Fatal1ty AN9 32X - Heat issues

[Fishbowler]

Perhaps someone here can shed some light on my motherboard quandary.

I've had issues with stability of my Fatal1ty since I bought it.

It exhibited graphics artefacts in 3D games, then on the desktop when I took the Vista plunge. I saw coloured dots on the BIOS splash screen, characters transposed and coloured during POST (e.g. getting "nFidia" displayed in pink instead "nVidia" in white). If left idling in Vista, the system would crash of its own accord within a few hours.

I spend a good length of time blaming the graphics card, as you can imagine. Since then, I've spotted that the north bridge temperature is perhaps above what it should be (~80°C). I've got the side open with a deskfan pointing at the northbridge for the time being.

I've recently spotted a recall for this board (hexus.net/content/item.php?item=6246). My S/N falls within the range, and it sounds rather correlative.

I've tried mailing rma-uk@abit.eu, technical@abitcomputer.co.uk and returns@abitcomputer.co.uk. All three have been returned with "connection timed out" delivery failures.

To add to the confusion, I bought the motherboard 2 years and 2 months ago, so although the recall is still valid, the retailer won't get involved.

Any / all advice welcome.

[BUFF]

It sounds like a gfx card error to me if you were getting it in the BIOS on POST.

I don't think that there is a sensor in the chipset for uGuru to read, are you sure that you aren't confusing that with PWM temp?

abit UK no longer exists which is probably why you are getting bounced, try abit Nl which is abit's European support centre.
Your mobo is out of warranty though.

[Fishbowler]

The graphics card has been sent away and tested by the retailer and the manufacturer and passed both times.

Surely a recall is a recall regardless of warranty?
I'd have thought that not spotting it until now doesn't make my motherboard any less faulty...

If that's not the case, I'm sure there'd be reason to take the retailer to task over not informing me / selling it to me after a recall, no?

[BUFF]

1. the chances of abit having an AN9 32X to give you are slim as it's an obsolete board
2. doubly so as abit are out of mobos as of the end of this year
3. the recall was over the possibility of overheating & a) you have shown no evidence that it is & b) the fact that this behaviour is visible in the BIOS on POST i.e. way before it could possibly be suggests that it isn't heat related

strangely enough though I've seen similar (the discolouring) solved simply by switching the VGA lead from 1 gfx output on a gfx card to the other. worth a try at least.