A couple of weeks back, some users on Reddit and other forums reported their Asus ROG Z690 Hero motherboard started to die with a POST code of 53 and some even smoked and/or caught fire, both rendering the board a useless paperweight after some time.
The issue is caused by a simple, but fatal flaw in production – a reversed memory capacitor issue that was first reported by Buildzoid on his Youtube channel. In short, the capacitor in question is polarized and when it was installed on the board, it did so backwards. This production snafu causes a significant amount of current to go through the memory MOSFETs and caused failures.
Below is a copy of Asus’ official announcement:
To our valued ASUS Customers,
ASUS is committed to producing the highest quality products and we take every incident report from our valued customers very seriously. We have recently received incident reports regarding the ROG Maximus Z690 Hero motherboard.
In our ongoing investigation, we have preliminarily identified a potential reversed memory capacitor issue in the production process from one of the production lines that may cause debug error code 53, no post, or motherboard components damage. The issue potentially affects units manufactured in 2021 with the part number 90MB18E0-MVAAY0 and serial number starting with MA, MB, or MC.
You can identify your part number by referring to the product packaging:
As of December 28, 2021, there have been a few incidents reported in North America. Going forward, we are continuing our thorough inspection with our suppliers and customers to identify all possible affected ROG Maximus Z690 Hero motherboards in the market and will be working with relevant government agencies on a replacement program.
Thank you so much to everyone for your patience and support while we are working through the replacement program.
If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact ASUS customer service.
Best regards,
The ASUS Team
With that, a new webpage sprung up at Asus for users to check and see if their motherboard is affected by this issue. Simply enter the serial number and it will tell you.
Joe Shields (Earthdog)
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