Why so many failures/DOAs in motherboards?

[autumn_suns3t]

As a newbie, I have noticed there are much more issues and breakings with mobos than any other component.
Why?

Do you think it makes sense to pay for factory-tested ones, lime Gigabyte's Black Edition/Asus Sabertooth?
As if you get a faulty one, it'll never get like a 100% good one, no matter if they fix it or not.

 

[ABagOfFritos]

Motherboards have more components than any other part in a computer. Every part you add to something is another possible point of failure. More parts = more chance of failure.

 

[Novuake]

DOAs are usually caused by mishandling from shipping.
Since motherboards tend to be a lot more sensitive for physical damage than most other components.

Usually if you receive a faulty motherboard, it is not repaired but REPLACED completely.

ABagOfFritos has a good point too.

 

[cTs Corvette]

It's also pretty easy, especially if you're a newbie, to accidentally bend one of the pins in the CPU socket and then you think you have a DOA, but the reality is it was working fine until you got your hands on it. Lol.

 

[someguynamedmatt]

Just another thing to consider, too - if you're looking at reviews, keep something in mind. They sell thousands of these motherboards; most people that get a motherboard that works perfectly aren't going to leave a review - you're only getting the opinions from those people who are having problems, so it's really an unfair comparison.

What everyone above said is exactly right as well - they're also the component that is most prone to physical damage, mishandling, and just bad luck due to a high component count. I wouldn't pay extra for a 'premium' tested motherboard; if something isn't right with the one you have, they're obligated to take it back and you'll get a replacement, as it just wouldn't be cost-effective for a company to try and repair every single return they get. Parts are a lot cheaper than employee wages unfortunately.

 

[junkeymonkey]

some times you can read between the lines and start to see its user caused my favorite is like at newegg all the intel boards with bent pins I understand it could happen from the factory but .....

 

[autumn_suns3t]

@someguynamedmatt

Why you say it's "unfortunate" parts cost less than salaries?
Your point about positive/negative reviews ratio being misleading is very true..

 

[someguynamedmatt]

Hah, just a theory... by sending a board back for repair, they have to pay for a small number of replacement components, but also for the time spent by an employee to actually troubleshoot and repair the board if even possible. When they order massive numbers of these motherboards, I bet the cost per board comes out to be less than the cost of doing a repair. Regardless, it's extremely hard to repair something like this by hand if it's even possible in the first place, and so they just send out a whole new replacement instead.

some times you can read between the lines and start to see its user caused my favorite is like at newegg all the intel boards with bent pins I understand it could happen from the factory but .....

Yep. People don't look at the processor support lists, they bend pins, they get mad at their poor overclocks which the hardware isn't even rated for, and then blame that on the motherboard. I bet nearly 75% of DOA motherboards are due to some sort of user error.

 

[autumn_suns3t]

@someguynamedmatt
However, you happen to read the complaints of many people saying boards were "repaired" and sent back and in short proved defective again (right since a true repair with true testing would cost a lot), also, if the mobo is out of stock (which will be the case easily, from 1 year after release), they'll send another model.. but (Asus) an inferior one ) A Maximus VI Hero was replaced not with an Hero VII but with a Gene )

 

[junkeymonkey]

lol my last 2 asus was my last 2 asus.. they are not the asus I grew up with anymore overrated hyped up low quality. even my buddy who built nothing but asus had to get away from them

 

[autumn_suns3t]

The problem is, lowering quality in non-hyped-about specs (usually the most important ones) doesn't hurt sales while it saves money.

As I have to choose my motherb., I studied all Gigabyte models specs and noticed they decided to cut costs a lot, and Z97 series is worse than Z87.

 

[junkeymonkey]

not to sound like a fanboy but this board is a z87 asrock but it was the only one that had all I needed on a board at the price like I still want rs232 and pci slot like asus there boards had a few things removed that for me rendered them useless for my needs I don't need a motherboard the causes me to have to rebuy hardware cause they decided to leave these things off of them why but there board and then spend more on stuff to support it when I can get a board the supports the stuff I already got ??? I need a board that supports me not me supporting it ..

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

I have built a few dozen computers and only one that was totally DOA was an ASROCK Extreme 9.

Bent pins are 99.9 percent builder related.

 

[junkeymonkey]

everyone gets there lemon at some point no matter what brand ... I done 3 asrocks over the last year or so and can say nothing bad , well one thing any of there boards I got no matter how long they been out came with there first release bios on them so I assume with them you better have a chip supported under the first bios In case it needs to be flashed .. but that could be just my bad luck or newegg sells me there old stock ???