Data corruption issue with MSI K7 Master??!?

[ksdavis]

OK, I'm a bit confused. I'm putting together a new Athlon system (my first!) and had settled on the K7 Master from MSI and a 266 MHz FSB Athlon T-Bird. I'm waiting on my local computer store (PCs for Everyone in Cambridge, Mass., www.pcsforeveryone.com) to get the AMD chips in stock, but when I called them tonight to check on the status of my order, they said they had sent back all their K7 Master mobos to MSI due to a bug. At first it sounded like the guy said their "K7Ts" so I thought, OK, must be the VIA southbridge issue on some other board. But he insisted it was the K7 Master that they had sent back, saying that they tried building five systems and all but one failed out with the motherboard.

Just to make sure, I called back and spoke to a different rep, who confirmed it was the K7 Master experiencing what he described as "data corruption" issues and that they sent them all back.

I'm calling back tomorrow to speak with my usual rep there, but in the interim... WTF??!? Is this the case? If so, I am pretty confused and a little disheartened. I mean, the board got a great bump in Anandtech's most recent roundup.

1) Has anyone else heard of an issue like this with the K7 Master?

2) My local vendor is recommending the Gigabyte 7DX board (also with the AMD 760 north and VIA 686B south) in its place. Does anyone out there have any comparative experience with this board?

If this is a bunch of FUD on the part of my vendor, I'd be very surprised -- they're the best store here in Cambridge and I've always found them reliable in the past. At the same time, the initial statement that it was a "K7T" issue and the fact that "data corruption" would be more likely with that board's VIA northbridge makes me wonder.

Thanks for any ideas you can suggest!

- Kevin

 

[sandorski]

Hmm, I hope that's not the case, I currently posting from a system using that board. Strangely enough, the southbridge known to cause that(since fixed with the VIA 4in1 ver 4.31)is the 686B southchip. It is used on the Master as well as the board they are now recommending to you.

Perhaps they are just covering their lack of stock or maybe MSI did recall the mobo. Would be nice to know if they did recall, since I don't want to get stuck with a defective mobo. 🙁

 

[Zach]

Odd not to hear about this from elsewhere? Maybe they are just covering thier asses. Sales people tend to be out of the loop sometimes too, it's interesting to hear what they end up saying.

 

[teatheif]

All I have to say is that is what you get for putting all your faith into pcsforeveryonebutyou.com . Maybe you should have bought your motherboard from TPC. At least you would know that they were talking out of their butt because you know that they don't know a damn thing about computers. I sure the guys at pcsforeveryone tried to make some round IDE cables and cut a wire or two and that caused the data corruption. I have a motherboard I can sell if you like. PM me.

 

[sandorski]

Some third hand news: A Canadian wholesaler indicated to an acquaintance of mine, that they recently asked MSI about the rumours(there's actually rumoured to be another MSI mobo under re-call). MSI says that nothing has been recalled.

 

[ksdavis]

Thanks to all for the replies. I went to the store mentioned above yesterday, and the K7 Master wasn't in their case, and they were adamant that was the one they sent back... the VIA north/southbridge KT266 from MSI was still in the cases! Very strange.

Well, long and short was I went with a Gigabyte 7DX, which seems "almost as good." Would have preferred the K7 Master, and I doubt there's anything much to the reported bug, but oh well.