Legit Reviews

2 questions and then the story leading up to those questions:

1.) Lets say I accidentally hooked up USB calbes to the motherboard incorrectly(which I think I didn't) could that fry the mobo enough so it never POSTs?

2.) Could a mobo boot up once then fail to POST and it be a defective mobo rather than a user error?
Here is my story:


I just bought a new system and installed all essential componets, i.e. memory, vid card, hdd. I didn't hook up firewire of USB wires.

The machine booted up once to BIOS, then we turned it off. I took the machine home and installed cdrom, hard drive and hooked up front USB cables as the diagram showed in the manual. The motherboard never again booted up. I never had the chance to get into CMOS.

I emailed Epox support and tried all of their suggestions on how to see if any componet was the culprit. I took the mobo out of the case (in case of accidental grounding) and tried all the regular suggestions. None of it work.

Alas I sent it back to Newegg saying it was defective.

sounds like the board was shorting out somewhere. i've had that happen a few times. first time it would boot, second time it would start to boot (Could tell by the LEDs on the Corsair memory), then nothing. Luckily Newegg has a very good return policy

Did you have to pay for shipping back to newegg?

of course... then they will pay shipping back to you

not of course....
A lot of places with give you a RMA number that is registered with FedEx and you simply go to say, Kinkos, give them that number and shipping is paid by the company.

The FedEx woman thought me paying shipping to send back a defective part was wierd.

Im with her, they sent you a broken part they should pay for it.

I've been building custom PC's for 3+ years on a constant time line and when dealing with mail order parts from companies like newegg and zipzoomfly you pay to ship it back. it's not their fault that it was faulty why should they cough up the shipping back and then back to you again. They aren't out to lose money for every defective part.

However, me as the consumer, should not have to pay it. It is Epox's fault. Newegg should get something from the manufacturer.

Since newegg isn't the manufacturer, I guess they should have to cough up the money. If it were Epox I directly ordered it from, I would expect shipping to be paid. i.e. if you order a notebook from Toshiba and have a 1 year warrenty, they send a box to you with shipping paid and you simply enclose the notebook and take the box to a Kinkos.

But that is what I get for ordering parts from a 3rd party seller. Those are the risks!

You should RMA it directly with the mfg then and hash out who pays for shipping with them...

Or, you could choose to take your business elsewhere next time and pay more for every component because they're building the cost of paying for the shipping on the occasional defective product into the price of every product they sell...

Thats what i do, when possible i dont send it back to the store, i try to send it back the the mfg. They built it and it did not work, they should send you a new one. I also always try to make it sound like im a part of a bigger company when i do it.

As part of the message they gave me to troubleshoot the motherboard, there was a disclaimer. It said if all these options don't work, contact the store you bought it from, and if you bought it from a store whom sells parts to build systems (newegg, zipzoomfly, etc.), then you need to read thier return policy. This was all from Epox.

The problem with RMA'ing it back to the manufacturer is that it often takes 10x longer to get it back.

yup... just do a cross ship and get it over with Nick!!!

Buy a new on on your card and when they get the old one back they will credit the card for the transaction... thats the way to do it the quickest with a retailer

I know this is a pretty late answer, but some Epox boards (like mine, but I think most have it) have numerical LEDs on them (like digital watches have) which show error codes on startup. And the manual has the decoding sheet for these codes. Better luck next time though

(Just on a sidenote, those onboard connectors which you have to wire yourself one-by-one aren't nice... The audio connectors on my case front panel and Epox mobo had almost nothing in common, I could not get the mic in working, just the audio out...sigh...)

I didn't even think about a cross ship, actually I didn't know you could do that. Newegg is now processing my RMA (I got the email yesterday). It will now take 2-3 buisness days, then shipping time. It's almost over....patience is a virtue after all!

Nate:
Are you getting sassy with me? Don't make me come over there

kalmark:
There is a LED on this board. I never got past FF which means boot attempt. It wasn't too helpful in this instance.

Well...after all that, my computer is up and running!
I can play Doom3 and games again!

I out of joy.