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Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 crash

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DatDirtyDawG

Registered
Joined
Jul 28, 2012
Location
USA
Hey all, have had the board since July of 2013 and for the most part have been very happy with it. About a week and a half ago (jan 3rd) while playing Far Cry 3 my screen flickers and then crashes. PSU still running, VGA fans spinning, case fans, H80i fans/pump still rockin but no screen and no power to any USB port.

I shut it all down, restart and I get stuck on the ASUS TUF splash screen...cannot get into bios, dead USB ports but everything else running as before (or at least they look like they are).
Restart again only with the side open (to see the LED lights) and the lights cycle on through (vga on, then off....ram on then off...cpu on then off...then it stops on the boot device led and it persistently stays lit and red there.

I unplug all items from all USB ports leaving only a keyboard in the PS2 port...the keyboard now lights up but no change, unable to get into bios, stuck on splash screen.
I unplug the AC power, clear the cmos (both by battery and jumper) Then I disconnect everything SATA (1 DVD rom, 1 SSD, 2 Mechanical HDD), I then remove all sticks of ram but 1 (had 4 sticks, left 1 4gb stick) and I connect one old school logitech USB keyboard. So pretty much all thats connected here is a video card, CPU, H80i, PSU, one stick of 4GB ram, one USB keyboard and NOTHING else.....result: Same: All LED's on the board cycle on through, then stop at boot device, persistent red. Asus splash screen and no way to get into bios as no keys works either PS2 or USB (even though the keyboard lights up on PS2, still unable to go to bios)

Sooooooooo I call ASUS and they are sending me a new board cross ship. I am beyond UNHAPPY with the service I got from ASUS :( :( 10 days later and I STILL have no board. Ive had to call them 6 and 7 times after being all upset with them on the phone today is when I get their email that a board will ship today....

My question:
Anyone have any experience with Customer Service from any other brand like say Gigabyte or MSI? Been buying ASUS boards for years and have always hated their CS but this is by far the worst experience I have had with them. I love love love love EVGA customer service (despite always buying ASUS boards I have NEVER bought a GPU from them...) but they only have Intel boards :( :( :(

Thanks in advance
 
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Ive had to call them 6 and 7 times after being all upset with them on the phone today is when I get their email that a board will ship today....

My question:
Anyone have any experience with Customer Service from any other brand like say Gigabyte or MSI? Been buying ASUS boards for years and have always hated their CS but this is by far the worst experience I have had with them.

Thanks in advance

I think any of these mobo companies could have better CS for sure. Doubt they ever do though. The real problem is that we are in a hurry and they know they are going to be a week doing something but they "never say" that but lead us to believe, that cross-shipping say of a board is 20 min affair and we should have in a few days. They had none to ship from RMA buffer and were going to have to wait on some to fill the buffer but the other culture thinks it better not to say it will be at least a week before they can fill the order. I had to learn about my American thinking versus Eastern thinking when working for DFI.
RGone...
 
I think any of these mobo companies could have better CS for sure. Doubt they ever do though. The real problem is that we are in a hurry and they know they are going to be a week doing something but they "never say" that but lead us to believe, that cross-shipping say of a board is 20 min affair and we should have in a few days. They had none to ship from RMA buffer and were going to have to wait on some to fill the buffer but the other culture thinks it better not to say it will be at least a week before they can fill the order. I had to learn about my American thinking versus Eastern thinking when working for DFI.
RGone...

What I dont get is that I have dealt with say EVGA on a bad gpu once. First off while I was on the phone with the tech he checked and verified if they had another card to send me for xship AND took my credit card number in that same call. Done. Got my new card 4 days later.

ASUS? ROTFL I had to wait 24-48 hours for them to confirm if they had a board. Didnt hear from them after 2 days so I called and the guy on the phone said yes lol. Right then and there I offer my credit card number but no good....I have to wait for a form, print and actually sign, scan and email back to them. No problem did that the same day...2 days later I get an email from asus thanking me for the forms, they got it...not to be mistaken with "all set with the forms your board will be sent out now"...it was merely a confirmation that they received my completed forms, they still however have to go over it and approve it lol......two more days (friday) and I have heard nothing lol so I call them and they say sorry, no info, call back Monday....I call back this morning only Im beyond pissed off and they send me a confirmation that TODAY they will ship the board lol

ASUS=HORRIFIC customer service
 
It must be the times I had a similar situation with ASUS years ago and had a board within a week. At times I think it comes down to the individual on the other end as well. Some just aren't as good at their job as others.???
That is a bummer about the board though.
 
Im just so upset with how awful their service is I found myself looking at intel processors so that I can use EVGA for my motherboards too lol (ahh I just love the AMD CPU too much....so I dropped the idea) but I find it just as upsetting that as much as I hate ASUS; board for board they seem to offer the best ones for the FX8350 chips (or so from what I've read). The very best FX990 Gigabyte/MSI/ASRock boards still aren't as good as the Sabertooth (I'm not even counting the top fancy Crosshairs)
 
Sabertooth is one stout mobo for certain. I like my Asrock 990FX Fatall1ty board just about as well as my CHV non-Z. They both will push the Pee out of an 8 core FX with super cooling.
RGone...

By the way...you need to look at Asus flashback bios where you put the original CD in the CD/DVD and it goes and finds the bios and flashes it. That might have fixed your issue. I just went thru similar with my CHV as outlined in the thread in here about the n0 Usb 3.0 on A88X-M Asus mobo. I described my wrestling match with Usb and stuff. In case you face the problem again.
RGone...Again.
 
...By the way...you need to look at Asus flashback bios where you put the original CD in the CD/DVD and it goes and finds the bios and flashes it. That might have fixed your issue. I just went thru similar with my CHV as outlined in the thread in here about the n0 Usb 3.0 on A88X-M Asus mobo. I described my wrestling match with Usb and stuff. In case you face the problem again.
RGone...Again.

So connect my sata DVD rom, put the disk in, reboot and it will find and flash my bios? Sorry but I would love to try this I'm just a little confused because I have zero response to anything when I turn on the power on, just a splash screen. No keys work, nothing
 
Sabertooth is one stout mobo for certain. I like my Asrock 990FX Fatall1ty board just about as well as my CHV non-Z. They both will push the Pee out of an 8 core FX with super cooling.
RGone...

By the way...you need to look at Asus flashback bios where you put the original CD in the CD/DVD and it goes and finds the bios and flashes it. That might have fixed your issue. I just went thru similar with my CHV as outlined in the thread in here about the n0 Usb 3.0 on A88X-M Asus mobo. I described my wrestling match with Usb and stuff. In case you face the problem again.
RGone...Again.

Ok I figured out how to flash the bios using the flashback utility. It flashed the bios (or so it seemed, based on what the manual says) but unfortunately it didn't work :( Same crap, persistent boot device LED lit and stuck on the splash screen. I'll admit I had my hopes up lol
 
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Well just crap...sorry but I just could not let the chance go bye without trying it. Not after all the heck Usb has given me the last 6 or so days.
RGone...
 
Well just crap...sorry but I just could not let the chance go bye without trying it. Not after all the heck Usb has given me the last 6 or so days.
RGone...

Believe me my friend, I greatly appreciate the suggestion and was happy to finally try something I hadnt done yet. I would give anything to keep my existing running and call ASUS (for the 10th time) only this time tell them to keep the lousy refurb they are sending me...
 
Ok I figured out how to flash the bios using the flashback utility. It flashed the bios (or so it seemed, based on what the manual says) but unfortunately it didn't work :( Same crap, persistent boot device LED lit and stuck on the splash screen. I'll admit I had my hopes up lol

Stuck on splash screen you say'd?

have you tried an alternative processor in that motherboard yet??
 
Stuck on splash screen you say'd?

have you tried an alternative processor in that motherboard yet??

Nope. Don't have another one. However one of the things about the Sabertooth is that it has component specific LED's that cycle through and check when you boot up. There is an LED for the VGA, the memory, the cpu and then boot device. The board seems to pass through all of them (including the CPU) but not the boot device one. So no, haven't tried another CPU but the board OK's the CPU every time. i mean who knows (if I had another CPU I'd certainly give that a shot) but thanks anyway :)
 
Ok I figured out how to flash the bios using the flashback utility. It flashed the bios (or so it seemed, based on what the manual says) but unfortunately it didn't work :( Same crap, persistent boot device LED lit and stuck on the splash screen. I'll admit I had my hopes up lol

Was that with the USB directkey bios flash. I have saved mine with that before. Also I don't know if the led for boot device is actually relevant. Mine stays on while the system is running depending on what I have selected as the boot device and what I'm actually booting from.
 
Was that with the USB directkey bios flash. I have saved mine with that before. Also I don't know if the led for boot device is actually relevant. Mine stays on while the system is running depending on what I have selected as the boot device and what I'm actually booting from.

That is exactly what I used. Who knew that one USB port with the white outline actually had a little power in it (considering none of the others did...) but yes. From what it looked like the bios flashed (as per the manual) it flashed for about 20 seconds, then stopped. Funny thing is I did it twice, the first time I did not rename the file. When I pressed the bios flashback button it flashed several times then stayed lit. As per the manual this means I didnt rename the file (and I didn't) so I did it again with the correct name and it behaved as it should. Still not able to get into bios though, unable to launch anything. PSU is going, vid card fans blowing, H80i fans going, pump. Hard drives work fine tried em all I honestly don't get it. Well the new board gets here tomorrow....maybe I'll find a PSU tester and check that. The PSU seems like it works but who the hell knows
 
Fingers crossed Dawg, if that don't fix it then it all strts over again.
 
It was the dang mobo afterall...(or somethin on it)

Well here we go...
With the replacement board still sitting on the stoop where FedEx left it I decided to try a couple of more things as a last ditch effort (in the end I'd rather keep my board than put in someone else's refurb..)
-Took out the PSU and put in an older one that I knew for sure was in good working condition, just not as heavy duty and no luck. Same thing, ASUS splash screen then black, no bios blah blah
-Took out my video card (found a GTX280 in the closet that I forgot about) and no luck. As my friend's mom in her Irish brogue would say, same fecking thing

Soo I unpacked the refurb (or whatever it is they send u) and an hour later the big beast fired right up.....in the end I guess there was something shiddy on that board (who the hell knows what...) but whatever.

Thanks to all of you (you know who you are) for all your awesome suggestions and for taking the time to help :) Learned how to flash my bios even when nothing is working lol (thanks Rgonne...had I read the manual from the start I'd have seen that..)

The ***** is BACK :p
 
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