Just a bit of warning for anyone contemplating purchasing anything made by
ECS...

They will not honour their warranties.

My mainboard has failed within the warranty period. ECS refused to issue an
RMA number since I didn't purchase it directly from them. My supplier is out
of business.

At this point my one year warranty from ECS is not valid because the store I
purchased from has closed it's doors.

Trying to get assistance online is fruitless. I'm in Canada, so Taiwan tells
me to deal with the US office. The US office says they don't do Canada.

....also, try looking up warranty information on the ESC website. You won't
find any.

There is a reason ECS boards are so cheap... it's because they're so CHEAP!

On Tue, 02 Sep 2003 21:10:13 GMT, "Phrederik" <postmaster@127.0.0.1>
wrote:

>
>There is a reason ECS boards are so cheap... it's because they're so CHEAP!

Yeah one thing about ABIT - they are great at doing RMA and warranty
stuff - in the sense they respond quickly and there are no hassles. Im
a bit underwhelmed at their QC though.

ASUS is OK too but Ive read they were a bit stingy from Anandtech etc
but when I recently called them about an accessories pack - they
responded very quickly with no hassles. In the past I RMAd one ASUS
board and they were a bit testy in their response but they did honor
it.

Both take about one month or more to get you a board in my experience
and Ive seen posts complaining about this but ABIT has fast shipping
options - theyll upgrade shipping to you for a slight fee and then
they offer a ship right away option - they dont wait to get your board
to ship - if you pay $150 as kind of collateral for the board they
dont have - your bad board. They return it to you about 1-2 months
later. Theres a small fee $7 that they explain goes to paypal - so
its $157. You pay through paypal but they pay you back through the
mail with a check.

Abit is very flexible about returns. They accept all kinds of boards
but will tack on a fee for various problems like missing serial no ,
physical damage to the board etc etc. So they are very upfront about
the conditions for return.

Plus they did honor an upgrade program when their VIA333 boards came
out before the higher end XP athlons did and they couldnt handle them.
They offered a free upgrade program for your board if you sent it in
to take the higher processors.

Youve got to give them credit for all that.

Still not crazy about their QC though.

What's wrong with it? I've had my k7s5a for almost 2 years w/o any
problems. Is it the choppy sound? Are some of your expansion being denied
an IRQ?

--
----------------------------------------------
Jason Roner
(E-Mail Removed)
"Phrederik" <postmaster@127.0.0.1> wrote in message
news:VG75b.78229$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Just a bit of warning for anyone contemplating purchasing anything made by
> ECS...
>
> They will not honour their warranties.
>
> My mainboard has failed within the warranty period. ECS refused to issue
an
> RMA number since I didn't purchase it directly from them. My supplier is
out
> of business.
>
> At this point my one year warranty from ECS is not valid because the store
I
> purchased from has closed it's doors.
>
> Trying to get assistance online is fruitless. I'm in Canada, so Taiwan
tells
> me to deal with the US office. The US office says they don't do Canada.
>
> ...also, try looking up warranty information on the ESC website. You won't
> find any.
>
> There is a reason ECS boards are so cheap... it's because they're so
CHEAP!
>
>
>

On Tue, 02 Sep 2003 21:10:13 GMT, "Phrederik" <postmaster@127.0.0.1>
wrote:

>Just a bit of warning for anyone contemplating purchasing anything made by
>ECS...
>
>They will not honour their warranties.
>
>My mainboard has failed within the warranty period. ECS refused to issue an
>RMA number since I didn't purchase it directly from them. My supplier is out
>of business.
>
>At this point my one year warranty from ECS is not valid because the store I
>purchased from has closed it's doors.
>
>Trying to get assistance online is fruitless. I'm in Canada, so Taiwan tells
>me to deal with the US office. The US office says they don't do Canada.
>
>...also, try looking up warranty information on the ESC website. You won't
>find any.
>
>There is a reason ECS boards are so cheap... it's because they're so CHEAP!
>

Well, it's pretty much inevitable that a board costing so much less
has to have SOME kind of drawbacks, right? It's not that I think you
should be denied the warranty, but maybe they just make it REAL hard
to get warranty service or support, to minimize the expense.

Did you determine why it failed?


Dave

"FuzionMan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:9Jc5b.699$(E-Mail Removed)...
> What's wrong with it? I've had my k7s5a for almost 2 years w/o any
> problems. Is it the choppy sound? Are some of your expansion being
denied
> an IRQ?

Spontaneous reboots and bluescreens. It's a K7VTA3 v3.1.

I've replaced everything except the chassis and it does the same thing. I've
replaced it with an MSI KT6 Delta board and it works fine with all the
hardware I had before.

ECS has one of the worst reputations in the industry.

"kony" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Tue, 02 Sep 2003 21:10:13 GMT, "Phrederik" <postmaster@127.0.0.1>
> wrote:
>
> >Just a bit of warning for anyone contemplating purchasing anything made
by
> >ECS...
> >
> >They will not honour their warranties.
> >
> >My mainboard has failed within the warranty period. ECS refused to issue
an
> >RMA number since I didn't purchase it directly from them. My supplier is
out
> >of business.
> >
> >At this point my one year warranty from ECS is not valid because the
store I
> >purchased from has closed it's doors.
> >
> >Trying to get assistance online is fruitless. I'm in Canada, so Taiwan
tells
> >me to deal with the US office. The US office says they don't do Canada.
> >
> >...also, try looking up warranty information on the ESC website. You
won't
> >find any.
> >
> >There is a reason ECS boards are so cheap... it's because they're so
CHEAP!
> >
>
> Well, it's pretty much inevitable that a board costing so much less
> has to have SOME kind of drawbacks, right? It's not that I think you
> should be denied the warranty, but maybe they just make it REAL hard
> to get warranty service or support, to minimize the expense.
>
> Did you determine why it failed?

I don't know WHY it started failing. It's worked fine for almost a year.
It's a K7VTA3 v.31 board.

I was getting spontaneous reboots and bluescreens. I've replaced everything
except the chassis and it does the same thing. I've since replaced the ECS
board with an MSI KT6 Delta board and it works fine with all the hardware I
had before.

I know these are low priced boards, and they do work well for the price -
when the work. If they are going to advertise a 1 year warranty I would
expect to get one. They are not worth the price if they don't honour their
warranty. I shan't be dealing with ECS again.

P.s. It's funny that Asus bought out their notebook manufacturing plant - I
expect the same kind of treatment from Asus as I got from ECS. Their quality
is about the same as well.

On Wed, 03 Sep 2003 16:18:54 GMT, "Phrederik" <postmaster@127.0.0.1>
wrote:


>P.s. It's funny that Asus bought out their notebook manufacturing plant - I
>expect the same kind of treatment from Asus as I got from ECS. Their quality
>is about the same as well.
>

I'd have to disagree with that, MSI may be better than ECS but is also
poor compared to Asus. Asus quality is usually near the best in the
industry, only bested by workstation, server, and *some* Intel boards.


Dave

"kony" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Wed, 03 Sep 2003 16:18:54 GMT, "Phrederik" <postmaster@127.0.0.1>
> wrote:
>
>
> >P.s. It's funny that Asus bought out their notebook manufacturing plant -
I
> >expect the same kind of treatment from Asus as I got from ECS. Their
quality
> >is about the same as well.
> >
>
> I'd have to disagree with that, MSI may be better than ECS but is also
> poor compared to Asus. Asus quality is usually near the best in the
> industry, only bested by workstation, server, and *some* Intel boards.

That's what I keep hearing, yet I've RMA'd more ASUS boards than ALL the
other manufacturers I've used put together. Same goes for my friends.
They've ALL had problems with their ASUS boards.

I've had good luck with FIC stability-wise, as well as Gigabyte and MSI. I
never used an Asus board, but always heard they were the best. I know ECS
cna be a mixed bag, tho. The K7s5a had a real problem in early revisions.