Issue with RMA on an asus a8n-sli premium

[dodgybob]

My RMA number is 123956

I had the motherboard picked up by courier yesterday and received an email today basically saying that the motherboard was fine after a reset of the cmos:

"No display out of box - cleared CMOS - displays fine. Loaded BIOS defaults -
booting fine. Suspect a possible dodgy BIOS setting."

When I couldn't get the motherboard to work I posted a thread in the hardstuff forums here which covers most of the details:

http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=58478

The problem is that I reset the cmos quite a few different times, with the power supply disconnected and following the manual to the letter. So I'm very confused. I used components with it that are all known to work, the only other unknown being the 3200 venice that I bought from scan slightly earlier. I troubleshooted as many ways possible and now it seems I'm going to be charged £35 with no guarantee that it will work after that.

Does this board have issues with venice cores without a bios update and was it tested with a venice core? I bought the venice 3200 slightly earlier from scan believing it to be fully compatable.

I'm pretty fed up now, it took a very long time to try and exhaust all options before I RMAed the board.

I just don't understand why it now appears to work when we both did exactly the same thing.

[dodgybob]

*bump*

Can someone please have a look at this?

I tried everything and I suspect it wont work if I get it back. Also it clearly didn't work straight out of the box. I'm not very happy at the prospect of a charge of £35 on something that I tried very hard to troubleshoot.

[Lee H]

I've emailled this for phil's attention as generally deals with all the returns issues.

Best Regards,

[Philipp]

Hi dodgybob

Sorry for the delay in replying, upon looking into the issue it was notied that the board had been tested with a winchester chip, when poping a venice in there you were 100% correct we couldnt get the board to post, we have flashed the bios to the latest version and again tested the venice and the board together, it posted fine.

Because of this the board will be returned free of charge.

We do appolgise we use both venice and winchester chips in the testing dept it was a simple human error,

If you have any further problems or queries please do not hesitate to contact me,

Best Regards
Philip Payseno

[dodgybob]

Thanks for the reply and for sorting the matter out. Sorry if I was testy earlier with my posts, this issue came on top of a bad week including losing a chunk out of my thumb at work so I I've been pretty stressed.

Many thanks,

dodgybob

[JimNastics]

I have a Premium turning up tomorrow that I plan to use with an Opteron straight from the box, slightly concerned now to hear that they are shipping with bios' that can't even address Venice cores?! If it doesn't work, I don't have a handy Winchester around to use to flash the bios...

[Dav0s]

if you have a prob, PM me, I have a spare winnie you could borrow

[JimNastics]

if you have a prob, PM me, I have a spare winnie you could borrow

Oooh that's a really nice offer, cheers mate, I'll be in touch if I run into problems Spent a weekend in Bristol a couple of weeks ago, the missus loved the big shopping mall at Cribbs Causeway!

[dodgybob]

Wow that's really nice of you Davos.

I'm hoping you wont have the same trouble I had Jim, a fair few people have bought the premium from scan with no issues so hopefully mine was a one off. Good luck with the build mate.

[Dav0s]

Oooh that's a really nice offer, cheers mate, I'll be in touch if I run into problems Spent a weekend in Bristol a couple of weeks ago, the missus loved the big shopping mall at Cribbs Causeway!

ah yes, traffic is a bitch though

[Steve A]

Davos

You are a gent indeed my friend

Regards

[dodgybob]

Received the motherboard back from scan today. Thanks guys, excellent service.

[Steve A]

Hi

Np, glad it has been sorted


Regards

[dodgybob]

Ok tested it again and still no picture on the screen.

We have tried 2 working graphics cards, 2 different types of working ram and 2 working power supplies to no avail. No matter what combination or how often the cmos is reset, nothing comes on the screen.

I found out from a thread in the hardware section that I have an E6 venice. I'm wondering whether an E3 venice was used to test it and it wont work with the E6, but surely with the latest bios that shouldn't be an issue.

So it looks like another RMA coming, this time with both the motherboard and cpu (both were bought from scan a couple of weeks apart). Also another possibility of being charged again if they miraculously work together. This is not meant as a dig at scan who have been very good with their service but it is incredibly infuriating.

[dodgybob]

hmm tried a different battery too just in case the one that came with it was dead. No joy.

I'll call scan tomorrow.

[asteroth]

not to be patronising, but are you testing outside the case? more than once i have seen boards failing to post because they were shorting out on the case.
rick.