Attn. Abit Marketing/ Factory cut trace on AN7?

[zippyc]

Dear Abit Marketing,

I am about to buy another Abit board (love my NF-7 Rev 2). Looking at the AN7 I see that many users are receiving boards that have a trace deliberately cut...evidently at the factory.

Here is a thread with serveral pictures and examples:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=23042

Should they return these boards as damaged, or has Abit done this deliberately for some reason?

Thank you.

Zippyc

[texuspete00]

If you see the thread here:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=23042&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

It looks like a trace has been cut in the AN7 on purpose. At first I thought it was ridiculous that some felt Abit did it. However, there have been about a half dozen confirmations of it so far. Most disturbing is that since one person had one, a thread started on it whereby people know what to look for, has turned up zero people that say they don't have it.

Mine is in due to be delivered tommorrow. I was looking for some insight on to why this is so. I'd hope it was for some feature that has not been added yet or something similar rather than some kind of patch to get boards out the door.

edit: There is an identical thread. At least I dont feel like a pain for bugging you as it is a serious concern. You'll notice our posts are a minute off. Lol... we were writing them concurrently.

edit2: threads joined and given back to it's rightful owner. Just when I was going top gloat for getting the responses....:p:

[zippyc]

You and I had the same post idea...I beat you by one minute!

LOL :p: :p: :p:

[ABIT Marketing]

I just confirmed the cut trace on our test sample in the lab and I am looking into this issue right now. I am sure it is nothing important because the board I have in the test lab is capable to run 225Mhz FSB out of the box. Either way I will see what I can dig out.

[texuspete00]

Thanks for your quick response. Even if it's unimportant, it will be in the back of my mind until I find out.

[TechTones]

Yes me too. I'd like to know the low down on this...

Thanks

[TechTones]

Yo Hallowed,

did you take the NB sink off and reapply paste?

There's a spot of paste on the NB, that's all. This will cause instability for sure.

[Sack]

I just confirmed the cut trace on our test sample in the lab and I am looking into this issue right now. I am sure it is nothing important because the board I have in the test lab is capable to run 225Mhz FSB out of the box. Either way I will see what I can dig out.
Whatever you done to hit 225 out of the box you need to share that information, because most are very frustrated and disappointed because they aren't hitting 225 out of the box.
People have hit and still hitting that(225)with the NF7-S but most aren't with the AN7.

[saaya]

yeah most people ive heard of can only get 210 if not less :/

btw, will there be a value version of the a7n? thx :)

[Holst]

We have only seen 3 or 4 people with them so far.

Im tempted to buy one just to play with... but fixing my prommy is #1 concern atm.

[texuspete00]

I think there's been more than that. Mine just came in. My cut is of the sloppy variety, finger spoodge of some sort nearby too. Maybe it's ketchup. Maybe I can send it back and tell them I ordered mine with mayo. Sorry Abit tech.

I'll report of course, broken sig is my v1.2 NF7-S. Problem could just be a shaky bios and fallen quality of NF2 northbridges. Still patiently awaiting insight to the gash. I never really stared at traces so much. I thgought the trace would be similar on top. There's a big trace kind of in similar spot on top that goes towards the SB... maybe for MCPS previosly, that would ease the mind. Then again, I never had a reason to care, dont exactly know what I'm talking about. Maybe different layers are totally different and I need a good :stick:

[TechTones]

Why is it taking so long for a response from Abit on this?

We should have had an answer 1 hour later. Now it's what, 3 days??

[DaGooch]

Originally posted by TechTones
Why is it taking so long for a response from Abit on this?

We should have had an answer 1 hour later. Now it's what, 3 days??

#5: Represenatives are here on their spare time. Therefore, do not private message them about suggestions and technical problems if they are not answered immediately.

[TechTones]

Here is their resonse:

Cut Trace Answer
We have official word that the cut trace was necessary to correct a problem. Newer boards have the same fix.
The first lot of AN7 was with that trace cut; however, we have fully tested every piece of AN7 and all the functionalities are OK. Please ignore it as it in no way effects the board, infact it is a fix and needs to remain that way.

Please dont ask about what the specific problem was as I dont know and I am not going to ask for the schematics of the PCB layout and try to figure it out, just sufice it to say that all is well with that trace cut and future boards will not have it be visible.



Thanks
ABIT PR


__________________
Thanks,
ABIT USA

[Lithan]

They sure as ***t didn't test my board. It had that... 'never been powered on since some idiot butchered me trying to cut my trace' smell the first time I powered it up... which amazingly, smelled like smoke. Who woulda guessed? It was gonna be my last socket A board. Looks like my nf7-s will have to last me till I go 64 bit.

[texuspete00]

Hopefully our abit guy will have a better answer, that one is quite poor. All it says was its a fix. What else could it have been? And to think we thought they did it just to piss us off.

[TechTones]

Originally posted by texuspete2k2
Hopefully our abit guy will have a better answer, that one is quite poor. All it says was its a fix. What else could it have been? And to think we thought they did it just to piss us off.

I agree. This is back to my point of how mobo companies have no real respect for their customers or more important our intelligence.

The answer should have been two fold.

1} tell us EXactly what happened, what the problem was before the fix and after the fix and WHY boards weren't fixed at the factory level manufacturing them instead of implementing a crude fix afterwards?

Why weren't the first 2 or 3 boards tested like they should have been to prevent all this? We want to know.

2] An apology to all who went thru mental suffering about all this. They didn't even feel like saying sorry....sad isn't it? Just no respect that's all.

[Holst]

If somebody wants to post in the vmods section about this ill take a look, shouldnt be too hard to work out what that trace did/didnt do.

My feeling is that they have altered some voltage regulation at the last minute and have had to alter PCB a little.

I dont see why abit need to appologise providing that the boards work... I have seen NO EVIDENCE at all that this cut trace has caused anybody a problem... and certainly none that points to it being the cause of Lithans problem.

Obviously the above is all speculation. I havent seen one of these boards myself yet.

[Lithan]

Last I checked... a board that was tested doesn't go up in smoke as soon as it gets powered up.

[CCW]

Lithan, as Holst says there seems to be no evidence that your board was smoked due to this particular problem. Your problem may well be that the board was untested however this could not relate to this problem.

Craig

[TechTones]

You know I think I know why everyone is really, really so mad about this.

We feel hurt. I mean I like Abit and their products but I had a certain type of relationship with them over the years. They were a great compnay . 2 times they sent me free bios for my board while Epox never, ever sent it even though they said they would.

They also sent me a free slot 1 bracket back n days, so I developed a relationship with them.

When you don't expect such things, you feel hurt and betrayed.
Why cause you figured one, a company like Abit wouldn't make this mistake in the 1st place. That they would have cought in right away, in the first few boards. I can't see how proper testing was done at that point in time.

How do you produce all your boards with PCB errors? I held Abit in higher esteem that's why it hurts.

So much of this anger is actually hurt and a feeling of betrayal.

I will still support this company in the future, but my confidence in them has been broken.

[Lithan]

I should have snapped a pic of the trace cut CCW... then you'd understand.

[CCW]

I understand you perfectly well, I also understand that because your board has been smoked your going to be irrate to say the least yet all I ask is that you calm down.

:)

Craig

[texuspete00]

Any reply from Abit tech or is techtone's email the final answer? I'd really like the last word here to be from him. Can someone please tell me what the trace used to be for?

[Holst]

I havent seen any reply, although from personal experience I know that pestering wont help.

If you do want to know what that drace does/did post in the Vmods section and ill help you guys figure it out.

[texuspete00]

I'd send them but the board is going back. I'm not pestering. Obvious the thread has been ignored and won't be answered anyways. Nothing against abit tech dude but I'm getting furious at the company itself - probably won't tell him or told him not to tell. No one has gotten ANY answer as far as I'm concerned.

Oh it doesn't affect the board. It's intentional.... thats nothing. We knew they would say it didnt affect the board. No kidding it's intentional also. Abit must come clean as to what the trace was supposed to do. The gash is what a tech would look for in declaring a mobo damaged for pete's sake!

I guess just frustrating in the time it takes to set it up. Because other than that they will get there just desserts, my money will be returned to me, this board will not be pawned off on me to save them some cash of redesigning instead. I dont know what kind of tact to use in this section. The COMPANY has done us all a disservice and the act is dispicable. There is no getting around that. I have not personally said anything that should offend abit tech.

Seems like we are supposed to walk on a thin ledge in here. I think the guy is a link to the enthusiast community and abit. Abit should know they are losing customers. So to Abit - Fine dont want to tell me what the gash is for.... take your mangled board back and for my time subtract 1 customer. I have to call excal and make sure they understand there is a nice gashing in the back that I have no part of.

oh and one more lesson for abit.... don't tell enthusiasts about these "fixes" and they are MORE likely to return them. Give an enthusiast the run around who obviously have taken a good look at the board and they will assume the worst! That's right.... everything that is wrong with my board is this gashed traces or other hand jobs fault. Why? because I said so and no one has told me differently! Customer satisfaction here in the states.

Anyways that's my rant and not my pestering because I dont expect any kind of answer other than "calm down," this and that from other forum members. Sorry if I went on too long but i dont wish to be a big pain in the butt to abit guy. But if you want any feedback it's hey- I give up. Sorry for the rant but I was patient in waiting for a response when I thought I would get one - back when it was mentioned the engineers were called upon - got a marketing/save face response instead. Felt comfortable with my decision to rant because i dont expect abit to have the decency to tell me. Cars that leak oil work fine too but I sure as hell wouldnt want to pay the new price for it. Board is a refurb at best... end of story really.

If there is anything to take away from this it's if someone told me what it was supposed to do they might still get a returned mobo, but they probably would have had a returning customer. Now only there mobo returns to abitville. Can I get an amen?!

[TechTones]

These guys don't give a ****. They would rather die then admit they messed up and do a recall on all those bad boards. But no, they're not decent enough to do that. This shows the morals of the company.

We'll take your money, if there's a real problem, we'll be quiet and hope it goes away while you suffer. In the mean time your money is in our bank account and that's all that truly matters to us.

But you see these guys think we'll just take it. My next N3 board purchase will NOT be from Abit.

I'll be damned if I give them my hard earned money and business again.

[atxplus]

I must admit i was ignorant of the fact that the an7 had a cut in the track, and even if it had as long as its fuctional i dont really care. I brought the abit an7 to quickly replace a dead leadtek nforce motherboard which was so flaky nothing could be worse. The an7 is the extream to the leadtek being utterly reliable stable and all the ports work on it, at the moment im running it stock with a barton 2800 and cheapo memory. The reason why i think the abit an7 is such agood board is because of its stability. I havnt even bothered to update the bios or the drivers. Im running winXP with absolutely no probs, Im using bog standard Pata hard drives and im well pleased with this board. So you people out there why dont you just use the bloody machine and stop crying into your beer over such a trivial modification.

[texuspete00]

Well, maybe... but this is an overclocker's forums and frankly running a barton 2800+ @ stock & 333fsb is no tall order for any NF2 board. You do realize the predecessor, the NF7-S was one of the best NF2 boards ever.... Also you paid a premium for this board and are not asking for much out of it and could have saved some pennies.

It's just different. No offence, but most here aren't as easily pleased just because a board based on a year old chipset can run a barton stock without bios updates. Abit wants to sell boards to enthusiasts too, in fact they make claims to be all about it. Maybe you have a good board, hell maybe the new AN7s arent as bad, but the argument brought to table really wont interest most. If you had said the same thing but about OC success rather than "it boots, it works"... then that would be relevant.

So crank that beotch and prove me wrong!