[ctviggen]

I had the great (now poor) idea of building my own computer from scratch because my old computer died.  So, I ordered an Abit AN9 motherboard (using AM2 socket) and associated AMD CPU from Newegg, along with a case, power supply, etc.  I'm currently on my second bad motherboard.  The first failed at starting PWM for the CPU, so I sent back both the CPU and MB, as I could not determine which was bad.  The second MB is failing on trying to find the video card, but the video card works fine in my friend's Abit AN8 motherboard.  The second MB is now being sent back.  This freaking sucks, as I haven't had a computer at home for going on 6 weeks now.  And I do everything by computer.  Heck, I couldn't even check to get the local autostore's phone number (I threw away my phone books a while back; who needs them when there's Google?).  I had to dial information.  I have no idea what's in my checking account.  I can't listen to my two SqueezeBoxes (which really, really sucks -- CDs are so 1990s!). 

Anyway, enough of a rant. Has anyone had to return two motherboards, or I am just unlucky?

Oh yeah, other lessons I've learned.  Don't pretty up the cables until you're sure everything works.  Buy a MB with a socket that one of your friends has.  This way, you can at least test to see if the processor works on a known good MB.  Don't send the RMA items 3 day FedEx, as it's outrageously expensive relative to ground. 

[shokunin]

I typically don't even put the mobo in the case until I find everything is working.  Use a flat piece of plywood or even cardboard and put everything together.  You can check all the wiring, heatsinks, ram easily in order to troubleshoot.  Plus if you need move jumpers around it's alot easier.

Sometimes screwing in the motherboard will create a short somewhere which will cause all sorts of issues until you pull it out.  Also, check the voltages in the bios and you may want manually tweak the voltage as some boards are a bit over-optimistic in the voltage monitoring (eg 12.01v is actually 11.80) etc. I've not used Abit borads for a while as they haven't been as competitive over the past few years, but their current lineup looks impressive.

It definitely helps to have spare parts, spare PSU, spare RAM (even if it's just few megs), cheap PCI video card to test things out.  When you only have one, then it becomes a guessing game of which parts is causing the problems.  The most problems I usually have are with RAM and PSU compatibility.

Glenn

[bubba966]

I've had to return more than 2 mobo's before. Got tired of having bad boards so I went to ASUS boards. Sure, they cost more than others. But it's worth it for the lack of problems I've had since going to ASUS boards.

[Brad]

Sorry to hear about your problems with the Abit board.  Sucks to not be able to do what you need to online.
What did we ever do without the Inter-web thing....

Agree on the Asus boards.
I've also have good luck with Gigabyte.

Newegg support/service has always been really good for me too.

[ctviggen]

Thanks for the information.  I made the mistake of not doing enough research, probably.  I initially ordered a case and power supply, hoping that my old computer's power supply went down but that everything else worked.  It turns out that the MB went bad.  I should've spent more time determining which manufacturer to go with, but a coworker just built a computer with an Abit AN8, and his worked the first time.  (Although he did say that he was never able to get RAID to work.)  I guess you live and learn.  I wouldn't mind the whole process, except that this is my home computer.  If I had a working home computer, I wouldn't care how long it took me to build a second computer.  Anyway, I don't feel so bad now that I know others have had a similar problem (and that I'm not jinxed or something like that!).

[daveshel]

The fact is, buying from newegg jumped the shark a while back.

[randytsuch]

I have build a few PC's now, and never had to return anything (knock on wood), maybe I was just lucky.

I was having some problems with my last setup, I could not install some programs correctly, and some other weird stuff.  Turned out to be memory problems.  I ran memtest, and found them.  My MB supports DDR2 and DDR, but it  would not work with my DDR2 sticks, so I had to use my old DDR sticks, and it is fine (a couple errors in an overnight test).

BTW, I built a dedicated music server, with an old chassis and power supply, so I would still be able to listen to music if my main pc was down.  I really like having a dedicated machine for handling the music.  I have it in my garage, and I can control it from any other PC I have at home.

Randy

[JEaton]

I've built a lot of PCs and servers over the years and have never had a bad motherboard or CPU out of the box.  Mostly I've used Asus or Tyan boards, plus a few from Intel.  I've seen a few motherboards go bad after a time, usually from bad capacitors.  I've never had a bad CPU, nor one that went bad, including a bit of overclocking.  Had lots of bad RAM modules and video cards, although again, never right out of the box.

Assembling the system out of the case first is probably a good idea.  You'll know whether any items are bad before you skin up your knuckels and waste another hour.  On virtually any system that I've built in recent years I've fought to get the motherboard into the chassis, wrestling against the I/O panel while getting the mounting holes lined up.  I'm surprised I didn't damage some of the boards.  By assembling the system outside of the box you can avoid that until you need to and rule it out (or blame it) as the reason for the problem.  Be careful, though, with heavy CPU heatsinks.  You may want to unmount the heatsink before handling or moving the motherboard into the case.

Be extremely careful with static.  Get yourself a wrist strap if you're clumsy.  I've killed quite a few components over the years by doing dumb things with them while not grounded.

[mjosef]

Same here, never had a problem with any new motherboard purchase and I have bought Abit, Gigabyte, ECS and Biostar. Gigabyte seems to be the one with the best features and performances currently. The only defective component I ever received was a video card with a non working fan, which worked but if the temperature got too high I would get video freezes, I solved that problem by leaving the case side off. Funny thing is I didn't realize that the fan wasn't working until months after, way to late to return it.
I have been hearing mixed things about Abit lately, they have certainly dropped the ball with their motherboard performances in the last couple years. Asus seems to be having problems too from what I have been reading on user feedback.
When handling motherboards and any component with ICs, I always hold it delicately like an LP, by the edges only...if you don't have a anti-static wrist strap, simply touch any ground connected metal before starting on assembly, to discharge any static electricity that may have built up on your skin. And if you have carpet in your house, it may be best to pick up the wrist strap as JE  recommended.
Good luck, hope it works out, its nice to build your own computer and pretty easy too.

[ctviggen]

Well, after performing more research, it appears that people's experiences are all over the map (as are the experiences here).  I decided I would return the Abit and buy Asus, but one person said that the Asus motherboard had a 100% failure rate.  Multiple other people have complained about the particular Abit board I purchased.  Yikes!  So, I'm going to hope that the third time is a charm. 

The idea of building it outside the box is a great one, though.  I have to go home and now remove all of the connections to the MB and the screws holding it down, package it up, and send it.  That's a pain.

I was hoping to keep my other computer as a second computer, but that computer failed with no warning. 

[x84HurstOlds]

I've had to return more than 2 mobo's before. Got tired of having bad boards so I went to ASUS boards. Sure, they cost more than others. But it's worth it for the lack of problems I've had since going to ASUS boards.

I hate to break this to you, but I recently had to RMA two defective ASUS boards.  The first they did an advance replacement (which I had to pay like $10 extra for), the second I did normal RMA.  I haven't even tested the result (3rd board, or did they repair my second?)  These were the notoriously bad A8N VM CSM boards, as I found out the hard way.  Worse, I paid 20 bucks or whatever for the digital audio card and extra TV out card that they should have included.

I bought the equivalent MSI board, and guess what?  No problems, includes the extra TV out with *component* rather than S-video, and the digital audio, and best of all, the onboard audio is capable of bit-perfect output over S/PDIF! (see http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=567562)

Used to be a big ASUS fan but between this experience, and the bad RAID module on my A7N8X-Dlx (I know, it's a 3rd party module, but still).  Although I will say they were very helpful and responsive with the whole RMA process.

Ed

[jqp]

It can be a real crap shoot, but every brand has bad manufacturing runs at one time or another. I have worked at many different companies with Dell, IBM, and Compaq Servers, desktops, and laptops, and built many different PCs. Things change so fast in the high-tech manufacturing world, just try keeping up with Intel and AMD processors and where/how they are manufactured. And the chipsets that have to be designed for them. Then all the Motherboard and video card manufacturers that have to keep up with all these changes.

Building PCs is not going to always be a "pleasant" experience because of these factors. You have to like to play with the technology, and you may not save much money either. What I see as the advantage, is getting ALL the components that I want in the PC, and also having room to expand storage and memory.