Wrong chipset fitted to ASUS P8Z77-V LX?

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512atx

Member
Jan 1, 2013
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And go to the device manager and look under system devices. If its H67 it will say 6 series and also H67

Spot on. In the Device Manager under System Devices there's a few Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family entries (for PCI Express and for SMBus controller) as well as Intel H67 Express Chipset Family LPC Interface Controller. Under USB, there are also two entries for Intel 6 Series Enhanced Host Controller.
 

bankster55

Golden Member
Mar 24, 2010
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If CPUID 1.62 says H67, then thats what the SB is. (v 1.61 had a few bugs)
I have 5 dif ASUS Z77 on my desk at the moment and they all say Z77 Southbridge - of course.

Easy to find out - 2 phillips screws, or just push pins on backside of mobo to remove SouthBridge heatsink

BTW the Z77 is not a chipset, its a southbridge only with no northbridge

Pegatron has completely severed its relationship with ASUS as of Sept. 2012 for both OEM products and motherboards, and I have been wondering if we would be running into situations like this. There have been some reports already about mobo out of the box with bent socket pins from very experienced builders. I hope this isnt a trend.

ASUS doesnt manufacture its own mobo.
Has been with Pegatron for 9 years
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151469&highlight=Asustek

As of Sept. 2012 ASUS mobo are no longer made in Pegatron factory.

http://www.techpowerup.com/164412/A...f-its-Motherboards-Notebooks-by-Pegatron.html
(see comments about ECS QC)

ASUS to buy ASRock???
http://semiaccurate.com/2012/09/28/asus-makes-an-offer-to-
http://www.overclock.net/t/1310750/s-a-asus-looking-to-buy-asrock

Ultimatum by Apple to Pegatron:
http://www.macworld.co.uk/apple-business/news/?newsid=3336950

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/23694/end_of_times_asus_to_completely_end_odm_production_of_motherboards_by_pegatron/index.html

With the intro of Haswell, when all mobo "features" can be placed on die, mobo brands will mean little any more - if not at first, then rather quickly after.

Haswell effect (registered only for article)
"Intel Haswell processor design may cause motherboard players to exit market" (Sep 27)
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20120926PD228.html
 
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512atx

Member
Jan 1, 2013
26
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wow. thanks, bankster55. I'm hesitant to pop off the heatsink until i hear back from iBuyPower and get the RMA going. let them confirm it, i suppose. hopefully they understand the situation and stand by their sale with good customer service! amazing situation. lucky me :)
 

Pneumothorax

Golden Member
Nov 4, 2002
1,182
23
81
Wow. This is nasty. I really doubt OP's mobo is a one-off mistake. There's potential for hundreds if not thousands with this issue and just don't know it, yet.
 

512atx

Member
Jan 1, 2013
26
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Well, no real fuss from iBuyPower this morning when I called about this issue. They didn't seem too surprised by my claim of the wrong chip on the board, but the tech wasn't sure how prevalent the problem was.
They'll swap out the board and check the new one prior to returning it. Even paying for return shipping. Stinks I'll be without a rig for a couple weeks, though.

Thanks again for your help folks. Top notch! :thumbsup:
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
9,990
126
Wow. This is nasty. I really doubt OP's mobo is a one-off mistake. There's potential for hundreds if not thousands with this issue and just don't know it, yet.

It made me wonder if this was a special, "low-cost" production run, using a cheaper chipset for a newer (but still budget) motherboard, for specific customers to build OEM systems with (therefore they could control the component selection).
 

512atx

Member
Jan 1, 2013
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It made me wonder if this was a special, "low-cost" production run

One would hope they'd advertise that fact if it's the case. Not sure if there's any legal obligation to do so. Obviously it's disappointing when the specs list one chip, but then you get another!
 

bankster55

Golden Member
Mar 24, 2010
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I called ibuypower - they have an 888 number
But after 30 min I gave up

I initially suspected hanky panky - but they have a very good resellerrating. (However the first comment currently listed said "dont deal with them, they are poison" and said all the 5 star ratings are fake posts! Dunno anything bout that).

It also makes no sense to go to all that trouble for a few bucks.

For ASUS the bios has 3 mobo I.D's and one unique MAC address for the Intel GBe. Realtek MAC are on the LAN chip.
The mobo ID's are locked and stick during flashing, unless you do an erase and program (GBe has own section, but are also lost during all sector flash)

The Intel chipset utility is the DETECTOR utility that tells Win 7 all the system devices relevent to your mobo for device manager enumeration. If as you say you used the 9.3 X utility (latest) and it said C200 devices then you indeed had an H67 (or related) Southbridge. I see no way to get around that.

Spoofing the mobo model is easy by inputting other mobo ID's into bios for subsequent flash. CodeRush's Intel FD44 Editor is perfect for that. He created it to add back lost mobo IDs and MAC addresses after a (total) reflash previous attempt. In other words you can program or wipe and program.
http://forums.overclockers.ru/viewtopic.php?p=9776728#p9776728

Once again, this all makes no sense whatsoever.
Welcome to the Twilight Zone.
Just hope they didnt load wrong chipset stack for feed bin for mobo machine
**sigh**
 

Zap

Elite Member
Oct 13, 1999
22,377
2
81
I'm hesitant to pop off the heatsink

You shouldn't pop it off. Don't give them any reason to deny warranty.

The motherboard should have the model information printed on it. Take the side panel off the computer and see what the motherboard says. It will probably be just below the top PCIe x16 slot, so you may have to remove your graphics card. See the image below, where it clearly states P8Z77-V LX below the blue PCIe x16 slot.

source of image
picture


Windows can report wrong information if older (or stock Microsoft) drivers are installed. Some software that claims to "read" that information just parrots what the drivers tell it. Also, if the somehow the wrong BIOS was flashed to it...
 

512atx

Member
Jan 1, 2013
26
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I called ibuypower - they have an 888 number
But after 30 min I gave up

took me about that long to get from fourth in the queue and speak to a rep (i called just before 9 a.m. (PST)). The conversation was fairly painless from there. While i did get an RMA number, I'm still awaiting the shipping label they promised as of this posting.
 

bankster55

Golden Member
Mar 24, 2010
1,124
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0
Since you are not going to remove the heatsink to see exactly what Southbridge is soldered to the obviously Z77 motherboard, further comment on my part about this situation is now pointless.

CPU-Z 1.62 says you have an H67 Southbridge, as does the Intel chipset utility (C200), so if I had to bet, I would say it was indeed a mistake of some sort. Obviously you dont want to ruin your RMA and i can appreciate that. If you had a pic of the wrong Southbridge on an ASUS mobo, as I am a mod on the ASUS VIP site, I would bring it up to Admin. HHC for input from ASUS themselves.

Hope things work out better in 2013 - heh.

Block diagram

Edit:
Cougar Point
P67 SLJ4C (B3)
H67 SLJ49 (B3)
Z68 SLJ4F (B3)

Panther Point
Z75 SLJ87 (C1)
Z77 SLJC7 (C1)
 
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ViRGE

Elite Member, Moderator Emeritus
Oct 9, 1999
31,516
167
106
You sir may just be the unluckiest person here for the year so far. I'm flabbergasted that Asus could screw up like this, but I'm glad to hear that iBuypower isn't giving you any grief about taking care of it. And good catch; I don't think I would have ever thought to verify the chipset.
 

cantholdanymore

Senior member
Mar 20, 2011
447
0
76
Did you pack the PC yet? You can give the TurboV a go as see if it actually overclocks the CPU :)
Since your RMA is approved you could also try to flash to the latest bios from ASUS and see what happens.
 
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bankster55

Golden Member
Mar 24, 2010
1,124
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Bit curious -
What are first 3 ser #'s letters at top of box label?
For example -
CAM = 2012/Oct/Motherboard
B6M = 2011/Jun/Motherboard
C = 2012 B = 2011 A=2010
C=Dec B=Nov A=Oct
 

bankster55

Golden Member
Mar 24, 2010
1,124
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No thats not it
If you dont have box, it will be on top SIDE of PCI (or PCIe) slot as a sticker (at bottom)
 

dawp

Lifer
Jul 2, 2005
11,345
2,705
136
No thats not it
If you dont have box, it will be on top SIDE of PCI (or PCIe) slot as a sticker (at bottom)

asus puts the SN label on the power jack, it may be easier to see than the bottom slot depending on case. at least that's where it was on several boards when I looked a pics on newegg.
 

512atx

Member
Jan 1, 2013
26
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0
top SIDE of PCI (or PCIe) slot as a sticker (at bottom)

bankster55, please have a look at this pic http://imgur.com/j3sAA and you can see the sticker over on the edge of the board by the southbridge heatsink. The SN itself starts with 0240**** but you can see a place for three characters prior to the 0240**** There are only three "O" characters where it looks like the designation you mentioned should be. This is the only sticker on the board. Cross reference this with the Sandra output, Sandra lists the SN as MT70240*****

over by the battery, there's also an alphanumeric string of sorts, but that's printed on the board and it looks like an extended model number or something.
 

bankster55

Golden Member
Mar 24, 2010
1,124
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My last attempt here:
There is a white sticker on the SIDE WALL of the (usually) uppermost PCI light blue slot. You will have to pull vidcard to see it. I assumed your mobo was already out of case waiting to be packed for ship. You cant see it from looking down like your camera angle.