Strange mobo ID

[Zotin Khuma]

I wanted to download the manual for a friend's 3-year-old
motherboard that had an unusual problem. A picture of the
motherboard with the manufacturer's name and model number
was pasted inside the computer case. The picture matches the
actual mobo, but the BIOS ID string indicates another
manufacturer. This in itself may not be unusual because I
believe vendors often source their products from another
manufacturer and sell it under their own label.

However, the vendor's website shows a completely different
motherboard under the printed model number, while the
actual mnfr ID'ed from the BIOS gives a matching description,
picture and manual. The name of the supposed mnfr printed
on the sticker is Kobian (brand name Mercury) and the mobo
model is KT133, whereas the actual mnfr is Matsonic and the
mobo is an MS8117c which does use the KT133 chipset.

Has anyone ever come across anything like this ?

 

[kony]

I wanted to download the manual for a friend's 3-year-old
motherboard that had an unusual problem. A picture of the
motherboard with the manufacturer's name and model number
was pasted inside the computer case. The picture matches the
actual mobo, but the BIOS ID string indicates another
manufacturer. This in itself may not be unusual because I
believe vendors often source their products from another
manufacturer and sell it under their own label.

However, the vendor's website shows a completely different
motherboard under the printed model number, while the
actual mnfr ID'ed from the BIOS gives a matching description,
picture and manual. The name of the supposed mnfr printed
on the sticker is Kobian (brand name Mercury) and the mobo
model is KT133, whereas the actual mnfr is Matsonic and the
mobo is an MS8117c which does use the KT133 chipset.

Has anyone ever come across anything like this ?

Good ole PCChips makes boards very similar if not identical
then sells them under different names. The question is then
if the assembler goofed and provided wrong Identification or
whether the board has the "wrong" bios, which could simply
be a cosmetic problem, that the bios is actually the same
except for the vendor ID string. Either way, there are
likely several avenues for a manual, IF any or all of them
still provide the manual and/or have kept their website in
order well enough to find it.

Download the manual for it from Matsonic and compare the
details in the manual, for example the jumpers. If it seems
correct it probably is. There might also be silkscreening
on the motherbaord itself to identify it, either between the
PCI slots, next to the memory or AGP slot, or in one of the
corners, usually the edge of the PS2 port (upper left)
corner. Even if the manufacturer's name isn't provided
there might be the model number, for example "MS8117".

 

[Zotin Khuma]

Good ole PCChips makes boards very similar if not identical
then sells them under different names. The question is then
if the assembler goofed and provided wrong Identification or
whether the board has the "wrong" bios, which could simply
be a cosmetic problem, that the bios is actually the same
except for the vendor ID string. Either way, there are
likely several avenues for a manual, IF any or all of them
still provide the manual and/or have kept their website in
order well enough to find it.

Download the manual for it from Matsonic and compare the
details in the manual, for example the jumpers. If it seems
correct it probably is. There might also be silkscreening
on the motherbaord itself to identify it, either between the
PCI slots, next to the memory or AGP slot, or in one of the
corners, usually the edge of the PS2 port (upper left)
corner. Even if the manufacturer's name isn't provided
there might be the model number, for example "MS8117".

I made the post mainly as an intellectual exercise to satisfy my
curiosity because I'd already downloaded the correct manual
from Matsonic.

The strange part was that the local assembler had pasted a
picture that matches the mobo, with the wrong manufacturer's
name printed on it. By picture I mean one printed by a
mechanical press from a photograph, not a drawn diagram.
And it's not a an inkjet or a laser print.

I know the local assemblers and they are NOT sophisticated
enough (esp 3-4 yrs ago) to take a photo of the motherboard,
have a conventional half-tone printing block made from it with
a fake manufacturer's name and model number. And I can
think of no reason why they would want to do that anyway.
Kobian/Mercury is a common brand around here but is not
a particularly prestigious one. And *they* have a very
different mobo by that model number on their website.

 

[Zotin Khuma]

Good ole PCChips makes boards very similar if not identical
then sells them under different names. The question is then
if the assembler goofed and provided wrong Identification or
whether the board has the "wrong" bios, which could simply
be a cosmetic problem, that the bios is actually the same
except for the vendor ID string. Either way, there are
likely several avenues for a manual, IF any or all of them
still provide the manual and/or have kept their website in
order well enough to find it.

Download the manual for it from Matsonic and compare the
details in the manual, for example the jumpers. If it seems
correct it probably is. There might also be silkscreening
on the motherbaord itself to identify it, either between the
PCI slots, next to the memory or AGP slot, or in one of the
corners, usually the edge of the PS2 port (upper left)
corner. Even if the manufacturer's name isn't provided
there might be the model number, for example "MS8117".

I made the post mainly as an intellectual exercise to satisfy
my curiosity as I'd already downloaded the correct manual
from Matsonic.

The strange part was that the local computer assembler had
pasted a picture of the correct motherboard with the wrong
manufacturer's name printed on it. By picture I mean a blue
half-tone image printed by a mechanical press from a
photograph, not a drawn diagram, and not an inkjet or a
laser print. And the named manufacturer has a very
different motherboard by that model number on their website.