MSI = worst support ever. Avoid them like the plague.

[Acanthus]

I have been a happy customer of MSI for nearly a year now, bought over 40 MSI products in the last 2 years.

Until today, when i had to contact MSI support.

Instead of telling a long, biased story (because im pissed right now). Ill just show you what i experianced exactly.

I ordered a MSI 655 Max-FISR from newegg. (I have ordered a few of these before never had a problem)

Had some problems which will be described later, to make a super long story just long. They have no tech support phone number on their website. Only an email address.

Email
Hello, i have built 5 systems around this motherboard and 2 systems seem to have a major bios problem... Upon RMAing the boards with Newegg.com we got 2 more boards with the exact same problem.


The problem involves the "checking NVRAM" test in the BIOS during POST. It always fails the test. Upon installing windows 2000 SP3 everything runs smooth until i install the video drivers. Where it will no longer enter windows. (All 5 systems are exactly the same configuration)

The rig is:
MSI 655 MAX-FISR
(2) 512MB PC2700 CAS2.5 Kingston Value Ram
Intel Pentium 4 2.4B 533mhz fsb
NVIDIA Geforce 4 Ti4200 128MB (MSI)
Lite-on 32x burner
Using the integrated sound and lan
Western Digital 1200JB 120GB 7200RPM hard drive

The BIOS will NOT flash on the 2 bad boards.

Is it possible there was a problem with a batch of these boards? They all came from Newegg.com. Or is there a fix for this problem? Thanks in advance.

On the front of the box is the following codes
UPC: 8 16909 00345 1

And another sticker that says this:
(barcode at the top)
(655 Max-FISR) 0302056437
655 Max-FISR (601-6730-010)
then a list of the features beneath it.

BIOS is AMI
BIOS version is: 62-0211-009999-00101111-040201-SiS655-1ABHP000-
The board identifies itself as A6730SMS V1.1 02112003
Date on BIOS is: 2/11/2003

Again thank you in advance.

Their Reply
To our Valued Customer,

Thank you for purchasing & supporting MSI product.

This E-mail is an automatic reply which is to notify you that you have
reached support@msi.com.tw

In order to give you an overall technical support, we have listed some
common problems and solutions for your reference.
Please take time to read the useful FAQ which we have compiled from the
technical support e-mails we have received as link and see if it helps
the problem you are facing.
http://www.msi.com.tw/html/e_service/main.htm

We hope the directions below answer your question. If your problem still
cannot be solved after going through all the suggestions, then you can
reply this e-mail containing the automatic reply with your original
e-mail. We will get back to you as soon as possible.

I. Read the Manual
Most users have tendency not to read the manual under the presumption
that they already know what is written in there. However, we have seen
that there are percentage of technical support calls & e-mails as a
result of not reading the manual

II. Keep your MSI CD drivers
MSI CD drivers provide easy driver installation via auto-run. Losing it
would require you to install driver manually

III. Contact your Reseller
Your reseller or the store/company that sold the motherboard or system
to you should know well what your system contains & have the necessary
resources to help you in your problem. Since they can see your system
clearly, it is easier for them to identify if your problem was caused of
wrong installation or wrong assembly or defective product, etc. It would
be advisable to contact your reseller for those having problems like
system cannot power on or need to send board for repair
NOTE: there is a tiny percentage that the board might be defective & by
contacting your reseller at an earlier time prevent your warranty being
voided. Some resellers provide certain period of time for
return/exchange, after that you have to either send the board to them
for repair or you are on your own.

IV. Check our website
Some of the information you are looking for might be already posted in
our website

V. Search in MSI Forum
Your problem might have encountered by another user in the forum or you
might find answer in the Good Article forum with a lot of useful posts
written by moderators & power users. You can also post a message there
to get help

VI. Read the FAQ
Attached Link is a list of useful FAQ which we have compiled from the
technical support e-mails we have received
http://download.msi.com.tw/support/dvr_exe/user.exe


Best Regards,
MSI Technical Support
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please include your original mails when replying!!

So basically i dont get to talk to a real person, i visit their forums, my experience there.

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/e_ser...tyleid=1&sid=c458b8afbbbca26bce8c04cca96a3603

 

[Pacinamac23]

Calm down there, bucko. You should get a real reply in a day or two. That email they send out is standard.

 

[John]

RTFEM & WS

If your problem still
cannot be solved after going through all the suggestions, then you can
reply this e-mail containing the automatic reply with your original
e-mail. We will get back to you as soon as possible.

MSI Technical Support

MSI Technical Support
Office Hour:
Monday to Thursday: 7:30am to 5:30pm (PST)
Friday: 8:30am to 4:00pm (PST)
Phone: (626) 581 3001

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: John
RTFEM & WS

If your problem still
cannot be solved after going through all the suggestions, then you can
reply this e-mail containing the automatic reply with your original
e-mail. We will get back to you as soon as possible.

MSI Technical Support

MSI Technical Support
Office Hour:
Monday to Thursday: 7:30am to 5:30pm (PST)
Friday: 8:30am to 4:00pm (PST)
Phone: (626) 581 3001

Thats the number that hangs up on you after you wait 15 minutes.

 

[John]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
Thats the number that hangs up on you after you wait 15 minutes.

That's not what you stated in your original post.

 

[Gage8]

write back and give them a chance. Remember that they are dealing with 1000 other customers at the same time (some with the same problem). I wouldn't be surprised if they are working on a fix as we speak.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: John

Originally posted by: Acanthus
Thats the number that hangs up on you after you wait 15 minutes.

That's not what you stated in your original post.

sorry, forgot.

 

[OverVolt]

I avoid MSI like a plague !

Never used one, don't plan on it. I'mma Asus man !

I like Giga-Byte too but they are getting too much proprietary (sp?) stuff.

 

[oldfart]

MSI......


Dont even get me started. :disgust:

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: oldfart
MSI......


Dont even get me started. :disgust:

Same here,I am very very happy I sold that POS 865PE NEO crappo mobo.

Bought a Asus & I am now very very happy. :music::beer:

 

[bradruth]

I've recently become somewhat "loyal" to MSI. I've purchased 2 motherboards, a CDRW, and a video card from them and I've never had a problem. Their forum (at least the nvidia section) is an excellent way to get quick feeback and support. I will continue to deal with them.

 

[Acanthus]

still no reply from MSI, their support hung up on me again while i was on hold.

no reply from 2nd email.

no reply from a mod yet on the forums.

so lets go with AT experience and see if i can at least diagnose a problem.

If a motherboard fails an NVram test, thats the BIOS SRAM not a System Memory problem, correct? Beacause NV ram stands for Non-Volatile Ram.

 

[Schadenfroh]

i have had bad encounters with asus's support team, mainly them not answering back. their tech support sucks, but their mobos/video cards own

 

[OverVolt]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
i have had bad encounters with asus, mainly them not answering back. their tech support sucks, but their mobos/video cards own

SHHHHHH! don;t spoil my Asus fanboyism.

 

[littlegohan]

they have pretty good support actually

my msi board died after two years and a month
the warranty for the board was two years

the place which i brought the board from took it and sent it to msi

msi sent me a kt266a
and i didnt have to pay rma or shipping fees
LOL

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: littlegohan
they have pretty good support actually

my msi board died after two years and a month
the warranty for the board was two years

the place which i brought the board from took it and sent it to msi

msi sent me a kt266a
and i didnt have to pay rma or shipping fees
LOL

with a 2 year warrenty, you dont pay rma or shipping fees...

also thats not tech support, thats RMA. Tech support is getting these jerks to talk to me about the problem to see if its fixable in a timely fashion.

 

[RanDum72]

If you got the motherboards from Newegg, better to deal with them than MSI directly. I won't even try to troubleshoot it. RMA the suckers back to Newegg and get replacement boards. Boards that have these 'mysterious problems' from the start usually end up having more of them later on.

 

[Jeriko]

Put one stick of RAM (preferably something slow and low-voltage friendly like PC2100) in, up the memory voltage to the ~2.6-2.7 range, and your board should work fine. The new MSI boards undervolt the system memory, which for whatever reason causes them to fail to detect the video card, and you might be running into a similar problem. I went through the process of bringing my Neo-LSR back to life several times - same issue.

-J

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: Jeriko
Put one stick of RAM (preferably something slow and low-voltage friendly like PC2100) in, up the memory voltage to 1.7, and your board should work fine. The new MSI boards undervolt the system memory, which for whatever reason causes them to fail to detect the video card. Trust me, I went through the process of bringing my Neo-LSR back to life several times - same issue.

-J

1.7v ? doesnt ddr at default run at 2.5v ?

 

[Alex]

you gotta give them some time there bud...

after having numerous ASUS mainboard problems ive switched to MSI and made sure my mom, dad, brothers and dog all use MSI ..

(seriously love them)

 

[Jeriko]

Originally posted by: Budman


1.7v ? doesnt ddr at default run at 2.5v ?

I'm sorry - brainfart. Just got up.

Set memory to around 2.65 to 2.7 volt. If you can get away with 2.6, try it (that worked for me).

-J

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: Jeriko

Originally posted by: Budman


1.7v ? doesnt ddr at default run at 2.5v ?

I'm sorry - brainfart. Just got up.

Set memory to around 2.65 to 2.7 volt. If you can get away with 2.6, try it (that worked for me).

-J

Ive tried running the ram with a single stick at 2.7v with the highest timings possible, still fails.

NVram is non-volatile ram anyway, its a bios error. Not system memory or graphics card

The BIOS wont flash at all, so im figuring 2 dead boards in a row... gonna contact newegg AGAIN. :brokenheart:

 

[Pauli]

It always amazes me to find complaints on this board like "Company XXX support sucks - I'll never buy from them again", yet nobody is willing to buy products that cost more but have superior technical support. I'm old enough to remember that the early PC software and hardware companies (early-mid 80's) spent a fortune on having tech support. Most of them went out of business. We (the consumers) just don't want to pay for tech support. We want low cost products. It costs ALOT of money to keep a staff of people answering phones, especially people who are skilled enough to handle tech support.

I'm going to just come right out and say it: "I don't want or need telephone tech support!"

It's much simpler and easier to RMA defective products with the seller and/or come to internet support sites and get answers to specific problems. I don't want to have to pay more for products just to have better telephone tech support.

All of you folks that become outraged because you don't get a live person on the telephone to answer your specific question are out of line. This business just does not work that way anymore. I mean, geez, I just bought an nForce2 based MB that has just about everything integrated for $90! I cannot expect someone to spend 15 minutes on the phone for that price. The overhead for that single phone call is probably about $60 per hour. If 1 of every 20 customers calls in for tech support, their slim profit is gone, not to mention all of the other costs associated with running a business.

Just deal with it. I doubt you'll get any better treatment from any other MB manufacturer. If you do, you probably paid alot more for their product.

 

[SgtZulu]

Originally posted by: Pauli
It always amazes me to find complaints on this board like "Company XXX support sucks - I'll never buy from them again", yet nobody is willing to buy products that cost more but have superior technical support. I'm old enough to remember that the early PC software and hardware companies (early-mid 80's) spent a fortune on having tech support. Most of them went out of business. We (the consumers) just don't want to pay for tech support. We want low cost products. It costs ALOT of money to keep a staff of people answering phones, especially people who are skilled enough to handle tech support.

I'm going to just come right out and say it: "I don't want or need telephone tech support!"

It's much simpler and easier to RMA defective products with the seller and/or come to internet support sites and get answers to specific problems. I don't want to have to pay more for products just to have better telephone tech support.

All of you folks that become outraged because you don't get a live person on the telephone to answer your specific question are out of line. This business just does not work that way anymore. I mean, geez, I just bought an nForce2 based MB that has just about everything integrated for $90! I cannot expect someone to spend 15 minutes on the phone for that price. The overhead for that single phone call is probably about $60 per hour. If 1 of every 20 customers calls in for tech support, their slim profit is gone, not to mention all of the other costs associated with running a business.

Just deal with it. I doubt you'll get any better treatment from any other MB manufacturer. If you do, you probably paid alot more for their product.

Agreed- people should realise you get what you pay for. With the price of components what they are these days , you're better off pitching it in the trash than come to an online forum and whine about poor customer service. There's a wonderful invention called "Google" , learn it live it.

 

[littlegohan]

Originally posted by: Acanthus

Originally posted by: littlegohan
they have pretty good support actually

my msi board died after two years and a month
the warranty for the board was two years

the place which i brought the board from took it and sent it to msi

msi sent me a kt266a
and i didnt have to pay rma or shipping fees
LOL

with a 2 year warrenty, you dont pay rma or shipping fees...

also thats not tech support, thats RMA. Tech support is getting these jerks to talk to me about the problem to see if its fixable in a timely fashion.

My board is more than two years old. The had the right to deny my rma, but they still did it.