Fried my DFI X58 UT T3eH8

[woffen]

I was running LinX and the entire computer suddenly shuts off. I am like wtf and start it again, this is where I see and smell smoke coming from the mobo. Here is a picture of what it looks like now:

http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo219/woffen/DSC_0521.jpg

Anyone know what got burned?

[Russ_64]

Hard luck mate, I am guessing PWM's - did you monitor temps with SmartGuardian or Everest (I use the Everest Sidebar gadget in Windows 7) ??

[woffen]

Yea, did monitor with Smartguardian. The temps were about 90C I think. I thought the digital PWM on this board was good for 130C or something.. This should be covered with RMA right?

[Russ_64]

I would raise it with DFI support for RMA but from what I have seen they do not replace burnt boards - did you up volts or mod/change heatsink (change thermal paste, etc)?

[Peen]

I've fried 2 of these boards doing same thing you've mentioned but nothing burnt off like that and they RMA'ed it. What CPU voltage and speed were u running?

[woffen]

Havent touched the Heatsinks in any way. Cant remember exakt volts but was within safe limits for sure. I do remember this board making a funny noise everytime CPU was under load, like a buzzing sound. It was quiet but noticable every time under heavy load (LinX, Prime95). Could the board have been borked already from start?

EDIT:

Live in Finland so don't think it's that easy to contact DFI directly. Guess I will have to go through the local shop.

[Splave]

too much linX, I dont get why so many people run it.

[woffen]

Was a first time for me. Well, I don't see a program causing a mobo to burn:)

[sjakie666]

1 of my boards fried to... somewhere near the NB. It looks like a common problem with dfi :P The volterra's can handle high temps. i find sub 60 degrees best for overclocking. sub 70 also good but higher than 75/80 causes instability in my system. When i got my rmaed board i saw a pwm temp of 128 degrees and it didn't kill my board(they mounted the cooling to loose*sigh*)

[woffen]

1 of my boards fried to... somewhere near the NB. It looks like a common problem with dfi :P The volterra's can handle high temps. i find sub 60 degrees best for overclocking. sub 70 also good but higher than 75/80 causes instability in my system. When i got my rmaed board i saw a pwm temp of 128 degrees and it didn't kill my board(they mounted the cooling to loose*sigh*)

Did you get your board RMA'd?

[sjakie666]

via the shop yes... but i didn't have the burned chip in sight... the buzzing sound is a common problem. my board makes a lot of noise(all my dfi x58 boards did)

[woffen]

Ok, I don't think they can miss it here as it will probably smell burned if they try to start it.. Well, hopefully I will get a new one through RMA. Will be really disappointed if I don't. Too bad to hear about the sound being common, it is really annoying.

[sjakie666]

as long as you don't rma it directly to dfi you'll be fine i think... and rma it to the shop without mentioning the burned component :O.;)

[drnip]

I hat to tell you but DFI's RMA blows the biggest bubbles I have ever seen. Speaking from personal experience. Even if it isn't your fault they will find a way to say it is. Be prepared to pay for them to fix it.

[woffen]

As I live in Finland I don't think it will be easy to RMA through DFI directly. Will have to go with the shop I bought it from. I don't wanna cheat anyone so will just tell them what happened I think. It's not like I did anything wrong?

[tripgood]

I was running LinX and the entire computer suddenly shuts off. I am like wtf and start it again, this is where I see and smell smoke coming from the mobo. Here is a picture of what it looks like now:


Anyone know what got burned?

Don't feel bad. I had 2 of these boards go poof on initial power up last March. PWM circuit fried in both cases. lost 1 920 C0 chip in the process.:down:

[woffen]

Did you get a new chip from rma then as well? The hard part is, I don't know what is broken. Hopefully nothing but the mobo.. Don't know anyone I can borrow a mobo from either to test if the CPU and the rest is still working..

[tripgood]

Did you get a new chip from rma then as well? The hard part is, I don't know what is broken. Hopefully nothing but the mobo.. Don't know anyone I can borrow a mobo from either to test if the CPU and the rest is still working..

I was using a lapped chip so no rma. Third board worked OK.

[woffen]

Ahaa, well, hopefully nothing else than the mobo is broken for me.. Guess I won't find out until I get a new board though..

[Peen]

I hat to tell you but DFI's RMA blows the biggest bubbles I have ever seen. Speaking from personal experience. Even if it isn't your fault they will find a way to say it is. Be prepared to pay for them to fix it.

They seem to RMA fine, takes them less then a week to get you a new board. Sadly had to do it twice for there POS board though lol. They returned me a nice bent and rusty board. I asked them to replace mine though and they did

[woffen]

Apparently the local shop wont rma the board. Something about this shouldn't happen in normal use. They said they can send it to the factory but that it might take months:eek:

Are there any DFI reps on this forum btw?

[thijs]

Apparently the local shop wont rma the board. Something about this shouldn't happen in normal use. They said they can send it to the factory but that it might take months:eek:

Are there any DFI reps on this forum btw?

your shop cant just say that in my opinion, how does he know / can claim that it's not during normale usage? might just have been a faulty board.

[woffen]

Yea, that is exactly my thoughts. Would be interested to see what a DFI rep has to say about this. Maybe will have to email them as well if there are none on this forum.

[DavyBoy]

Man, that really sucks..

I was actually going to see if I could pickup one of these mobos, but I think I will just stick with my UD5's now after seeing this, and also what some of you other guys have said about them making a buzzing noise..

I was under the impression that they were really solid boards..

[v0dka]

They have to take the board for rma. It's actually the other way around: this shouldnt happen under normal or any other use. So dont take no for an answer.

[DavyBoy]

They have to take the board for rma. It's actually the other way around: this shouldnt happen under normal or any other use. So dont take no for an answer.

I agree with this.

You should just say that the board had been making a buzzing sound from the very beginning, but that you had talked to several people online who had the same mobo, and they told you that their did the same thing, so you just thought it was normal for this particular mobo, then one day you turned it on, and it that this happened.

I wouldn't tell them that you had been overclocking or anything though!!

[woffen]

I agree with this.

You should just say that the board had been making a buzzing sound from the very beginning, but that you had talked to several people online who had the same mobo, and they told you that their did the same thing, so you just thought it was normal for this particular mobo, then one day you turned it on, and it that this happened.

I wouldn't tell them that you had been overclocking or anything though!!

I think one of the biggest sale points on this board is overclocking. The entire DFI brand is known as enthusiast boards.

I haven't run any crazy volts. Just ran 24/7 with water. No crazy subzero overclocking or anything. I'm very happy though that this happened while I was home. Wouldn't have been nice to come and see a burned down house:rofl: Have to try and find the positive sides in this:up:

[rintamarotta]

I think one of the biggest sale points on this board is overclocking. The entire DFI brand is known as enthusiast boards.

I haven't run any crazy volts. Just ran 24/7 with water. No crazy subzero overclocking or anything. I'm very happy though that this happened while I was home. Wouldn't have been nice to come and see a burned down house:rofl: Have to try and find the positive sides in this:up:

You dont need rma it, but warranty it, well i guess its kinda same thing.

But they cant refuse to not take it in warranty go back to shop, it blew in normal use so there is no reason for them to not take it to rma/warranty or if they wont just raise the issue at "Kuluttajasuoja virasto/lautakunta".

[Xtreme Addict]

That's why we should buy motherboards which have normal RMA support and don't do any problems when something burns e.g. mosfet with some PCB. Asus, Gigabyte and MSI don't do any problems and normally replace motherboard with new one.

[woffen]

I have made a few quotes from the consumer agency's homepage but so far they've just ignored them. I guess I will give the agency a call if they don't leave me any other choice..

[woffen]

That's why we should buy motherboards which have normal RMA support and don't do any problems when something burns e.g. mosfet with some PCB. Asus, Gigabyte and MSI don't do any problems and normally replace motherboard with new one.

I've heard Asus has terrible RMA support, but don't have any hands on experience. Hadn't heard anything about DFI before buying this board. But I guess so far this has nothing to do with DFI's support, it is just the local shop giving me problems.

[Peen]

All these boards buzz had 3 of the DFI's. just don't give them more then 1.5v ever or they fry.

btw the RMA doesn't take months! what kind of BS is that! only took them 3-5 days for me to get me a new board, twice though haha

[Roger_D25]

Woffen - I'm sorry to hear about your situation, I'm always bummed when any of my hardware dies (whether its my fault or not). With that said I think your handling it the right way by being honest about what happened, DFI is one of those companies that takes the time to actually look over RMA'ed hardware before shipping out a replacement (unlike some larger companies that can afford to ship out replacements without fully testing and researching the RMA'ed hardware). I've owned multiple DFI motherboards and for the most part I've been very happy with them (fortunately I've never had to RMA any of them). I have heard from many people that DFI is not the easier company to get RMA service from, especially if you don't in the States or in Taiwan. With that all said I did some quick research and learned that DFI has a brand office in Europe (Netherlands), if you continue to get nowhere with the retailer you bought the board from maybe you could get some help by contacting the branch office below?

Diamond Flower Information(NL) B.V.
Shannonweg 11, 3197LG,
Rotterdam / Botlek, NL
TEL: +31(10)296-1840
FAX: +31(10)296-1849

If not I'd suggest trying to contact DFI direcly (if its even possible) and explain your situation. It seems clear from what you have posted that you didn't do anything wrong, as you mentioned DFI is known as an "Enthusiest" company so I'd be very surprised if they voided your warranty coverage for running stability testing software with overclocked settings? Your best bet however would be to get your local retailer to handle this, infact they should give you a replacement motherboard and deal with DFI on their own (at least I think that is the way they should handle it, it makes good business)! Good luck and please keep us posted about your experience.

DFI Inc.
100, Huan-Ho Street, Hsi-Chih City Taipei Hsien, Taiwan, R.O.C.
TEL: +886(2)2694-2986
FAX: +886(2)2694-3226
E-Mail: dficmbsales@dfi.com.tw

[revogamer]

DFI was really good for me, they fixed my at no charge and shipped it back asap

[woffen]

Woffen - I'm sorry to hear about your situation, I'm always bummed when any of my hardware dies (whether its my fault or not). With that said I think your handling it the right way by being honest about what happened, DFI is one of those companies that takes the time to actually look over RMA'ed hardware before shipping out a replacement (unlike some larger companies that can afford to ship out replacements without fully testing and researching the RMA'ed hardware). I've owned multiple DFI motherboards and for the most part I've been very happy with them (fortunately I've never had to RMA any of them). I have heard from many people that DFI is not the easier company to get RMA service from, especially if you don't in the States or in Taiwan. With that all said I did some quick research and learned that DFI has a brand office in Europe (Netherlands), if you continue to get nowhere with the retailer you bought the board from maybe you could get some help by contacting the branch office below?

Diamond Flower Information(NL) B.V.
Shannonweg 11, 3197LG,
Rotterdam / Botlek, NL
TEL: +31(10)296-1840
FAX: +31(10)296-1849

If not I'd suggest trying to contact DFI direcly (if its even possible) and explain your situation. It seems clear from what you have posted that you didn't do anything wrong, as you mentioned DFI is known as an "Enthusiest" company so I'd be very surprised if they voided your warranty coverage for running stability testing software with overclocked settings? Your best bet however would be to get your local retailer to handle this, infact they should give you a replacement motherboard and deal with DFI on their own (at least I think that is the way they should handle it, it makes good business)! Good luck and please keep us posted about your experience.

DFI Inc.
100, Huan-Ho Street, Hsi-Chih City Taipei Hsien, Taiwan, R.O.C.
TEL: +886(2)2694-2986
FAX: +886(2)2694-3226
E-Mail: dficmbsales@dfi.com.tw

Thanks for all this information Roger. Will definately look into contacting the branch office in the Netherlands!:up:

I haven't totally given up on dealing with the local shop, or at least getting in contact with the consumer agency here. I keep hearing more and more about similar situations with the local shop so we will see.

Will definately let you guys know how this turns out!

[Tat3]

You bought that from Jimm's PC-Store ? Their RMA service can be quite sh1t sometimes but can be fixed when you talk to different person. :)

I hope that you had fan blowing cool air to mobo, it runs very hot. If you had overheating protections enabled and other safety features at default, then there is no reason why they should not RMA your board.

Good luck.

[rintamarotta]

All these boards buzz had 3 of the DFI's. just don't give them more then 1.5v ever or they fry.

btw the RMA doesn't take months! what kind of BS is that! only took them 3-5 days for me to get me a new board, twice though haha

It will take long with DFI due the fact that they actually test the motherboards before sending replacement.

[woffen]

You bought that from Jimm's PC-Store ? Their RMA service can be quite sh1t sometimes but can be fixed when you talk to different person. :)

I hope that you had fan blowing cool air to mobo, it runs very hot. If you had overheating protections enabled and other safety features at default, then there is no reason why they should not RMA your board.

Good luck.

Yup, Jimm's it is. Friend had his memory kit there for 6 months, finally they gave him a refund. Who should I talk to then? :)


It will take long with DFI due the fact that they actually test the motherboards before sending replacement.

Couple of months is still out of the question. At least in my opinion..

[SoulsCollective]

I had this exact same thing happen to me on my T3EH8 - sudden burning smell, clouds of nasty smoke. Shut down the system, pulled out the mobo, and a capacitor near the EPS connector had popped, along with some kind of small black chip (transistor? Electronics isn't my speciality) near the CPU socket and PWM heatsink. However, because the board was bought from NewEgg in the USA when I was over there but died in Australia, I couldn't get it warrantied - couldn't find any contact numbers on the DFI website, noone returned my e-mails and phone calls to the other listed contacts. After trying for a month I gave up - will seriously think twice before buying a DFI board again.

[hawk999]

try to post here woffen

http://csd.dficlub.org/forum/index.php

[Tat3]

Yup, Jimm's it is. Friend had his memory kit there for 6 months, finally they gave him a refund. Who should I talk to then? :)

Couple of months is still out of the question. At least in my opinion..

It's long time when I had to RMA one raid controller. Cant remember who it was at first time but when I called second time there was some other dude and got no problems with him.

So just keep calling them until someone gives up or you get some nice dude on the phone.

We have a law here which says that if repairing takes over 2 weeks (about 2 weeks or some "reasonable time", definitely not month) they will need to give you same kind of mobo which you can use until you get your mobo / new mobo back.

One option is that they test your mobo and send it to DFI and give new mobo to you... Not sure how likely this will happen tough.

[Peen]

It will take long with DFI due the fact that they actually test the motherboards before sending replacement.

Maybe in your country. Done it twice, both took less then a week including weekends and with the OP's same motherboard.

btw anyone know how MSI is with RMA? I got a brand new X58M that toasted the first day and Mwave wouldn't take it.

[rusty]

my dfi x58 burned along time ago. pwm chip fried and I was told it wouldn't be replaced or fixed even if I paid them. so I said screw dfi and went Evga and won't ever go back to POS "company" like dfi I wish they bankrupt or suffer from this economical crysis big time. Simple advice don't buy dfi go with Evga or other company. Evga customer service is outstanding! Hope you have better luck with crappy dfi.

[rintamarotta]

Maybe in your country. Done it twice, both took less then a week including weekends and with the OP's same motherboard.

btw anyone know how MSI is with RMA? I got a brand new X58M that toasted the first day and Mwave wouldn't take it.

True that.

MSI rma is like taking candy from child, send the mobo, they dont even check the mobo but will send new one.

[woffen]

Good news! Got a email this morning stating that my RMA has been processed and a replacement is ready to be picked up at the store:up:

Edit:

There was a catch. I will receive a new mobo, and they will send my old to DFI factory for checking. If DFI don't accept the RMA I will have to pay for the motherboard, shipping and handling fees.

Gives me a new problem. Do I even want a new DFI mobo, specially if I somehow have to pay quite a lot to get it. If it brakes, I have the same situation in front of me again which would really suck.

[Bulldog14]

Woffen:

This thread has been brought to my attention. I'm glad that it appears that Jimm's is willing to work something out with you. After looking over the pictures I can state with certainty that the PCB is burned and the board is unrepairable. This directly voids the factory warranty on the board as far as DFI NL BV is concerned. You wouldn't have been able to return the board to DFI NL anyway as we don't offer direct service to residents of Finland. We only offer such direct service to a few countries surrounding The Netherlands. Finland and the rest of Scandanavia is just to far away to justify the freight costs.

Some may read this and think "OMG! Warranty Voided! How can they? These are overclockers boards!!!" To those who would react such I would ask that they stop and think about it. The truth of the matter is that people don't generally buy DFI boards for "normal" usage. They buy them to put them to all sorts of extreme conditions. Any number of which can cause irrepairable damage to the product. I have lost track of the amount of boards I have seen pass thru our service department with all sorts of user related damage. The bottom line is that due to the fact that DFI boards will often be subjected to extreme conditions we must maintain strict RMA policies. Even at that we will often "overlook" user related damage as long as it is repairable. Damage to the PCB is where we draw the line thou. Perhaps not the answer some wanted to hear, but the truth of the matter none the less.

DFI Support Europe.

[v0dka]

DFI has to accept the RMA. It would be different if you broke something off, but this is just a bad component or worse a bad design. Probably just bad luck with a component that was going to fail soon anyway, so your new DFI should be fine. And if you insist on getting another brand you can always sell your brand new unopened DFI for a good price.

edit: just read the post above... what are you trying to say bulldog? That this board will eventually arrive at DFI and they will deny warranty? If so that is unacceptable. How can it be the users fault when the board burns like that? Only way I can think of is if he used a blow torch.

[Bulldog14]

edit: just read the post above... what are you trying to say bulldog? That this board will eventually arrive at DFI and they will deny warranty? If so that is unacceptable. How can it be the users fault when the board burns like that? Only way I can think of is if he used a blow torch.

Indeed the likely result will be that if/when the board ever makes it here we will return it unrepaired. Remember the bottom line. PCB damage such as this can't be repaired. It is physically impossible.

Excuse me for be presumptious but I would like to pick a few things from your post if I may:

"If so that is unacceptable". According to whom? "Unacceptable" is entirely relative.

"How can it be the users fault when the board burns like that?" What actual factual evidence do we have that such damage is so "innocently caused". The users word on the matter? Who is to say that in an novice attempt to OC the board he didn't pump the voltage far too high in one go. Who is to say that he didn't use a dodgy PSU. Who is to say he didn't remove the stock cooler, and assemble whatever aftermarket cooler incorrectly. The list goes on. The point is that no one can ever know for sure what the exact conditions were that led to the failure. As an MB maker we can only consider the current state of products when they arrive at our doorstep.

"Only way I can think of is if he used a blow torch". Basically see my comment on your second quote for answers to this. The interesting point here is that any number of factors can cause such damage. Not to be harsh but the weak point here is the "I" part. There are many factors that you are not aware of.

In any event I don't mean to pick on you, but these are comments I see often in cases like this. Given the nature of this discussion forthright answers are needed.

DFI Support Europe.

[woffen]

Only words coming in mind right now are ****** **** ***** but gonna try and write a decent answer without trashtalking anyway.

I didn't use a pos PSU, I used a Corsair TX750 PSU. Looks like I used a pos board instead:p: Never changed any coolers, was about to put a nb block on, never got a chance. I wouldn't call cooling your cpu with water extreme, don't think you meant that either though.

It's sad though that a user like me who does not use subzeero cooling or modding of any kind will suffer because "most ppl" who buy dfi boards are extreme users. In my ears it sounds like, don't buy a dfi motherboard unless you are going subzeero overclocking and don't care about rma possibilities.

At least now I wont have them send the board to you and pay for a new board + shipping + handling fees. Once calmed I guess the only option left is to buy a board from another brand and never ever buy anything that has the name DFI on it.

A friend of mine was into buying this board and I even recommended it. Luckily he has been following this before buying and wont make the same mistake I did.

[v0dka]

"If so that is unacceptable". According to whom? "Unacceptable" is entirely relative.

Dutch law. Article 7:17 BW. I'm aware of the fact that he is located in Finland, but it is based on European guidelines. These boards are built for overclocking and if all he did was raise values in BIOS and the board catches fire it doesnt do what you expect it to do. I expect the board to provide the volts I specify and fry my memory or CPU / IMC, not the power circuit.

I understand your point though, the problem lies in the lack of evidence. But does the possibility of rare and extreme user abuse really warrant a complete no-rma policy for burned PCB?

[Jaco]

Reading all this ... my next board won't be that DFi I was looking at.

Thanks for the info.

[Bulldog14]

Dutch law. Article 7:17 BW. I'm aware of the fact that he is located in Finland, but it is based on European guidelines. These boards are built for overclocking and if all he did was raise values in BIOS and the board catches fire it doesnt do what you expect it to do. I expect the board to provide the volts I specify and fry my memory or CPU / IMC, not the power circuit.

I understand your point though, the problem lies in the lack of evidence. But does the possibility of rare and extreme user abuse really warrant a complete no-rma policy for burned PCB?

Ahh the infamous "law".

1: Overclockability is provided, not guaranteed.

2: This "law" is applicable between buyer and seller only. DFI NL BV is most
certainly not Woffens seller. Jimm's is the seller.

"But does the possibility of rare and extreme user abuse really warrant a complete no-rma policy for burned PCB"

I know you only have my word on this, but "rare" it is not. This links back to what I said earlier about "having lost track...". You name it and someone has tried it with a DFI board. I've been here at DFI for about 5 years now and prior to that I worked at 2 other MB makers that made more "mundane" boards". When I started here the increased amount of user related damage was very noticable in comparison. Stricter policies were inevitable. I hope that sheds some light on the matter.

[Adam217]

Sad to see the company respond like this, when the RMA process is there for situations like this. Why have an RMA policy at all if your simply going to reject/deny replacement when it is a manufacturing failure? A board should not fail under normal use, if the setting is available in bios the user should be able to use it, especially when it is a top end product designed specifically for this use. I will have a hard time ever recommending or buying a DFI product again, and hope the four boards of this model being used by my customers don't fail. Not that they seem to care, but DFI has now lost a few thousand dollars annually from my projects, I hope others from this forum follows suit, I would guess a lot of the draw to their products is generated here. Sad that the end user is guilty and impossible to be proven innocent with no recourse, the burden should be on DFI to prove that it was end user abuse, not the other way around.

If purchased with at credit card, check their policies, they maybe be able to do a charge back for failed product and failure to back their warranty.

On a side note, of all the DFI boards I have owned, only one failed, it was my fault, I never attempted to RMA it. I still have some around here that are ~7yrs old running strong, disappointed that I have now lost a manufacture choice for future builds.

[Bulldog14]

Only words coming in mind right now are ****** **** ***** but gonna try and write a decent answer without trashtalking anyway.

I didn't use a pos PSU, I used a Corsair TX750 PSU. Looks like I used a pos board instead:p: Never changed any coolers, was about to put a nb block on, never got a chance. I wouldn't call cooling your cpu with water extreme, don't think you meant that either though.

It's sad though that a user like me who does not use subzeero cooling or modding of any kind will suffer because "most ppl" who buy dfi boards are extreme users. In my ears it sounds like, don't buy a dfi motherboard unless you are going subzeero overclocking and don't care about rma possibilities.

At least now I wont have them send the board to you and pay for a new board + shipping + handling fees. Once calmed I guess the only option left is to buy a board from another brand and never ever buy anything that has the name DFI on it.

A friend of mine was into buying this board and I even recommended it. Luckily he has been following this before buying and wont make the same mistake I did.

Kudos for staying civil. More often than not I get a double-barreled blast of rage when I have to intervene on matters like this. I won't patronize you with some hearts and minds nonsense, and I would probably feel the same if the situation was reversed. I can only say that it is regretable that you do feel this way, and would like to add that use of sub to near zero cooling equipment is not a requirement for "normal" use of our boards.

[woffen]

1: Overclockability is provided, not guaranteed.

To me this sounds more like you wont guarantee the overclocker will be able to overclock his cpu to whatever he desires. Not that you wont guarantee that your board wont break when raising the volts.

[Bulldog14]

To me this sounds more like you wont guarantee the overclocker will be able to overclock his cpu to whatever he desires. Not that you wont guarantee that your board wont break when raising the volts.

I admit that there is a grey area. User assembled systems are one big grey area. I've been in this business a long time and it has always been this way and always shall be. I could do an aircrash style investigation of your board or anyones elses that has experienced such an issue, and still only come up with a "reasonable" conclusion as to the cause. Certainty can never be had. So in the end it comes to a decision based on experience and facts that one can only have when in possession of the big picture.

Like I said earlier we will often look the other way when we can. I have had more than one "discussion" with my repair techs over boards that they would quickly declare out of warranty, and have pushed for repairs regardless. Personally if I could provide you with a happy ending to the story I would. Professionally there is little that can be done. I will leave you with this thou. Don't give up on talking to the seller just yet. I don't presume to speak for them, but perhaps they might be of assistance yet.

DFI Support Europe

[Earzz]

So if i buy a BMW m5 or M6 and i want to use the M setting what gives me 100HP extra then BMW will say that ill void the warranty with using that setting???
I dont think so buddy or else BMW wouldnt given the customer the option for the M setting.
Its logical if you put another EPROM in ur car that you will void the warranty but Woffen didnt modify anything, he just adjusted the settings and DFI gave him the option to do that.
I think DFI should start suppliing motherboards without any voltage settings then if they cant give any warranty.

What if he didnt overclock at all and he's VRM would burn out, does that also means no warranty????
I can tell you this, DFI's policy sucks balls if it works like this.

[Tat3]

This thread has been brought to my attention. I'm glad that it appears that Jimm's is willing to work something out with you.

So you are saying that his only hope to get working mobo for free is that Jimm's PC-Store pays it ?

I consider myself as a normal user and bought DFI DK 790FXB-M2RSH for Phenom2 PC. So if I somehow end up burning PCB from that board or from my T3eH8 I'm screwed and have to pay that myself ? If so then I just have to buy other boards in future.

Well, good thing with DFI is that they have someone on these forums who actually cares to explain why something is as it is.

EDIT:

One question. Those temps what Smart Guardian reports for my i7, are those real ? It gives much lower temps than Real Temp. And what are official safe temps for that board (chipset, etc)?

[SoulsCollective]

I find this manufacturer response absolutely ridiculous. If this is indicative of the attitudes of DFI globally, I'm not at all surprised that noone at all bothered to respond to my multiple e-mails and phone calls when my board burned up.

There have now been, what, five different people posting in this thread with similar PWM-related issues? As far as I can see, noone here has used "extreme" or even sub-ambient cooling, noone has pushed ridiculous overclocks on their hardware. This is clearly and blatantly a manufacturing problem, and to say that everyone who experiences burnt PCB or component failure must have caused the problem themselves is not only lazy but insulting. I used to recommend DFI to my friends for "normal" use - gaming builds, air- or water-cooled simple above-ambient builds - and use DFI motherboards by choice in the AMD range of high-end workstation and gaming PCs that my small business sells. Now that I've heard the attitudes of the company rep, however, I will be moving to another manufacturer from now on. Your products are good, but your arrogance is astounding.

[Fafeifa]

Indeed the likely result will be that if/when the board ever makes it here we will return it unrepaired. Remember the bottom line. PCB damage such as this can't be repaired. It is physically impossible.

Excuse me for be presumptious but I would like to pick a few things from your post if I may:

"If so that is unacceptable". According to whom? "Unacceptable" is entirely relative.

"How can it be the users fault when the board burns like that?" What actual factual evidence do we have that such damage is so "innocently caused". The users word on the matter? Who is to say that in an novice attempt to OC the board he didn't pump the voltage far too high in one go. Who is to say that he didn't use a dodgy PSU. Who is to say he didn't remove the stock cooler, and assemble whatever aftermarket cooler incorrectly. The list goes on. The point is that no one can ever know for sure what the exact conditions were that led to the failure. As an MB maker we can only consider the current state of products when they arrive at our doorstep.

"Only way I can think of is if he used a blow torch". Basically see my comment on your second quote for answers to this. The interesting point here is that any number of factors can cause such damage. Not to be harsh but the weak point here is the "I" part. There are many factors that you are not aware of.

In any event I don't mean to pick on you, but these are comments I see often in cases like this. Given the nature of this discussion forthright answers are needed.

DFI Support Europe.

QFT this will show why customers should or should not give any of their hard earned money. :down: Blame on the user! :shakes:

[woffen]

Just as a side note, for people who still have a working version of this board. What are the max voltages you can use to stay inside "warranty"?

Intel gives out some max voltages for 24/7 use, cant remember the vcore part exactly but vtt was 1.55v for C0 and 1.35v for D0? Maybe someone can correct those if my memory deceives me:rolleyes:

[Bulldog14]

Gents:

The bottom line is burnt PCB = voided factory warranty. No other way to say it really. How it happened isn't relevant to most MB makers to be blunt. Don't kid yourself, most of my competitors have similiar policies. They may be more or less lenient about it than us, but at the end of the day no one can repair a burned PCB. The only solace that can be offered is a replacement.

As to whether Jimms will end up "paying for it" is another matter. Perhaps Jimm's will as yet reject the board for service. Perhaps they will offer a replacement. Perhaps there is an arrangement between DFI and Jimms to cover just such situations. Perhaps there isn't. Perhaps the pricing to Jimm's is lowered to provide them some financial protection in cases where they get caught in the middle. Perhaps Jimms and DFI are part of the same evil cult and will find "other" ways to resolve the matter. Perhaps I will wake up with a Jimms PC horse head in my bed one morning. The point is it is best not to speculate about relationships between the factory and the supplier. These sorts of things happen all the time and we have ways of working them out (or not). From a consumers standpoint there is only one relationship of any relevance and that is the one between buyer and seller. So my advice is maintain a cordial relationship with the supplier at all times, and seek solutions via them, as the truth of the matter is that they are the only party legally indebted to the buyer. Solutions obtained via the factory can be had, and if they are, great, but one shouldn't go setting the expectation bar too high when it comes to appealing to a 3rd party.

DFI Support Europe

[woffen]

According to Jimms they have followed the guidlines of DFI warranty which will not cover a burned PCB. They have offered me some kind of a discount if I want to buy a new mobo which is nice of them. However I don't know how it works if they actually are obligated to give me a new mobo as it is within warranty. According to our consumer service basically they need to prove I caused the burning of the component, I shouldn't have to prove that I did not.

They also offered to give me a new board right away and send this to the DFI factory. If they clear it for RMA (which obviously won't happen according to Bulldog14) it's all good. But if they don't, I need to pay for the new mobo + shipping + handling fees which will total it to ~100€ more than I payed for it in the first place.

How DFI's warranty policy affects this I do not know.

[sjakie666]

just to be curious.... How many board are returned with faulty pwm/NB area????
I know that one of my boards pwm/NB area fried.... And reading here 2 other ppl also....
Not to mention All those ppl who have a irritating buzz/whining comin from the pwm area.... ( i think ALOT of ppl.)
Have a longer list of things... maybe i'll post them later.

[jcool]

Wow, sad to see some clearly board-related issue go down like this. I used to love my DFIs until now, my current UT was one of the first batches and it has been heavily abused but it still going strong (ran prime/linX and BOINC on SS at >4,6Ghz+ 24/7, it has a rusty socket etc) but seeing how DFI won't replace a board that simply caught fire without user error is definitely a new low.

Oh well, since my Gulftowns won't work either in my DFIs I just ordered a Classified. Anybody wanna buy a "tested" DFI :p:

[Fafeifa]

Gents:

The bottom line is burnt PCB = voided factory warranty. No other way to say it really. How it happened isn't relevant to most MB makers to be blunt. Don't kid yourself, most of my competitors have similiar policies. They may be more or less lenient about it than us, but at the end of the day no one can repair a burned PCB. The only solace that can be offered is a replacement.

As to whether Jimms will end up "paying for it" is another matter. Perhaps Jimm's will as yet reject the board for service. Perhaps they will offer a replacement. Perhaps there is an arrangement between DFI and Jimms to cover just such situations. Perhaps there isn't. Perhaps the pricing to Jimm's is lowered to provide them some financial protection in cases where they get caught in the middle. Perhaps Jimms and DFI are part of the same evil cult and will find "other" ways to resolve the matter. Perhaps I will wake up with a Jimms PC horse head in my bed one morning. The point is it is best not to speculate about relationships between the factory and the supplier. These sorts of things happen all the time and we have ways of working them out (or not). From a consumers standpoint there is only one relationship of any relevance and that is the one between buyer and seller. So my advice is maintain a cordial relationship with the supplier at all times, and seek solutions via them, as the truth of the matter is that they are the only party legally indebted to the buyer. Solutions obtained via the factory can be had, and if they are, great, but one shouldn't go setting the expectation bar too high when it comes to appealing to a 3rd party.

DFI Support Europe

That is pretty nice to deny warranty just because of burnt pcb which can be a factory defect or user's fault but denying the warranty without looking the board is pretty harsh.

Well history tells that bad publicity hurts more than keeping a customer happy unless you can sell dirt cheap like walmart. Well in this case neither happens. Lets see how long DFI stays with us. :shrug:

Personally i had to get a replacement board while mine is on RMA and i didn't get DFI because stories like this. BTW the board was $170 at newegg for a fully ATX X58 board which is not bad but then i think i made the right choice.

[Bulldog14]

According to Jimms they have followed the guidlines of DFI warranty which will not cover a burned PCB. They have offered me some kind of a discount if I want to buy a new mobo which is nice of them. However I don't know how it works if they actually are obligated to give me a new mobo as it is within warranty. According to our consumer service basically they need to prove I caused the burning of the component, I shouldn't have to prove that I did not.

They also offered to give me a new board right away and send this to the DFI factory. If they clear it for RMA (which obviously won't happen according to Bulldog14) it's all good. But if they don't, I need to pay for the new mobo + shipping + handling fees which will total it to ~100€ more than I payed for it in the first place.

How DFI's warranty policy affects this I do not know.

I realize that I am the last person in the world right now that you want advice from, but take the discount.

[Mescalamba]

Sad to read this.. I hope they´ll RMA it fast..

I´ve RMAed four DFi mobos without problems.. their support was ok, didn´t asked much questions.. tough, only one RMA was my "fault".. but they still RMA´ed it.. Now I have Foxconn, but I was thinking about this mobo too.. had it even in hands. :D

[Bulldog14]

That is pretty nice to deny warranty just because of burnt pcb which can be a factory defect or user's fault but denying the warranty without looking the board is pretty harsh.

Personally i had to get a replacement board while mine is on RMA and i didn't get DFI because stories like this. BTW the board was $170 at newegg for a fully ATX X58 board which is not bad but then i think i made the right choice.

The picture the OP posted shows and exposed and charred PCB pretty clearly. Of course the person is welcome to have the supplier send it to us, but it's pretty clear to me from those pics as to the boards status. Sending it here will only lengthen an unpleasant situation imo.

[sjakie666]

gulftown doesn't work..... DOH.. I hope it will with a bios update.. A well maybe it's a good htpc MB ;)

Bulldog..... Do you know if gulftown will be possible with this board?

[Fafeifa]

I realize that I am the last person in the world right now that you want advice from, but take the discount.

Nice way to drop the ball on the retailers court. I will keep that in mind next time if i ever get another DFI board.


The picture the OP posted shows and exposed and charred PCB pretty clearly. Of course the person is welcome to have the supplier send it to us, but it's pretty clear to me from those pics as to the boards status. Sending it here will only lengthen an unpleasant situation imo.

So faulty components may have nothing to do with the issue exposed PCB = Users fault that is a nice way of assessing warranty claims. But there is no way of finding it out because "Sending it here will only lengthen an unpleasant situation imo."

[Tommie_lj]

omg.. this is absolutely sick! i cant believe this ? how can this be users fault?

What makes a motherboard different from a car for exampel? lets say you use the windshield wiper, and the wipermotor blows.. arent you going to get it covered from guarantee? yes you are... cus windshield wiper is one of the features you have PAID for, and therefore shall be able to use without breaking something..

Changing settings for the cpu voltage is MAYBE going to void the warranty of the CPU itself.. After all, its the cpu that sees the voltage. The mb is only providing it, and if it cant provide enough current without blowing fets or traces/whatever, then the mb manufacturer shall not make an option to use it!

[sjakie666]

Dfi boards rock if they work ;) lol.

Found something nice on the nethttp://www.marinex.se/web/files/support/DFI%20RMA%20Inspection%20Guideline.pdf

[Origin_Unknown]

So if i buy a BMW m5 or M6 and i want to use the M setting what gives me 100HP extra then BMW will say that ill void the warranty with using that setting???

Actually with the new Nissan GTr - if you turn off traction control and some other settings and you are NOT on a race track then your warranty is void but that is another issue.

Am i missing the obvious in that - can bulldog actually proce he's from DFI? i just see him saying and everyone beleiveing?

[Bulldog14]

Am i missing the obvious in that - can bulldog actually proce he's from DFI? i just see him saying and everyone beleiveing?

Thats a new one. PM me if you want and I'll give you my support address here at DFI. Through all the ups and downs I've been there only support tech here in Europe for the last 5 years.

[Origin_Unknown]

Thats a new one. PM me if you want and I'll give you my support address here at DFI. Through all the ups and downs I've been there only support tech here in Europe for the last 5 years.

I'm just curious dude since there is no avatar / sig info but no, it's fine, i don't really need the information. have you averaged 10 posts a year?


p.s. i do own a dfi board and while i wasnt happy when i tried to RMA my board it's proven to be a resiliant old bird, especially after a psu blew up and it wouldnt post for 3 days then sprang back to life.

[woffen]

Any chance you can give those "allowed" voltages for future reference Bulldog14?

[sjakie666]

@woffen. lol everything above stock voltages won't be covered in the warranty. Must be obvious by now :P

[Bulldog14]

Any chance you can give those "allowed" voltages for future reference Bulldog14?

Hmm you have asked twice so I will give you a straightforward answer. I doubt you will like it thou. The answer is whatever the "Optimized Defaults" set it to. In the strictest sense of policy, adjusting pretty well any setting outside of default (FSB 200 set to 201 for example) voids the factory warranty on the board. Obviously if we went around voiding everyones warranty for such petty reasons would be ridiculous. So inkeeping with being flexible, the unoffical motto around here is "just fix it if we can". "If we can" being the key part.

As I said earlier we look the other way more often than not. Even thou we often know very well what someone has done to a board we fix it anyway. The repair techs who repair these boards have 1000s of repair hours under their belts. There is very little that you can truly hide from them.

I know you were expecting an answer along the lines of a specific range of values, but no such specified range exists.

[Bulldog14]

I'm just curious dude since there is no avatar / sig info but no, it's fine, i don't really need the information. have you averaged 10 posts a year?


p.s. i do own a dfi board and while i wasnt happy when i tried to RMA my board it's proven to be a resiliant old bird, especially after a psu blew up and it wouldnt post for 3 days then sprang back to life.

I don't post much as like many other support techs in the business we find little value in forums as a means of resolving problems. Too much speculation and one-sided thinking to make them viable. Don't get me wrong thou, forums are great for exchanging ideas amongst peers, and gathering some level of general concensus on matters.

[SoulsCollective]

Gents:

The bottom line is burnt PCB = voided factory warranty. No other way to say it really. How it happened isn't relevant to most MB makers to be blunt. Don't kid yourself, most of my competitors have similiar policies. They may be more or less lenient about it than us, but at the end of the day no one can repair a burned PCB. The only solace that can be offered is a replacement. The point isn't and shouldn't be whether you can repair it or not. The point is that you offer a warranty on your products, you warrant that they will be free of manufacturing defects for the period specified. You don't get to pick and choose what gets covered - if it breaks, and it's not the end-users fault, you're morally and ethically bound to honour your warranty policy. If it's a simple, repairable fault, great, quick and easy for everyone. But if the fault is such that due to faulty components from the factory, the entire board requires replacing, tough luck. It's going to cost you more to replace, but that's the gamble you take by offering a warranty - you can't simply say that any PCB damage must be caused by end-user actions, and therefore that you will never, under any circumstances, replace a board with PCB damage, nope, never, can't possibly be a faulty component, guaranteed, 100% user error, not going to happen. That's lazy, arrogant, immoral and quite possibly illegal.

I've returned boards to eVGA, Asus, MSI and Foxconn for PCB damage without issue. The usual questions were asked about settings run and cooling used, but when I got all that information from the client and fired off an e-mail, proving that the board wasn't run with sub-zero cooling, run massively out of spec, etc etc, they were happy to replace it because the problem lay with a manufacturing defect. I've never before had a DFI board with PCB damage, so I hadn't come across this "limitation", but I can assure you that neither I nor my business will be dealing with a company that takes such a ridiculous stance on warranty issues in the future.

[Bulldog14]

The point isn't and shouldn't be whether you can repair it or not. The point is that you offer a warranty on your products, you warrant that they will be free of manufacturing defects for the period specified. You don't get to pick and choose what gets covered - if it breaks, and it's not the end-users fault, you're morally and ethically bound to honour your warranty policy. If it's a simple, repairable fault, great, quick and easy for everyone. But if the fault is such that due to faulty components from the factory, the entire board requires replacing, tough luck. It's going to cost you more to replace, but that's the gamble you take by offering a warranty - you can't simply say that any PCB damage must be caused by end-user actions, and therefore that you will never, under any circumstances, replace a board with PCB damage, nope, never, can't possibly be a faulty component, guaranteed, 100% user error, not going to happen. That's lazy, arrogant, immoral and quite possibly illegal.

I've returned boards to eVGA, Asus, MSI and Foxconn for PCB damage without issue. The usual questions were asked about settings run and cooling used, but when I got all that information from the client and fired off an e-mail, proving that the board wasn't run with sub-zero cooling, run massively out of spec, etc etc, they were happy to replace it because the problem lay with a manufacturing defect. I've never before had a DFI board with PCB damage, so I hadn't come across this "limitation", but I can assure you that neither I nor my business will be dealing with a company that takes such a ridiculous stance on warranty issues in the future.

Interesting points, but they all hinge on there being a "manufacturing defect" present. Thru which means are you determining this is so? Do you have access to our schematics? our ECNs? Are you drinking buddies with the designers? Sorry but your just speculating and making guesses, so you can't really expect me to give you a serious answer now could you?

[SoulsCollective]

Interesting points, but they all hinge on there being a "manufacturing defect" present. Thru which means are you determining this is so? Do you have access to our schematics? our ECNs? Are you drinking buddies with the designers? Sorry but your just speculating and making guesses, so you can't really expect me to give you a serious answer now could you?
What actual factual evidence do we have that such damage is so "innocently caused". The users word on the matter? Who is to say that in an novice attempt to OC the board he didn't pump the voltage far too high in one go. Who is to say that he didn't use a dodgy PSU. Who is to say he didn't remove the stock cooler, and assemble whatever aftermarket cooler incorrectly. The list goes on. The point is that no one can ever know for sure what the exact conditions were that led to the failure. ...The interesting point here is that any number of factors can cause such damage. Not to be harsh but the weak point here is the "I" part. There are many factors that you are not aware of.Interesting points, but they all hinge on there being a "user error" present. Thru which means are you determining this is so? Do you have access to their diary? Their webcam? Their friends and family? Are you standing behind them when they're using the product? Sorry but your just speculating and making guesses, so you can't really expect me to take you seriously now can you?

I don't mean to be harsh, but this attitude is just astounding. As I've learnt over five years of dealing with customers, you simply cannot place all the blame at the end users doorstep. There is always a chance that you stuffed up, and every other OEM I've dealt with has had no problems in recognising that faults happen, that they're not always caused by the end-user, and have investigated and dealt with each RMA application on its merits. Noone's demanding you accept back every single board, because yes, you're right, a burnt PCB almost never happens without user error. But you cannot simply wash your hands of every case - as I pointed out above, in this thread alone there are multiple independent cases of the same thing happening to different users with the same model motherboard. As the OEM, you just can't stick your fingers in your ears and claim that everyone blew up their boards by running faulty PSUs or ridiculous voltages.

[v0dka]

But burned PCB cant be repaired, and therefore is always the users problem as far as DFI's warranty goes. Even with stock volts. Correct?

And I dont think your [and therefore indirectly the sellers] policy regarding overclocking will hold if a court had to decide on that here in the EU. They are sold as overclocking boards and support this, so a user has to be able to use them for overclocking. Of course chances are zero that someone actually goes to court for a burned motherboard so I guess you are safe.

[woffen]

But burned PCB cant be repaired, and therefore is always the users problem as far as DFI's warranty goes. Even with stock volts. Correct?

And I dont think your [and therefore indirectly the sellers] policy regarding overclocking will hold if a court had to decide on that here in the EU. They are sold as overclocking boards and support this, so a user has to be able to use them for overclocking. Of course chances are zero that someone actually goes to court for a burned motherboard so I guess you are safe.

If I was filthy rich it would be fun to give it a shot:)

[Peen]

Well this board has massive issues anyways, 2 of mine have fried from the PWM area. I have no clue if the PCB was burnt because it was under the mosfter cooler. I'd try to email Susana at DFI, Susana@dfiweb.com

I would seriously avoid this board though if anyone else is looking at them. Unless you enjoy RMA'ing boards

[woffen]

Another thing I'm curious about is that buzzing/whizzing sound from around the pwm area when under load. That really freaked me out the first time, thought it was broken then already. But who knows, maybe it was..

Peen, at least you got a new board :)

[madmax999]

So, if i had DFI instead of my Foxconn Bloodrage and if sudenly DFI got burned even on stock settings because of faulty or lower quality components (everything is possible, don't you agree?) you would not RMA my board? Am i correct? Nice to hear that :) :down:

[Peen]

Another thing I'm curious about is that buzzing/whizzing sound from around the pwm area when under load. That really freaked me out the first time, thought it was broken then already. But who knows, maybe it was..

Peen, at least you got a new board :)

Ya for about 3 days then had to RMA it again for same reason (PWM):rofl:

But you can get rid of the PWM noise by putting Vdroop to enabled (actually disables it) and plugging in the floppy power connecters. Mine is silent at 1.4v-1.5v and 4.4ghz HT - 4.5ghz HT under load

[rintamarotta]

"If so that is unacceptable". According to whom? "Unacceptable" is entirely relative.


Its unacceptable according finnish law.



Interesting points, but they all hinge on there being a "manufacturing defect" present. Thru which means are you determining this is so? Do you have access to our schematics? our ECNs? Are you drinking buddies with the designers? Sorry but your just speculating and making guesses, so you can't really expect me to give you a serious answer now could you?

Also same thing as previous quote, product that "brakes up" under normal use intented for it for 10years of buying the product, manufactuers and sellers responsibility wont end when warranty ends, thats what our law says about manufacturing defects and according your and shops advertsing dfi boards are ment for overclockers witch means normal use is overclocking with dfi motherboards, how ever i dont know if Woffen have overclocked.


If I was filthy rich it would be fun to give it a shot:)

You dont need be, finnish coverment will pay that if your under the financial line or something.



Another thing I'm curious about is that buzzing/whizzing sound from around the pwm area when under load. That really freaked me out the first time, thought it was broken then already. But who knows, maybe it was..

Peen, at least you got a new board :)

Dont worry about that there is tons of small transformers in the board that do the noise, its completly normal as i have had that same noise in about 2 motherboards and 5 graphics card and yet they have still not fried.


One thing is shure, because of this kind of support by dfi, i will never buy another dfi board, what i have owned they all have got blown pwm (old althlon64 days) under normal use, even tho i just throw the motherboards to trashcan and buy new one since i can afford it.

[sjakie666]

i wonder if gigabyte,asus,msi and all the others would say the same?

[woffen]

Ya for about 3 days then had to RMA it again for same reason (PWM):rofl:

But you can get rid of the PWM noise by putting Vdroop to enabled (actually disables it) and plugging in the floppy power connecters. Mine is silent at 1.4v-1.5v and 4.4ghz HT - 4.5ghz HT under load

So no vdroop makes the board to buzz. That sounds good:shocked:

[sjakie666]

my board is buzzing with vdroop. even under no load,lol. and if i press the delete key to enter the bios or use a key in the bios. the board buzzes also.

[donmarkoni]

Hmm you have asked twice so I will give you a straightforward answer. I doubt you will like it thou. The answer is whatever the "Optimized Defaults" set it to. In the strictest sense of policy, adjusting pretty well any setting outside of default (FSB 200 set to 201 for example) voids the factory warranty on the board. Obviously if we went around voiding everyones warranty for such petty reasons would be ridiculous. So inkeeping with being flexible, the unoffical motto around here is "just fix it if we can". "If we can" being the key part.

As I said earlier we look the other way more often than not. Even thou we often know very well what someone has done to a board we fix it anyway. The repair techs who repair these boards have 1000s of repair hours under their belts. There is very little that you can truly hide from them.

I know you were expecting an answer along the lines of a specific range of values, but no such specified range exists.

I hate being a black sheep, but anyone read this? They are fixing many user damaged boards, but there has to be a borderline. If there was not, would you people care if you are using too much voltage? Would I care? I would not! I would just push it until I need a fire extinguisher to "turn it off".
There is no way to be sure if user accidentally made a mistake in BIOS, so one must understand manufacturers policy. I made a mistake once, flashing BIOS, obviously forgot to load optimized defaults and finished with a dead board. But it cost me only fuel and a lot of time to find someone to flash it for a couple of bucks.

I know I could be crucified for this, but thats my point of view.
You get crucified for saying something, you end up with burnt motherboard, etc... Life's a b1tch!
I have couple of burnt components, including one VGA with burn PCB, that burned PCI-E slot and PCB on my DFI UT NF4 SLI DR-Expert which is still happily working.

I think that one cannot be overclocker (or Xtreme OCer) without accepting consequences.

[Praz]

i wonder if gigabyte,asus,msi and all the others would say the same?
A quick search will find which of those manufacturers this pic came from and is considered non-repairable under warranty.

[woffen]

Well this board has massive issues anyways, 2 of mine have fried from the PWM area. I have no clue if the PCB was burnt because it was under the mosfter cooler. I'd try to email Susana at DFI, Susana@dfiweb.com

I would seriously avoid this board though if anyone else is looking at them. Unless you enjoy RMA'ing boards

I guess this Susana is responsible for USA only. And if I send email to this address support@dfi-europe.nl I guess I will just have a bulldog telling me NO once more.

[sjakie666]

look at these praz(under pcb burned) http://download.cizgi.com.tr/akademi/991/CCER1.pdf,http://download.cizgi.com.tr/akademi/990/Pre-test.pdf

@woffen. I think bulldog says no indeed.....

[Peen]

Ahhh crap sorry forgot you're in Finland. Well if it makes you feel any better this board just finally took out the other GPU on my 4850X2. Put 105mhz PCIE frequency once and it took out a GPU. 3 months later try to go for higher BCLCK at 105 again, now GPU crashes in 3d in about 5min. Guess 105 kills cards these days

edit: sounds like I'm not alone with it killing the same card

[sjakie666]

nope my gpu died last week...... didn't do anything special.. no overclock or wierd voltages.

[Tommie_lj]

Bulldog, do you mean that even running an aftermarket cooler on your cpu woids warranty on the motherboard?

[Origin_Unknown]

Bulldog, do you mean that even running an aftermarket cooler on your cpu woids warranty on the motherboard?



i think it means chipset not cpu

[Fafeifa]

I don't know why people keep supporting this kind of company, if they have done the research they wouldn't be in this situation. I mean there are literally tons of threads where DFI stiffed their customers and looked the other way. Well this adds to the lengthy list of unhappy DFI customers. bulldog just laughed at the customers face (by saying that he had :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:y equipment), washed his hands (not his fault and yada yada) and went his merry way.

[rusty]

I don't know why people keep supporting this kind of company, if they have done the research they wouldn't be in this situation. I mean there are literally tons of threads where DFI stiffed their customers and looked the other way. Well this adds to the lengthy list of unhappy DFI customers. bulldog just laughed at the customers face (by saying that he had :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:y equipment), washed his hands (not his fault and yada yada) and went his merry way.

qft!
avoid like a plague. this company should end like abit. However, poor abit had much better products than bs dfi.
go for a company that stands by it's products.

[Fafeifa]

To people that hopes DFI goes bankrupt well i have some news, the company's stock price and trend doesnt look very promising (http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?ric=DFI.TO)haven't bothered to look into the financial statements but i think is a no brainer that they are not very good.

Well i say that because companies operating under loss will cut cost anywhere they can so a good tip is to look into the financials statements and stock prices, may be bulldog is so sour because soon he will be looking for a new job.

[eva2000]

To people that hopes DFI goes bankrupt well i have some news, the company's stock price and trend doesnt look very promising (http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?ric=DFI.TO)haven't bothered to look into the financial statements but i think is a no brainer that they are not very good.
LOL that isn't DFI the motherboard manufacturer, it's diamond field international


DFI Details

Diamond Fields International, Ltd. engages in the exploration and development of diamond resource properties in Namibia. It also explores and develops diamond and gold resource properties in Liberia; a nickel property in Madagascar; and a zinc copper project in Zambia. The company is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

[Origin_Unknown]

lol fail fafeifa - trying to stir the hornets nest without reading

[ChaosMinionX]

ownd :rofl:

[Bulldog14]

Bulldog, do you mean that even running an aftermarket cooler on your cpu woids warranty on the motherboard?

As long as the use of the aftermarket cooler doesn't result in any permanent damage to the board then no, your warranty remains intact. Simple common sense and careful application of amcs can avoid most problems.

[jcool]

go for a company that stands by it's products.

Still looking for one, heh. I thought that was DFI...
I mean who else is out there? Assus? They certainly don't stand by their market-flodding number of products either, I have RMAed like 3 or 4 Z7S Workstation-Boards that cost in excess of 400€ each because they simply die after half a year - nobody over at Assus even aknowledged these boards have a problem to date :rolleyes:

Not gonna unload dirt on the other manufacturers here now, but in my many years as a systembuilder, I have seem them all screw up one time or another. Even Abit screwed up in the end.. the IX38 had badly misdesigned VRMs, for example.

[Earzz]

Even Abit screwed up in the end.. the IX38 had badly misdesigned VRMs, for example.

Well not only in the end.
I had a AN8 Fatal1ty SLI, worst board ever.

[sjakie666]

and what happend to abit ;). But it is just wierd that dfi reacts this way.... I hope that DFI learns from this... and that they didn't make the same mistake with their p55 series.

[woffen]

UPDATE:

I've been contacted by DFI and they are trying to figure out what happened. Not sure I will get a new board or anything but at least they are looking in to it and are being very polite about it.

So things are looking much better and already having someone making an effort is nice.

[SoulsCollective]

I've also been contacted by DFI, and have been asked for details.

It seems that someone is reading this thread.

[v0dka]

Nice. and I must admit, from personal experience I have seen nothing bad from DFI. One RMA but it went flawless. So I was very surprised to read Bulddogs first reply here about the burned PCB policy. For a number of other reasons too, but lets not go there again.

[rintamarotta]

To people that hopes DFI goes bankrupt well i have some news, the company's stock price and trend doesnt look very promising (http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?ric=DFI.TO)haven't bothered to look into the financial statements but i think is a no brainer that they are not very good.

Well i say that because companies operating under loss will cut cost anywhere they can so a good tip is to look into the financials statements and stock prices, may be bulldog is so sour because soon he will be looking for a new job.

Sorry to spoil your fun but Look here (http://www.sandpworld.wallst.com/markets/company/company.asp?capIQId=12720605&companyName=DFI%2C%20Inc.)


Anyway, great that someone in dfi seems to be starting contacting people with polite way.


and what happend to abit ;). But it is just wierd that dfi reacts this way.... I hope that DFI learns from this... and that they didn't make the same mistake with their p55 series.

Well i think they will fix this pcb problem in next revisions of theyr x58 board.

[rusty]

Still looking for one, heh. I thought that was DFI...
I mean who else is out there? Assus?
.

I guess you've missed me saying about Evga. Their Rma service is very good I'm not gonna say excellent cause I'm sure there gonna be people who'd disagree. But my experience with them is awesome.

[Tat3]

UPDATE:

I've been contacted by DFI and they are trying to figure out what happened. Not sure I will get a new board or anything but at least they are looking in to it and are being very polite about it.

So things are looking much better and already having someone making an effort is nice.

I'm not sure how much this kind of thread can effect people buying DFI mobos in future, but DFI seems to take this quite seriously.

If they give you free mobo back I probably get DFI mobo for my next build too. I like this T3eH8 very much. :)

[Kampfzerstorer]

I understand that DFI needs to protect themselves against frivolous RMA's. I'm all for that. Their premise as I understand it seems rather harsh though:

Given a certain type of damage to the motherboard, warranty is automatically void because they cannot prove the source of the damage.

Hmmm. I don't know what to say. Doesn't seem very consumer friendly to me. I'm not sure if I still want to spend my money with a company with this type of policy.

There is also this other gray area where companies like to pat themselves on the back advertising a product as targeting a certain type of use (overclocking) yet any overclocking voids warranty as it is "non-standard" use of the product. On the one hand I can somewhat understand the company's side of the coin, but on the other hand I feel that this is slightly misrepresenting the product. The only reason I was buying it in the first place was because you told me that it was for overclocking! This one could easily be argued either way though.

[Jor3lBR]

+1 for DFI RMA. They don't talk much but they get the job done with no questions asked.

[jcool]

I guess you've missed me saying about Evga. Their Rma service is very good I'm not gonna say excellent cause I'm sure there gonna be people who'd disagree. But my experience with them is awesome.

...right. I've had a few dead 680i's from them, but then again, all 680i's were bound to die sooner or later :p:
Got them all replaced too.

[rusty]

...right. I've had a few dead 680i's from them, but then again, all 680i's were bound to die sooner or later :p:
Got them all replaced too.

I didn't hear people complain about evga rmas

[BulldogPO]

DFI´s warranty policy is really weird.
Needs "little" adjusting hammer....

[SF3D]

Only good DFI is a dead DFI :rolleyes:

http://www.aijaa.com/img/b/00657/4930510.jpg (http://www.aijaa.com/v.php?i=4930510.jpg)

Really disappointed to see thread like this. Those PCB and PWM errors can happen without even touching the settings.

[BulldogPO]

ROLF! If motherboard is inteded and designed for overclocking you should not overclock, eh??

I did have DFI LP X45-T2R that did die three times, even with CPU on default clocks, some of DFI boards are good and some of them are totally garbage.

[SoulsCollective]

Perhaps, and I'm not going to get into that debate, but the issue here is that DFI is without any kind of investigation or proof whatsoever making a blanket assumption that every case of PCB damage is caused by misuse and therefore will not be covered under warranty. You can't do that. Leaving aside the whole "overclocking boards should have an overclocking warranty" issue, you simply cannot as a manufacturer refuse to even entertain the possibility that failures could occur as a result of a manufacturing defect, and to flat-out deny any warranty where it would require DFI to replace the entire motherboard. It's immoral, unethical and quite probably illegal.

[Zeus]

Thanks for this thread.

Will avoid DFI like the plague from now on. :down:

[Jupiler]

I edited (and removed) some of the last posts made in this thread, because someone didn't read the first post correctly :rolleyes: and thought the TS caused the damage to his board, and that gave him the right to flame him.

Well, he thought wrong.

[woffen]

Picked the board back up from Jimms to get some more pictures for DFI. Removed the NB heatsink to get a better view:

http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo219/woffen/DSC_0542.jpg

http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo219/woffen/DSC_0543.jpg

http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo219/woffen/DSC_0544.jpg

http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo219/woffen/DSC_0545.jpg

http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo219/woffen/DSC_0546.jpg

[donmarkoni]

Picked the board back up from Jimms to get some more pictures for DFI. Removed the NB heatsink to get a better view:

http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo219/woffen/DSC_0542.jpg

What is that I'm seeing just under heatpipe (looking at board right side up) near NB heatsink? Is it blown capacitor? Could you take a picture from down side up?

EDIT: Sorry, it is probably end of the other heatpipe (SB to NB), but it looks kinda brownish. Just strange falling light a suppose. I should wear thicker contact lenses. :D

When I take a better look at those picture, you should sent it for repairs, as it looks like board is not damaged, just top of that IC, but wait for more comments now that there is more pictures.

[woffen]

All pictures are of the same spot on the motherboard, between NB and PWM.

[Roger_D25]

Thanks for posting those pictures Woffen, that makes it much easier to know the extent of the damage. I'm not an electrician (but many members here are) but if that component was the only damaged part it seems like it might be possible to just fix it yourself (or by another more capable member) by replacing that component? There looks to be only 8 contact points (4 on each side of the component) so it looks possible? Then again if the issue lies with other components on the motherboard and this just happened to be the noticeable symptom of that issue than replacing it might not fix anything? Hopefully as more knowledgeable members view those pictures you'll get more articulate answers about the possibility of getting it fixed?

[woffen]

Haven't heard anything back from DFI in almost 2 days now. Dunno what is up:shrug: Interesting to see if I ever will hear from them again.

I don't think I can fix anything myself. And I don't think I should have to either. Not up to me to repair my motherboard if it brakes.

[sjakie666]

@woffen Wich revision did you have???? my burned board was rev.A56. I had another board where the dimmslots just died and that was also rev.A56.

[woffen]

I have the R.A56 as well.. Are there any newer revisions out there?

[s0lid]

Thanks for posting those pictures Woffen, that makes it much easier to know the extent of the damage. I'm not an electrician (but many members here are) but if that component was the only damaged part it seems like it might be possible to just fix it yourself (or by another more capable member) by replacing that component? There looks to be only 8 contact points (4 on each side of the component) so it looks possible? Then again if the issue lies with other components on the motherboard and this just happened to be the noticeable symptom of that issue than replacing it might not fix anything? Hopefully as more knowledgeable members view those pictures you'll get more articulate answers about the possibility of getting it fixed?

That will be hard, you might find datasheets for that chip from somewhere but where you can find supplier who'll send you one chip instead of whole container, with luch manuafacturer might send you a sample chip. Tho if you get new chip the chancing it will be a new challence.

Yea i have the same board (DK version tho) so i need to hope that my board doesn't blow up, but still i'll make them to replace it.

[sjakie666]

@woffen i've had rev.A56, A58 and now i have Rev.AB1. So yes there are more revs :P
The board that i now have is better than the other revs. the only thing is that it's a little bit picky with my dimm placement(using OCZ 1600 cas 7 platiums).

[woffen]

That will be hard, you might find datasheets for that chip from somewhere but where you can find supplier who'll send you one chip instead of whole container, with luch manuafacturer might send you a sample chip. Tho if you get new chip the chancing it will be a new challence.

Yea i have the same board (DK version tho) so i need to hope that my board doesn't blow up, but still i'll make them to replace it.

I won't even consider starting doing anything myself with this board. I don't have the skill, tools and it is not my responsibility to fix a board within warranty tbh.


@woffen i've had rev.A56, A58 and now i have Rev.AB1. So yes there are more revs :P
The board that i now have is better than the other revs. the only thing is that it's a little bit picky with my dimm placement(using OCZ 1600 cas 7 platiums).

Hopefully I could get a new one with Rev.AB1 then:up: After I sent the photos to DFI I haven't heard anything back so dunno what's up though.

[sjakie666]

@woffen I think 2 days is little short to investigate this matter :P. Just give them a change.....

[woffen]

I guess you are right, but as it has already gone a week since it broke 2 days is a long time to wait for updates:p: Specially as I only have this laptop which is superslow..

A received your photos email and I would know that they actually have the photos there and are looking in to it. Sending a 4mb email might cause problems for some recepiants so dunno if they even received them..

[sjakie666]

Send bulldog a pm or just mail to ***********then you will no for sure that they recieved the photo's :D

[woffen]

Haven't been in contact with bulldog. They contacted me directly from Taiwan I think.

[Bulldog14]

Send bulldog a pm or just mail to ********** then you will no for sure that they recieved the photo's :D

Bulldog = DFI Support Europe. There is only one DFI support tech in Europe and that is me. Sjakie I would appreciate it if you didn't post my email address openly. I don't need anymore spam trawlers picking me up and sending me anymore spam than I already receive now.

In any event feel free to send me those pictures Woffen. I can't promise you anything, but I will look at them and see if there is anything that has been overlooked.

DFI Support Europe

[sjakie666]

sorry bulldog. removed it.

[Bulldog14]

Cheers.

[woffen]

Photos sent, lemme know if you receive them.

[Bulldog14]

The photos have been received. After having a small "conference" with my repair techs we have decided that the damage may be more superficial then it first appeared, and at the very least you deserve a chance. We are willing to attempt a repair of the board. There are no guarantees here thou, and this doesn't reflect a change in policy. It reflects giving someone a fair chance. I shall be in further contact with you via Email.

DFI Support Europe

[Roger_D25]

Bulldog14 - I just tried searching for DFI's official policy regarding warranty coverage on their motherboard products but didn't have much luck (and at the moment I don't own any DFI products so I don't the warranty pamphlet that id usually included). With that said is there any chance you could post a link to any documents that state their official warranty policy (for their motherboard products)? I tried searching both their DFI Worldwide site and their DFI Lanparty site but wasn't able to get any official information regarding warranty policy. Thanks for any help you can give regarding this and I'm glad to hear that your willing to help Woffen out as best you can despite the fact he modified some BIOS settings which might have resulted in the damage that occurred.

[Osterman]

Yea, did monitor with Smartguardian. The temps were about 90C I think. I thought the digital PWM on this board was good for 130C or something.. This should be covered with RMA right?

What I dont understand about all this is... did you get ware about those temps before it gets burned?

Because its a little bit weird that you where using you computer under those temps.
Mine for example doest have temperatures over 40 on CPU, over 70 on system and over 50 con chipset. And I have a 920 @ 4.2ghz so I have a bit of OC for 24/7.

And about buzzing, mine also does that when I stress the CPU.

[woffen]

Those were the temps under stress. I've seen worse tbh with this board.

[Sam_oslo]

Are you taking about 130'C or F ^_?

[Roger_D25]

Does Smartguardian measure the temps on the component that burned up on Woffen's board (its been a while since I've run a DFI board), I assumed it only measured the temps on PWM's up near the CPU socket (under the heatsink)?

sOlid - Your absolutly correct regarding that component and that is something I didn't take into consideration when I made my suggestion. As a last resort however it might be worth looking into before tossing the board? Hopefully Bulldog (and DFI tech's) do indeed have these components on tap if they decide its something they can fix. In any case I'm interested now about how this ends up!

[Osterman]

Those were the temps under stress. I've seen worse tbh with this board.

But how handle to work your board with those tempereature, I mean if I were you in that moment, I would sttop the stress test and I would try to get something better to cool it before doing something else with it.

But well is just curiosity, because I also have one of those boards and I got scared when I saw what happen with yours.:D

[woffen]

That PWM thingy has always been hot for me. And I read that those volterras are good for 130C so was not really too worried. People always said the PWM are super hot on these boards as well so..

[Sam_oslo]

That PWM thingy has always been hot for me. And I read that those volterras are good for 130C so was not really too worried. People always said the PWM are super hot on these boards as well so..

DFI does not monitor the temp on volterras. SG (the monitoring software that comes with DFI) monitors PWM/system-temp and it displays "red" (warning color) when PWM-temp gets over 60'C.

I haven't seen 130'C anywhere, but even if I had, I wouldn't push (and rub) it while the PWM was glowing red.

[woffen]

I know the SG utility monitors the PWM temp. I think it was Andre Yang who posted the 130C limit in his thread about this motherboard.

[Sam_oslo]

I haven't seen it, but "don't try it at home" what Andre Yang does.

[woffen]

I know that, but if I remember correctly there was someone wondering how his pwm temps were so high, and Andre Yang told him not to worry as they are good for 130C. That is where I got the C from. Other people cross the internet has stated the same thing.

EDIT:

I don't think he has the problem with RMA as I do whatever he does with the board:rofl:

[sjakie666]

my boards pwm reached 128 degrees. Got this board back from RMA with an loose cooling solution :S... i've fixed it now and under load my system temps are 54 degrees.
My board didn't die but now it makes more noise around the pwm area...

[Peen]

My old board's PWM's were about 25c cooler under load. They were both mounted the same. I think some boards just ran that much hotter. It should start throttling the clocks around 100c so I don't see how you can go over that really

[Osterman]

Assuming that System temperature is the same as PWM temperature, here it never went over 70 degrees under load. Thats why for me all this sound weird for me.

[Roger_D25]

You brought up a good point Peen, I assume that most of these components will either throttle back or have a thermal shut-down before any damage occurs, especialy on an expensive "enthusiest" motherboard like this one? I'm not sure though, I tried getting specs on the Voltarra PWM but you need to be a registered member on their official site to get any information like that?

[Bulldog14]

Bulldog14 - I just tried searching for DFI's official policy regarding warranty coverage on their motherboard products but didn't have much luck (and at the moment I don't own any DFI products so I don't the warranty pamphlet that id usually included). With that said is there any chance you could post a link to any documents that state their official warranty policy (for their motherboard products)? I tried searching both their DFI Worldwide site and their DFI Lanparty site but wasn't able to get any official information regarding warranty policy. Thanks for any help you can give regarding this and I'm glad to hear that your willing to help Woffen out as best you can despite the fact he modified some BIOS settings which might have resulted in the damage that occurred.


You won't find such a document as no such thing exists. Keep in mind that as a manufacturer our only contractual obligations are to our direct purchasing parties (the distributors). Any RMA service offered by a manufacturer to a 3rd party is just an extra service.

With that in mind policy on such 3rd party service is left in the hands of local branch offices to define. There are of course a number of general guidelines that all branch offices follow, but the specifics vary from branch office to branch office. DFI USA is different from DFI Europe for example. Each has it's own policies on these matters that reflect local conditions.

Nothing new under the sun here really. All IT hardware makers operate under similiar conditions. Some offer the illusion of uniformity, and to the outside observer it appears to be so, but the truth of the matter is that it is just illusion.

[sjakie666]

@ peen You mean that if the system temps are to high, the CPU also starts to throttle? Shame though, that i didn't make a screeny of my system temps in everest.....

[Roger_D25]

Thanks Bulldog14 for taking the time to explain the answer to my question, its greatly appreciated! After reading your reply it makes sense and as you mention, its not much different than any other IT company.

[BulldogPO]

Yep, company that sells those products is always numebre one in order to get RMA.
If not then it is time to turn for manufacturer or there in finland you can take contact to consumer service which some times helps and some times not.

[sjakie666]

i asked gigabyte about the warranty thing here on XS.
And i quote "The warranty depends if the board has been damaged by normal use, and a component is malfunction and burns out, in that case a board can be send to gigabyte by a reseller that uses our partner program"

"However if the card has been broken by miss use such as un careful handling the warranty will be void"

+1 for gigabyte. still waiting response of asus and msi.

they also said "Wellicht kan ik je veder helpen bij jou artikel en zal ik met je vragen naar onze reparatie centrum gaan om mijn antwoord dubbel te bevestigen."

trying to translate "Maybe i could help with you with your product. i'll go to the rma centre with your questions to double confirm my answer"

so woffen if dfi doesn't want to help you :P you still got gigabyte, lol

I think it is to easy to say: he, somethings burned?.... bad luck. Especially if you pay top dollar for a board.

[Praz]

i asked gigabyte about the warranty thing here on XS.
And i quote "The warranty depends if the board has been damaged by normal use, and a component is malfunction and burns out, in that case a board can be send to gigabyte by a reseller that uses our partner program"

"However if the card has been broken by miss use such as un careful handling the warranty will be void"
Normal use - definition?
Component is malfunction - definition?
Misuse - definition?
Uncareful handling - definition?

LOL. You're easily convinced. A reply couldn't be more generalized or ambiguous.

[woffen]

Looks like I will get a new board:up::clap:

Will know more on Monday..

[sjakie666]

@praz I've asked the things you pointed out in your post to Gigabyte. I'll get an answer after the weekend.....

[Factotum]

and where "DFI LANParty:The Best OC Platform!":rofl:

[Praz]

@praz I've asked the things you pointed out in your post to Gigabyte. I'll get an answer after the weekend.....
Not being down on Gigabyte or anything but I doubt their response will be much clearer then what you already posted. In the world of overclocking it's difficult to be much more specific.

[rintamarotta]

Normal use - definition?
Component is malfunction - definition?
Misuse - definition?
Uncareful handling - definition?

LOL. You're easily convinced. A reply couldn't be more generalized or ambiguous.

Normal use : Using product with in its specs and not going over it.
Component Malfunction : Component that brakes down before its expected life span ends, also manufacturing error will count as component malfunction.
Misuse : Modifying product physically, intentionally causing damage to product or going out of products pre-defined specs.

There you go, have fun and enjoy. Well its obivious what definitions for those are.

Anyway i hope woffen really gets hes new board and i hope its newer revision :)

[DavyBoy]

Woffen, that is good news to hear that you might get a new board, I personally think you deserve it!

I am so glad that I found this thread, as I have been thinking about a new X58 motherboard for a while now, and I was actually planning on trying to get hold of one of these or a Classified, but after reading this thread, I have decided to forget about DFI altogether!!

[kaskuli]

I'm also in the process of doing a DFI RMA right now, they sent me an excel sheet with all kinds of info to fill in, i sent it back thinking I'd get the RMA number anytime soon, ...

she sends another email and says i sent back an xlsx doc and not an xls one... then she said i'd have to send another one because the doc was 4 pages long and she only needed 1 page.

this was my first DFI board - definitely my last

[Roger_D25]

kaskuli - Please keep us posted on your progress with this RMA, I for one am interested. I posted this earlier in the thread but I've always been very impressed with the DFI motherboards I've used (in regards to build quality, BIOS options, etc...). However that opinion might be much different now if I ever needed customer service or warranty service. Then again I guess its possible guys that all these problems posted in this thread are simply isolated problems with only a small handful of DFI customer service personnel, I'm sure many people have had great experience with their DFI warranty service where their boards were replaced/fixed even though the owners changed various BIOS settings? Given the large number of negative experiences I've heard about (in this thread, other threads, and also in different forums) I'm not sure I'd take the chance by buying a DFI motherboard in the future, its just not worth the headache involved?

[ecidious]

she sends another email and says i sent back an xlsx doc and not an xls one... then she said i'd have to send another one because the doc was 4 pages long and she only needed 1 page.


If she can open it to see that it's 4 pages long then wtf is the problem?

[kaskuli]

You have to help me. Your form has spreaded over 4 pages and I can't
print it out. It should be just one page.

Best regards,

Susana
RMA Department
DFI San Jose
P:510-226-7500x118
F:510-226-0181

That's what she said....

[Praz]

Fill out the single page as requested and fax it back marked to Susana's attention.

[kaskuli]

Fill out the single page as requested and fax it back marked to Susana's attention.

I did that. She just hasn't said anything since Friday.

[cstkl1]

I know that, but if I remember correctly there was someone wondering how his pwm temps were so high, and Andre Yang told him not to worry as they are good for 130C. That is where I got the C from. Other people cross the internet has stated the same thing.

EDIT:

I don't think he has the problem with RMA as I do whatever he does with the board:rofl:

ure misquoting him

andre was talking about the volterra's

[woffen]

ure misquoting him

andre was talking about the volterra's

Isn't that the PWM's? If I've understood something wrong please explain:)

[rintamarotta]

Isn't that the PWM's? If I've understood something wrong please explain:)

Volterras are VRM chips (Voltage Reculation) and they usually are indeed part of the PWM's, usually i have seen volterra vrm chips in graphics cards but it is possible that they are used on motherboards.

[woffen]

Volterras are VRM chips (Voltage Reculation) and they usually are indeed part of the PWM's, usually i have seen volterra vrm chips in graphics cards but it is possible that they are used on motherboards.

Pretty sure there are Volterras VRM chips on this board. Ok, I called the volterras the pwm but aren't those the parts that get hot then?

[rintamarotta]

Pretty sure there are Volterras VRM chips on this board. Ok, I called the volterras the pwm but aren't those the parts that get hot then?

They get hot but not shure how hot, need to inspect my bloodrage and classified later on to see what are the parts that heat up so damn high.

My spare bloodrage were running pwm at 80 celcius but classified runs it low 60's for me, same goes for phenoms msi 790fx-gd70

[woffen]

They get hot but not shure how hot, need to inspect my bloodrage and classified later on to see what are the parts that heat up so damn high.

My spare bloodrage were running pwm at 80 celcius but classified runs it low 60's for me, same goes for phenoms msi 790fx-gd70

I don't think you can compare different boards with eachother. They all have a different setup on the pwm. Will be interesting to see IF I get a new board with a newer revision if there are any noticable differences.

[woffen]

UPDATE:

New board will be shipped to me soon!:up:

DFI Taiwan's R&D is interested in my board so they will have my board shipped to them and they will send me a replacement.

So a BIG THANKS to DFI TAIWAN for helping me in this matter!!:clap:

[Tommie_lj]

thats great to hear Woffen!

but this is what was going to happen the first time you contacted that local shop! you shouldn't have to fight for your rights to have your board replaced?... i will never go for a DFI board, thats for sure... i will stick to ASUS, and buying from costumer friendly shops..

[sjakie666]

nice woffen :D

I hope that DFI Taiwan's R&D will post there findings in here :P

[woffen]

New board arrived today:clap:

Revision is R.AE0. Hopefully it is the newest. Too bad I dont have a case to load it up in atm. Will have to wait for the rest of the stuff for the build to arrive I guess.

Thanks to DFI Taiwan for helping me out in this situation. What I dont know now is if this new board still is under warranty here in Finland from the local store. Will have to find out.

[Roger_D25]

Excellent news woffen, glad it worked out for you (better late than never)! If you would please keep us posted on how this board works out for you?

[Havox]

wow woffen horrible all the bs you had to go through. I know for sure I won't ever buy a DFI board. Hopefully your new board treats you better though it seems you never would have gotten a new one if it weren't for all the people pledging on not buying dfi again.

[Aerou]

What I don't understand why are you talking about Volterra PWM, when the mosFETs that are burned on the pictures from the 2-phase PWM that supplies the VTT voltage. A similar circuit supplies vDDR on that board too. The thing that fries these componets might be overclocked UNCORE and it seems they aren't made to handle it out of spec.

[linflas]

Strange I have been using dfi boards for going on 10 years, and I have had my fair share of RMA's most recently an X58 I built for a friend, I am still running an x38 board myself, going on 3 years with it, and no worries, had a bad DFI board with an AMD setup, problem with the add-on sata controller back in the the day with an ATI chipset that was absolute crap, but for the most part they are my go to company for solid reliable boards.

ASUS, abit, EVGA (ugghh don't get me started on thier foxconn crap), had more problems with those then I ever had with many a DFI board.

They have always been, and I hope always will be a tweakers board, they opent he bios like no other manufacturer, and with that freedom comes concequences if you make mistakes with it. They take some getting used to, but I love them for that.

I am glad they sorted you out woffen!

Nice to see DFI Europe reads this, Is DFI USA represented here as well? I usually use the DFICLUB forums for problems, and Praz and the boys are usually very helpful.

[Praz]

Nice to see DFI Europe reads this, Is DFI USA represented here as well?
Most USA issues needing DFI involvement are best resolved at DFI Club. Bulldog pretty much summed up why in this post.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=4025324&postcount=80

[Aerou]

running it out of spec - you should cool it out of spec

my board is fine after 2 months of 24/7 100% on 8 HT cores running WCG Help Conquer Cancer
i7 920 C0, 3,8GHz , 1,23 Vcore, 1,36 VTT, rev A56 board

perhaps this did the trick:

[Sam_oslo]

running it out of spec - you should cool it out of spec

my board is fine after 2 months of 24/7 100% on 8 HT cores running WCG Help Conquer Cancer
i7 920 C0, 3,8GHz , 1,23 Vcore, 1,36 VTT, rev A56 board

perhaps this did the trick:

I have never cared about cooling that spot. I don't even know what is under that cooler. But good cooler you found, ;).
What kind of chip is under it?, and what makes it hot VVT, Vcore, something else?

[linflas]

Most USA issues needing DFI involvement are best resolved at DFI Club. Bulldog pretty much summed up why in this post.



Yeah, saw that Praz, just was curious, as I said in my post, I do use DFI Club.


running it out of spec - you should cool it out of spec

my board is fine after 2 months of 24/7 100% on 8 HT cores running WCG Help Conquer Cancer
i7 920 C0, 3,8GHz , 1,23 Vcore, 1,36 VTT, rev A56 board

perhaps this did the trick:

Couldn't agree more, I crunch constantly as well, here is my x38, lol

http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/4562/rig.jpg

[Aerou]

I have never cared about cooling that spot. I don't even know what is under that cooler. But good cooler you found, ;).
What kind of chip is under it?, and what makes it hot VVT, Vcore, something else?

You should then. I am positive it handles VTT. But OCers should cool both of the phases. I missed one out and correcting it now.

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/541/img1233i.jpg


LINFLAS, WTG! :toast: the X38 is one of my favorites. Take good care of here. Once you get around memory multiplier VS fsb issues, she's stable as my love towards this board. Just a tip - a nice passive cooler like the TR HR-05 or even better the Xigmatek N881 Porter handle the northbridge damn fine :up:

[woffen]

I was talking about the PWM because someone was concerned about the temp that the Smartguardian application was showing, and I believe that to be the PWM temp. I didn't have any idea what the chip is that got burned..

[Bulldog14]

Strange I have been using dfi boards for going on 10 years, and I have had my fair share of RMA's most recently an X58 I built for a friend, I am still running an x38 board myself, going on 3 years with it, and no worries, had a bad DFI board with an AMD setup, problem with the add-on sata controller back in the the day with an ATI chipset that was absolute crap, but for the most part they are my go to company for solid reliable boards.

ASUS, abit, EVGA (ugghh don't get me started on thier foxconn crap), had more problems with those then I ever had with many a DFI board.

They have always been, and I hope always will be a tweakers board, they opent he bios like no other manufacturer, and with that freedom comes concequences if you make mistakes with it. They take some getting used to, but I love them for that.

I am glad they sorted you out woffen!

Nice to see DFI Europe reads this, Is DFI USA represented here as well? I usually use the DFICLUB forums for problems, and Praz and the boys are usually very helpful.

As far as support for the North American area goes it is indeed unlikely that my counterparts at DFI in California will make public appearances. Rgone, Praz and the rest of the crew handle the public matters NA side. In particular you can treat Praz's word pretty well as law when it comes to all things DFI. He has a long and helpful history with DFI.

[sjakie666]

Woffen did you heared anything from DFI regarding your board?????

[Dopamin3]

I would like to know if he has heard anything too :)

[radaja]

post 189.he got new board