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Disapointing Asus Rampage IV Extreme Warranty

andy_9_9_9_9
Level 7
First of all, I was a long time Asus fan since the late 90's. This has recently changed, when our around 2 years old Rampage IV Extreme stopped booting. The power supply did not power up anymore and no LED diag code was displayed. As it turns out it was the board that is defective.

We contacted Asus (Spain) and got a RMA number. Asus claims that there is a 3 year warranty. The board was picked up and sent to Czech Republic for repair two days later.

After a week it came back. Unrepaired and with a big sticker "Customer Induced Damage". There is also a red indicator pointing on some chip on the board. This PC was used by my wife, how could she damage some chip on the motherboard?? It stopped working from one day to the other.

We did not receive any email stating what is actually damaged as it is usually the case along with the RMA.

We were very busy the last months, but last week on Friday we contacted Asus Spain again and were told that we would receive an email with a description of what is actually damaged within 24-48 hours. After 72 hours we have not received an email so we called them again today to remind and were told again they will send it.

Beside of that, the distribution chain of Asus components is also flawed. We bought the board like 2,5 years ago on Amazon from a shop called PC.Componentes. I was under the assumption that it is actually the "PC Componentes" (a big vendor in Spain) as this shop had the same board advertised on its own page, but we decided to buy from Amazon because we ordered some more parts at the same time and wanted to save on shipping costs. So we contacted Amazon to get a copy of the invoice and they tell us that it was not sold by them, but through the Amazon shop of PC.Componentes and they are responsible for the invoice. So we tried to contact this "PC.Componentes" on Amazon but they never responded (disappeared) and Amazon cannot tell us who this company is. A complete joke. I don't believe they have nothing in their databases about their shops, even if they close down. We contacted "PC Componentes" and they claim it is not them but someone else using their name. So the end of the story is, we only have a proof of purchase in form of an order receipt (and also the credit card invoice to prove the purchase).

Asus does not accept this and this has probably to do with the CID sticker they bumped on the board. When sending in the RMA case we told them about the situation and they said that without the invoice we would have to pay for the repair.

Never again will we buy anything from Asus or from Amazon! We have quite a few computers in our shop (also some other Asus boards). I have read in numerous other threads how bad the support has become and how quickly the CID card is pulled. Really disappointing service for this high-end piece of equipment you sell.

If someone from Asus would look into this the RMA number is #CZA1720808

Regards
Andy
8,944 Views
13 REPLIES 13

Zka17
Level 16
No, water does not spill only on those 2 pins... it spills on much larger area... - if the board is on that time (or at least, has the battery and PSU on), then it is a high possibility to short something... especially if the board is dusty (clean water does not conduct electricity, mixed with dust, it does)

I have had several boards with watercooled components and also some "incidents"... you can search in my past threads - I even had a RIVE with water damage...
The "damage" wasn't seen at all, just the board wasn't posting... my point is that after the water has dried, most of the times you won't see anything... if you do see, then better change the board...

I do not think at all that those colored pins are from the water damage - they are rather marks from measuring that chip... the arrow on the sticker may point to a damaged chip/area...

I don't try to say anything about the service you are getting - although I had some components definitively damaged, it was certainly my fault, so wasn't sending them back (they were working perfectly when I got them, they broke after a "played" with them)... bottom line: I have no experience with Asus service...

All what I was suggesting is that you may take the issue in your hands... and try something... like, if you have a hunch that the BIOS chips are corrupted (did happened several times on my RIVE boards), just order some new chips... not sure how it is now in Spain, but when I needed (maybe 3-4 years ago), I could have those chips overnight (in US)...

Zka17
Level 16
No, water does not spill only on those 2 pins... it spills on much larger area... - if the board is on that time (or at least, has the battery and PSU on), then it is a high possibility to short something... especially if the board is dusty (clean water does not conduct electricity, mixed with dust, it does)

I have had several boards with watercooled components and also some "incidents"... you can search in my past threads - I even had a RIVE with water damage...
The "damage" wasn't seen at all, just the board wasn't posting... my point is that after the water has dried, most of the times you won't see anything... if you do see, then better change the board...

I do not think at all that those colored pins are from the water damage - they are rather marks from measuring that chip... the arrow on the sticker may point to a damaged chip/area...

I don't try to say anything about the service you are getting - although I had some components definitively damaged, it was certainly my fault, so wasn't sending them back (they were working perfectly when I got them, they broke after a "played" with them)... bottom line: I have no experience with Asus service...

All what I was suggesting is that you may take the issue in your hands... and try something... like, if you have a hunch that the BIOS chips are corrupted (did happened several times on my RIVE boards), just order some new chips... not sure how it is now in Spain, but when I needed (maybe 3-4 years ago), I could have those chips overnight (in US)...

OK....guess what I am using to make this posting.

You guessed correctly. I am typing this from the irreparable Asus Rampage IV Extreme. Unfortunately it took a bit longer, because we are busy with other things than baby sitting Asus components.

Asus support is the worst crap I have ever seen in my life. At least Asus Iberica and Asus Czech Republic. I wish they would have listened and let me send it to Asus Netherlands for a second opinion.

We sent the board to this guy from Ebay (Jose you are the man!) who offers repairs for X79 and X99 at a flat rate of 30€ for diagnosis and 60 additional Euros if it can be repaired. It was picked up on Monday, got a diagnosis on Tuesday that it was repairable (with photos of it running and posting) and on Wednesday we got it back. I installed it and it works again.

A coil and a capacitor were exchanged. He also found some soldering flux on it, which makes me wonder where that came from?? They probably tried to fix it by trial and error and failed and then declared it as irreparable. There also was some sulfate on it, probably from a leaking CR232 battery?? After less than 3 years. The red marker pointing onto the chip with the two blue pins had nothing to do at all with the problem. It still has its two blue pins. LOL. Besides of that, the board was also cleaned, what a great service! I don't want to run ads here, but you can find the offer on ebay. If not send me a PM and I'll give you the contact details.

However, this whole experience beginning with how they handled the missing invoice (Asus & Amazon) to the horrible support has totally killed my trust in this brand. It took ~20 years to build it and they quickly destroyed it by slapping CID stickers on boards where they don't belong and some senseless email and telephone conversations. This whole case should have been handled by warranty. They should have found what the problem is and even if not handled by warranty they should have offered a repair and letting us know what it would cost. Instead they think they save the company some money and that the customer will buy a new Asus anyways. I don't think Asus saves any money by sending their products to this probably outsourced wanna-be repair service. It is quite the opposite.

The only guy that made sense in this context was Eleiyas, but unfortunately he could not save Asus from that blame. Maybe they should give him more power to overrule those bad decisions.

Anyways thanks for any help offered. Case closed.

Some pics of how it should be done:
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Zka17
Level 16
Enjoy your board! 🙂