Defective Mobo - What to do?

[MBwoes]

Hello, I really have a problem and need some help. I had 3 custom made computers put together using the ASRock 970 Extreme R2.0 motherboards. Unfortunately, two of the boards are defective.

I sent them back to the shop, and they said they had to send to the factory to be repaired, is that normal? I wanted them replaced rather than fixed, this is within the warranty period (I tested the boards for 4-6 weeks because I thought the problem might be the OS, then I figured out it had to be the hardware, then took it in).

Anyway, they needed 2-3 weeks to fix it, and I just got it back, and its still got the same problem! This is so infuriating!

What can I do about this situation? I need these computers fixed or repaired already, its been 2-3 months of just constant hassles.

Any advice? Thanks in advance!

EDIT: After reading other posts here, I probably should give my symptoms.

Basically I get random complete freezes, ranging from 1-2 per hour to 5-10 per day. I tried a million different kinds of linux OS, going back and back, looking for stability, but there was none. All 3 machines are exactly the same, and one machine works fine, so that seems to rule out the video card.

The one that works by the way is running Ubuntu 14.04 out of the box and works great.

[SelfGovern]

Re: Defective Mobo - What to do?

What power supply are you running? What's the rest of the system HW?

There is enough variation in cheap power supplies that this could easily be a PS issue and not a MB issue.

[MBwoes]

Re: Defective Mobo - What to do?

Hmm that's a good suggestion, I went with a no-name 550 unit, I didn't want it to lack power, could the excess power cause this kind of result? 450 probably would have been ok.

[Woznet]

Re: Defective Mobo - What to do?

As suggested before no-name PSU could be causing the problem, you could use a power supply tester to check to see if it is the power supply.
Have you updated your bios to the latest version? If not update to the latest available bios.

You said you had one system that was not experiencing problems, trying connecting the motherboards that have problems to the system that is not, psu, cpu, video card, ram and see if you still experience issues.

If the defect still occurs, instead of dealing with the store you purchased it from, try dealing with ASRock directly. Contact their customer support via phone and describe your specific problems to their support staff, they will be able to determine if you need to send your motherboards in for repair or just a replacement. Some companies, such as EVGA, offer cross-shipping service where they will send you a refurbished model of your product and when you receive that you send your defective product to them. Most times they require a credit card number do the cross-ship to ensure that do send your defective product in to them when you get your replacement.

If you call ASRock, you should have the model, product and serial numbers ready for the customer service rep, most cases they will require those numbers to start a repair order. These numbers can be found on the motherboard and usually the box it came in.

[SelfGovern]

Re: Defective Mobo - What to do?

Hmm that's a good suggestion, I went with a no-name 550 unit, I didn't want it to lack power, could the excess power cause this kind of result? 450 probably would have been ok.

A good too-beefy power supply won't cause a problem, your system will only suck the power it needs.

However, a cheap power supply could say it's rated for 550 and not even deliver a stable 300 -- which would cause problems.
How about you tell us which brand you're using? There are many brands that are known to be highly suspect, a few that are
top-notch, and a bunch in the middle. Being able to eliminate that you've got a truly questionable power supply may be a
great way to save everybody's time.

Knowing the rest of your components will also help.

[MBwoes]

Re: Defective Mobo - What to do?

Ok yeah that's the advice I was really looking for, thanks so much, I will deal with it that way. Its exactly what I wasn't sure about.

I think I will get a premium 450 PSU and try that before anything, its a small cost and would be great if it worked. Memory seems fine, I will check the video card too.

Thanks so much! I was at a loss about how to handle this. Cheers!!

As suggested before no-name PSU could be causing the problem, you could use a power supply tester to check to see if it is the power supply.
Have you updated your bios to the latest version? If not update to the latest available bios.

You said you had one system that was not experiencing problems, trying connecting the motherboards that have problems to the system that is not, psu, cpu, video card, ram and see if you still experience issues.

If the defect still occurs, instead of dealing with the store you purchased it from, try dealing with ASRock directly. Contact their customer support via phone and describe your specific problems to their support staff, they will be able to determine if you need to send your motherboards in for repair or just a replacement. Some companies, such as EVGA, offer cross-shipping service where they will send you a refurbished model of your product and when you receive that you send your defective product to them. Most times they require a credit card number do the cross-ship to ensure that do send your defective product in to them when you get your replacement.

If you call ASRock, you should have the model, product and serial numbers ready for the customer service rep, most cases they will require those numbers to start a repair order. These numbers can be found on the motherboard and usually the box it came in.

[- wardog -]

Re: Defective Mobo - What to do?

What power supply are you running? What's the rest of the system HW?

There is enough variation in cheap power supplies that this could easily be a PS issue and not a MB issue.

"What's the rest of the system HW?"

That would go a long way here considering the no name PSU's.

What processor? Mabe it's throttling at the VRMs due to heat and being overworked. Any OC'ing applied with processor X?

Hmm that's a good suggestion, I went with a no-name 550 unit, I didn't want it to lack power, could the excess power cause this kind of result? 450 probably would have been ok.

Excess power? Cause this? No. Hardly. No name PSU's are usually indicative of a lack of power. Not excess. Certainly not excess.

[MBwoes]

Re: Defective Mobo - What to do?

The CPU is AMD FX-8350 8 core, 8 gigs of memory, with an Asus Nvidia video card, but I have to check on the video card model.

I checked the tempurature issue, its very stable, and the crashes are not connected with having the system on for longer periods.

I think I will buy a good reliable power supply, and use the one working system to check the video card... I don't want to buy a video card just for checking...could I use an older one? It happens that I have an older machine which just pooped out on me, and I plan to replace the GT 610 1G video card anyway, could I use that to check this mobo?

Memory is easy to swap out...that would only leave the CPU as a possible issue, could a bad CPU have this kind of behavior?

"What's the rest of the system HW?"

That would go a long way here considering the no name PSU's.

What processor? Mabe it's throttling at the VRMs due to heat and being overworked. Any OC'ing applied with processor X?



Excess power? Cause this? No. Hardly. No name PSU's are usually indicative of a lack of power. Not excess. Certainly not excess.

[MBwoes]

Re: Defective Mobo - What to do?

Ok the video card turned out to be an Asus GT610-SL-1GD3-L.

Which is basically the same as I had before. Can I get another Asus card or would it be better to get another brand?

[SelfGovern]

Re: Defective Mobo - What to do?

If you're going to buy a new power supply, have you done the research to know you're buying a reputable brand (and there are a lot of bad review sites out there). jonnyguru.com and hardocp.com are two very reputable sites.

If you're not decided, it would be worthwhile to use the power supply from the good system in the others to see if perhaps you have a cheap PS problem.

[MBwoes]

Re: Defective Mobo - What to do?

Yes I just ordered an Antec power supply and a EVGA video card, will check everything out and then contact ASRock if I can't work it out. I searched to know what brand was most reliable.

What do you think about CPU problems, could they cause this type of freezing? Because I can't swap that out...

If you're going to buy a new power supply, have you done the research to know you're buying a reputable brand (and there are a lot of bad review sites out there). jonnyguru.com and hardocp.com are two very reputable sites.

If you're not decided, it would be worthwhile to use the power supply from the good system in the others to see if perhaps you have a cheap PS problem.

[MBwoes]

Re: Defective Mobo - What to do?

Ok I have replaced it with the Antec 550 power supply. Testing it now, and have the new video card right here, if needed.

I have not filed a report yet but will if this problem continues, its really constantly freezing and has other weird behavior. The problem is not manageable. At this point I cringe every time any program has a hiccup, thinking that it has crashed once again. And often, it has.

Thanks again for this forum, at first I felt so lost, it sucks to feel that way. Now I feel quite a bit better about it, even though i haven't had time to deal with it recently.

As I said before the small company that put it together sent it back to the factory once, but I was not able to get any on that, no repair number or anything. Maybe its all done by serial number. He said if it was still a problem he could send it back again, but that takes 2-3 weeks. So at least I want to make sure its not something simple that i can fix. I just need my cool custom system working properly...

I did NOT update bios, should I really do that now? I am not sure if I should.

[MBwoes]

Re: Defective Mobo - What to do?

Well, 10 hours in and all is well, not a single crash so far and I have tested it pretty good. So glad I bought a high quality power supply, and gave it ample power (450 would probably been enough and I went with 550).

Will come back tomorrow with more info. I will try to document what the crashes were like for future reference. Not ready to confirm but definitely looking better now.

Ok I have replaced it with the Antec 550 power supply. Testing it now, and have the new video card right here, if needed.

I have not filed a report yet but will if this problem continues, its really constantly freezing and has other weird behavior. The problem is not manageable. At this point I cringe every time any program has a hiccup, thinking that it has crashed once again. And often, it has.

Thanks again for this forum, at first I felt so lost, it sucks to feel that way. Now I feel quite a bit better about it, even though i haven't had time to deal with it recently.

As I said before the small company that put it together sent it back to the factory once, but I was not able to get any on that, no repair number or anything. Maybe its all done by serial number. He said if it was still a problem he could send it back again, but that takes 2-3 weeks. So at least I want to make sure its not something simple that i can fix. I just need my cool custom system working properly...

I did NOT update bios, should I really do that now? I am not sure if I should.

[MBwoes]

Re: Defective Mobo - What to do?

Ok finally I did have a crash after 36 hours, but only after seriously stressing the system with open programs. Its much better with a reliable power source, like night and day, but I did make it crash and so will file a support request.

I only was able to induce a crash after opening a large number of programs, two browsers, virtualbox with a single-threaded program open, and a music player. Finally it crashed, but the last song played on to the end.

Well, 10 hours in and all is well, not a single crash so far and I have tested it pretty good. So glad I bought a high quality power supply, and gave it ample power (450 would probably been enough and I went with 550).

Will come back tomorrow with more info. I will try to document what the crashes were like for future reference. Not ready to confirm but definitely looking better now.

[SelfGovern]

Re: Defective Mobo - What to do?

Several things can cause a delayed crash. Those might include:
- Heat
- memory bad or going bad
- memory leak (program or driver that allocates more and more RAM and doesn't release it, so less and less RAM is available, and it eventually runs out)
- Virus/malware shenanigans
- failing hard drive or other hardware (CPU, motherboard, some other component)
- spilt water or food (included for completeness, not as a serious reason)

It's possible to use tools like Windows PerfMon, virus checkers, memory diagnostics, etc., to try to identify the actual problem. If you're interested in trying to do that, we can give you some guidance. It's not typically an easy or quick process (barring such luck as, you choose to run memtest, and it identifies a bad memory module right off the bat) -- but having a stable system -- particularly in a business environment -- is worth more than a little time and money. (That's where your unique situation and values come in: is it better to build a new system, maybe getting better/faster/warrantied components at some cost in $$ and minimum time, or is it better to spend possibly a lot of time and some dollars to track down the problem, or is it a system where it doesn't matter, and you're happy leaving it alone until it gets worse?)