Heads up on ASUS motherboards

[Todd]

Hi All,

I am a system builder and I wanted to give my colleagues a heads
up on ASUS motherboards. Seems they work fine when they work, but
good luck with any customer service items. In other words you
are self insuring if you use their stuff.

For instance, I got a motherboard with a single bent CPU pin.
The pin was bent at a 45 degree angle. I missed it when I
when to install the CPU.

By the way, I do not bend CPU pins. I line up the CPU with
the tabs and gently set it down as if I was handling
nitroglycerin. And, when folks bend pins by improperly
inserting CPUs, they bend a mess of pins, not just one.
And how in the world did it get bent at 45 degrees?

Since ASUS refused to accept bent CPU pins, my distributor
would not take the board back. I called ASUS and they confirmed
that bent CPU pins are not covered. My salesman at my distributor
said that every salesman that works there has also noticed this
ASUS specific problem. He also said that getting any kind of
customer service out of ASUS is a nightmare. He pointed me
to Intel motherboards. I prefer Supermicro.

So, avoid ASUS. Cost me $200.00 to figure it out, the hard way.

I hope this saves someone else from making my mistake.
-T

 

[charlie]

Hi All,

I am a system builder and I wanted to give my colleagues a heads
up on ASUS motherboards. Seems they work fine when they work, but
good luck with any customer service items. In other words you
are self insuring if you use their stuff.

For instance, I got a motherboard with a single bent CPU pin.
The pin was bent at a 45 degree angle. I missed it when I
when to install the CPU.

By the way, I do not bend CPU pins. I line up the CPU with
the tabs and gently set it down as if I was handling
nitroglycerin. And, when folks bend pins by improperly
inserting CPUs, they bend a mess of pins, not just one.
And how in the world did it get bent at 45 degrees?

Since ASUS refused to accept bent CPU pins, my distributor
would not take the board back. I called ASUS and they confirmed
that bent CPU pins are not covered. My salesman at my distributor
said that every salesman that works there has also noticed this
ASUS specific problem. He also said that getting any kind of
customer service out of ASUS is a nightmare. He pointed me
to Intel motherboards. I prefer Supermicro.

So, avoid ASUS. Cost me $200.00 to figure it out, the hard way.

I hope this saves someone else from making my mistake.
-T

Since CPU pins are on the CPU chip, not the motherboard, and you say one
pin is bent, it sounds like you tried to install the CPU with the socket
in the closed instead of open position. ????

 

[Paul in Houston TX]

Since CPU pins are on the CPU chip, not the motherboard, and you say one
pin is bent, it sounds like you tried to install the CPU with the socket
in the closed instead of open position. ????

Pins nowadays are on the socket instead of the chip.
Its been that way for several years.

 

[Paul]

Since CPU pins are on the CPU chip, not the motherboard, and you say one
pin is bent, it sounds like you tried to install the CPU with the socket
in the closed instead of open position. ????

Land Grid Array sockets have gold "flats" on the bottom of the CPU, while
the socket has gold plated "springs" that touch the flats. An extreme amount
of downward force needs to be generated by the socket, using the lever and
metal framework. The downward force compresses all the springs against the
flat CPU bottom.

The springs on the LGA are best seen, near the bottom row in this picture.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Sockel_775.jpg

The processor has the flat contacts on the bottom. If the springs are working
properly, they'll likely leave a mark on the surface of the flat. That helps
prove the spring made compressive contact with the flat. If you zoom right in
to this picture, you can see this processor has already been inserted in a socket
at least once (the "dot" on each flat).

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Intel_CPU_Pentium_4_640_Prescott_bottom.jpg

*******

The older ZIF socket, the CPU has cylindrical pins, while the socket has
zero insertion force contacts. When the lever is actuated on the socket,
it causes the contacts to touch the pin with a slight retention force. The only
downward force on the older ZIF, is when you install the CPU cooler, and the
cooler needs to be held in place on top of the CPU. So there's still a downforce
involved. But not two downforces, as with the Land Grid Array.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Socket_462.saa.jpeg

(A pin grid array chip to fit into a ZIF socket. Top row gives best contrast on the pins.
When people would bust those pins off, there was at least one guy who could solder
them back on for a price If they were only bent, you could try to straighten them
with a metal ball point refill.)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/AMD_Phenom_X4_9750_(Underside).JPG

Paul

 

[bb]

"Paul" wrote in message news:[email protected]...

A pin grid array chip to fit into a ZIF socket. Top row gives best contrast
on the pins.
When people would bust those pins off, there was at least one guy who could
solder
them back on for a price If they were only bent, you could try to
straighten them
with a metal ball point refill.)

I always used a credit card to straighten pins. Just about the right
thickness to fit between the pin rows, and one could concentrate on getting
all the pins in nice straight rows.
-bb

 

[Todd]

Since CPU pins are on the CPU chip, not the motherboard, and you say one
pin is bent, it sounds like you tried to install the CPU with the socket
in the closed instead of open position. ????

How can I put this, I do not make those kinds of mistakes. More than
likely, there was a defect in materials, such as a burr, that kept
the pin from retracting, and the pin buckled.

Seriously, I handle them like nitroglycerin. You can not
believe how precise and gentle I am.

Moral of the story, if you sell ASUS motherboards, ASUS will
not be there to back you up. You self insure.

-T

 

[Todd]

in message news:[email protected]...

I always used a credit card to straighten pins. Just about the right
thickness to fit between the pin rows, and one could concentrate on
getting all the pins in nice straight rows.
-bb

Great tip. Thank you.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Pins nowadays are on the socket instead of the chip.
Its been that way for several years.

I'm not sure & too lazy to verify, but I think that AMD still uses pins
on the CPU.

Which is probably not relevant in this thread, but I *had* to say it

 

[Todd]

I'm not sure& too lazy to verify, but I think that AMD still uses pins
on the CPU.

Which is probably not relevant in this thread, but I *had* to say it

This was a socket 1155. The pins are on the socket side. I was
not precise enough in my writing. (Guess I expected everyone knew
what I was talking about.)

My guess was that there is a defect in materials on one of the
pins, such as a burr, that caused the pin to buckle instead
of retract.

-T

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

This was a socket 1155. The pins are on the socket side. I was
not precise enough in my writing. (Guess I expected everyone knew
what I was talking about.)

You were quite clear.

I was referring to Paul In Houston's statement in the post to which I
responded:

"Pins nowadays are on the socket instead of the chip. Its been that way
for several years."

I read it as referring to all CPUs, but I believe it's only true for
Intel CPUs.

I just looked online. I seem to be correct about AMD still using pins on
the CPU package.

Look at the top view zoomed out here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131754

or at the cpu pictures here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103893

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

How can I put this, I do not make those kinds of mistakes. More than
likely, there was a defect in materials, such as a burr, that kept
the pin from retracting, and the pin buckled.

Seriously, I handle them like nitroglycerin. You can not
believe how precise and gentle I am.

Moral of the story, if you sell ASUS motherboards, ASUS will
not be there to back you up. You self insure.

-T

The last paragraph is the most important part of your message. I'm just
repeating to emphasize again what you keep saying

BTW, my MB is an Asus ;-)

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

"Paul" wrote in message news:[email protected]...

I always used a credit card to straighten pins. Just about the right
thickness to fit between the pin rows, and one could concentrate on getting
all the pins in nice straight rows.
-bb

In the days of Intel CPUs with pins, I would use a 0.5mm mechanical
pencil with the lead removed as a straightener - the fit was just about
perfect, and the control was very precise. I suppose if I had multiple
pins in a row, the credit card trick might have been faster.

With today's smaller diameter pins in the socket, I'm not sure what I'd
use - thankfully, so far I've not had to find out...

--
Zaphod

Arthur: All my life I've had this strange feeling that there's
something big and sinister going on in the world.
Slartibartfast: No, that's perfectly normal paranoia. Everyone in the
universe gets that.

 

[Paul]

This was a socket 1155. The pins are on the socket side. I was
not precise enough in my writing. (Guess I expected everyone knew
what I was talking about.)

My guess was that there is a defect in materials on one of the
pins, such as a burr, that caused the pin to buckle instead
of retract.

-T

Since the LGA spring leaves a mark on the CPU, you can actually
look at the CPU pads for evidence of what happened. If there is no
mark on the CPU pad at all in that location, then the spring could
have been broken before you got it. There tends to be a little mark
in the gold, where the spring touches (bite mark).

Paul

 

[Todd]

BTW, my MB is an Asus;-)

When you get the up and working, they work damn fine.

 

[SC Tom]

When you get the up and working, they work damn fine.

I've used Asus MB's forever it seems, some with Intel CPU's (quite a few years ago), but mostly with AMD's. I have found
them to be extremely reliable, and at least as fast as anything comparable I used to use at work. I've never had to use
their tech support since I've never had a MB failure or problem that required me to contact them. I *did* have an Asus
graphics card that gave me problems, and after contacting them about it, they sent me a new one overnight express at no
cost to me, and with a postage-paid return mailer for the old one ( it was under warranty). I figure one failure out of
at least fifteen years of using their products is pretty good, and certainly not cause enough for me to not buy from
them again. Oh yeah, and I have an Asus LightScribe-capable DVD/CD-ROM that also has worked great for 3 or 4 years now

 

[Todd]

I've used Asus MB's forever it seems, some with Intel CPU's (quite a few
years ago), but mostly with AMD's. I have found them to be extremely
reliable, and at least as fast as anything comparable I used to use at
work. I've never had to use their tech support since I've never had a MB
failure or problem that required me to contact them. I *did* have an
Asus graphics card that gave me problems, and after contacting them
about it, they sent me a new one overnight express at no cost to me, and
with a postage-paid return mailer for the old one ( it was under
warranty). I figure one failure out of at least fifteen years of using
their products is pretty good, and certainly not cause enough for me to
not buy from them again. Oh yeah, and I have an Asus LightScribe-capable
DVD/CD-ROM that also has worked great for 3 or 4 years now

Only problem I have found so far is the CUP socket pins bending over
when you secure the CPU. I put three custom units together with ASUS
motherboards together over the last month and they all run
marvelous. (We won't mention that it took four ASUS motherboards
to get the three running and I had to eat the cost of one.)

Two had SSD drivers and OH HOLY COW! I had no idea how much of
the speed perception was loading data from the hard drive. I
almost think, buy the slowest of the processor from line you
like and put your money toward an SSD. (I like Intel's
Cherryville -- they have an unheard of five year warranty.)

Something new ASUS is doing with their mother boards is providing
a labeled 1 to 1 standoff for the cases wires (reset, power,
speaker, etc.) so you can put the case wires on the standoff
in the air above the case and then press the standoff down on
the motherboard case pins header when you are done. HUGE time
saver. Don't even have to crack the manual open.

Too bad I will not be selling their motherboards ever again.
Maybe not ever, but I am going to be really, really disinclined.
I do not have the finances to self insure.

-T