Motherboard BUYER BEWARE ! TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE FROM ASROCK !!!

[theoldwizard1]

I purchased an ASRock B650I Lightning mITX mother board in December of 2023 knowing that the AMD 8000 chips would ship in 2024. Well they did not start shipping until February 2024. So when I got my CPU chip, I quickly assembled the system and it would not POST. No case speaker was included with either the motherboard or case (MITXPC MX500-USB3 Mini-ITX USB 3.0 Case) but in order to complete the RMA request, I purchased one. (Cheap on Amazon.) No beeps.

Once the RMA was approved, I filled out the form and shipped it in. About a week later they said they were send a new/repaired board. (FedEx Ground is even slower than the cheapest USPS delivery !) After another week, I received it today.

THEY SENT THE WRONG BOARD ! What was in the box did not match the packing slip !

Here is what really gets me ! They would not ship the correct board until I shipped out the wrong one OR I put a deposit down equal to the purchase price of the original motherboard. They even refused overnight delivery !

 

[DASBOOT]

Std service buddy. Kids, gamers, and these idiots who think they need a Nvidia Cruise Ship GPU anchor with melting connectors to play their stupid games. Most proprietors have mandatory signatures for CPU purchases, due to gamer abuse. Since you are using an ITX board you would not have a Post Code LED to tell if the board is bad, and almost no one uses the front panel speaker anymore. This board shipped with 1.28 bios which will not support an 8000 series supported CPU. You would need 2.02 or higher. I hope you did not make a rookie mistake and send back a good board, they should charge you for a mistake like that... A board with a bios version before 2.02 will not boot and will not give a bad postcode beep. (you have bios flashback to upgrade your bios to a working version with the correct microcode to allow the board to have the 8000 series recognition) But, of course, you did this, and you pretested your CPU, in a different board, to make sure it was good.

 

[thewizzard1]

Seconding this - You'd absolutely need to flash to an appropriate BIOS, and you should have checked this first, support for 8000-series is listed as requiring BIOS 2.02, which could be flashed with an older processor (which has been run of the mill for AMD for a long time) or a standalone BIOS programmer. This seems advanced, but that's how it is on the bleeding edge.

This definitely isn't something intuitive to non-tech folks - Support for an unreleased processor, or even a recently released one always means *check for BIOS updates* first, and expect to have to update, which isn't always easy. You purchased unassembled parts and are using extremely fresh tech - This is the automotive equivalent of a crate engine and bare-metal frame, not a showroom ready 2024 model ready to drive out of the lot once you install your steering wheel cover and fuzzy dice.

However, it's 100% on them for sending out the wrong board, but their response is absolutely standard for any shipper - They aren't sending anything out till they have theirs in hand first, deposit or hardware. You could say they sent you anything, they'd want to verify personally first before any resolution.

 

[theoldwizard1]

BIOS is good. Once I got the CORRECT board, it booted.

Different problem now.

 

[DASBOOT]

Let's hear it? What could it be now... What bios version is it? Replacement boards are usually updated with the latest bios, especially when you make a big deal about it. (vs a shipping retail board that will not work out of the box with an 8000 series processor.