A quarter of a year after Asus motherboard purchase, I'm still without a usable one - my disaster Asus RMA experience

[Delicieuxz]

On January 18, I purchased an Asus X670E-A Gaming Wifi motherboard for an AM5 build. From the very first time I powered it on, it didn't function properly, as documented in this thread. And while that might seem in that thread like it was an issue that was fixed, it ended up recurring over, and over, any time a change to the BIOS configuration was made via Ryzen Master in Windows. But that wasn't the only or biggest issue, as the system would randomly restart on average around once a day (sometimes more, sometimes less).

After many emails with Asus support, they eventually agreed to accept an RMA. And then they replaced the motherboard, with the return RMA / diagnostic slip stating that the replaced motherboard resets randomly. But my issues with the whole experience didn't end there. And the fuller picture is written in detail in this thread on Asus' support forum, where I encourage people to read it:

Cavalcade of disasters with Asus motherboard and Asus' RMA support

A quarter of a year after I purchased the motherboard, I'm still waiting on Asus to be able to install a working motherboard and use the PC tower I spent $2,850 CAD building (not including graphics card, monitor, and peripherals). Because inconveniences kept coming from Asus (like them deciding, it turns-out, incorrectly, that they didn't have a part to send me, and just didn't tell me but let me wait in perpetuity for something that wasn't coming), I decided to make the post on their support forum. And because, after Asus corrected that mishap, mistakes are still coming from them that's further depriving me of having a usable PC, I'm now posting about it on other forums so that people are aware of the state their support seems to be in.

I'm not enraged, but I do see this as unacceptable. And while I said on Asus' forum that they need to make it up to me in some way, I said that because I believe that's the right thing to do in this circumstance and that, on principle, they should be held to that standard. But I don't expect they will.

I'm interested to see what others think about this situation.


By the way, this is the motherboard issue information I printed off and included with the motherboard I sent to Asus for RMA.

RMA: CA----------49
Support case: N2----------37
Serial number: NB----------K6

System specs:

Asus motherboard: ROG Strix X670E-A Gaming Wifi
BIOS version: Version 0805 - 2022/11/15
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7700X
graphics: Ryzen 7700X integrated graphics
memory: 2x32GB G.Skill 6000Mhz CL32-38-38-96 EXPO
storage: 2x Hynix P41 2TB m.2 NVMe
power supply: Corsair RMx 1000 watt
network: Intel v1225 2.5Gbit
OS: Windows 11 Enterprise



The issues I have had with this motherboard are:

1. Adding a temperature or power limit in the BIOS doesn't work - meaning, when in the OS, the system ignores those changes and runs at default temperature and power limit specs.

2. The very first time I powered on the newly-assembled system it wouldn't post. It just sat on the yellow DRAM motherboard light for over 40 minutes. When I powered the system off at the PSU, and then powered it on again, it would pass the yellow DRAM light, but then would sit indefinitely at the red CPU motherboard light. And if I powered it off at the PSU again, and powered it on again, it would continue to sit at the red CPU motherboard light and not post.

To get the system to post, I had to power-off the PSU, then remove the CMOS battery, the PSU power cable, and hold-down the PC case power switch for several seconds, to drain any other caps, and then put it all back together. After doing that, the system would post.

However, that is a temporary fix. Making a BIOS change in Ryzen Master that require a system restart causes the system to not post again, in exactly the same manner my system wouldn't post the very first time I powered it on. It will hang at the yellow DRAM light. And then it will hang at the red CPU light. And I’ll have to do all the same steps I mentioned, in order to get it to post again.

3. The system has been randomly restarting, mostly around once per day, though sometimes has gone four or so days without randomly restarting, and also sometimes has restarted multiple times in a single day. The restarts happen suddenly, without a BSOD or error message, and happen anywhere from before the Windows login screen loads, to while after logged into a Windows account and doing anything, or nothing, in the OS.

4. I can rarely get a Bluetooth device to be discovered, pair, or connect to the mobo, using the driver supplied from Asus' website. And when one does manage to pair, it rarely is able to connect. And when I have gotten one to actually connect, it isn't functional, and it loses the connection very quickly.

Just about every time I enable Bluetooth in Windows 11 and search for nearby devices, the Bluetooth device-finder doesn't identify any nearby Bluetooth devices. It did twice successfully identify nearby devices, and one time successfully paired with my phone, which it took far too long to do, but it hasn't been able to actually connect to it once it's paired. And every time I run the Windows 11 Bluetooth troubleshooter, it finds and "fixes" an issue of enabling Bluetooth. Yet every time I run the troubleshooter, it "fixes" the same issue over and over, of enabling Bluetooth. And I've tried un-checking the box that lets Windows disable Bluetooth to save energy, but that didn't help.



Video showing that adding a temperature limit in the BIOS doesn’t work: ----------

Video showing that adding a power limit in the BIOS doesn’t work: ----------

A record that I encountered the #2 issue the first time I powered on the new PC after assembling it is here, on this forum, where I sought help for it:

https://linustechtips.com/topic/148...uild-x670e-a-mobo-yellow-dram-light-turns-on/

A video showing that the #2 issue returns when I make a BIOS change in Ryzen Master that requires a system restart is here: ----------


These links are also given in my email messages to Asus Support, case N2----------37.

The last issue, regarding bluetooth not working, was likely caused by Asus providing the wrong driver on their website - which they did multiple times before they finally replaced the driver with the correct one. I learned that they had the wrong driver for download after I had packaged the motherboard to be returned, and so I wasn't able to verify that the issue was fixed after they uploaded the proper driver.

 

[SpongeBob]

Well dude, one thing I have found out in 2023 AMD and Ram is finicky... Are they in slots 2 and 4? I saw on your other thread it showed a diagram but I can't see them since the cooler is blocking them in the picture. When I was troubleshooting some ram I put took them out of 2 and 4 (on a different motherboard) and when I put them into 1 and 2 my computer threw an error at me and my BIOS were in Mandarin thankfully putting them back fixed that lol..

The other thing I'm going to say is to not bother using ASUS driver at all. If they are posting crap drivers just install AMD's Auto-Detect and Install for Windows 10/11* https://www.amd.com/en/support just run it and it will install the correct drivers for you. This way you are not depending on if some guy decided to upload the correct file or not. When I first started building PC's my boss told me that if I had anything missing in device Manager we didn't do our job there's something missing. It stuck with me and thus far I haven't had issues with AMD drivers with AM4 anyway.

Looks like there are 2023 BIOS available for your board. With a board that has issues I'd jump on those what do you have to lose?

I'd update your BIOS and run the AMD driver installer work. Then probably let CC cleaner run and clean the registry etc and cross my fingers. Not saying this would fix anything it's just what I would do. I've seen stranger things fix issues.

 

[Top Nurse]

The last time I used Asus drivers was when I had an Asus Crosshair III Formula board. Since then I just let Windows institute the proper drivers on Windows 10. Of course you have to do your part in setting up the BIOS/UEFI correctly before installing Windows which is difficult because Asus manuals just plain suck now. I think the next MB will be a Gigabyte.

 

[uOpt]

Hey man. Buying Asus is OK, but you should do so knowing that if you get a bad one you just trash it. In no event should you engage with Asus support. Except maybe via a ground-to-ground missile.

 

[Andrew_Carr]

I had some stability issues on my (non-ASUS) motherboard with AM5. Overvolting the RAM fixed it. When I installed more memory (4 sticks total) I ran into more of the same issues and had to increase the voltage to around 1.35v. The most annoying thing is the retraining anytime something goes wrong, because otherwise the board won't post. I cleared the CMOS probably 10x because every time things weren't perfectly stable it would require clearing the CMOS to post into BIOS and change settings. Just some things you could look into if you still have the board and are stuck with their RMA department.

 

[izzypizzy]

Sounds like a headache. I have to ask, why did you bother with an RMA instead of just returning / exchanging at the store of purchase?

Sorry if I missed this info from a previous thread.

Hope you don't have to deal with this much longer.

 

[izzypizzy]

When you were experiencing the random restarts, did you happen to have any sort of curve optimizer turned on? It sounds a lot like what I experienced when I ran the curve optimizer and it suggested a -47 offset. Skeptical, I tried it, and all that happened was random restarts booting into a black screen with the boot-up sound, just as you described.

 

[blackmomba]

Boards at that price... They should just replace for customers... Like don't dick people around when your paying that much...

 

[techie81]

On January 18, I purchase an Asus X670E-A Gaming Wifi motherboard for an AM5 build. From the very first time I powered it on, it didn't function properly, as documented in this thread. And while that might seem in that thread like it was an issue that was fixed, it ended up recurring over, and over, any time a change to the BIOS configuration was made via Ryzen Master in Windows. But that wasn't the only or biggest issue, as the system would randomly restart on average around once a day (sometimes more, sometimes less).

After many emails with Asus support, they eventually agreed to accept an RMA. And then they replaced the motherboard, with the return RMA / diagnostic slip stating that the replaced motherboard resets randomly. But my issues with the whole experience didn't end there. And the fuller picture is written in detail in this thread on Asus' support forum, where I encourage people to read it:

Cavalcade of disasters with Asus motherboard and Asus' RMA support

A quarter of a year after I purchased the motherboard, I'm still waiting on Asus to be able to install a working motherboard and use the PC tower I spent $2,850 CAD building (not including graphics card, monitor, and peripherals). Because inconveniences kept coming from Asus (like them deciding, it turns-out, incorrectly, that they didn't have a part to send me, and just didn't tell me but let me wait in perpetuity for something that wasn't coming), I decided to make the post on their support forum. And because, after Asus corrected that mishap, mistakes are still coming from them that's further depriving me of having a usable PC, I'm now posting about it on other forums so that people are aware of the state their support seems to be in.

I'm not enraged, but I do see this as unacceptable. And while I said on Asus' forum that they need to make it up to me in some way, I said that because I believe that's the right thing to do in this circumstance and that, on principle, they should be held to that standard. But I don't expect they will.

I'm interested to see what others think about this situation.


By the way, this is the motherboard issue information I printed off and included with the motherboard I sent to Asus for RMA.


The last issue, regarding bluetooth not working, was likely caused by Asus providing the wrong driver on their website - which they did multiple times before they finally replaced the driver with the correct one. I learned that they had the wrong driver for download after I had packaged the motherboard to be returned, and so I wasn't able to verify that the issue was fixed after they uploaded the proper driver.

I am really sorry to hear about your experience. Frankly, Asus sucks. Against my better judgement, I bought an Asus Board (PRIME Z690-P WIFI D4) last year and it had constant problems until they released a new BIOS (I think it was the 12th BIOS release for this specific board). It seems to have finally become stable but it took forever for them to fix the instability. I would chalk this up as a learning experience and try another, reliable brand (I have been using a MSI x570 Tomahawk for quite a while without any major issues). RMAing with any company is going to be hit or miss, so if you have issues, returning to the store is the best option. Good luck.

 

[Delicieuxz]

Well dude, one thing I have found out in 2023 AMD and Ram is finicky... Are they in slots 2 and 4? I saw on your other thread it showed a diagram but I can't see them since the cooler is blocking them in the picture. When I was troubleshooting some ram I put took them out of 2 and 4 (on a different motherboard) and when I put them into 1 and 2 my computer threw an error at me and my BIOS were in Mandarin thankfully putting them back fixed that lol..

The other thing I'm going to say is to not bother using ASUS driver at all. If they are posting crap drivers just install AMD's Auto-Detect and Install for Windows 10/11* https://www.amd.com/en/support just run it and it will install the correct drivers for you. This way you are not depending on if some guy decided to upload the correct file or not. When I first started building PC's my boss told me that if I had anything missing in device Manager we didn't do our job there's something missing. It stuck with me and thus far I haven't had issues with AMD drivers with AM4 anyway.

Looks like there are 2023 BIOS available for your board. With a board that has issues I'd jump on those what do you have to lose?

I'd update your BIOS and run the AMD driver installer work. Then probably let CC cleaner run and clean the registry etc and cross my fingers. Not saying this would fix anything it's just what I would do. I've seen stranger things fix issues.

I verified with the motherboard manual photos while installing them, that the RAM was in the correct spots.

When I can install the motherboard, I'll go to the latest BIOS, which is version 1101, as of April 11. When I encountered these issues, I was on the then-latest BIOS, which was 0805.

I'll check out AMD's Auto-Detect, thanks.

Hey man. Buying Asus is OK, but you should do so knowing that if you get a bad one you just trash it. In no event should you engage with Asus support. Except maybe via a ground-to-ground missile.

It sounds like you've had an experience of your own.

Sounds like a headache. I have to ask, why did you bother with an RMA instead of just returning / exchanging at the store of purchase?

Sorry if I missed this info from a previous thread.

Hope you don't have to deal with this much longer.

When you were experiencing the random restarts, did you happen to have any sort of curve optimizer turned on? It sounds a lot like what I experienced when I ran the curve optimizer and it suggested a -47 offset. Skeptical, I tried it, and all that happened was random restarts booting into a black screen with the boot-up sound, just as you described.

Thanks. I didn't think there was a larger underlying issue after I got the PC to post initially. I thought it was a freak occurrence that it didn't post automatically the first time it powered up. And then I pretty quickly started trying to set a PBO curve and did a lot of testing, during which system restarts were expected. I never overclocked the system, though. When the failure to post happened again, when using Ryzen Master, I didn't know why it was, but I still didn't conclude that there was a fundamental issue with the board.

I got the system seemingly stable at offsets of -30, -30, -30, -30, -24, -30, -22, -30, with it lasting for a long time of testing. But then it would keep restarting at odd times. And I kept incrementally lowering the offset for the core which it last crashed on. But it kept restarting after long periods of testing, and there was no consistent problem core. Eventually, I decided to put everything to stock to make sure it was running fine at that. But the restarts kept comming, around once a day.

I could've returned it to a store at that point, but I was hesitant to think something was wrong with it. The last full system I built was 12 years ago, and thought maybe I was missing something. I contacted Asus, perhaps on February 14 (they replied February 15), and after many emails giving them further details they asked for, it was March 4 that Asus concluded it needed to be sent in for RMA. I could've returned it to the store up to February 17 or 18, but didn't feel confident claiming there was an issue with it until I had gotten some feedback from a more experienced party, in this case that was Asus.

 

[hititnquitit]

I verified with the motherboard manual photos while installing them, that the RAM was in the correct spots.

When I can install the motherboard, I'll go to the latest BIOS, which is version 1101, as of April 11. When I encountered these issues, I was on the then-latest BIOS, which was 0805.

I'll check out AMD's Auto-Detect, thanks.


It sounds like you've had an experience of your own.





Thanks. I didn't think there was a larger underlying issue after I got the PC to post initially. I thought it was a freak occurrence that it didn't post automatically the first time it powered up. And then I pretty quickly started trying to set a PBO curve and did a lot of testing, during which system restarts were expected. I never overclocked the system, though. When the failure to post happened again, when using Ryzen Master, I didn't know why it was, but I still didn't conclude that there was a fundamental issue with the board.

I got the system seemingly stable at offsets of -30, -30, -30, -30, -24, -30, -22, -30, with it lasting for a long time of testing. But then it would keep restarting at odd times. And I kept incrementally lowering the offset for the core which it last crashed on. But it kept restarting after long periods of testing, and there was no consistent problem core. Eventually, I decided to put everything to stock to make sure it was running fine at that. But the restarts kept comming, around once a day.

I could've returned it to a store at that point, but I was hesitant to think something was wrong with it. The last full system I built was 12 years ago, and thought maybe I was missing something. I contacted Asus, perhaps on February 14 (they replied February 15), and after many emails giving them further details they asked for, it was March 4 that Asus concluded it needed to be sent in for RMA. I could've returned it to the store up to February 17 or 18, but didn't feel confident claiming there was an issue with it until I had gotten some feedback from a more experienced party, in this case that was Asus.

Argh, you really really should have started your trouble shooting here
We would have sent you back to the store as soon as initial trouble shooting had failed. First with your mb and next with the CPU, if the mb didn't rectify the issue. We know all to well how utterly pathetic Asus tech support can and usually is. And sadly, they don't prioritize your time in any way shape or form.
Hopefully they come through for you soon.

 

[MrGuvernment]

As much as others may not like them, knock on wood, I have yet to ever have an issues with GigaByte boards. I mean, I did not have issues with Asus boards for the many years in the P4 days I used them, but after hearing the RMA nightmares, i just stopped buying Asus and go with either MSI or Gigabyte these days.

 

[philb2]

Of course you have to do your part in setting up the BIOS/UEFI correctly before installing Windows which is difficult because Asus manuals just plain suck now.

-1 I disagree that ASUS manuals suck. Just look at some of the alternatives. They have been following the same outline for many years now.

I think the next MB will be a Gigabyte.

Your choice ...

 

[noko]

My view is to test out a new motherboard, item and what not bought and it does not perform as advertised or function as it should, automatically return it. If it fails after return period I just weigh best way to advance, most of the time just buying an alternate so I can continue any important tasks and get moving, not stuck in other words is worth way more than hassling and waiting on someone else.

 

[uOpt]

-1 I disagree that ASUS manuals suck. Just look at some of the alternatives. They have been following the same outline for many years now.

Yeah, but Asus never has block diagrams in their manuals, not even for SMP boards where devices can be connected to either CPU.

 

[FrgMstr]

MSI had been my go-to for a while now.

 

[LigTasm]

MSI had been my go-to for a while now.

Same. I have two MSI Z690 boards and they work perfectly at a reasonable price. My last Asus board was an X570 and it had... issues.

 

[Starfalcon]

MSI had been my go-to for a while now.

Same here, been very happy with my MSI X570 Creation, been absolutely bulletproof since I got it in 2019. I will likely buy another MSI board next time I upgrade.

 

[Celcius]

Honestly at this point I'd consider my time more valuable than the motherboard and just buy a different one.
The one time I had an issue with an Asus motherboard I just exchanged it with Newegg instead of dealing with Asus directly.

 

[Furious_Styles]

Honestly at this point I'd consider my time more valuable than the motherboard and just buy a different one.
The one time I had an issue with an Asus motherboard I just exchanged it with Newegg instead of dealing with Asus directly.

That only works for the first 30 day window and everyone pretty much should/would do that if they are fortunate enough to encounter problems that early.

 

[Liqq]

The only RMA I ever had in my life was an Asus videocard. A triple slot GTX 680. I remember sending it in and after over a month getting it back "repaired" only for it to have the same exact issue which iirc was artifacts. Asus kept the card over another month with no word until I got fed up and called wondering what was up with my card but the CSR had no info on it. I think that's the first time I ever yelled at somebody over the phone. Funnily enough UPS drops off a package about an hour later with a replacement card which was sealed and looked brand new with everything. I think the whole ordeal took over 3 months with multiple emails and calls involved. I'm still very apprehensive about using Asus anything on my builds and have maybe bought one piece of their hardware in my last half a dozen builds.

 

[philb2]

The only RMA I ever had in my life was an Asus videocard. A triple slot GTX 680. I remember sending it in and after over a month getting it back "repaired" only for it to have the same exact issue which iirc was artifacts. Asus kept the card over another month with no word until I got fed up and called wondering what was up with my card but the CSR had no info on it. I think that's the first time I ever yelled at somebody over the phone. Funnily enough UPS drops off a package about an hour later with a replacement card which was sealed and looked brand new with everything. I think the whole ordeal took over 3 months with multiple emails and calls involved. I'm still very apprehensive about using Asus anything on my builds and have maybe bought one piece of their hardware in my last half a dozen builds.

I too have had problems with the ASUS RMA experience. Other than that, my ASUS products experience, motherboards and vid cards, have all been positive.

 

[Niner21]

Other than that, my ASUS products experience, motherboards and vid cards, have all been positive.

Same here. I haven't had to RMA anything in the 25+ years I've building PC's, so I consider myself fortunate. I decided to give Asus another shot after having issues years ago and had to return certain hardware within the return window where I purchased it from. Of course I decided to do this once the issues with their AMD boards arose recently, but "knock on wood" my Intel rig is doing okay.

 

[MrGuvernment]

Personally, would of gone back to the store I bought it from and talked to them at this point, I know they would said "go through Asus, you didnt buy our in store extended warranty crap" or something, but I would then do a charge back potentially, you were sold a product, it does not function, you have gone through every avenue and jumped through their hoop's and still do not have a working product.

Same here. I haven't had to RMA anything in the 25+ years I've building PC's, so I consider myself fortunate. I decided to give Asus another shot after having issues years ago and had to return certain hardware within the return window where I purchased it from. Of course I decided to do this once the issues with their AMD boards arose recently, but "knock on wood" my Intel rig is doing okay.

Knock on wood, I only have ever had to RMA 1 video card, and I did that from Costa Rica at the time, and PowerColor sent me a new card back, back in the 9700 days.

But otherwise, I can not say I have had a mobo, psu, ram or even an HD fail on me for person builds. Now monitors from Dell... had my share of returns due to defects.