ASUS RMA on my Maximus IV Gene-Z - Not going to debug because of small 'customer

[vincetallica]

Hi guys,

So recently I sent in my ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z motherboard in for an RMA, because of the following:

"[ Brief Description]
I cannot boot into BIOS on the motherboard. I have tried to clear the CMOS chip using
the button in the back, I have tried to move jumper from 1-2 to 2-3 and took out the
lithium battery for the CMOS to clear it. None of those methods worked. When the
computer boots up, it first enters the standard main ''''red-color'''' screen Press ''''Del''''
to
enter BIOS. But immediately flashes either a ''''cannot find drive'''' black screen, or
immediately jumps to the screen where the peripherals (i.e. CPU, HDD, SSD, USB if
plugged) is identified but has a message:

"Please enter setup to recover BIOS setting The data in the EC or EC flash might be
corrupted. Please contact ASUS Technical support for help. System will Shutdown in
15 sec"

And I''''ve checked my CPU and my RAM none of those are the issue. My GPU works
fine and the HDD/SSD/DVD are fine. I''''ve checked all my connections and cables
according to the manual. My only hypothesis is the CMOS chip is defective or
something with the BIOS is wrong on the motherboard (might/might not be a
hardware issue). Note also that during the last screen (15 seconds to shutdown
screen) the code was 55 and the BIOS DEVICE LED was bright solid red on. So all
the other phases (DDR LED, CPU LED) were pass (i.e. not on). "

However, after a week they replied they won't fix it nor have debugged it because of the a small pcb scratch on the side of the board causing a 'customer-induced' damage and hence voiding the warranty. Attached is a photo of the reply. This is the exact reply:

"Dear customer,

We are currently processing your case. The MB has scratch on trace which is Customer Induced damaged cannot cover under warranty. we will have to charge $120+tax to proceed with a replacement. If you would like to pay for this, please let me know. I will send you a credit card form to fill out.

Thank you.
Best regards,

Isobel Wang"

I asked is the board not going to BIOS setup because of the scratch? OR was the board not even debugged at all. Because to me it sounded like an excuse not to figure out what was wrong with my board. Here was the reply.

"Dear Vincent,

Unfortunately we cannot replace the board under warranty due to the customer induced damaged occurred.
Please refer to the link below for our motherboard warranty policy.
http://support.asus.com/repair.aspx?no=568&Slanguage=en#Goto05
the damage may not be the reason the board defective. But we are not able to take back the damaged board under warranty.

Thank you
Best Regards,

Isobel Wang"


Hmm sounds like an excuse not to look into my board. I definitely don't want to spend money on it anymore because it was a brand new gamer's motherboard that is still within the 3year warranty. I think this is ridiculous technical support on ASUS side. What should I do and what do you guys think?

 

[ATMINSIDE]

If that trace is cut by the scratch then it could easily be the cause of your issue.

Did you try the keyboard in a different USB port though?

 

[vincetallica]

I have. The keyboard/mouse seems to be fine regardless of where I place it in the USB slot. It shows the ASUS intro (Red) screen asking for "PRess Del to setup BIOS" but after 1 sec, it will switch to the ASUS screen where it says EC or EC fatal error.

What I'm angry about is how come ASUS won't even debug or troubleshoot the board based on the microscropic trace scratches.

 

[vincetallica]

I mean, look at those scratches. They're tiny, small things that's probably not deep enough to disconnect traces

 

[Theis]

As far as i know, no company will do anything if they see any sign of costumer damage(Not saying you did this).


Problem that I see; Without knowing what that trace is, or how deep that scratch is, no one is able to tell you how serious the problem is. IF the scratch should be the problem and they won't repair it, I'd say you could do three things;
1: Get it back, and try to solder the traces.
2: Sell it as "Possibly not working" or the like.
3: Try to get a quote from Asus if a repair would be possible.

Also, maybe they didn't disconnect the traces, but made a short circuit.

 

[vincetallica]

But shouldn't they be able to test if it's shorting? those traces are tiny? They can that much can they not? Just a DMM probe across. That's the thing, ASUS gave me so little information on the issue, and also Isobel replied that this MIGHT not be the source of the problem which tells me they haven't really tried to debug it?

 

[Theis]

They probably haven't tried debugging it, no.
What I'd guess they do when they get an RMA item in, is to check if any physical damage can be seen(In your case, the scratch on the PCB). And I believe that they have a policy, like anyone else, that any damage to the item would be enough to deny a repair(someone correct me if I'm wrong)

Seeing as they've probably looked at you're motherboard, seen the scratch, they'd then proceed to say "Damage on item, not our problem, we won't do anything further to said item, we will just contact the costumer."
If the scratch is the root of the problem, is impossible for me to say.

 

[vincetallica]

Exactly, they say it's damage, but any motherboard has tiny scratches on the side just from handling. The reason why I'm posting is because I find it unfair that their policy does not specify the extent of the damage before they refuse to debug it.

 

[vincetallica]

The point is: they didn't try to look into it any further, not even into the error codes. As a customer, what do you think of that service?

 

[Mr.Scott]

Exactly, they say it's damage, but any motherboard has tiny scratches on the side just from handling. The reason why I'm posting is because I find it unfair that their policy does not specify the extent of the damage before they refuse to debug it.

Not for nothin but, I have 15 year old boards that have no scratches like yours. So they're not just from average handling.

Not commenting on the companies policies. Every single one has their own. Theirs apparently works for them.

 

[IgnitedX]

Not even for the ROG series? I was under the impression the premium we pay for these bad boys would at least warrant a power-on test

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Not for nothin but, I have 15 year old boards that have no scratches like yours. So they're not just from average handling.

Not commenting on the companies policies. Every single one has their own. Theirs apparently works for them.

I've dropped screwdrivers on boards and had smaller scratches.

I'm not saying Asus' policy is good or bad either, but they are following their policy that they saw customer induced damage and refused RMA.

 

[wingman99]

Could you take a closer picture of the scratches so we can see if the tracers are cut?

 

[vincetallica]

I just looked into the traces. But my question is, even if the traces on that side of the board is cut, would it really cause those BIOS issues (code 55)?

 

[vincetallica]

BTW, the traces cut were supposedly deep. I got it soldered back now.

 

[wingman99]

Did it fix your problems?

 

[Bobnova]

Every trace has a purpose, if one is broken or shorted then something will not work.

I would not expect Asus (or anybody) warranty department to know what every trace does.
As a note, the board has a warranty, not an insurance policy. The warranty is for manufacturing defects, nothing else. If it dies for any reason other than a manufacturing defect it is not their problem in the slightest.

 

[vincetallica]

Still doesn't work. I've attached the sequence of screenshots I'm getting. The first red ASUS bootup display stays no longer than 1 second, followed by a flash of the "No drives detected" black screen, followed by a 15 second shutdown screen. If anyone has experienced the same issue please let me know.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Have you tried flashing the bios from a USB flashdrive? Could be something as stupid as a corrupted bios.

 

[vincetallica]

i tried to add a bios from the motherboard onto the usb, but eventhough it detects there's a usb peripheral, i don't see any bios flashing occuring.