Questions about ordering vnf4 ultra from Newegg

[Silversierra]

Hi, I am a newbie, and I am building my first computer once(if) I get my parts from Newegg. I have a question about buying with a prepaid check. I ordered a Chaintech Vnf4 ultra while it was in stock for about an hour and I used the prepaid personal check option. I sent my check to newegg, but I am wondering if I will get this board because it seems to rarely be in stock. I ordered while it was in stock, so does that mean Newegg has one "reserved" for me, or don't they reserve and will ship me one when it comes in stock next once they get my check? Has anyone else ever used personal check? I don't have a credit card (hey I'm a minor) and I've read it's not very safe to use debit because there is not the same protection as with credit. Please answer if you know anything about this. Thanks in advance.

 

[Silversierra]

Is anyone out there? Has anyone used Newegg? Any thoughts? Should I have posted somewhere else?

 

[ChineseDemocracyGNR]

I'm sure if your order went through you have nothing to worry about. Besides, the board is back in stock!

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: Silversierra
Is anyone out there? Has anyone used Newegg? Any thoughts? Should I have posted somewhere else?

I believe that calling them directly and asking them would be the best thing to do... I have always ordered by credit card (actually a debit/bank card, but it is all the same to them), so I do not know for sure. I DO know that they seem to be having a lot of trouble keeping this board in stock, so your question is a valid one. The contact information for newegg is below:

Customer Support Hours:
M-F: 7:00 AM - 5:30 PM PST (Excluding National Holiday

Customer Support Contacts:
Toll Free: (800) 390-1119
Local: (909) 395-9046
Fax: (909) 395-8907
Preferred Account: (800) 453-2017
Email: service@newegg.com

Write to Us:
Newegg.com
132 South 6th Ave.
La Puente, CA 91746-3026

 

[Silversierra]

Thanks to both of you! I may call newegg and ask. Also is it "safe" to use a beta bios with the vnf4 ultra board? Beta's aren't really done are they? Sorry if I'm insulting your intelligence. What happens if something happens when flashing the bios (i.e. power out). Does this ruin the board, or is there some safety feature that will let it be reflashed?

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: Silversierra
Thanks to both of you! I may call newegg and ask. Also is it "safe" to use a beta bios with the vnf4 ultra board? Beta's aren't really done are they? Sorry if I'm insulting your intelligence. What happens if something happens when flashing the bios (i.e. power out). Does this ruin the board, or is there some safety feature that will let it be reflashed?

Glad I could help, hopefully they can answer your question without a problem (I have never had trouble with newegg, which is why they are the only supplier I buy from online).

As for the beta BIOS, yes, it is safe (I have been using the beta BIOS on mine for about 4 days now, and it is very stable). I am not sure why this one is still BETA, but if I were to guess, I would say that they are probably trying to make the "safe mode" reset feature of the board work with overclocking. The "safe mode" feature of the original BIOS made it so that if you changed a BIOS setting, and the board would not POST (you cannot boot), then it would set you back to a safe setting, with lower clock speeds until you corrected the problem.

This feature is not present on the BETA BIOS at all, so if you fail to POST, then you have to open your case, and short the motherboard's reset pin. I believe that this "safe mode" feature is what prevented many people from overclocking very far on the original BIOS. My board could not get past 240HTT without this kicking in, although the board and CPU were plainly able to clock higher (I used clockgen within windows to prove this). I think they will make the new BIOS official once they have this working again.

As for what happens if the power goes out during a BIOS flash, you are likely to be screwed. Any motherboard (except certain Gigabyte boards, which have a backup BIOS chip in case a flash goes wrong) will most likely be wrecked if this happens. In this case, the only thing to do would be to try to re-flash the BIOS and see if it will take, but it would be 50/50 at best. A beta BIOS is no more risky during flashing than a regular one, and I have been flashing BIOS' for years now (at least 20 different motherboards) and have never had one go bad yet, so it is fairly safe to do.