DISMAL ABIT SUPPORT - UNUSABLE BE6-II MOTHERBOARD

[mervian]

Just had a bad flash on my BE6-II motherboard which I honestly believe is attributable to the fact that it it was not possible to download files from the main ABIT FTP site in Taiwan. See the below 2 emails to Mickey Linn at Abit which detail the situation. This is the last time I buy an ABIT mobo - not because they're bad but because you rely on support which is non-existent.

Dear Sir,

As a result of the problems described below, I obtained a BIOS (behxu.exe) update from http://driver.am.nthu.edu.tw/vendor/ABIT/ - the link is in the list of FTP sites advertised on the ABIT site ? www.abit.com.tw .. A quarter of the way through the flash (executed in pure DOS environment, run from runme.bat as per ABIT instructions) the flash froze. I now have an unusable board. I consider this to be a direct consequence of ABIT?s inability to support its products properly. I have no idea as to the integrity of the file I downloaded ? however I emphasize that the link to this file on the ABIT site has been broken for a number and weeks now and furthermore that this was an official ABIT mirror.

I realise that to attempt to get compensation from ABIT is probably a waste of time. I will junk the ABIT BE6-II and replace it with something else. Further to my remarks my earlier email below, I will never buy or recommend another ABIT product. Clearly they are not adequately supported.

I regard this as fair comment, not having had any response from you, and I intend to post this view to user groups and any of the other sites such as www.apushardware.com or www.resellers.com , whenever I consider this to be appropriate.

Yours faithfully,

Ian Skinner

-----Original Message-----
From: mervian [mailto:mail@mervian.com]
Sent: 23 February 2001 19:49
To: Mickey Lin
Subject: RE: ABIT FTP SITE IN TAIWAN
Importance: High

Dear Sir,

I own 2 ABIT KT7 RAID and 1 ABIT BE6-II motherboards. I have also been very happy with these products. However I wish to bring your attention to the fact that for over a month (at least) it has not been possible to connect reliably to the ABIT FTP site in Taiwan to obtain new drivers and BIOS updates. This is completely unacceptable. I have managed to get updates for the KT7 RAID from www.apushardware.com but I cannot get the BIOS update I need for the BE6-II, that is BIOS behxu.exe. The latest files are never available from the other ABIT FTP servers other than Taiwan.

Unless this situation improves you can rest assured that I will not be buying anymore ABIT products.

Yours faithfully,

Ian Skinner.

 

[Lint21]

Sorry you got burned, man. I've heard enough stories like this to where I'm steering clear of Abit boards from now on. I've never had a problem, but so many other people have. You don't hear about stuff like this so often with Asus.

 

[JohnnyKnoxville]

Thanks Mervian for the post,I wonder if this can be related in any way to the rumor of Abit being in financial trouble?????

 

[UsandThem]

Abit a bad company?

I don't believe that for one second!

 

[benjamat]

While there has been a recent problem with site access Abit generally are a good company.
I have to say however that I have lost three mobos in the last two years (6 systems) and having recently switched to Asus (Cusl2) I believe them to be better than Abit.

 

[mervian]

I phoned ABIT on 26 February to see if I could help from their technical support. I got voice mail message saying that their office hours were from 9am to 5pm (I phoned at 12:30pm) and that I could leave a message if I wanted but because of the amount of calls they get they were unlikely to reply. I then phoned Sales at ABIT and asked if I could get a replacement chip for the BE6-II. I was told that the BE6-II was "discontinued" (presumably because of the BE6-II V2.0 with HPT370 controller) and that it is "not supported".

I also got an email from Mickey Linn at ABIT - he only responded to my email of 23 February (before the flash failure) in which I reported that the ABIT Taiwan FTP site has been out of action for a number of weeks. He never responded to my email of 24 Feb. where I described the circumstances of the bad flash. I am posting Mickey Linn's response because he gives alternative unadvertised ABIT FTP sites which may help someone else who needs to get ABIT updates. On 26 Feb. he wrote:

Please try

http://fae.abit.com.tw/eng/index.htm
http://fae.abit.com.tw/eng/download/dlbios.htm
http://fae.abit.com.tw/eng/download/dlmanual.htm
http://fae.abit.com.tw/eng/download/dldriver.htm

Technical Dept.
Abit Computer Corp., Ltd. U.K.

Unit 3 , 24-26
Boulton Road
Stevenage
Herts SG1 4QX

Tel: 01438 228888
Fax: 01438 226333

In conclusion all I can say is while the ABIT products may be good you can end up with an unusable board simply because it's impossible to get reliable updates from this company. BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :|

 

[Tominator]

Are BIOS chips on Abit boards replaceable?

 

[rcraig]

I have had the same experience with Abit. I had an Abit BX6 r2 that went south starting with one of the EIDE controllers, then AGP slot and who knows what else. When I emailed Abit, I got an auto-response that they might reply within 6 weeks but may not because of the volume of emails they get. MIGHT REPLY ?!?! 6 WEEKS?!?!? My experience made be believe the part about the volume of emails. Meanwhile my computer won't even boot half the time-taking 6-12 tries to even post. All parts worked great in my second system, formating didn't help either. I bought an Asus and have'nt had a problem since (using all the same parts except the mb.) I will never buy another Abit because their tech support and customer service is non-exhistant. Once the sale is made, if the OEM won't help you, your screwed.

 

[mervian]

Further to rcraig's comments I think that a major motivation for anyone buying an Abit motherboard is that you can overclock/customise system settings through the Softmenu. At some stage this is going to mean flashing the BIOS. If support from Abit is so poor that you cannot obtain a reliable BIOS update and you experience flash failure as I did, you are really screwed. I got the BE6-II from www.dabs.com which gives great service on the whole but if you contact them and explain the situation the standard repsonse is that flashing the BIOS is tricky and under these circumstances there is no way they will replace the part. Abit's attitude that probelms need to be taken up with the reseller of their products is rubbish.

The fault still lies wholly with Abit support - if they advertise that their motherboards are configurable through their Softmenu, the very MINIMUM standard of support that should be available is maintaining a working ftp/http site where you can download BIOS updates. The present situation where the latest BIOS updates for the BE6-II at www.abit.com.tw are broken links is crazy.

But I think rcraig's experience where he couldn't even get a faulty mobo replaced or even a reponse from Abit technical support - never mind flashing the BIOS - is even worse!

Thanks for all the posts guys....I'm staying away from Abit completely from now on and I'm going to get me a brand new shining Asus P3V4X.

 

[JmsAndrsn]

Mervian,
Sorry about your bad luck man. If you have another motherboard with the same type(or at least the same number of pins) of BIOS chip, I can probably tell you how to re-flash the bad BIOS and get things working again. I have used my ASUS CUBX to re-program my BE6-II v2 BIOS on 2 different occasions doing something called "hot swapping" the BIOS.

Let me know if you need any more info on this.