Question AARrrgghh...I really f'ed up...Question RESOLVED...

[JWMiddleton]

I got a new case and was moving stuff parts to it. In the process my motherboard (Asus ROG Strix Z490-A) went into a loop that it was starting recovery process, which never loaded. I thought I messed up my M.2 drive. I did a lot of troubleshooting. Finally the red CPU status light would come on when staring to POST. So, I thought the CPU might be bad. I tried another one with the same results. I realized this morning that the board was under warranty, so I contacted ASUS and they issued an RMA. (YAY!)

In the process of getting the board ready to ship, I took out the cpu and was putting in the plastic deal that is for protecting the socket. Well, I bent some pins in the process. So, even if the board had been bad, now I was going to have to pay since I damaged it. Has anyone dealt with ASUS and have any idea about cost? It might just be cheaper to buy another boards. Here are pics of the pins before and after the damage.






Any suggestions appreciated!

John

 

[igor_kavinski]

You MIGHT be able to straighten them with a magnifying glass and something really small, like a tiny flathead screwdriver.

 

[FeRDNYC]

What Igor said. Personally, I would try... because honestly, at this point you can't really make it meaningfully worse — even if you mess up trying to straighten the pins, you're not any worse off than you are now. So, might as well at least attempt to make things passably better.

Crazy idea that may or may not be totally stupid

If you happen to have access to a set of security Torx bits/drivers (the ones with a little hole in the center of the bit, used for removing these bastards):

...then the very, very smallest of them might be of some use in slipping over the bent pin to use as a lever, once you've pried it up a bit with that tiny flathead Igor recommended.

The set would have to go really small, though; I think T6 is the smallest size that can actually accommodate the center-bore for security heads, and even that may be way too big for you to go poking around in your pin grid with it.

 

[JWMiddleton]

You MIGHT be able to straighten them with a magnifying glass and something really small, like a tiny flathead screwdriver.

After I made this post, I watched a few YT videos and gave it a shot. Since it didn't work before I messed it up, I don't think I should try installing the CPU again.

I was really surprised at how easily the pin moved!! John

 

[FeRDNYC]

Oh, nice!

I was really surprised at how easily the pin moved!!

Yeah, that's why it's so easy to f--- them up in the first place. You really don't even have to be doing anything very wrong, just fail to be suuuuper-careful for a millisecond and get unlucky.

 

[tcsenter]

Now edit those posts, remove the comment in case Asus spies here....

 

[JWMiddleton]

Now edit those posts, remove the comment in case Asus spies here....

Well, it wouldn't help to remove the evidence as I sent them the picture to get their take on the cost before I posted here. The support guy said to give them 48 hours to respond. Depending on the cost, it might be as cheap to just buy another 10th/11th gen board.

Or, I could send the board, pay shipping and see if they have a problem with my repairs. As long as it is good enough for them to test the board and find that it is toast. Maybe I get a new board or I tell them to keep it if I don't like the cost.

John

 

[tcsenter]

Well, it wouldn't help to remove the evidence as I sent them the picture to get their take on the cost before I posted here. The support guy said to give them 48 hours to respond. Depending on the cost, it might be as cheap to just buy another 10th/11th gen board

DOH!

 

[JWMiddleton]

DOH!

I had an email about their RMA policy. One section caught my eye.

Physical Damage

Physical damages are not covered under ASUS’ manufacturer’s warranty and will automatically void the product’s warranty. This includes physical damages in any shape or form; corner/edge damage, markings, cracked LCD screens, bezels, broken traces or burns due to improper installation or removal of other components, broken CPU sockets, bent pins, shipping damage due to improper packaging, etc. An ASUS representative will contact you with the cost of repair if your product has physical damage or is out of warranty.

I used a better camera to take a pic and there is still some noticeable bent pins that I can't adjust. So, I'll wait for their reply and decide what to do.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I'll be astonished if Asus doesn't charge you; probably charge shipping to get it to them too. I'd expect it to be a $100 minimum plus the shipping cost. I hope I'm wrong for your sake.


I'd skip dealing with them entirely and grab a used board. Lots of them for around $70 or so shipped on ebay -

MSI Z490 $69 shipped

If you want something a bit fancier -

Z590 AORUS ELITE AX $115 shipped

 

[JWMiddleton]

I'll be astonished if Asus doesn't charge you; probably charge shipping to get it to them too. I'd expect it to be a $100 minimum plus the shipping cost. I hope I'm wrong for your sake.


I'd skip dealing with them entirely and grab a used board. Lots of them for around $70 or so shipped on ebay -

That is what I've been thinking and why I made this post. You are the first to confirm that it would be at least $100 + shipping. I could actually get a NIB Z490 board on Amazon for about that much. The Z590 is so tempting, but my i9-10850k would not allow the board to use PCIe 4.0 for GPU and M.2 SSD and I would be wanting an 11th Gen chip.

John

 

[igor_kavinski]

That is what I've been thinking and why I made this post. You are the first to confirm that it would be at least $100 + shipping. I could actually get a NIB Z490 board on Amazon for about that much.

Why not just go ahead with shipping the mobo to them and if it gets rejected, fight with ASUS for a bit? Threaten them with loss of you as a customer. Tell them how much you trusted them and that's why you bought their mobo and you are extremely disappointed in the RMA experience. Tell them the truth that the pins got bent when you were trying to get it ready. Tell them you can't believe they used a metal of such low quality for the pins that they got bent so easily. Shame them. Don't let them weasel their way out of it. They owe you a mobo.

Point them to this thread for proof of your honesty. Tell them everyone at AT is looking at ASUS to see if they will do the right thing.

 

[JWMiddleton]

Point them to this thread for proof of your honesty. Tell them everyone at AT is looking at ASUS to see if they will do the right thing.

Yep, I've thought of sending it to them and letting them keep it if I don't like the price to fix it. I'll start by trying to be patient and wait for their response to the pics I sent. I'm actually tired of fighting with customer service at various companies. They just want to wear you down so you will give up and stop fighting. SIGH...

John

 

[igor_kavinski]

They just want to wear you down so you will give up and stop fighting. SIGH...

Send them a single message with the link to this forum thread and let us know what they decide to do.

 

[Tech Junky]

tired of fighting with customer service

I have a solution for that. It's called order a new one and send back the bad one. Let them figure it out on their dime and time. No need to play games with companies.


That's promoting fraud. Bad boards need to be resolved in the proper way through their customer service dept.
Don't suggest this way again.


esquared
Anandtech Forum Director

 

[blckgrffn]

I have a solution for that. It's called order a new one and send back the bad one. Let them figure it out on their dime and time. No need to play games with companies.

Then amazon would just sell that board to someone else. Please don't do that, I've received garbage from Amazon before and its such a waste of time.

Think about how much time you would spend trying to get a warranty repair on something like a faucet in your house vs just getting a new one and putting the old in the trash. This is the same story, and sometimes things just break.

 

[JWMiddleton]

...just getting a new one and putting the old in the trash.

That is what I've been looking at as my number one option. Possibly selling Strix board on Ebay as-is, parts only for around $50.

I've been blown away at how many Z490 & Z590 options there are, not to mention the other chipsets. One I've been looking seriously at is the MSI MAG Z590 Tomahawk WiFi NIB for $170. You seem to have the AMD version. What does the S on your X570S stand for?

Another candidate is the Gigabyte Z590 Aorus Pro AX, that is $20 cheaper NIB.

 

[blckgrffn]

That is what I've been looking at as my number one option. Possibly selling Strix board on Ebay as-is, parts only for around $50.

I've been blown away at how many Z490 & Z590 options there are, not to mention the other chipsets. One I've been looking seriously at is the MSI MAG Z590 Tomahawk WiFi NIB for $170. You seem to have the AMD version. What does the S on your X570S stand for?

Another candidate is the Gigabyte Z590 Aorus Pro AX, that is $20 cheaper NIB.

The S on mine stands for "silent" as it was the later X570 chipset that was released without a chipset fan.

There are so many options, you're right! I bought several of the Gigabyte Z490 series Aorus boards and they worked fine. If you just want stock operation and aren't really pushing to the limits of power usage then I think all the semi-premium boards are fit for their purpose. That's my $.02. I tend to avoid ASUS as possible due to poor personal luck, but I think everyone has a brand they don't like and one they prefer ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I also tend to use zero of the "utilities" included with these different boards and set my own power limits so I guess I might just be a huge outlier

 

[Tech Junky]

I might just be a huge outlier

Not at all. You're seasoned.

I usually Google boards plus forum to see what kind of bad luck others have has beforehand. Then again news stories are a clue as well. Asus and gigabyte have had recent issues on some platforms and their pricing is higher than ot should be for what they offer.

MSI and ASRock seem to fly below the radar and tend to have less issues and a lower price. As for the board utilities just use Linux and you won't have to worry because they're windows only.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Why not just go ahead with shipping the mobo to them and if it gets rejected, fight with ASUS for a bit? Threaten them with loss of you as a customer. Tell them how much you trusted them and that's why you bought their mobo and you are extremely disappointed in the RMA experience. Tell them the truth that the pins got bent when you were trying to get it ready. Tell them you can't believe they used a metal of such low quality for the pins that they got bent so easily. Shame them. Don't let them weasel their way out of it. They owe you a mobo.

Point them to this thread for proof of your honesty. Tell them everyone at AT is looking at ASUS to see if they will do the right thing.

This sums up my reaction to reading this perfectly -

 

[mindless1]

Think about how much time you would spend trying to get a warranty repair on something like a faucet in your house vs just getting a new one and putting the old in the trash. This is the same story, and sometimes things just break.

Not quite the same story. Last couple faucet failures I had, I simply typed the faucet name which pulled up the scanned (or saved to PDF from an online purchase) receipt file, and shot an email to customer service for the respective brands (Moen, and Delta), and was promptly sent a replacement part with no hassles.

This took about 2 minutes, versus finding a replacement and replacing a whole faucet? It is modular, few failures require replacing the whole faucet.

You spend about two orders of magnitude more time replacing the whole faucet when all is said and done, as well as over $200 for the couple I repaired. They did not want the faulty parts mailed to them.

Besides, if you don't hold manufacturers to their warranties, what is their incentive to not start making lower quality products? Possibly a concern that customers will come back years later and leave a bad merchant (like Amazon) site review, but those are usually swamped by customers leaving good reviews before they've even owned the product long enough to give any idea of longevity.

However this topic is a different story, damaging the motherboard after it was already faulty.

 

[blckgrffn]

Not quite the same story. Last couple faucet failures I had, I simply typed the faucet name which pulled up the scanned (or saved to PDF from an online purchase) receipt file, and shot an email to customer service for the respective brands (Moen, and Delta), and was promptly sent a replacement part with no hassles.

This took about 2 minutes, versus finding a replacement and replacing a whole faucet? It is modular, few failures require replacing the whole faucet.

You spend about two orders of magnitude more time replacing the whole faucet when all is said and done, as well as over $200 for the couple I repaired. They did not want the faulty parts mailed to them.

Besides, if you don't hold manufacturers to their warranties, what is their incentive to not start making lower quality products? Possibly a concern that customers will come back years later and leave a bad merchant (like Amazon) site review, but those are usually swamped by customers leaving good reviews before they've even owned the product long enough to give any idea of longevity.

However this topic is a different story, damaging the motherboard after it was already faulty.

If getting PC components repaired was anything like that, it would be a different story. It wasn't a great analogy, you're right. I was just reaching for a $100 thing you might have used for a few years.

For example, I had some Cree LED bulbs with a similar warranty situation and they were all failing. I bought them when they were like $20 a bulb. No questions, no receipts they just asked me how many I had after reading the full SN off of the one I had in hand and they sent me a full set of replacement bulbs. Old bulbs into the trash, no need to send them in. I think I am down to just the last couple of the faulty bulbs in my house a few years later as I used them until failure even having the spares on hand.

That was an amazing customer experience.

I HATE PC component RMAs and if its under $200 I am more likely to toss into the trash than waste my time after several RMA experience where I got junk that failed me or my family/friends quickly after receiving it.

It's apples and oranges but I wasn't trying to denigrate anyone who actually uses their warranties.

 

[JWMiddleton]

I HATE PC component RMAs and if its under $200 I am more likely to toss into the trash than waste my time after several RMA experience where I got junk that failed me or my family/friends quickly after receiving it.

Yeah, I not really impressed with the process either. I've not heard back from Asus about estimated cost, so I started to print a mailing label the other day to return the board so that they would call me if they had a problem with what I sent them. But, when I saw what they wanted for shipping I stopped. For $25+tax you get 7 to 10 business day shipping. Faster shipping was 2 to 2.5 times that.

So, I ordered a refurbished Gigabyte Z590 Aorus Master AX for $99 with a 90 day warranty from Newegg. Then I added Allstate 2 Year Recertified Protection Plan for $14. The plan claims:

Recertified Motherboard

• 100% parts and labor, no deductibles or hidden fees
• 5-day service guarantee upon depot arrival
• 24/7 customer support

The protection plan is a crap shoot, and I'm not sure it is any better than a warranty. But for $14 I felt better about buying it.

John

 

[Motostu]

Yeah, the shipping part sucks. I recently had to pay $50+ to send a monitor in for RMA, but it is a $300+ monitor, so worth the gamble. Thankfully they are going to replace it, but who knows how long that will take. Over a week already stuck at 'waiting for replacement'.

Agree that just replacing the board makes more sense in your situation.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Yeah, I not really impressed with the process either. I've not heard back from Asus about estimated cost, so I started to print a mailing label the other day to return the board so that they would call me if they had a problem with what I sent them. But, when I saw what they wanted for shipping I stopped. For $25+tax you get 7 to 10 business day shipping. Faster shipping was 2 to 2.5 times that.

So, I ordered a refurbished Gigabyte Z590 Aorus Master AX for $99 with a 90 day warranty from Newegg. Then I added Allstate 2 Year Recertified Protection Plan for $14. The plan claims:

Recertified Motherboard

• 100% parts and labor, no deductibles or hidden fees
• 5-day service guarantee upon depot arrival
• 24/7 customer support

The protection plan is a crap shoot, and I'm not sure it is any better than a warranty. But for $14 I felt better about buying it.

John

You did the right thing John. FYI: If you should need to use your Allstate coverage here's what I recommend. Register on the website and don't lose your account info. Installing the app on your phone is a good idea. Use it for the initial coverage attempt. If you get rejected or they tell you to, that's when you call.

Sometimes it's a smooth and easy process with them. Other times it's like you are dealing with tier one tech support reps that have a rejection quota to meet. If the initial attempt fails, make them kick you up to tier 2 the second attempt.