stay away from Supermicro: WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER!

[PCTC2]

I'm coming at this from two directions, as an end-user and as a small-enterprise manager.

In both cases, SuperMicro generally does not deal with you. Generally, you buy from authorized system "builders" who sell SuperMicro products. You get support from them, who in turn get support from SuperMicro when it is out of their hands (like BIOS issues). We purchased two 36-bay SuperMicro storage boxes with X8DTL (dual 1366) boards from a large reseller. There were issues galore with getting it up to date with firmware. We ended up getting a pre-release BIOS and IPMI firmware from the company we purchased from who got it from their SM contacts. It goes all very smooth this way.

As a direct end-user, I have purchased multiple SuperMicro products for personal use, including the X8DTH-6F and X9SCM-F in my sig. The X8DTH-6F has never had issues (except with a RAIDKEY, which I got a ES by accident from a reseller. Replaced it with the correct EPROM and now I have RAID5). The X9SCM-F however has had issues from day 1. The SuperMicro manual states support with Celeron (G530) but they have never tested it themselves. I didn't own a Pentium G620, Core i3 2100, or Xeon E3-1220. Between the CPU and the RAM (Kingston ECC), I still don't know which was the issue. I bought new RAM and a Xeon E3-1220 and called it a day. SuperMicro wasn't extremely helpful but in my opinion, they did what was expected of them. They're a supplier. Their tech support usually deals with their resellers or enterprise issues, not a small guy running a small dual-core server out of his house. Basically it's my fault for running untested hardware that was not certified by SuperMicro. They said if it didn't work with certified hardware, they'd handle it.

But I did buy it from an authorized retailer, and NOT eBay. Generally, warranties do not transfer, especially if you purchased it from an unauthorized retailer like eBay. Companies go above and beyond what they need to do when they help you diagnose something you bought on eBay, IMHO.

All in all, SuperMicro products are top-notch and great quality with the features needed for enterprise. You just need to play by a different set of rules.

 

[A.H.Vincent]

Go Asus, they are rated the best laptop in 2011 followed by Toshiba, it's an indicator.

I've been running an Asus motherboard in Thailand, extreme use and heat

OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name DESKTOP
System Manufacturer System manufacturer
System Model System Product Name
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 10 GenuineIntel ~2722 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 0502, 03/03/2010
SMBIOS Version 2.5
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Locale United States
User Name DESKTOP\Administrator
Time Zone SE Asia Standard Time
Total Physical Memory 2,048.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 1.06 GB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 3.84 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

 

[Subyman]

Go Asus, they are rated the best laptop in 2011 followed by Toshiba, it's an indicator.

I've been running an Asus motherboard in Thailand, extreme use and heat

OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name DESKTOP
System Manufacturer System manufacturer
System Model System Product Name
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 10 GenuineIntel ~2722 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 0502, 03/03/2010
SMBIOS Version 2.5
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Locale United States
User Name DESKTOP\Administrator
Time Zone SE Asia Standard Time
Total Physical Memory 2,048.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 1.06 GB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 3.84 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

What does laptop quality have to do a with a server board? Supermicro is pretty much the name in server motherboards. They are pretty much the only choice for hobbyists, but you have to know what you are doing.

 

[scope4live]

That's a big change since I bought a pair of P4SCT+II's from them years back, which BTW still work with the audio streaming app Gigastudio. They still sit in a showroom run by an APE ( Audio Playback Engineer ). Both run on an A/B switch as having redundancy was in the originalg design. It's never been switched once during a show, just on ocassion to test to see if that hardware works still.
No sense buying or updating until the show is over.
But I did want to try their Zero Channel RAID 5 low profile cards on the WD360s, which are still used BTW and have hot spears, also never needed.
But when adking about the RAID 5 COntroller ( made by Adaptec ) the SM Support guy said he be happy to sell me a pair, but warned me that in my particular case that if a failure occured, I'd have an unacceptable rebuild process as audio from multiple drives would be unacceptable. I told him about the redundant spare, and he said treat that as you RAID and save 1000 USD.
So I have a great story as far as support, and quality of product.
But it's been years since I purchased from them, maybe they suddenly turned into another Intel...

 

[WrinkledCheese]

I too have fallen victim to the SuperMicro useless customer service.

I purchased a SuperMicro AMD motherboard - H8DAE-2 - from a distributor and right off the bat I had issues and a trail of incompetence leading to this manufacturer.

I got the board because it was labeled as supporting my two AMD Opteron 2435s - http://supermicro.nl/Aplus/motherboard/Opteron2000/MCP55/H8DAE-2.cfm

*notice there is no revision information

Once I got the board it was problem after problem. First, I ran into a BIOS issue. I hit the distributors support and it took them a week to finally realize that the issue was the BIOS ROM. I should have checked that first. The 2435 isn't supported until BIOS revision 3.5c.

So onto eBay I went and purchased an AMD Opteron 2010 to flash the BIOS. Trying to flash this onto the BIOS chip was impossible. The flashing program erased the BIOS and hung at 0%. I let it sit for 24 hours then I had to recover. The issue was a bad BIOS chip. My hardware programmer couldn't write to it, nor could it get a consistent result reading it. I purchased a new BIOS, pre-flashed, from the Internet.

I had tried all of the procedures in the manual regarding recovering a BIOS, from Serial, Floppy and CD. At this point I had given up on distributors support and gone straight to SuperMicro support. They were worse. After telling them what I had done, including manual page numbers, they just told me to do the same thing - they literally copy and pasted text from the manual. I sent them pictures of the manual procedures I followed three times. I wasted my time telling them what I had done, they didn't read it.

This took several weeks because they're not open 24-7. When it finally dawned on them to ask an engineer. He told them it was not the proper revision that supports the 2435 and I need hardware revision 2.01a when I have a 2.01. So they want to charge me $45 diagnostics to RMA - even though we know the issue. Then they will tell me how much it will cost to fix. Even though we know it requires hardware replacement...or do we.

I ask them how much is it going to cost and their only response is "we will see when we get the board" which is RMA for "we're going to soak you like a sponge the second this board is in our hands and you're not going to get a functional motherboard back".

I told them that their engineers must be able to tell what the differences are between revision 2.01 and 2.01a. It should be documented somewhere.

They said it was a firmware, then someone said it was a component change. I asked which component. They told me to send them the board. I told them to buy me a new board on eBay that is the proper revision because I'm done with them.

Their response is "we're sorry for the inconvenience, but we didn't sell the motherboard to you directly so we're not going to do anything for you...please set up RMA and we will invoice you for not fixing your motherboard"

 

[Fallengod]

Not to justify poor customer service, but just for the OP, be aware you NEVER get a warranty from buying from ebay technically. So the mere fact they even listened to you at all was actually fairly impressive. This is true for any product almost unless the product has warranty based on serial number. Buying stuff from ebay voids any warranty. Even though sellers on ebay love to state their products have warranty, almost always they actually do not. It has to be from an authorized site or the warranty is for original purchaser only. It has to be from an authorized seller which ebay is not.

As soon as you stated you bought it from ebay I almost stopped reading.

 

[rsutoratosu]

I purchased a SuperMicro AMD motherboard - H8DAE-2 - from a distributor and right off the bat I had issues and a trail of incompetence leading to this manufacturer.

You're suppose to call your distributor or reseller. I have several supermicros and we bought from authorized reseller and they fixed the problems that we had. Its like buying those stuff that says do not return to manufacture, return to store.

 

[crashtech]

The newest manual says it is Revision 1.3 right now. The release date was Jan 11, 2012 for the newest board. Supermicro, like other motherboard manufacturers, sometimes refresh their lineup with a revision change instead of a product change. It looks like you got revision 1.1-1.2. Only 1.3 supports Xeon processors. It is the ebay seller's fault for displaying the incorrect information about the motherboard they sold you.

From supermicro's website:



However, without a link to the ebay post, we don't have the entire story. The item was sold so long ago that the post is likely no longer accessible. It is a crappy situation, but in the end it is the consumer's responsibility to be sure they are purchasing the correct revision of the product that they need.

FWIW, here is the motherboard's product page back in 2009: http://web.archive.org/web/20090124...m/products/motherboard/Xeon3000/X58/X8STE.cfm

As you can see, this is the board you likely were sold. The ebayer sold you a 3 year old board...

I found this post interesting. I do buy Supermicro boards from ebay on occasion, and while I would never expect Supermicro to take care of a problem for me, I do wonder what constitutes due diligence during the selection process. With no apparently no revision information given on Supermicro's site, are we really supposed to use the Wayback Machine and download possibly several different motherboard manuals to determine which revision supports what?

I wonder why Supermicro does not simply provide revision information, it could only decrease their call volume and would be helpful to integrators and end users alike.

 

[WrinkledCheese]

I wonder why Supermicro does not simply provide revision information, it could only decrease their call volume and would be helpful to integrators and end users alike.

Regardless of if they change the revision information or the product model number. It is false advertisement and misleading to customers withhold the full product information.

If the information between two motherboards changes due to a revision change, technically the motherboard is not model ABC, but instead it is model: ABC rev XYZ. To only provide the information for rev XYZ as fact for all model ABC is false advertisement when ABC rev XYW doesn't support the newer model ABC rev XYZ's features.

This smells of class action and SuperMicro should be responsible for providing full information regarding their products especially when there is such a major change such as supported components that aren't supported until a certain revision. IE in my case Providing an asterisk next to hex quad and dual core Opteron 2000 supported stating that rev 2.01a is the only revision that supports hex core Opteron 2435s - actually the entire 2400 series - then I wouldn't have spent the money on that board. They won't flat out tell me exaclt which Opteron architectures are supported.

I purchased my motherboard form a distributor and my FIRST email was exactly this:

09/02/2012
Hello there,

I have 2 Opteron 2435s ready to use. I also have 8GB of ECC RAM read to use. I need a motherboard that is capable of using the CPUs on a HyperTransport 3.0 bus. For my price range I have found a few motherboards that fit my requirements.

I see you have a new H8DAE-2 workstation motherboard for sale. However, you're unable to ship to my country. I'm not sure what shipping requirements you have but I would be interested in purchasing this motherboard from you. It's listed for $310 plus shipping. Would it be possible to get this motherboard shipped to Canada? If so, how much would shipping cost? I am aware that I will be required to pay customs on this product.

Thanks,

I have censored names.

So on the distributors sales person's side. They probably went to the SuperMicro website and found that this processor is supported, unknowing that there is not revision issues. The distributor, paid through PayPal, only refunds to the PayPal account that paid for it. I bought this motherboard through a former employer who fired me - told me to go home and get a new job - because I started quoting Labour Code Law regarding his refusal to pay my vacation pay when I went to my brother's wedding.

...stand up guy[/sarcasm]

Anyway. I contacted the distributors support when the board shipped didn't work with my two Opterons. After 2 weeks they figured out I needed a BIOS update. I should have checked that first but oh well. While trying to upgrade the BIOS it froze trying to write to the chip. Bad BIOS chip determined from my hardware programmer.

I replaced it and they flashed it with the BIOS before they shipped it to me. My CPUs seemed to work fine. When I was getting ECC errors on all DIMMs and ALL CPus testing them all vigorously, this is the email I got wind that support from the distributor was just forwarding my emails off to SuperMicro. I started contacting Super Micro. I got this:

Keep in mind this is 3 months since I contacted the distributor trying to get shipped to canada and 1 month after I actually bought the board. They're also aware I only have rev 2.01.

The current BIOS version on your H8DAE-2 motherboard may not support with AMD Six Core processor. You need to find the Dual or Quad Core AMD processor to bring up the video display then update to latest BIOS version available on our website before use AMD Six Core processor.

I'm looking for a new set of Opteron processors and then down the road hopefully I will be able to get a motherboard for a fair price.

I would really like for SuperMicro to fix their website AND replace my board because they're a bunch of douche bags and the sole cause for the entire problem I am facing and it seems like many others.

 

[blastingcap]

On my X9SCM, I have a G530 that appears to be working with some Kingston ECC RAM though I haven't tested if the ECC has truly kicked in or not. What was the problem you had?

The X9SCM-F however has had issues from day 1. The SuperMicro manual states support with Celeron (G530) but they have never tested it themselves. I didn't own a Pentium G620, Core i3 2100, or Xeon E3-1220. Between the CPU and the RAM (Kingston ECC), I still don't know which was the issue. I bought new RAM and a Xeon E3-1220 and called it a day.

 

[heymrdj]

Regardless of if they change the revision information or the product model number. It is false advertisement and misleading to customers withhold the full product information.

If the information between two motherboards changes due to a revision change, technically the motherboard is not model ABC, but instead it is model: ABC rev XYZ. To only provide the information for rev XYZ as fact for all model ABC is false advertisement when ABC rev XYW doesn't support the newer model ABC rev XYZ's features.

This smells of class action and SuperMicro should be responsible for providing full information regarding their products especially when there is such a major change such as supported components that aren't supported until a certain revision. IE in my case Providing an asterisk next to hex quad and dual core Opteron 2000 supported stating that rev 2.01a is the only revision that supports hex core Opteron 2435s - actually the entire 2400 series - then I wouldn't have spent the money on that board. They won't flat out tell me exaclt which Opteron architectures are supported.

I purchased my motherboard form a distributor and my FIRST email was exactly this:


I have censored names.

So on the distributors sales person's side. They probably went to the SuperMicro website and found that this processor is supported, unknowing that there is not revision issues. The distributor, paid through PayPal, only refunds to the PayPal account that paid for it. I bought this motherboard through a former employer who fired me - told me to go home and get a new job - because I started quoting Labour Code Law regarding his refusal to pay my vacation pay when I went to my brother's wedding.

...stand up guy[/sarcasm]

Anyway. I contacted the distributors support when the board shipped didn't work with my two Opterons. After 2 weeks they figured out I needed a BIOS update. I should have checked that first but oh well. While trying to upgrade the BIOS it froze trying to write to the chip. Bad BIOS chip determined from my hardware programmer.

I replaced it and they flashed it with the BIOS before they shipped it to me. My CPUs seemed to work fine. When I was getting ECC errors on all DIMMs and ALL CPus testing them all vigorously, this is the email I got wind that support from the distributor was just forwarding my emails off to SuperMicro. I started contacting Super Micro. I got this:

Keep in mind this is 3 months since I contacted the distributor trying to get shipped to canada and 1 month after I actually bought the board. They're also aware I only have rev 2.01.



I'm looking for a new set of Opteron processors and then down the road hopefully I will be able to get a motherboard for a fair price.

I would really like for SuperMicro to fix their website AND replace my board because they're a bunch of douche bags and the sole cause for the entire problem I am facing and it seems like many others.

Your reply reeks of never having built a computer before. Have you not seen that every mainboard manufacturer has done this? And I mean every. Look at any mainboard that was produced around the AM3/AM3+ upgrade period and you'll see this exact same thing from the biggest players like Asus, Gigabyte, and Zotac. Geez.

 

[crashtech]

Rev numbers have always been very important in determining what products are supported, CPUs especially. It's such fast moving technology that many new CPUs will be released over the life of a particular mobo, all needing either slight physical changes or microcode updates.

That's why Supermicro should make revision information available on their site. It makes no sense to have all other info available except that, as if they are inferring that their revisions make no difference in functionality.

 

[holden j caufield]

supermicro boards have generally treated us well. I see full racks of this stuff at the colos. Course I see full racks of ibm and hp blades and 1u units also. Supermicro is maybe 1/2 the price of a similar ibm, dell or hp. I found it lame that their support is only open something like 8-5pm, no weekend support and this if for a company that has a decent % of the server market. When I had some issue and I called in I usually got 1 of 2 guys, that's how small their support team seemed to be. But if you pay 1/2 the price you can't expect the enterprise support of an HP.

 

[NuBpC]

Thanks for heads up.