LMG Sponsor Complaints

[Excon]

1 minute ago, Hinjima said:

Yeah, I cant find the link to Nexigo in that videos description now.

Here you go

https://viraln.link/LTTxAuroraPro

[Skiiwee29]

1 hour ago, Excon said:

Not sure where to post this but I actually had interest in the projector in the sponsor spot of the latest video. I went to their Kickstarter to find out the project has as of today been suspended and all abckers have been refunded. Must be a pretty big issue for this to happen. Nexigo hasnt made any statement yet. Not sure if LMG should address this?

 

Here is the link since it has apparently been removed from the video

https://viraln.link/LTTxAuroraPro

Your thread has been merged into the LTT Sponsor complaint thread.

[Excon]

2 hours ago, Skiiwee29 said:

Your thread has been merged into the LTT Sponsor complaint thread.

Hide a topic that brings concern to a LTT video main sponsor spot being potentially a major scam or in legal trouble in an obscure thread, cool. 

[Haredeenee]

47 minutes ago, Excon said:

Hide a topic that brings concern to a LTT video main sponsor spot being potentially a major scam or in legal trouble in an obscure thread, cool. 

no offense, but its THE thread to do it in. 

[Excon]

3 hours ago, Haredeenee said:

no offense, but its THE thread to do it in. 

Youre not wrong. this was also my first post in 8 years on the forum and its Definity not active like it used to be 

[Haredeenee]

9 hours ago, Excon said:

Youre not wrong. this was also my first post in 8 years on the forum and its Definity not active like it used to be 

same here! 

[Middcore]

11 hours ago, Excon said:

Youre not wrong. this was also my first post in 8 years on the forum and its Definity not active like it used to be 

 

Traditional forums are dying out in general. 

[Cavalry Canuck]

Just finished watching the KVM video:

 

 

The last sponsor spot was for Corsair, advertising their new ICUE Link Smart Ecosystem. I have e-waste concerns about Corsair, and this ecosystem specifically, that I believe are incompatible with LTTs stance on e-waste. While minor and solvable, I believe they warrant some consideration.

 

I've had fairly recent personal issues with Corsair, but as stated I'm also not happy about their latest integrated system being advertised here. While the ICUE software is compatible between both the new and the old hardware ecosystems, the hardware ecosystems themselves are completely incompatible with one-another. If you want to update to the latest ecosystem, you have a choice: Either run both hardware ecosystems, creating one hell of a mess of cables in the case (taking away from one of the primary rationales of the new hardware ecosystem); or, you ditch all your old stuff and create a bunch of e-waste.

 

Corsair could have found ways to allow backwards compatibility between the two hardware systems, dramatically reducing the e-waste potential. They did not. This, in addition to my personal issues where I couldn't buy replacement parts for an otherwise fully functional keyboard, makes it seem to me that Corsair doesn't give a damn about e-waste. 

 

I understand Corsair needs to sell products to make money, so I don't begrudge them for that (aside from my keyboard issue). However, Linus (and LTT as a whole) has a very principled stance on e-waste/needless disposal of plastics. It is my belief that this philosophical stance is incompatible with the way in which Corsair introduced this new hardware ecosystem. If Corsair were to introduce ways to integrate the two hardware ecosystems, it would alleviate this concern.

 

Thanks for your time.

 

[QwertyChouskie]

8 hours ago, Cavalry Canuck said:

Just finished watching the KVM video:

 

 

The last sponsor spot was for Corsair, advertising their new ICUE Link Smart Ecosystem. I have e-waste concerns about Corsair, and this ecosystem specifically, that I believe are incompatible with LTTs stance on e-waste. While minor and solvable, I believe they warrant some consideration.

 

I've had fairly recent personal issues with Corsair, but as stated I'm also not happy about their latest integrated system being advertised here. While the ICUE software is compatible between both the new and the old hardware ecosystems, the hardware ecosystems themselves are completely incompatible with one-another. If you want to update to the latest ecosystem, you have a choice: Either run both hardware ecosystems, creating one hell of a mess of cables in the case (taking away from one of the primary rationales of the new hardware ecosystem); or, you ditch all your old stuff and create a bunch of e-waste.

 

Corsair could have found ways to allow backwards compatibility between the two hardware systems, dramatically reducing the e-waste potential. They did not. This, in addition to my personal issues where I couldn't buy replacement parts for an otherwise fully functional keyboard, makes it seem to me that Corsair doesn't give a damn about e-waste. 

 

I understand Corsair needs to sell products to make money, so I don't begrudge them for that (aside from my keyboard issue). However, Linus (and LTT as a whole) has a very principled stance on e-waste/needless disposal of plastics. It is my belief that this philosophical stance is incompatible with the way in which Corsair introduced this new hardware ecosystem. If Corsair were to introduce ways to integrate the two hardware ecosystems, it would alleviate this concern.

 

Thanks for your time.

 

Keeping compatibility between and old ecosystem and a new one is often much easier said than done.  Also, even if you replace everything with the new products in your build, there's no reason for the old stuff to end up in a trash can.  A lot of people put together builds for friends/family memebers using old parts from their system.  Heck, you can just post the old stuff as free curb alert on Craigslist or whatever, I guarantee you someone will want it.  If the stuff somehow ends up in a trash can, that's on the consumer for being too lazy to even take 2 minutes to curb alert it or whatever, that's not the manufacturer's responsibility at that point.

[Cavalry Canuck]

6 hours ago, QwertyChouskie said:

Keeping compatibility between and old ecosystem and a new one is often much easier said than done.  

 

The hardest part is usually on the software side. In this case, the software is compatible with both hardware ecosystems, and can support both concurrently. With the hard part taken care of, achieving hardware compatibility should be relatively straightforward. They could develop a new fan/rgb hub to daisy-chain inline with the rest of the new ICUE Link Smart Ecosystem. If addressing each of the old-style fans/devices through the hub proves difficult via software, a simpler (but less ideal solution) would be to treat the hub as a single device that handles each connected device via firmware.

 

Yes you'd still have to toss/sell the old Commander/Commander Pro/Fan Hubs, but that is significantly less potential waste than replacing everything in the system.

 

6 hours ago, QwertyChouskie said:

Also, even if you replace everything with the new products in your build, there's no reason for the old stuff to end up in a trash can.  A lot of people put together builds for friends/family memebers using old parts from their system.  Heck, you can just post the old stuff as free curb alert on Craigslist or whatever, I guarantee you someone will want it.  If the stuff somehow ends up in a trash can, that's on the consumer for being too lazy to even take 2 minutes to curb alert it or whatever, that's not the manufacturer's responsibility at that point.

I agree a responsible consumer would resell the used products if they are still functional. However, if consumers could be wholly trusted to be good stewards in this manner, e-waste would never be a conversation item to begin with. Fact is, people are fallible, and can't be relied upon to minimize waste.

 

This is why the onus needs to be on companies to minimize e-waste, both through their own practices and by shaping consumer behaviour. Corsair could have achieved both of these. By their own practices, they could have developed a simple hardware compatibility solution, such as suggested above. They could have also influenced consumer behaviour by introducing some sort of re-seller program for those upgrading their Corsair components. Corsair, of all PC component companies, has the market share to make such a program succeed.

 

I have to re-iterate, this isn't a gripe against Corsair. It's their right to make money by developing new (and admittedly better) product systems. They don't have to give a damn about the e-waste potential if it's not in their best interests.

 

My gripe is that LTT, a company who does give a damn about e-waste, would accept a sponsorship from a company that doesn't. What is wrong with my concern that LTT is accepting sponsorships from companies that don't appear to share their corporate values?

[kirashi]

On 9/25/2023 at 3:12 PM, jk93 said:

They have a timer that starts at around 9 minutes and 40 seconds; if you change your browser or clear your cache, the timer resets.

 

Good to know! Another company to add to my PERMANENT irrevocable blacklist.

[xElementzx]

Oddly enough, i'm not here to complain about secretlab's chairs, rather compliment something I've noticed.

The Armrests, many many people have had issues with them cracking. myself included. I reached out and they did actually replace mine free of charge. the ones that I was sent seem to be made of a different material to my original ones which has lead me to believe they have attempted to fix the problem and in the time since Nov 2021 the new ones have not cracked at all. They have absolutely stretched and have some waveyness to the top from where I frequently rest my elbow but they haven't cracked.

This is something I felt was worth mentioning

[Haredeenee]

16 minutes ago, xElementzx said:

Oddly enough, i'm not here to complain about secretlab's chairs, rather compliment something I've noticed.

The Armrests, many many people have had issues with them cracking. myself included. I reached out and they did actually replace mine free of charge. the ones that I was sent seem to be made of a different material to my original ones which has lead me to believe they have attempted to fix the problem and in the time since Nov 2021 the new ones have not cracked at all. They have absolutely stretched and have some waveyness to the top from where I frequently rest my elbow but they haven't cracked.

This is something I felt was worth mentioning

they told me its purely aesthetic and not covered under warranty. I cant use my armrest otherwise it scratches my arm, ive also caught my dog eating the bits that fall off

[Ahriii01]

Heya, not entirely sure if this is the right place (as some people I talked to suggested I bring it up here). 

 

With that out the way, I guess it's onto my issue that I'm gonna bring up with ASUS.

 

Firstly, I've had 3 Tuf Gaming B550 Plus (WiFi) boards die out of the 3 that I've had since 2021.

 

I purchased the first board back in 2021, and ran that with an R5 3600X stock (no PBO, no OC). In early 2022 that board's SOC VRM phases exploded (like literally exploded). After that explosion fiasco, unbeknownst to me, my R5 3600X started its long trip down its degradation valley. At the time I only had 2 DIMMs, and this will become important later on.

 

A month later they replaced the board with a used and previously RMA'd board (which I'm all for having a board that was used, assuming it was actually tested and verified to not have issues).

 

For my birthday in 2022 I upgraded to an R9 5900X and an additional 16GB of RAM (32GBs of 2 kits of 2x8GB DIMMs) in that 2nd board (also ran at stock, no OC, no PBO). The 2nd board would ultimately wind up killing that 5900X during a cold boot, with the 5900X making an audible *pop sizzle*, which burned me when I touched it after tearing the rig down. 

 

With the death of that 5900X I had dropped my 3600X back into that board, and had even worse stability issues. This was partially solved by removing 2 of my 4 DIMMs, however it was never entirely solved. This board also added more degradation onto that 3600X in the month and a half it took ASUS to replace that board.

 

After replacing the first 5900X (which costed me $415 CAD in the first place) I had RMA'd that 2nd board due to incredible RAM instability issues (2133 JEDEC specs were unstable with all of my memory kits, 2x 2x8GB 3200 C16 Trident Z RGB and 1x 2x8GB 4000 C19 Patriot Viper STEEL running at any speed).

 

ASUS accepted the RMA, and told me that they were "unable to replicate the issue" however, that was because "the board never worked for [them] in the first place".

 

They replaced it with yet another previously RMA'd board (proven by the fact that they didn't even remove the original serial number sticker before slapping a new one overtop of it), which ultimately failed on Sept 16th this year, taking my 2nd 5900X with it. The board fails the POST at VGA every time, regardless of if a GPU is installed or not. Only time it doesn't fail there is if you remove all DIMMs, then it instant fails because no DIMMs are installed.

 

After testing my 3600X and 5900X in my old Gigabyte AB350M-DS3H with the newest bios, the 5900X refused to POST, and the 3600X worked, although when testing it refused to boost at all. It stayed at its base clock of 3.8GHz, even when doing light workloads. It is still also unstable with 4 DIMMs.

 

I contacted ASUS again asking for compensation of shipping, for the damaged CPUs, and for a brand new board, and they told me I'd have to pay to ship a THIRD dead board to them, which would equate to a total cost of $60 of shipping (3 instances of $20) for a $140 board, and they couldn't cover the remaining demands.

 

Obviously angered by the news, I contacted their CEOs office, and they've since promised me a brand new in box sample, with the shipping covered. However, they are entirely refusing to compensate me for the 2x 5900X chips being dead and the 3600X so heavily degraded that it no longer works with 4 DIMMs and no longer boosts AT ALL. Their reasoning is "we only cover ASUS products. Sorry. You'll have to talk with AMD to see their policy on replacements".

 

The issue is, AMD explicitly only covers manufacturing defects. This is very clearly NOT a manufacturing defect, and as a result, wouldn't be covered. I've effectively managed to throw ~$1,300 CAD down the drain because of these boards failing, and I'm getting absolutely nowhere with ASUS.

 

I've been fighting them constantly, non stop, and they will not budge beyond covering the cost of shipping and a brand new board. Although I appreciate the certainty of getting a new board, as well as having shipping both ways, I literally don't have anything to put into the new board because that 3600X is so degraded it literally practically doesn't work anymore (Requires VSOC to be at 1.2-1.25V in order for the IMC to even function).

 

I'm a broke college student, without a job, and I literally can't afford to buy a new CPU. I need this computer for school, and won't be able to do anything with the new replacement board until I get a CPU that functions...

 

I've attached some pictures of the 3rd board's serial number fiasco (obviously with the caveat that I've covered the serial number itself for privacy and safety reasons. The last picture shows the first 3 digits of the old number (M5M) and first 2 digits of the new number (LA) to show you what I mean).

 

I'm at my Wit's end, and I am trying to find any and all solutions to just get a working system, without being treated like I'm an idiot who doesn't know what I'm talking about. Any time I call for support I'm always cut off, told that what I'm saying isn't true, and that I'm wrong.

 

Heck, one of the times I called I had a support lady told me that my 3 GPUs (GTX 750 Ti, 1050 Ti and RX 6700 XT, tested in 2 other PCs to be known working and good) weren't "known good" because "they're used and can be incompatable or damaged. [They maybe] showing signs of damage in this motherboard but not other ones". Literally was told "Did you try buying a new in box GPU to verify? You can never be too sure about used GPUs you know". Finally, I was wrong because "the Q-LED says it's a VGA issue, not a board issue".

 

It's frustrating, degrading and exhausting that the 10 years of my PC enthusiast experience and knowledge is being treated as non-existent, and that I have to deal with this every time a board dies. Additionally, it's already way too expensive on top of all this...

 

I normally never want to make a big fuss out of things, but I literally need a computer for school, I'm tired of being told I'm wrong or that I've got things all wrong, and I can't afford to just go buy a new CPU again, for the 4th time.

 

I understand hardware fails, it's why I didn't really bother to be frustrated after the first board exploding. When the second board failed, I didn't complain, but was understandably worried and annoyed. But 3 times, with the same excuses and toxic dealings with phone staff? Enough is enough.

 

Edit: Additionally, the support people I interacted with have all said this "isn't ASUS' fault that the boards or the processors inside the boards have failed"

 

[QwertyChouskie]

10 hours ago, Ahriii01 said:

Heya, not entirely sure if this is the right place (as some people I talked to suggested I bring it up here). 

 

With that out the way, I guess it's onto my issue that I'm gonna bring up with ASUS.

 

Firstly, I've had 3 Tuf Gaming B550 Plus (WiFi) boards die out of the 3 that I've had since 2021.

 

I purchased the first board back in 2021, and ran that with an R5 3600X stock (no PBO, no OC). In early 2022 that board's SOC VRM phases exploded (like literally exploded). After that explosion fiasco, unbeknownst to me, my R5 3600X started its long trip down its degradation valley. At the time I only had 2 DIMMs, and this will become important later on.

 

A month later they replaced the board with a used and previously RMA'd board (which I'm all for having a board that was used, assuming it was actually tested and verified to not have issues).

 

For my birthday in 2022 I upgraded to an R9 5900X and an additional 16GB of RAM (32GBs of 2 kits of 2x8GB DIMMs) in that 2nd board (also ran at stock, no OC, no PBO). The 2nd board would ultimately wind up killing that 5900X during a cold boot, with the 5900X making an audible *pop sizzle*, which burned me when I touched it after tearing the rig down. 

 

With the death of that 5900X I had dropped my 3600X back into that board, and had even worse stability issues. This was partially solved by removing 2 of my 4 DIMMs, however it was never entirely solved. This board also added more degradation onto that 3600X in the month and a half it took ASUS to replace that board.

 

After replacing the first 5900X (which costed me $415 CAD in the first place) I had RMA'd that 2nd board due to incredible RAM instability issues (2133 JEDEC specs were unstable with all of my memory kits, 2x 2x8GB 3200 C16 Trident Z RGB and 1x 2x8GB 4000 C19 Patriot Viper STEEL running at any speed).

 

ASUS accepted the RMA, and told me that they were "unable to replicate the issue" however, that was because "the board never worked for [them] in the first place".

 

They replaced it with yet another previously RMA'd board (proven by the fact that they didn't even remove the original serial number sticker before slapping a new one overtop of it), which ultimately failed on Sept 16th this year, taking my 2nd 5900X with it. The board fails the POST at VGA every time, regardless of if a GPU is installed or not. Only time it doesn't fail there is if you remove all DIMMs, then it instant fails because no DIMMs are installed.

 

After testing my 3600X and 5900X in my old Gigabyte AB350M-DS3H with the newest bios, the 5900X refused to POST, and the 3600X worked, although when testing it refused to boost at all. It stayed at its base clock of 3.8GHz, even when doing light workloads. It is still also unstable with 4 DIMMs.

 

I contacted ASUS again asking for compensation of shipping, for the damaged CPUs, and for a brand new board, and they told me I'd have to pay to ship a THIRD dead board to them, which would equate to a total cost of $60 of shipping (3 instances of $20) for a $140 board, and they couldn't cover the remaining demands.

 

Obviously angered by the news, I contacted their CEOs office, and they've since promised me a brand new in box sample, with the shipping covered. However, they are entirely refusing to compensate me for the 2x 5900X chips being dead and the 3600X so heavily degraded that it no longer works with 4 DIMMs and no longer boosts AT ALL. Their reasoning is "we only cover ASUS products. Sorry. You'll have to talk with AMD to see their policy on replacements".

 

The issue is, AMD explicitly only covers manufacturing defects. This is very clearly NOT a manufacturing defect, and as a result, wouldn't be covered. I've effectively managed to throw ~$1,300 CAD down the drain because of these boards failing, and I'm getting absolutely nowhere with ASUS.

 

I've been fighting them constantly, non stop, and they will not budge beyond covering the cost of shipping and a brand new board. Although I appreciate the certainty of getting a new board, as well as having shipping both ways, I literally don't have anything to put into the new board because that 3600X is so degraded it literally practically doesn't work anymore (Requires VSOC to be at 1.2-1.25V in order for the IMC to even function).

 

I'm a broke college student, without a job, and I literally can't afford to buy a new CPU. I need this computer for school, and won't be able to do anything with the new replacement board until I get a CPU that functions...

 

I've attached some pictures of the 3rd board's serial number fiasco (obviously with the caveat that I've covered the serial number itself for privacy and safety reasons. The last picture shows the first 3 digits of the old number (M5M) and first 2 digits of the new number (LA) to show you what I mean).

 

I'm at my Wit's end, and I am trying to find any and all solutions to just get a working system, without being treated like I'm an idiot who doesn't know what I'm talking about. Any time I call for support I'm always cut off, told that what I'm saying isn't true, and that I'm wrong.

 

Heck, one of the times I called I had a support lady told me that my 3 GPUs (GTX 750 Ti, 1050 Ti and RX 6700 XT, tested in 2 other PCs to be known working and good) weren't "known good" because "they're used and can be incompatable or damaged. [They maybe] showing signs of damage in this motherboard but not other ones". Literally was told "Did you try buying a new in box GPU to verify? You can never be too sure about used GPUs you know". Finally, I was wrong because "the Q-LED says it's a VGA issue, not a board issue".

 

It's frustrating, degrading and exhausting that the 10 years of my PC enthusiast experience and knowledge is being treated as non-existent, and that I have to deal with this every time a board dies. Additionally, it's already way too expensive on top of all this...

 

I normally never want to make a big fuss out of things, but I literally need a computer for school, I'm tired of being told I'm wrong or that I've got things all wrong, and I can't afford to just go buy a new CPU again, for the 4th time.

 

I understand hardware fails, it's why I didn't really bother to be frustrated after the first board exploding. When the second board failed, I didn't complain, but was understandably worried and annoyed. But 3 times, with the same excuses and toxic dealings with phone staff? Enough is enough.

 

Edit: Additionally, the support people I interacted with have all said this "isn't ASUS' fault that the boards or the processors inside the boards have failed"

 

I'm not gonna defend Asus here, but I get the feeling that maybe, just maybe, your PSU is bad and is sending voltage spikes through your system.  It's not exactly normal for CPUs to blow up, especially with multiple CPUs and multiple boards.  Or perhaps a misbehaving USB peripheral is sending voltage spikes through your USB ports (given that the USB controller is on the CPU in Ryzen systems).  I could be entirely wrong though and maybe it was the fault of the motherboard every time, but my gut tells that something else is wrong here.

[Haredeenee]

@Other James update regarding Secret Lab, I imagine they'll just gaslight LTT and outright lie to 'em on the call.  



I've still been battling their customer service and they continue to go in circles. They keep asking me for different information, I provide it to them yet they keep giving the same generic answers. They are now stuck on "we don't make your chair anymore" as their latest cop-out. Whenever I ask them what they do when a customer is still within the warranty period but their product has been discontinued, they refuse to answer it. Oddly enough, they allow me to buy 90% of the parts that make up my chair. Doesn't really makes much sense does it? 

[Ahriii01]

6 hours ago, QwertyChouskie said:

I'm not gonna defend Asus here, but I get the feeling that maybe, just maybe, your PSU is bad and is sending voltage spikes through your system.  It's not exactly normal for CPUs to blow up, especially with multiple CPUs and multiple boards.  Or perhaps a misbehaving USB peripheral is sending voltage spikes through your USB ports (given that the USB controller is on the CPU in Ryzen systems).  I could be entirely wrong though and maybe it was the fault of the motherboard every time, but my gut tells that something else is wrong here.

I originally suspected this myself, and I have had the PSU tested by Canada Computers every time the boards failed. Each time it was concluded the PSU was performing as it should, according to the technicians operating the testers.

 

Edit: As for the USB side of things, I unplug all my USB devices every time I'm done using the PC, and when using it I usually only ever have my audio interface (Focusrite Scarlet 2i2 Gen 3), mouse (G502 Hero Lightspeed) and keyboard (HyperX FPS Alloy RGB) connected.

 

It's possible, but, as far as I'm aware it doesn't seem to be the case. I won't dismiss it as not the case, as yeah, it definitely does seem off. But from all my other PCs I've used (my laptop, my home server, and my parent's PC), the peripherals seem to be okay.

[jubjub]

5 hours ago, Ahriii01 said:

Edit: As for the USB side of things, I unplug all my USB devices every time I'm done using the PC, and when using it I usually only ever have my audio interface (Focusrite Scarlet 2i2 Gen 3), mouse (G502 Hero Lightspeed) and keyboard (HyperX FPS Alloy RGB) connected.

If a USB device can kill your CPU that's still the motherboards fault lol. The only thing that should die from USB is USB itself, anything else is poor design. Although with how Asus products have dived in quality recently I wouldn't be surprised at all.

[Sitta]

Well i got another broken GPU from Asus, After telling me that they fixed my 3080, I got it back, and now I'm having screen flickering and artifacting even on YouTube. I cant afford to send it back to Asus right now so does any one have any ideas?

[Skipple]

20 hours ago, Ahriii01 said:

Edit: As for the USB side of things, I unplug all my USB devices every time I'm done using the PC,

This is insane. 

[Sitta]

On 9/25/2023 at 11:41 AM, LogicalDrm said:

Sorry about that. Wasn't meant to make it look like coming behind your back. Plus, it was not only towards you as there have been others. Making updates is fine, but when each of your updates include "DROP THEM NOW" and they come daily, it gives certain feel. There have been other similar, and I generally don't mind since they are facts of POV. It just gives "you don't give them time" vibe, which is kind annoying and what I hated about the DRAMA-postings.

 

Yes, but posting "I gave them 24h, they didn't respond" and next day "they responded after my time limit and said another response will come after 24-48h" isn't really giving anything new to situation. Other than it takes time. You could have waited for couple of days rather than do live updates. Thats what irked me.

 

The weekly update is linked on top of this page. From experience, it doesn't matter how many times something is said, posted or how big bright sign it has. People refuse to read it. Also, saying "we are working on it" isn't that effective, since that is the latest update on the issue, yet we are having this conversation.

 

Overall, I do agree with you. And actually I'm bit annoyed both with having Asus as one of the secret sponsor audit sponsors and then making the obscure statement of "why would we include them if we are protecting them" in following WAN. Its big corporation, with region division and probably even subdivision to certain areas. If their RMA success percent is 99% and the 1% is posting here, audit with one person will most likely be in that 99% successful cases.

That all being said... Asus sent me back a broken GPU... I don't even know what to do anymore about this. 

[Sitta]

On 9/30/2023 at 10:55 PM, Ahriii01 said:

Heya, not entirely sure if this is the right place (as some people I talked to suggested I bring it up here). 

 

With that out the way, I guess it's onto my issue that I'm gonna bring up with ASUS.

 

Firstly, I've had 3 Tuf Gaming B550 Plus (WiFi) boards die out of the 3 that I've had since 2021.

 

I purchased the first board back in 2021, and ran that with an R5 3600X stock (no PBO, no OC). In early 2022 that board's SOC VRM phases exploded (like literally exploded). After that explosion fiasco, unbeknownst to me, my R5 3600X started its long trip down its degradation valley. At the time I only had 2 DIMMs, and this will become important later on.

 

A month later they replaced the board with a used and previously RMA'd board (which I'm all for having a board that was used, assuming it was actually tested and verified to not have issues).

 

For my birthday in 2022 I upgraded to an R9 5900X and an additional 16GB of RAM (32GBs of 2 kits of 2x8GB DIMMs) in that 2nd board (also ran at stock, no OC, no PBO). The 2nd board would ultimately wind up killing that 5900X during a cold boot, with the 5900X making an audible *pop sizzle*, which burned me when I touched it after tearing the rig down. 

 

With the death of that 5900X I had dropped my 3600X back into that board, and had even worse stability issues. This was partially solved by removing 2 of my 4 DIMMs, however it was never entirely solved. This board also added more degradation onto that 3600X in the month and a half it took ASUS to replace that board.

 

After replacing the first 5900X (which costed me $415 CAD in the first place) I had RMA'd that 2nd board due to incredible RAM instability issues (2133 JEDEC specs were unstable with all of my memory kits, 2x 2x8GB 3200 C16 Trident Z RGB and 1x 2x8GB 4000 C19 Patriot Viper STEEL running at any speed).

 

ASUS accepted the RMA, and told me that they were "unable to replicate the issue" however, that was because "the board never worked for [them] in the first place".

 

They replaced it with yet another previously RMA'd board (proven by the fact that they didn't even remove the original serial number sticker before slapping a new one overtop of it), which ultimately failed on Sept 16th this year, taking my 2nd 5900X with it. The board fails the POST at VGA every time, regardless of if a GPU is installed or not. Only time it doesn't fail there is if you remove all DIMMs, then it instant fails because no DIMMs are installed.

 

After testing my 3600X and 5900X in my old Gigabyte AB350M-DS3H with the newest bios, the 5900X refused to POST, and the 3600X worked, although when testing it refused to boost at all. It stayed at its base clock of 3.8GHz, even when doing light workloads. It is still also unstable with 4 DIMMs.

 

I contacted ASUS again asking for compensation of shipping, for the damaged CPUs, and for a brand new board, and they told me I'd have to pay to ship a THIRD dead board to them, which would equate to a total cost of $60 of shipping (3 instances of $20) for a $140 board, and they couldn't cover the remaining demands.

 

Obviously angered by the news, I contacted their CEOs office, and they've since promised me a brand new in box sample, with the shipping covered. However, they are entirely refusing to compensate me for the 2x 5900X chips being dead and the 3600X so heavily degraded that it no longer works with 4 DIMMs and no longer boosts AT ALL. Their reasoning is "we only cover ASUS products. Sorry. You'll have to talk with AMD to see their policy on replacements".

 

The issue is, AMD explicitly only covers manufacturing defects. This is very clearly NOT a manufacturing defect, and as a result, wouldn't be covered. I've effectively managed to throw ~$1,300 CAD down the drain because of these boards failing, and I'm getting absolutely nowhere with ASUS.

 

I've been fighting them constantly, non stop, and they will not budge beyond covering the cost of shipping and a brand new board. Although I appreciate the certainty of getting a new board, as well as having shipping both ways, I literally don't have anything to put into the new board because that 3600X is so degraded it literally practically doesn't work anymore (Requires VSOC to be at 1.2-1.25V in order for the IMC to even function).

 

I'm a broke college student, without a job, and I literally can't afford to buy a new CPU. I need this computer for school, and won't be able to do anything with the new replacement board until I get a CPU that functions...

 

I've attached some pictures of the 3rd board's serial number fiasco (obviously with the caveat that I've covered the serial number itself for privacy and safety reasons. The last picture shows the first 3 digits of the old number (M5M) and first 2 digits of the new number (LA) to show you what I mean).

 

I'm at my Wit's end, and I am trying to find any and all solutions to just get a working system, without being treated like I'm an idiot who doesn't know what I'm talking about. Any time I call for support I'm always cut off, told that what I'm saying isn't true, and that I'm wrong.

 

Heck, one of the times I called I had a support lady told me that my 3 GPUs (GTX 750 Ti, 1050 Ti and RX 6700 XT, tested in 2 other PCs to be known working and good) weren't "known good" because "they're used and can be incompatable or damaged. [They maybe] showing signs of damage in this motherboard but not other ones". Literally was told "Did you try buying a new in box GPU to verify? You can never be too sure about used GPUs you know". Finally, I was wrong because "the Q-LED says it's a VGA issue, not a board issue".

 

It's frustrating, degrading and exhausting that the 10 years of my PC enthusiast experience and knowledge is being treated as non-existent, and that I have to deal with this every time a board dies. Additionally, it's already way too expensive on top of all this...

 

I normally never want to make a big fuss out of things, but I literally need a computer for school, I'm tired of being told I'm wrong or that I've got things all wrong, and I can't afford to just go buy a new CPU again, for the 4th time.

 

I understand hardware fails, it's why I didn't really bother to be frustrated after the first board exploding. When the second board failed, I didn't complain, but was understandably worried and annoyed. But 3 times, with the same excuses and toxic dealings with phone staff? Enough is enough.

 

Edit: Additionally, the support people I interacted with have all said this "isn't ASUS' fault that the boards or the processors inside the boards have failed"

 

I'm having like the same issue as you but with my Strix 3080. I just got it back on  Thursday of this week. And the next day, when I was stress testing it... it started to show new problems. I wish I could return it and get a refund. This will be the 3rd time I'll have to RMA it, and I'm also Canadian like you, but they want 80$ cad for shipping. And although I'm not a student like you. I just got laid off from work, and it's been a struggle to find something in my field of work. Especially when I cant use my computer.

[Ahriii01]

3 hours ago, Sitta said:

That all being said... Asus sent me back a broken GPU... I don't even know what to do anymore about this. 

I'd escalate this to their CEOs office if you haven't already. Here's a contact list of senior members there that might help you. I'd advise you email them and keep the conversions in writing as much as you can, should that go south for whatever reason. 

 

 

3 hours ago, Sitta said:

I'm having like the same issue as you but with my Strix 3080. I just got it back on  Thursday of this week. And the next day, when I was stress testing it... it started to show new problems. I wish I could return it and get a refund. This will be the 3rd time I'll have to RMA it, and I'm also Canadian like you, but they want 80$ cad for shipping. And although I'm not a student like you. I just got laid off from work, and it's been a struggle to find something in my field of work. Especially when I cant use my computer.

Sorry to hear about this experience with you, hopefully we can get this sorted! As for getting a job, I only hope that comes swiftly. 

 

When I contacted the CEOs office and explained that it's ubsurd to expect a customer to ship a dead part 3 times, equating to a significant cost, they covered the shipping for me. Hopefully they'll do the same for you too.

 

Make sure to explicitly state that the card you received is still faulty. I'd recommend taking a video of the situation before sending the card in again, that way you have video evidence of the fact they sent you a faulty card.

 

My biggest advice is just skip the low level and go as high as you can. You'll likely be put to lower level staff than who you initially contact, but you should at the very least get an agent that would have the power to pull some strings for you. Hopefully this helps in some way.

[rockon5622]

On 9/30/2023 at 10:55 PM, Ahriii01 said:

Heya, not entirely sure if this is the right place (as some people I talked to suggested I bring it up here). 

 

With that out the way, I guess it's onto my issue that I'm gonna bring up with ASUS.

 

Firstly, I've had 3 Tuf Gaming B550 Plus (WiFi) boards die out of the 3 that I've had since 2021.

 

I purchased the first board back in 2021, and ran that with an R5 3600X stock (no PBO, no OC). In early 2022 that board's SOC VRM phases exploded (like literally exploded). After that explosion fiasco, unbeknownst to me, my R5 3600X started its long trip down its degradation valley. At the time I only had 2 DIMMs, and this will become important later on.

 

A month later they replaced the board with a used and previously RMA'd board (which I'm all for having a board that was used, assuming it was actually tested and verified to not have issues).

 

For my birthday in 2022 I upgraded to an R9 5900X and an additional 16GB of RAM (32GBs of 2 kits of 2x8GB DIMMs) in that 2nd board (also ran at stock, no OC, no PBO). The 2nd board would ultimately wind up killing that 5900X during a cold boot, with the 5900X making an audible *pop sizzle*, which burned me when I touched it after tearing the rig down. 

 

With the death of that 5900X I had dropped my 3600X back into that board, and had even worse stability issues. This was partially solved by removing 2 of my 4 DIMMs, however it was never entirely solved. This board also added more degradation onto that 3600X in the month and a half it took ASUS to replace that board.

 

After replacing the first 5900X (which costed me $415 CAD in the first place) I had RMA'd that 2nd board due to incredible RAM instability issues (2133 JEDEC specs were unstable with all of my memory kits, 2x 2x8GB 3200 C16 Trident Z RGB and 1x 2x8GB 4000 C19 Patriot Viper STEEL running at any speed).

 

ASUS accepted the RMA, and told me that they were "unable to replicate the issue" however, that was because "the board never worked for [them] in the first place".

 

They replaced it with yet another previously RMA'd board (proven by the fact that they didn't even remove the original serial number sticker before slapping a new one overtop of it), which ultimately failed on Sept 16th this year, taking my 2nd 5900X with it. The board fails the POST at VGA every time, regardless of if a GPU is installed or not. Only time it doesn't fail there is if you remove all DIMMs, then it instant fails because no DIMMs are installed.

 

After testing my 3600X and 5900X in my old Gigabyte AB350M-DS3H with the newest bios, the 5900X refused to POST, and the 3600X worked, although when testing it refused to boost at all. It stayed at its base clock of 3.8GHz, even when doing light workloads. It is still also unstable with 4 DIMMs.

 

I contacted ASUS again asking for compensation of shipping, for the damaged CPUs, and for a brand new board, and they told me I'd have to pay to ship a THIRD dead board to them, which would equate to a total cost of $60 of shipping (3 instances of $20) for a $140 board, and they couldn't cover the remaining demands.

 

Obviously angered by the news, I contacted their CEOs office, and they've since promised me a brand new in box sample, with the shipping covered. However, they are entirely refusing to compensate me for the 2x 5900X chips being dead and the 3600X so heavily degraded that it no longer works with 4 DIMMs and no longer boosts AT ALL. Their reasoning is "we only cover ASUS products. Sorry. You'll have to talk with AMD to see their policy on replacements".

 

The issue is, AMD explicitly only covers manufacturing defects. This is very clearly NOT a manufacturing defect, and as a result, wouldn't be covered. I've effectively managed to throw ~$1,300 CAD down the drain because of these boards failing, and I'm getting absolutely nowhere with ASUS.

 

I've been fighting them constantly, non stop, and they will not budge beyond covering the cost of shipping and a brand new board. Although I appreciate the certainty of getting a new board, as well as having shipping both ways, I literally don't have anything to put into the new board because that 3600X is so degraded it literally practically doesn't work anymore (Requires VSOC to be at 1.2-1.25V in order for the IMC to even function).

 

I'm a broke college student, without a job, and I literally can't afford to buy a new CPU. I need this computer for school, and won't be able to do anything with the new replacement board until I get a CPU that functions...

 

I've attached some pictures of the 3rd board's serial number fiasco (obviously with the caveat that I've covered the serial number itself for privacy and safety reasons. The last picture shows the first 3 digits of the old number (M5M) and first 2 digits of the new number (LA) to show you what I mean).

 

I'm at my Wit's end, and I am trying to find any and all solutions to just get a working system, without being treated like I'm an idiot who doesn't know what I'm talking about. Any time I call for support I'm always cut off, told that what I'm saying isn't true, and that I'm wrong.

 

Heck, one of the times I called I had a support lady told me that my 3 GPUs (GTX 750 Ti, 1050 Ti and RX 6700 XT, tested in 2 other PCs to be known working and good) weren't "known good" because "they're used and can be incompatable or damaged. [They maybe] showing signs of damage in this motherboard but not other ones". Literally was told "Did you try buying a new in box GPU to verify? You can never be too sure about used GPUs you know". Finally, I was wrong because "the Q-LED says it's a VGA issue, not a board issue".

 

It's frustrating, degrading and exhausting that the 10 years of my PC enthusiast experience and knowledge is being treated as non-existent, and that I have to deal with this every time a board dies. Additionally, it's already way too expensive on top of all this...

 

I normally never want to make a big fuss out of things, but I literally need a computer for school, I'm tired of being told I'm wrong or that I've got things all wrong, and I can't afford to just go buy a new CPU again, for the 4th time.

 

I understand hardware fails, it's why I didn't really bother to be frustrated after the first board exploding. When the second board failed, I didn't complain, but was understandably worried and annoyed. But 3 times, with the same excuses and toxic dealings with phone staff? Enough is enough.

 

Edit: Additionally, the support people I interacted with have all said this "isn't ASUS' fault that the boards or the processors inside the boards have failed"

 

 

100% agree on ASUS being crap. Back in 2017, I RMA'd a Rampage VI Extreme as it would freeze in bios before posting. I paid for shipping ect... They claimed they couldn't reproduce the issue and sent me the same dead board back.

They claimed it had to be my ram. So I swapped the ram for testing.

Then they claimed the PSU. I bought a new PSU.

Then they claimed the CPU, I tested another and same issue.

Finally, they agreed to do another RMA. Which big shock, they found the board didn't work. Turns out they don't actually test the boards when you RMA them. They just use a few probe points, they don't even bother to boot the board before claiming it works. Oh and the turn around time is 10-15 business days each time.

[Haredeenee]

update on my ongoing secretlab issues. they claim stitching falling apart (upholstery) is 100% aesthetic and therefore not under warranty, I don't think they know what very important purpose the stitches have lol. They also (I believe accidentally) now fully confirmed that I sent them an email way back when and they did not respond to it, so that's a win I guess but I'm sure they'll say they misspoke or something. they continue to say the armrests falling apart is aesthetic only, even though I cannot use it anymore, and therefore not under warranty. they'd be happy to sell me another one that will break though.