Avoid ECS

[Phrederik]

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!

 

[John]

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.

 

[FuzionMan]

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?

 

[kony]

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

 

[Phrederik]

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.

 

[Firebird81]

ECS has one of the worst reputations in the industry.

 

[Phrederik]

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.

 

[kony]

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

 

[Phrederik]

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.

 

[Firebird81]

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.

 

[Pedro]

Just because the retilers bust and the board is broken doesnt mean your
stuck with it, if i'm right (you'll need to check) the equipment is
unfit for its intended use, there for you and are legally entitled to
either a full refund or a replacement.
The upshot is the more you moan, but dont get nastly, be polite, the
more likely you are to get some sort of response along the lines of what
your looking for!
Speak to someone who knows the legalities of it all, i may have just
said something that only a UK think.

 

[nobody]

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

They will not honour their warranties.

Note that this does not refer to the eComStation operating system, also
known as eCS. The ECS in reference here is a hardware manufacturer, not
the Serenity Systems product.


Alan

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[kony]

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.

All the same model, or just a few models were RMA'd or ... ?

Of the semi-modern Asus boards I have here, A7N266-VM, A7N8X, &
A7V333, they have all worked fine. The A7N266-VM is a piss-poor
overclocker with both memory slots filled, but that wasn't the intent
for those boards in the first place so it's hardly an issue to me.


Dave

 

[Phrederik]

P.s. It's funny that Asus bought out their notebook manufacturing
plant -

All the same model, or just a few models were RMA'd or ... ?

Various models. I build one or two systems per month. I've used Abit, Asus,
AZZA, ECS, MSI, Gigabyte, PCChips and a few I can't remember. So far MSI has
treated me best and their failure rate is low. They don't offer lots in
extra features though.

I haven't built another Asus system since I fought with my A7A266 for almost
a year. If someone insists on an Asus mainboard I tell them, "I'll build it,
but I won't warranty it!"

Of the semi-modern Asus boards I have here, A7N266-VM, A7N8X, &
A7V333, they have all worked fine. The A7N266-VM is a piss-poor
overclocker with both memory slots filled, but that wasn't the intent
for those boards in the first place so it's hardly an issue to me.

From what I hear and see, Asus charges a premium for their boards but offer
little extra for the money.

....anyhow, I just wanted everyone to know about my experience with
EliteGroups warranty policy. $40 saved when you build the machine might not
be $40 saved a few months down the road.

 

[S.Heenan]

Of the semi-modern Asus boards I have here, A7N266-VM, A7N8X, &
A7V333, they have all worked fine. The A7N266-VM is a piss-poor
overclocker with both memory slots filled, but that wasn't the intent
for those boards in the first place so it's hardly an issue to me.

For what it is, the A7N266-VM is a great board.

 

[John]

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.

You know I used to think with perserverence I could fix anything and
that only morons had these problems. In the long ago past Ive always
got pretty stable boards and even when I had big problems like with
IRQs on my BH6 - I worked my way around it. But then the BH6 got
flakey after a year so I run to ASUS. But since then its been one
pain after another - the ASUS KT133a board . Samething as you , its
great - then one year later - random hangs all over the place. After
tearing my heair out testing it - RMAd. I get the replacement and use
all different components and guess what ? RANDOM HANGs on a system I
gave to my sister. So then its another few weeks of torture as I work
my way through the system which mysteriously stabilized after awhile.

So then I get pissed off and go to ABIT again Its great out of the box
but less than a year it melts down. Then I get the replacement -
RANDOM HANGs ! Each board though always has it own unique character
though the way it screws up.

I just put the ABIT RMA replacement board in another system since I
have the ASUS Nforce2 board now. And that thing was FREAKING out !
Way worse than the random hangs.

Id forgotten how freaky my BH6 was about IRQ conflicts/sharing. That
thing was a nightmare when I first got it and had to do slot swapping
all the time to get it to work. Since then I thought IRQ problems
were rarer. I put my ASUS KT333 board in a new system to thoroughly
test it and Im not just talking about some hangs after awhile. It was
freaky as hell. Weird , weird stuff - constant software corruption
and weird things happening. I reinstalled Win XP 4 times ! And XP
office 3 times and swapped cables etc until DUH - I moved the sound
card and modem to other slots and so far the problems have gone away.
Though that doesnt mean the subtle random hangs that happen after long
file transfers wont happen - the main problem with it.

expect the same kind of treatment from Asus as I got from ECS. Their quality
is about the same as well.

Not sure why - but Ive seen about the same numbers of people who hate
ASUS and love ABIT and vice versa. Ive been jumping back and forth.
Sometimes I think about Chaintech , MSI and Epox - but then I see bad
things about them too and Im not familiar about their warranty service
so I end up going back to ASUS and ABIT.

 

[Chris Johnson]

it's a 10 dollar board buy another one

Just because the retilers bust and the board is broken doesnt mean your
stuck with it, if i'm right (you'll need to check) the equipment is
unfit for its intended use, there for you and are legally entitled to
either a full refund or a replacement.
The upshot is the more you moan, but dont get nastly, be polite, the
more likely you are to get some sort of response along the lines of what
your looking for!
Speak to someone who knows the legalities of it all, i may have just
said something that only a UK think.