DL.
11-23-2003, 10:42 AM
I picked up a fairly cheap motherboard ($100) and CPU (AMD athlon XP 2000+ retail ) for a friend a few months back and found a few problems with the setup. After trying several OS's, win98 was the only thing that would install and run. (For the most part.) Some problems remain. The system is unstable and sometimes won't shutdown. The onboard video goes into a spaz when coming out of standby, the onboard LAN won't work.
According to sisoft, the processor voltage is a bit low. All the other voltages are quite low.
12v is 10.85v, 3.3v is 2.85v, -12v is -8v and so on. The bios agrees.
Well I finally took it back for warranty only to be informed that if their software based tests didn't indicate any problems, I'd have to pay a $40 tech fee.
Well guess what they found wrong. NOTHING! Yeah, right. The conclusion from them? My power supply out put is too low but the core voltage is ok at 1.60 instead of the 1.67 or 1.75 which their tech said it should be initially.
No, I also tried a 420 watt PSU after testing the 300 watt PSU. No difference. I supplied them with copies of all diagnostics but I'm just a customer, I know nothing.
Now they won't return the board, processor, and ram till I pay $40 for the diagnostic. Even though they haven't corrected the low volt problem. Now I'm supposed to reassemble it and take it back for them to find an excuse to say it's something else again, not their motherboard. And I'll be charged another $40 if that doesn't show any problems on their system. End even if the MB sensors turn out to be wrong, they don't consider that a significant problem worthy of a warranty return.
I think I don't do business with them after this. Next time it's future shop or circuit city where they have over the counter returns and no lies.
Buyer Beware!
According to sisoft, the processor voltage is a bit low. All the other voltages are quite low.
12v is 10.85v, 3.3v is 2.85v, -12v is -8v and so on. The bios agrees.
Well I finally took it back for warranty only to be informed that if their software based tests didn't indicate any problems, I'd have to pay a $40 tech fee.
Well guess what they found wrong. NOTHING! Yeah, right. The conclusion from them? My power supply out put is too low but the core voltage is ok at 1.60 instead of the 1.67 or 1.75 which their tech said it should be initially.
No, I also tried a 420 watt PSU after testing the 300 watt PSU. No difference. I supplied them with copies of all diagnostics but I'm just a customer, I know nothing.
Now they won't return the board, processor, and ram till I pay $40 for the diagnostic. Even though they haven't corrected the low volt problem. Now I'm supposed to reassemble it and take it back for them to find an excuse to say it's something else again, not their motherboard. And I'll be charged another $40 if that doesn't show any problems on their system. End even if the MB sensors turn out to be wrong, they don't consider that a significant problem worthy of a warranty return.
I think I don't do business with them after this. Next time it's future shop or circuit city where they have over the counter returns and no lies.
Buyer Beware!