Return my Abit IX38 QuadGT? - Unreliable/faulty

[OptimusX]

I wasn't just going to put this straight in the mail with an RMA sheet because I wanted to make sure I would get a refund, I don't want a replacement.

This motherboard at best; is just very faulty and unreliable. It will often fail to even POST where I won't show anything on screen, and I'm forced to keep resetting the CMOS and trying to boot up again after switching all the power off, I'm taking about having to do 7 to 10 reboots, just to get into the BIOS screen after it advises me to do so after having a check sum error.

I know every other part in my computer is working fine and the motherboard doesn't have any damage. After finally having a chance to install Vista, I'm always back to restarting with this whole, switch off, unplug, switch on, fail to POST, reset BIOS, configure BIOS, reboot, wait 5 minutes, reboot again, process.

It's so unreliable, it's next to saying it's a faulty motherboard and I'm just fed up with it. So can I get it returned?

[BUFF]

tried the beta12 BIOS?

[YOYOtech - Mark]

hi there, sorry to hear of the problems you have been having with the abit board you got from us....

if you could please fill out the form below:

RMA FORM

once we get the goods back we will get it tested and sorted for you....

thanks
mark

[OptimusX]

Sorry to be the bringer of good news at this point, but everything is working great now.
Can you blame me when jumping from showroom "off the self" computers to my first full self built enthusiast class system? I'm not used to all these controls! Anyways;

Solved problem 1; the mainboard battery might have been dead/faulty, resulting in the loss of BIOS/CMOS data, everytime the PC shutdown. I replaced it with a the same one from my old system and now everything is just perfect really. I have yet to test whether my old system now functions correctly so it may or may not be the battery at fault. They cost about £1 anyway so I'm not complaining lol.

Solved problem 2; My RAM voltage was set WAY to low, should have been @ 2.1V according the sticker on the GEiL sticks, BIOS auto set it to 1.98v!
Went in the BIOS to set it manually changed the values = no more faulty bootups or BSOD's!

So there we are...
I can boot up everytime, go in and out of BIOS at will, feels fantastic.
I'll try out the 12 bios when they release a final version. I know all the correct procedures for flashing and backing up etc. All that great help out there on the internet; but somehow, I feel I've done enough testing to last me a while lol, so excuse me while I enjoy what I've got for now.

Thanks for your interest though guys, I know I can count on some help if anything goes wrong from now on.

[Blitzen]

glad all is good now as i am on the verge of picking up one of these boards myself.

[OptimusX]

Sorry to muck around with everybody, this board wasn't fixed at all.
It's gone back to its state of affairs; it no longer matters if I can make it stable because it simply won't save my CMOS settings, which I think is critical for my memory voltage sake. I've felt I'm done everything and more to try find a solution, but the time has now come to throw in the towel.

I'm in the process of dismantling it now and I will be sending it back with a RMA form for a refund. I certainly don't want a replacement.

[YOYOtech - Mark]

hi there, sorry to hear you are still having problems, with the abit board.
if you get it back to us we will get it sorted for you....

thanks
mark

[OptimusX]

Identified the problem!

Faulty PCIEXP1 slot.

Moving my video card to another slot solved the problem.

I'm boxing the board back up now with all the original packaging/contents etc.
I actually wouldn't mind a replacement now since I was triumphant in finding the cause of my issues. I feel much more confidant with that board now.

I'll pop the board in the post ASAP and I'll write down the fault on the RMA, hopefully that will allow it to speed through whoever's testing process a lot faster.

Having a bit of confusion over the RMA sheet;

RMA SHEET NUMBER - Left blank.

ITEM SERIAL NUMBER : The Serial Number column on my invoice is blank, so I put what’s on one of the boxes barcodes: IX38QECJ000460

INVOICE NUMBER: I put down the transaction number.

[OptimusX]

Received a replacement mainboard today, completely wasn't expecting it so soon! Posted it on Thursday 6th.
I'm very pleased and impressed with the service guys, thanks a lot.

Just a case of re-building the system now when I find the time, hope I have more luck with this one.
Many thanks again.

Edit: Just to close my open-ended post, I thought I would give the board a few days of normal/heavy operation just to confirm that indeed, everything works very well and I'm really pleased. Whatever the problem was with the other board doesn't exist at all. Might just have been a bad batch which is over now anyway, so I'm happy to say this is a very good board and I recommend it to everybody whose looking for that perfect mainboard on the pound with PCIe 2.0.

Using the stock BIOS (11) everything is prime95 stable, running 4x1GB GEIL 2.125v at 842MHz 5-5-5-18 T2, 9x350 on a Q6600, WinXP SP3.
The memory can do 4-4-4-12 T2 but at 799MHz and I'd rather have the higher FSB. Have yet to try some extreme overclocking but from jumping from a Athlon XP2800+ to a Q6600, its very certainly fast enough.