Well Iwill won't get anymore of my damn money, ever

[classy]

This is a damn joke. They want to do an express RMA for 1.2 but this 1.1 is flaky at best. And before some of you Iwill worshippers get started, trust me I know what I am doing. The board constantly has cold boot problems, hates IE, and still won't post at anything beyond 130 FSB let alone run at 133 with an unlocked processor. This is the same old story as usual, the boards reviewers get are not production boards. And because of this you sucked into the hype, only to look like a fool afterwards. Damn shame, I feel like cussing someone out. And also how the hell is someone to know if they get a good 1.2?

 

[PCComp]

I agree classy!!! Although I don't own an IWill motherboard, it angers me when someone reviews a motherboard that's been handed to them by the manufacturer. These boards are bogus. In most cases, the boards are physically modified out of Spec. or have been hand picked for performance. I'm a victim of this game too. I purchased an AOpen AK73-PRO because it received many excellent hardware reviews for performance. Yes the AK73-PRO is stable, but it lacks performance.

 

[classy]

I am even more ticked off now. These clowns release 1.1 version, then 2-3 weeks later release 1.2 version which is even more faulty, then they want you to exchange your 1.1 or faulty 1.2 for another 1.2 and when you look over on Viahardware they are letting you know the new shipping version is 1.3. What a damn joke. :|

 

[Geocross]

where in the world did you see that? The KA266 is presently being shipped as 1.3, but the KK is still, and will be for a while, version 1.2. If you did infact see that the KK is verison 1.3, then it was a misprint. And as far as faulty KK 1.2's, there is probably only about 500, as it was just a small batch rather than the whole line. Don't diss Iwill too much, you'd never (haven't) seen any kind of RMA like this from Asus or Abit. IMHO, the stunt Asus pulled with their A7M266 is a disgrace, and you can RMA a mobo to Abit, but it cost $25 just to be able to, plus you have to pay shipping, plus you have to send your mobo in first. Iwill's RMA is totally free, and they'll send it out to you and then you can return your mobo. What more can you ask for? P.S. I have the KA266.

 

[nino]

Hey Classy,
Have you tried connecting the L7 bridges.
Let me help you with this problem. Email me at nino@purdue.edu

 

[classy]

This board is defective no doubt. It has a nasty problem of cold booting with no video. It is very annoying and even with the bios upgrades it hasn't helped. Not running at 133 is annoying also but not really necessary.

 

[nino]

Hey Classy,
Yeah, let's not do business with the only motherboard manufacturer that is ACTUALLY fixing the fact that they have a defect in the best way ever. Who the heck else has EVER done this? Nobody in my 8 year memory. Even Intel took many MONTHS to ADMIT that they had a multiplying problem with their Pentiums back in 1994. I
It's just my opinion but I'll ALWAYS give my money HAPPILY to the HONEST dealer as opposed to those who are more concerned with covering their own ass.
Just my opinion but I feel better knowing that my money is going to a person who treats their customers honestly.
I have to believe that most people would agree with the following...

It's O.K. to screw up... as long as you ADMIT that there is a problem...identify the problem...fix it ...AND do right by me.

I think Iwill has done all of these things by offering to send boards to you without you having to tear down your system in the meantime.

What you fail to realize is the amount of money that Iwill is tying up by doing this. I'll bet that it will take months for the final defective boards to get to Iwill so that means tying up potential FIRM sales with replacements. How many companies do you know would tie up that much money for that many months with no return on investment. VERY FEW. Most people don't realize the amount of sales and return cash that Iwill is losing by doing this and THAT is unfortunate.

Do you realize what the problem was? The process of placing resistors is totally automated and I'm sure they tested the boards after assembly as I would EXPECT them to but I don't know if I would EXPECT them to check ALL the multiplier adjustment functions on the boards because they already verified in ver 1.1 that it works. The problem is that there was an error in the automated placement from ver 1.1 to 1.2

If you agree/disagree then say so.

 

[compuwiz1]

If you read around, there is someone out there who thinks every mobo sucks.
Personally, my IWill is the best mobo in the stable, out of my test systems.

The Abit, you can pretty much count on losing 30-40MHz, and the MSI won't multiply properly.

I think you can get a dud on anything these days, or many user skill level variables.

 

[Regalk]

Well for people who constantly blame the Mobos I am going to revive an old post (bump it up) and for gawd sakes go read it. My IWILL KK266 and A7V simply rocks BTW. With the Iwill I am rock stable (sound like a recorded message now) at 140 x 7 for over 2 weeks.

 

[Regalk]

Sheesh Anandtech search function works like my grandmother - can't find the thread after 1 hour.

 

[classy]

Well I think its great that you guys have had success with Iwill's board. But you are outnumbered probably 2 to 1. Most people like myself have been very disappointed to say the least. And with my board it is the constant booting without video that is the real problem. The fact that it can't post or run at anything beyond 130 is not the main issue with me. By the way mine was a 1.1 not 1.2. Both have their own set of problems. They were only doing advanced replacement for 1.2. It doesn't matter because as of today its outta here.

 

[nino]

Hey Classy,
Why haven't you taken me up on my offer to help? It's been several days.

 

[classy]

Well I am going to give it one more shot. I sent the board back to NewEgg for a replacement 1.2. They said that everything is okay with their 1.2's. So I guess I'll see when it gets back.

 

[Dulanic]

<< you'd never (haven't) seen any kind of RMA like this from Asus or Abit. IMHO, the stunt Asus pulled with their A7M266 is a disgrace, and you can RMA a mobo to Abit, but it cost $25 just to be able to, plus you have to pay shipping >>



Ummm WTF are you talking about.... Asus has a longer warranty then Abit... Asus doesnt need a receipt... Asus doesnt charge $25... I called them and they fixed a A7V that I fried for free, took a month total (About average for RMAs). If you get a bad board you call Asus and they replace(or fix) it... I dont see how you can insult that.

And what stunt with the A7M266? Are you talking about how they stopped production? That was NOT because they where faulty boards, its because AMD isnt supplying enough chipsets to make the board profitable for Asus.

 

[Geocross]

Abit doesn't charge for an RMA? I'm positive I'm right, so I'm not going to argue. Also, almost every vendor charges for shipping on an RMA. And as far as the A7M266, why aren't other vendors doing the same? In fact, in the next month, there will be a few more AMD760 boards coming out (Abit being one of them). Asus had their hands full with complaints on the board, and rather than solve them, they figured they'd forget about it and just wipe the slate clean with two new DDR boards. In my opinion, Asus' reign on motherboards is fading fast. Last point, maybe a month is the average RMA time, but Iwill is supposedly shipping the new boards out first to the consumer, and then then the consumer can send the board back (can't beat that speed). Hey listen, i don't want to start a flame war, but sometimes things change, and I think if Iwill goes thru with successfully replacing the few 1.2's that are faulty, they are well on their way to becoming as reconizable as the Abits' and Asus'.

 

[Dulanic]

<< Abit doesn't charge for an RMA? I'm positive I'm right, so I'm not going to argue. Also, almost every vendor charges for shipping on an RMA. And as far as the A7M266, why aren't other vendors doing the same? In fact, in the next month, there will be a few more AMD760 boards coming out (Abit being one of them). Asus had their hands full with complaints on the board, and rather than solve them, they figured they'd forget about it and just wipe the slate clean with two new DDR boards. In my opinion, Asus' reign on motherboards is fading fast. Last point, maybe a month is the average RMA time, but Iwill is supposedly shipping the new boards out first to the consumer, and then then the consumer can send the board back (can't beat that speed). Hey listen, i don't want to start a flame war, but sometimes things change, and I think if Iwill goes thru with successfully replacing the few 1.2's that are faulty, they are well on their way to becoming as reconizable as the Abits' and Asus'. >>



Your right and your wrong, Abit does charge $25 if you dont have a receipt, if you do your fine.

One thing you also have to keep in mind is Asus is still mainly a OEM manufacturer.... they sell ALOT of boards, and it could very easily be that cant get enough 761 chips to make it profitable enough to keep making. I'd like to see what complaints your talking about, from everything I have heard it is a very stable board. And that's good for IWill that they are doing that... Most will do that if you give them a credit card # incase you dont send the old board in. I dont think Asus's reign is over... they still have been making excellent boards. Heck A7V133 is one of the best... performs the best and is very very stable.

 

[Geocross]

Hey, Asus and abit got their name from somewhere, and thats good mobos. I have amended my thoughts on asus and abit, since I've contradicted one of my principles. It just seems like Asus &amp; Abit have alot of complains, because I read them on this and dozens other boards. But, that's becausetheir probably the most abundantly boards. Though I will argue the point about the A7M266. I've actually done some work on that board, along with the Gigabyte 7DX, and the Asus really does seem to have a lot of inherent problems, which I'm not sure could have been cured with a simple bios update. I personally think Asus decided that if the they produced a better revision of their AMD 760 board, it would not be able to compete with the soon to be abundant aLi and Via DDR boards. And that would piss me off if I bought an A7M266 for my computer (the one I worked on was with a group of friends, who are going to be launching yet another computer review site late spring/early summer)

 

[Regalk]

Hey Classy I had those same problems until I closed all L7 bridges - now it works fine at 140 x 7 (for over 2 weeks). I keep telling people to connect all those L7 bridges on the cpus in addition to the L1 bridges - works fine for me on the KK266 as well as the A7V.
On the A7V it would not boot at 950 period (my Duron 600 that is). Closed the L7 bridges and now the puppy is at 988! and yes stable as a rock.

 

[MCS]

compuwiz 1



<< The Abit, you can pretty much count on losing 30-40MHz, and the MSI won't multiply properly. >>



What do you mean exactly? You mean overclocking potential?

 

[compuwiz1]

MCS, I'm saying that the same 1GHz Tbirds I was able to test for 12 hours at 1.5GHz on the IWill would only do 1.47 on the Abit, under same testing conditions, same ram, same cooler, same settings, etc. Sometimes it's a 50MHz gap, depending on chip. I've had to go more conservative on my guarantees because of such variances.

 

[MCS]

Maybe thats why (so far) my 1.2Ghz is rock stable at 1.35Ghz but flakey at 1.4 on my Abit KT7A?

 

[compuwiz1]

MCS, yes. Same scenario. Now, I'd bet your chip would run 1.4 stable on the IWill.

The thing is when you get a good Abit, you get a good one, but they are inconsistent from board to board. Probably most are to a degree.

 

[9lives]

well, my Asus A7V133 came with a KT133 chip and not KT133A.

My god !!! Asus !!

I think Avzay66 also encountered the same problem. I will email to AnandTech, TomHardware if this is confirm.

 

[raz]

9lives - what/where do I look to make sure I got the right chip?

 

[9lives]

You have to remove the heatsink of the VT8363A. But becareful, the clip is very hard I have scratched the boad. The reason why I suspected it is a bad chip because when I boot up, the bios version said &quot;KT133&quot; but not KT133A.

KT133A=VT8363A.

I think it was a bad flash by OEM or by somebody.