Solved ASRock has bad boards

I bought an ASRock 990FX Fata1ity Pro board last Novemeber from Newegg, exchanged it for another, and have RMA-ed it 3 times now to ASRock. Og course it is my hardware at fault according to "John" from ASRock. Odd the same symptoms on all 4 different boards.
It may be AMD's new 990FX chip set but they aren't saying anything and ASRock won't honor its warranty since "it's my hardware" and they check each board for defects before it is returned. I keep getting someone else's bad board.
Four boards in total. All had the following defects:
USB fails to power up
Constant freezes
Blue Screens
UEFI settings do not keep although they show as correct within UEFI
Hit and miss if installed RAM is reconized, mostly miss
NB and SB heatsinks too hot to touch
Eltron USB control chips can fry eggs, very hot
No POST quite often
Made by ASRock
Often needs to power off/reset button to reboot

I have used 3 CPUs, 2 sets of RAM, and 2 different VGA cards. Four months of headaches and ASRock denials of responsibility.

Britton30 said:

I bought an ASRock 990FX Fata1ity Pro board last Novemeber from Newegg, exchanged it for another, and have RMA-ed it 3 times now to ASRock. Og course it is my hardware at fault according to "John" from ASRock. Odd the same symptoms on all 4 different boards.
It may be AMD's new 990FX chip set but they aren't saying anything and ASRock won't honor its warranty since "it's my hardware" and they check each board for defects before it is returned. I keep getting someone else's bad board.
Four boards in total. All had the following defects:
USB fails to power up
Constant freezes
Blue Screens
UEFI settings do not keep although they show as correct within UEFI
Hit and miss if installed RAM is reconized, mostly miss
NB and SB heatsinks too hot to touch
Eltron USB control chips can fry eggs, very hot
No POST quite often
Made by ASRock
Often needs to power off/reset button to reboot

I have used 3 CPUs, 2 sets of RAM, and 2 different VGA cards. Four months of headaches and ASRock denials of responsibility.

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Things like what you are experiencing with the customer support denying responsibility is something I have heard too much. it is truly sad that companies will do this to people that are willing to buy THEIR products. Oh well. I have heard lots of great things about Gigabyte boards. Get one of the Gigabyte boards with the dual bios. I think the dual bios is cool becaue if a bios flash goes wrong, you can boot up using the other bios and recover the corrupted bios.

I would drop them and go with someone more reliable. Anyways good post for future reference I now know to avoid this brand of boards, never owned one of their boards before. What happened to the saying the customer is always right? Guess it is the customer is always wrong according to their standards Wish you best of luck and hope you can get this resolved soon.

I have asked for a supervisor's number or email and it goes ignored too. I think they really don't care.

I had started to hear good things about them, after much initial trepidation about the quality based on pricing. I guess my original feeling to stick with ASUS, or Gigabyte might have proven out. A Guy

Their Intel 1155 boards are very good. I own one and it has been solid. The AMD boards seem to be different. I don't know what the problem with them is. Everyone says to go with Asus. I had to buy and RMA 4 Asus boards before I got one that works, and based on the Newegg reviews, Gigabyte boards are worse. If I was buying another sandy Bridge board, I still think I would go with Asrock, but it is difficult to know who to buy from. Nobody has anything close to decent customer support. And don't even talk to me about MSI. I've been where Gary is from them. The only difference is, they will still talk to Gary. MSI refused to answer emails or phone calls from me. I just wish one company would come out with a decent product and give good customer support. Even a mediocre product with good customer support would get my business. As it stands now, no matter who you buy from, you're on your own. These motherboard companies should take a lesson from G Skill, Noctua and EVGA. With those companies, if their products are not working, they make it right with little effort.

The Best AMD boards Thus far has been the Biostars /MSI's and Gigabyte

The Asus crosshair board was supposed to be the legit legit one

the Fatality pro is the one Tweek has he hasn't really had issues but i feel your pain remember Britton me and you spent a few days with GANJIRY on his issues he is replacing his with the crosshair

and these are all 990FX chip sets i had to return mine the first time too but after that i been running gold

I hope that when you finally get this a new rig up and running that it is so great it makes you forget about all this. And I hope that happens soon.

Hi Gary and all

I am sure that everybody remember that i installed and use this Fatal1ty P67 Professional in the new system.

The pc is working 24hours in nonstop heavy duty with no problems.

Are you sure that is motherboard problem?

Maybe you have a faulty hardware and is causing problems.

4 motherboards are too much.

ASRock actually is getting better and better and moving fast forward for the top.

I knew also few (2) friends with ASRock motherboards and they are happy with it.

Did you tried with different PSU?

Panais, I helped my cousin build a computer with that same board and he is very happy with it. I have a P8P67 Extreme 4 Asrock board that has had no problems. It seems that there is a big difference in their Sandy Bridge boards and the AM3+ boards. I really don't know why. The chipsets maybe? It is kind of a curiosity for me. the manufacturing process should be the same for all boards. Only the chipsets differ.

panais said:

Hi Gary and all

I am sure that everybody remember that i installed and use this Fatal1ty P67 Professional in the new system.

The pc is working 24hours in nonstop heavy duty with no problems.

Are you sure that is motherboard problem?

Maybe you have a faulty hardware and is causing problems.

4 motherboards are too much.

ASRock actually is getting better and better and moving fast forward for the top.

I knew also few (2) friends with ASRock motherboards and they are happy with it.

Did you tried with different PSU?

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essenbe said:

Panais, I helped my cousin build a computer with that same board and he is very happy with it. I have a P8P67 Extreme 4 Asrock board that has had no problems. It seems that there is a big difference in their Sandy Bridge boards and the AM3+ boards. I really don't know why. The chipsets maybe? It is kind of a curiosity for me. the manufacturing process should be the same for all boards. Only the chipsets differ.

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Yes, i am also very curious about this,motherboards are robotic and human checked before exit the factory for sale and with the first "problematic" motherboard they alert\stop everything.They don't rely on luck.

Maybe 1 motherboard "escaped" from the check,but 4,well i don't know,4 problematic's motherboards in a row is suicide for the company.

Gary said he had the same symptoms in all 4 motherboards that's why i suspect a faulty hardware conflict.

To try with a different PSU is a good idea.

Well, I can answer for Gary. he has tried more than 2 PSUs, 3 CPUs, 2 GPUs and they have all had the same problems. Personally, I believe the same problem on all 4 boards have been a bad BIOS. How and why that can happen, I have no idea. The big issue is customer support. It is really ashamed they way they do business as they are all the same. It doesn't matter if it is Asrock, Asus, Gigabyte or MSI. If you have to depend on customer service, you are in for a big long fight. I wish another company would make decent boards with good customer support. Again, even if they had some problems, but I knew they would make it right I would be their first customer. I mean really, you pay good money for a new board. It has problems and you RMA it to the manufacturer. What you get in return is a used board that someone else RMA'd. I didn't pay for an 'open box' or a refurbished board. I paid for a new board and expect to have a new board that works. It's a miracle they stay in business. And that is only because we have no other choices. /soapbox /rant

Everyone is entitled to there experiences and opinions. I must have the gift of gab as I have very rarely had any customer support issues I couldn't work through. I believe that after four RMA'd products a higher level of support is needed and maybe not let it get to four. I mean what are the odd's of getting four bad mobo's, just saying. I have only used MSI and I've had 100% pure joy using them and when needed RMA'g their products again your mileage may vary. I RMA'd my first board as I was having black screens and as it was my first barebones build I bought all new everything trying to solve this issue. Turns out it was my freaking LCD TV/Monitor and had nothing to do with the mobo. MSI didn't care they sent me a new mobo and off I went. Several MSI mobo's later all of them 100% out of the box I decide to build a system off that first MSI RMA'd mobo. I slaved over the build for my girlfriend but couldn't get it to post. I bought a boot analyzer and nothing was posting past the CPU. So I RMA'd that same board back to MSI, no problems and it turned out the NB heatsink springs were loose and not pulling heat away from the NB chip. So I purchased my first ASRock cheapy mobo to fill in and man I'm impressed with this mobo for $59.00 it was a steal and booted first time. People hate MSI,ASUS,Biostar,ASRock,Gigabyte....you name one and you can blog and find tons of people to rag on it. Does customer service vary.....of course. Does a tremendous amount of your outcome depend on how you treat the person on the other end......most definitely. So my advice is get your facts straight before calling, pictures are great if it will help, have your invoice scanned and handy, a list of all attached items and the most important thing is take a breath and treat the customer service person as you would want to be treated. Leave the attitude at the door and just be up front about things, chances are better than good you will get farther in the process, be less stressed and receive the most considerations.

My response here isn't directed at anyone but more for everyone. We get very passionate about our rigs and sometimes that passion builds to a level that can make communication difficult, I've been there done that. I to have to breath, walk away from the problem and yes sometimes sleep on it and normally with a clear head, some sleep and the use of this wonderful forum get through and learn from all of this. When people look back on their lives it's always about the journey and not about the results.

My first Gigabyte EX58-UD3R died after less than a year. Desperate, I ran out and bought an identical board which has run fine ever since. (It's in my secondary computer now.)

The RMA I received for the first board looked like someone else's castoff. I debated as to whether I should drop a CPU in it and use it for a spare, but ended up upgrading to my current main rig. When I went to put the RMA return up for sale I figured I'd better test it. Guess what - dead board! :sarc:

essenbe said:

Their Intel 1155 boards are very good. I own one and it has been solid. The AMD boards seem to be different. I don't know what the problem with them is. Everyone says to go with Asus. I had to buy and RMA 4 Asus boards before I got one that works, and based on the Newegg reviews, Gigabyte boards are worse. If I was buying another sandy Bridge board, I still think I would go with Asrock, but it is difficult to know who to buy from. Nobody has anything close to decent customer support. And don't even talk to me about MSI. I've been where Gary is from them. The only difference is, they will still talk to Gary. MSI refused to answer emails or phone calls from me. I just wish one company would come out with a decent product and give good customer support. Even a mediocre product with good customer support would get my business. As it stands now, no matter who you buy from, you're on your own. These motherboard companies should take a lesson from G Skill, Noctua and EVGA. With those companies, if their products are not working, they make it right with little effort.

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Yeah for AMD it's best to go ASUS imo I have a ASUS mobo and it hasn't failed me yet and been running for 1 year and 4 months without any issues

I'm an ASUS fan personally. Thease look like pretty nice AMD boards:

Newegg.com - asus motherboard

Panais and others. As Essenbe pointed out I have used several different bits of hardware on all 4 board with the same result. I also RMAd my Corsair HX650W and got another one besides that, 3 in all. PSU wasn't the problem. I think it is AMD's having problems with the new 990FX but unlike Intel, they refuse to acknowledge they messed it up.
3 CPUs
2 GPUs
3 sets of RAM
3 different drives
3 PSUs
New UEFI BIOS

All the boards acted up after a few days to a few hours of being powered on. The final one finally died too after a restart after a UEFI flash and all it does is spin the CPU cooler fan.

At ASRock my case was elevated to management and he, John, basically has told me I'm stupid and ASRock would never return a bad board. Imagine that.

Wow Britton30 sorry to hear how you've been treated. At one point in the frustration of my original MSI mobo the representative offered me to bring my tower in for them to look at as I'm only an hour away from their US headquarters. That offer when I pushed to accept was rescinded. The whole computer part business would be a challenging one to stay alive in. My first venture into high end BFG graphics cards I went through several to get a good working one only to have them go bankrupt and take my cards lifetime guaranty down with it. I wonder what the failure rate is on mobo and other components at an OEM level? Of course they just pile up the rejects and have a mfg. rep. credit them from their invoice but still I wonder what makes for a good and bad percentage of rejects?

Well, it's not only Gary, as several here know, I bought 4 Asus Z68 boards before I got 1 without bent CPU pins. Of course Asus, like Asrock, says that's not possible. 2 of the boards were RMA'd and never had a CPU put in them. MSI told me you can't run 1600 ram in an 890 chipset, there was nothing wrong with the board. The ram was on their QVL list. Then he said I needed a better CPU, I told him I had a Phenom II X 6, what would he suggest. He hung up on me. My original question was simply how can I get this board stable. I'm not ragging on any of them because they are all the same. They read from a script, and really know very little about the board itself. Just call one up and tell them you have ram problems and you have put in 3 sets of ram and run memtest86 10 times without errors. They will read the first item on the list and tell you to download and run memtest86. For some reason none of them have figured out that the average soccer mom does not buy motherboards. Only Geeks like us do, and when we call we have gone through everything in their list they read from. We need someone who really knows the particular board well. The truth really is that we know more about the boards than the tech reps. They need to hire us for tech reps. We may actually be able to help some people.

essenbe said:

Well, it's not only Gary, as several here know, I bought 4 Asus Z68 boards before I got 1 without bent CPU pins. Of course Asus, like Asrock, says that's not possible.

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Just a tip for others having similar issues regarding out of the box bent pins.

Asrock/Asus (Asrock being the 'budget' line of Asus) are the same company and the 'party line' to attempt to avoid RMA issues and profit loss is to place the onus of blame on the consumer rather than admit they have poor Quality Control in some factories/batches.

Bent pins from inept installers is a loophole they exploit to attempt to avoid replacing a brand new board for free if they can as opposed to receiving a 'refurbished' board, or worse ask for a fee etc.

There are several differences between Asrock/Asus manufacturing including 'cheaper' components used, thinner board wafers etc. There's more to it obviously but the fact is Asrock are owned by Asus and use 'lesser quality' parts to for their 'budget' models. Hence Asrocks existence.

However, a bad board is a bad board regardless of manufacturer/components used. When an Asus board is defective - an Asrock board can be exemplary and vice versa. Just as a MSI/Gigabyte etc have their 'off' boards.

Overall Asrock is not a 'bad brand' - but they do have consistently weaker models by comparison and some perfectly 'okay' ones. In reality, depending on model - they have improved quickly in quality compared to when they were first released. When they work, they work well. When they don't - they suck. Just as the other manufacturers have the equi good/bad models.


Yet when one receives a bad board, or multiple - one has a right to crack the shits. And vow never to touch them again.

(ie I refuse to touch XFX GPUS because of quality control issues when they ditched Nvidia and focussed on AMD and I had 3 out four cards bite the big one. It might have been a bad batch, but I'd hesitate to buy XFX again - trust lost despite the fourth card being perfect.)






* As an off topic side note - this is one example of how embryonic brand loyalty is created.