Motherboard woes

[nevermind1534]

After being without it for a few months, I finally have it running again. The problem was the capacitors on my Foxconn motherboard. Here's the story of what happened:
The fan on my video card would shut off after a minute or so. When I first noticed this, the screen went blank and I smelled the PCB burning. I sent it back to ASUS, thinking that the video card was dead. They send it back having done nothing. I gave it to my friend to test, and it ran fine on his computer.

Now, I'm IMing somebody, and they mention capacitors. I go and check the caps on my mobo, and sure enough, one value of capacitor is bulging. I send the motherboard back to foxconn for a replacement, then a little under two weeks later, I get a new refurbished one. I open the box, and it's another motherboard with slightly less severe bulging capacitors.

I call up foxconn, upset about what they sent me, and they give me a prepaid shipping label to send this board back to them with. I sent it back to them, and two weeks later, I'm finally able to use my computer again.


Now the capacitors on this motherboard are starting to leak. I just emailed the guy at foxconn's rma department about it. At this point, I think they should just give me a different model that doesn't have bad 3300mfd capacitors on it. Maybe one with bad 4800mfd caps, instead :)

[TheGreatSatan]

Just get a sodder sucker and replace 'em yourself

[x88x]

Just get a solder sucker and replace 'em yourself

/\ This. You can pick up quality replacements for those caps for a few dollars and not have to worry about them dying again in a few months.

[dr.walrus]

Just get a sodder sucker and replace 'em yourself

Hmm, maybe. That's one option, but if you screw it up, you're stuffed. If it dies in a week's time for an unrelate reason, you're throwing your warranty in the bin.

Can you provide some details about when you bought it, through who, where you are? My in-depth knowledge of consumer legislation (specifically warranties) is unfortunately limited to the UK, Australia and New Zealand, where I spent several years dealing with complaints just like this. Basically, you have a good case for a refund or replacement with another model, so that's the avenue I'd attempt to take.

[nevermind1534]

Hmm, maybe. That's one option, but if you screw it up, you're stuffed. If it dies in a week's time for an unrelate reason, you're throwing your warranty in the bin.

Can you provide some details about when you bought it, through who, where you are? My in-depth knowledge of consumer legislation (specifically warranties) is unfortunately limited to the UK, Australia and New Zealand, where I spent several years dealing with complaints just like this. Basically, you have a good case for a refund or replacement with another model, so that's the avenue I'd attempt to take.
That's my thinking exactly.

I got it from newegg; I'm dealing with Foxconn.

I have replaced all of the caps on a motherboard once (it was a year or two ago), but since it's under warranty, and they've been paying the shipping, I've just been RMAing it.

I got an email back from the guy today:


Dear Brian,

We have verify this board prior to ship out. We did not see any bulging capacitors. Can you send us some images indicating which capacitors are bulging or leaking?

I'm sending them pics later today. I'm hoping that they just upgrade me to a different/better model at this point. I know that after paying shipping for it three times (it will be five by the time I get a fourth board), they've lost money on it, and it's become pretty obvious to me that all of this model of motherboard has the bad 3300mfd capacitors.

[dr.walrus]

I'm hoping that they just upgrade me to a different/better model at this point. I know that after paying shipping for it three times (it will be five by the time I get a fourth board), they've lost money on it, and it's become pretty obvious to me that all of this model of motherboard has the bad 3300mfd capacitors.

That's good so far. Sorry if this is patronising, but I thought I'd mention a few things that might put a spanner in the works of a replacement with another model:

1) Swapping with another model is an implicit admission of a product line issue
2) This is an avenue that could be abused by a consumer.

As such, several manufacturers have previously implemented policies of no swap-outs with another model, ever. As such, my advice is to get someone senior on the phone and check if this is ever on the cards. If it's not, demand a refund immediately - this can be passed off a a customer service gesture and is not an implicit admission of guilt for a certain product line.

Truth is, third time round, they're likely to roll over anyway.

[nevermind1534]

I understand, and I feel like two was reasonable, and they were hoping that there would be no problems the second time. The people at the RMA department might not even know that this was an issue, seeing as it was a $30 motherboard when I got it new, and most of the people who bought it probably either didn't use it enough for the problem to show up yet, or just tossed it and didn't bother with the warranty.

http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/3037/img0951jf.jpg

OCZ sometimes sends better models if they have PSU problems, but I understand that most companies don't like to do that, but at this point, it's getting pretty ridiculous. OCZ probably also does that because they know half the people that send a PSU back are underpowering their systems.

The one that came with bad capacitors was just poor quality control. I was also willing to give this latest one that I got the benefit of the doubt; maybe it was just some of them, but now, I 'm starting to think that it was all of them manufactured during that time period that had 3300mfd caps from whatever company made them.

I don't mind too much; at least they paid to ship the motherboard that was already bad back to them, but it was still poor quality control; it powered on and seemed to work, so they probably just passed it through.

[nevermind1534]

Dear Brian,

If that is the case, we will need to setup for RMA again. Those capacitors around the CPU socket are generally used for regulating the CPU voltage. Most of the time, this will occur if you are overclocking but in your case you are not overclocking so I am not sure why this is happening.

I will ask RMA dept to generate the pre-paid label again. Maybe we will replace with the P9657AA model if it is ok with you.
Best Regards,
____ _____
Technical Support Representative

So I think my capacitor problems might finally be solved.

[dr.walrus]

Good. Out of curiosity, you're not OCing?

[nevermind1534]

Good. Out of curiosity, you're not OCing?

I'm actually not. I did for a little while on my first board (the one that I bought), but that was a long time ago, and the problem didn't show up until around two years later, after I started leaving the computer on a lot. The first board that foxconn sent me already had capacitors that had leaked out, and I didn't even turn the memory voltage up to what OCZ recommends on this one (lasted around two weeks).

Since I'm getting an upgrade to a motherboard that supports CPUs other than P4s, I'll probably sell my 3.4GHz to a contact I have in russia, who's going to be buying some stuff from me in a few weeks; I can finally get a much needed CPU upgrade.

[Konrad]

Which Foxconn mobo? (Note, badcaps.net (http://www.badcaps.net/) - a forum dedicated to tracking bad capacitors on things like mobos. I just joined, lol.)

It seems to me that if you're still getting bad boards after so many re-rolls then chances are they all suck.
Replace the capacitors. Or replace the mobo with a different brand/model.

[nevermind1534]

As of the last post I made, they're sending a newer one that supports Core 2 processors. It also has solid caps around the CPU socket. They did cover shipping the bad ones that they sent me back to them both times.

The one that I initially purchased was the 945P7AA-8KS2, and they're replacing it this time with a P9657AA

[x88x]

Good deal, congrats!