brokencase
Member
- Oct 7, 2007
- 80
- 0
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That really sucks Lurker, I did'nt realize that they were sending you bios's in attempt to resolve the issue.
When you think about it it should be a relatively easy fix. You would think there would be a part of the code somewhere in the BIOS that says something to the effect "if this CPU type then do the following...."
So what does that mean? They never tested with an E2180 or don't have one on hand? Or are they tied up with more pressing issues?
I wish companies would operate in a more transparent manner (including my current employer, BTW). By this I mean they should have an open to the public bug tracking system.
You go to thier site, check out what are the major bugs in the bios of the motherboard, find out if your bug has already been identified, find out it's cause, find out it's status (WONT FIX, NEXT RELEASE, etc...)
We all know that most products of this nature ship with bugs. The integrity of the company depends not if there is a bug or not, but whether it is being adressed or not.
A good example is the fresh round of X38 chipset motherboards that Anandtech has been reviewing the past few weeks.
Now, if I were in the market for such a motherboard it would be great if I could go to the bug tracker of each manufacturer check things out, and either decide to hold off or go with the manufacturer that has bugs of the least impact for what I plan to do.
Over time one could imagine various type of reputations different manufacturers might obtain.
Manufacturer A might be known to come to market quickly with a number of bugs, but they are known to resolve them over time with BIOS updates. Manufacturer B is know to come to market slightly later but with fewer bugs. Manufacturer C is known to be "cutting edge" and does little effort to support older CPU's/RAM but often add new functionality to thier BIOS etc...
I know that most manufacturers don't want to do this for fear of liability. But it is a far better system than having people complain on the public forums such as here and have thier reputations develop "as the wind blows". What they fail to realize is that I don't care if the SATA2 does not work well with the E2180 (only weblurker does) If ASRock had such an open bug tracker and I saw your issue with the E2180 I could evaluate it and say "Fine I am not planning on that cpu, I'm still going to buy the board." Likewise, you, on the other hand could have avoided the situation.
The end result is because of this experience you will probabaly never buy an ASRock again. Whereas if there was total transparency as I decribed, you either would have chosen a different proccessor for the board to avoid the E2180 issue or you would have chosen a different manufacturer motherboard. Not to mention the other alternative, you buy the board knowing it has the E2180 issue but you saw in the bug tracker that the issue was marked as "WILL FIX IN NEXT RELEASE".
Regardless of the choices above, you still would not end up hating ASRock.
And therein lies the real value of total transparency, one less pissed off customer! Worth many times his weight in gold even if he decides not buy your product! And that's what these companies don't "get".
I for one would prefer to plan for a next BIOS release instead of hoping for one that may never come, regardless of the manufacturer.
OK, done ranting.
When you think about it it should be a relatively easy fix. You would think there would be a part of the code somewhere in the BIOS that says something to the effect "if this CPU type then do the following...."
So what does that mean? They never tested with an E2180 or don't have one on hand? Or are they tied up with more pressing issues?
I wish companies would operate in a more transparent manner (including my current employer, BTW). By this I mean they should have an open to the public bug tracking system.
You go to thier site, check out what are the major bugs in the bios of the motherboard, find out if your bug has already been identified, find out it's cause, find out it's status (WONT FIX, NEXT RELEASE, etc...)
We all know that most products of this nature ship with bugs. The integrity of the company depends not if there is a bug or not, but whether it is being adressed or not.
A good example is the fresh round of X38 chipset motherboards that Anandtech has been reviewing the past few weeks.
Now, if I were in the market for such a motherboard it would be great if I could go to the bug tracker of each manufacturer check things out, and either decide to hold off or go with the manufacturer that has bugs of the least impact for what I plan to do.
Over time one could imagine various type of reputations different manufacturers might obtain.
Manufacturer A might be known to come to market quickly with a number of bugs, but they are known to resolve them over time with BIOS updates. Manufacturer B is know to come to market slightly later but with fewer bugs. Manufacturer C is known to be "cutting edge" and does little effort to support older CPU's/RAM but often add new functionality to thier BIOS etc...
I know that most manufacturers don't want to do this for fear of liability. But it is a far better system than having people complain on the public forums such as here and have thier reputations develop "as the wind blows". What they fail to realize is that I don't care if the SATA2 does not work well with the E2180 (only weblurker does) If ASRock had such an open bug tracker and I saw your issue with the E2180 I could evaluate it and say "Fine I am not planning on that cpu, I'm still going to buy the board." Likewise, you, on the other hand could have avoided the situation.
The end result is because of this experience you will probabaly never buy an ASRock again. Whereas if there was total transparency as I decribed, you either would have chosen a different proccessor for the board to avoid the E2180 issue or you would have chosen a different manufacturer motherboard. Not to mention the other alternative, you buy the board knowing it has the E2180 issue but you saw in the bug tracker that the issue was marked as "WILL FIX IN NEXT RELEASE".
Regardless of the choices above, you still would not end up hating ASRock.
And therein lies the real value of total transparency, one less pissed off customer! Worth many times his weight in gold even if he decides not buy your product! And that's what these companies don't "get".
I for one would prefer to plan for a next BIOS release instead of hoping for one that may never come, regardless of the manufacturer.
OK, done ranting.