad board from them, and I simply sent it back to newegg and they sent me out a new replacement, no questions asked.

With NCIX it's usually simply a matter of asking for an RMA and receiving an approval almost in the same day without questions. But since this kind of issue must be quite unusual (and probably because it is ASUS) they have to double-check...

Since I cannot really wait for NCIX response I&#8217;ve already ordered a Z97 FTW and a Z97 Classified from Amazon. I'll only keep one and send the other one back (and unopened) for a refund at Amazon (I was able to negotiate a budget bump with my wife). I'm pretty sure I&#8217;ll keep the FTW (the Classified has a weird issue where you must use slot 2 and 4 instead of 1 and 2 to get 16x/16x in SLI and I&#8217;m not sure it is entirely worth it compared to the FTW considering that the price difference is almost 250$ CAD).
 
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Good news! Asus is accepting the motherboard back so NCIX are issuing the RMA. It took a few days to get resolved but the technical support specialist at NCIX kept me informed of the progress on a daily basis (sometime more than once a day so I can't complain!). So nothing bad to say about Asus and certainly nothing bad to say about NCIX. :)

It's a good thing especially considering that the Z97 Classified that I had ordered from Amazon arrived in a really poor state (thank you UPS and poor Amazon packaging). I'll reorder something else from NCIX since the boards I want are back in stock.
 
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It looks to me like the insert shorted against the socket.
I hope you don't have to argue with ASUS about this.
If ASUS gets involved you will undoubtedly be implicated in the damage.....ie Customer Induced Damage and you will be rejected.

ASUS will blame you.

They will say YOU inserted the card incorrectly and caused electrical damage which is not covered in their warranty.

If I was you I would do my damnedest to work with NCIX.

You can try your hand with contacting Raja the ASUS rep here on the forums, but the last time we saw burn damage, it was a guy who had a GPU flame up on him and it took a huge thread on this forum to get ASUS to finally see that the guy did nothing wrong.

Initially Raja tried to blame the guy, too.

The guy had to really stand his ground, but eventually ASUS saw the light.

All I can say is good luck, and I hope you have excellent documentation.:D

Magoo I said there were two sides to every story. Don't quote me out of context again. In fact, don't quote me at all.

Thank you.
 
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Magoo I said there were two sides to every story. Don't quote me out of context again. In fact, don't quote me at all.

Thank you.

I think you are being a bit easy on yourself there Raja..You most definitely came across as it was the GPU owner's fault. I followed that thread from the very first post and you guys (Asus) did everything possible to wear the poor guy down hoping he would go away, and I truly believe it was the [H]ard Community that got him a "free replacement" in the form of the Nvidia 770 you guys FINALLY sent him.
 
Magoo I said there were two sides to every story. Don't quote me out of context again. In fact, don't quote me at all.

Thank you.

Sure.
I dont believe there's much to say.
That thread speaks for itself.

If you cant stand the heat......
 
Magoo I said there were two sides to every story. Don't quote me out of context again. In fact, don't quote me at all.

Thank you.

Wow, what a shitty way to respond. Your best move was not to play, but damn boy did you ever take the bait.

More nails in the Asus Support Coffin I guess.
 
Wow, what a shitty way to respond. Your best move was not to play, but damn boy did you ever take the bait.

More nails in the Asus Support Coffin I guess.

I will respond where I see fit.
 
Sure.
I dont believe there's much to say.
That thread speaks for itself.

If you cant stand the heat......

I can more than stand the heat thanks. I have a right to respond when someone like you plays games.
 
I can more than stand the heat thanks. I have a right to respond when someone like you plays games.

Look man, if you think I have some kind of adgenda, you are flat out wrong.
If you think I'm trying to troll you or ASUS, you are once again wrong.

I'm merely speaking the truth about what happened before and the poor treatment that other guy got., from a billion dollar international company over a lousy 300 dollar GPU.

You're the one who's whinning here. You want to call me out, go right ahead.
But I'll tell you flat out to go stick your head somewhere dark.

I'm very glad to see the OP was treated fairly and not accused of customer induced damage.

I'll tell you something else......personally, I own several high ticket enthusiast ASUS products, I have always purchased ASUS motherboards, with few exceptions....you want to see them, I'll send you pictures. I've only had one ASUS RMA in 12 years.
So no, I have nothing personal against ASUS or you. I got no dog in this fight.

But....I am through with you guys and your attitude.

I just finished a two office project......over 40 machines custom built for the business......and not a single ASUS product was used.

Please define...."someone like you". Do you know me personally? Have we met? The only thing you "know" about me is I criticized your treatment of one of your customers.
 
You dont know me either. Yet you make statements on my behalf as if you do At this point, i will simply add you to my ignore list and move on.
 
You dont know me either. Yet you make statements on my behalf as if you do At this point, i will simply add you to my ignore list and move on.

You are correct.
I don't. You might be a great guy. Maybe even a dad.
But,given your attitude towards customers, I wouldn't want to.

Please, I made no statements on your behalf.

As I said, you beat me to it. it's all there in black and white. Don't even try and make this about something it isn't.
 
A quick (and final) update: the return was processed by NCIX and the full amount was refunded a few days ago.

I'm still using the Z97 Classified that was ordered in the interim (I even received a 200$ refund after a price adjustment).

The board is perfectly stable and the BIOS is ridiculously easy to use with perfect mouse control and no need for a stupid Start Screen/Advanced/Classical option (looking at you Gigabyte). They even include two Intel ports (no Killer Network!).

I'm still using an Asus Maximus VII Gene in what is now wife computer and it is working perfectly so everything is good!
 
FWIW. I do custom builds every day for clients. None of them saw a Asus product since the GPU fire thread.
 
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