The downward spiral with my MoBo

[wevsspot]

NIN, I'm really sorry to hear that. Hopefully the RMA process will go smoothly and you can get back up and running fairly quickly.

[nin]

Hi wevsspot,

 

Thanks for concern. :-)

 

The online store (alternate.de) said they have 147 pieces on stock and will possibly send me another stocked one after the technical control. I hope this is true. Actually, I am not that interested in getting a refurbished 'overclocker champion' MoBo for my 3 weeks old part.

 

Should I pay close attention to anything before or after RMA?

 

I will report further on.

 

Cheers

nin

[davidk21770]

DFI reapired and returned my board -- my PCIe slots failed. Working fine so far (only been a few days so far).

[wevsspot]

Just make sure you keep your Karajan module and any of the other accessories that came with your board if you are doing a direct with DFI. If you're retailer is handling the exchange I'm supposing they want the whole kit-n-kaboodle back.

[nin]

Hi again,

 

just to let you know:

 

In the meantime I got answer to my pm from Bulldog (EU-Support) with the offering sending my a new Bios chip. Very friendly. But, I got already 3 of those chips, as already mentioned earlier in this thread. (Needless to say, without success)

 

My MoBo is still on RMA and I have not idea how long this will take.

I have sent all the stuff (including original box, manual, CD, cables, Sound module etc.) back, in the hope to get a new one after this short period of use.

 

However, I am suffering from lack of time and bought another (hopefully better) MoBo.

Maybe, I will sell the repaired/replaced MoBo on ebay.

 

Cheers.

nin

 

PS: I will report further on.

[Guest Bulldog]

If the board is at Alternate.de then indeed there is nothing to do but wait until they check out your current board. A bit of a shame as I could have offered more direct service that would take less time, but what is done is done. Alternate has a good reputation so I don't suspect that you will have to wait too long thou.

 

Wevspot made an important point about the use of Beta BIOSs. Officially the warranty is voided if you use them. However, I don't often enforce this rule for Lan Party boards users in the EU. I am of course aware that alot of enthousiasts buy our boards and do "all kinds of things with them". As long as the the nature of the "mods" are within reason then I will let it slide. If a private individual wants to replace the NB cooler for some other form of cooling system or use one of Tony's Big Toe BIOSs, then I won't make a big deal about it. Things that will get your warranty voided is any damage to the PCB, use of di-electric grease in the CPU socket, or tinkering with the BIOS programming yourself with a hex editor or modbin program. The warranty-void-if-beta-BIOS-is-used rule is actually more to keep "distributor-X" from taking it upon themselves to "upgrade" an entire batch of boards with a beta BIOS, bungling the procedure, and then expecting the manufacturer (us) to accept these boards for service. At a previous MB maker that I worked at, a company in the UK took it upon themselves to mod the BIOS's of a series of boards without our permission. The "mods" were not well done and resulted in the failure of many of the boards. This "rule" was then invoked. It's not used often but all MB makers have similiar rules to govern these sorts of situations.

 

In your case Nin it's a bit borderline. Use of a beta BIOS from a third party carries with it the risk that the 3rd party supplier would get the chip type wrong, you would then use the chip and in the worst case scenario reciprocal damage would be caused to the board. I don't suspect that that has happened here, so your warranty remains intact, but please keep these points in mind in the future.