MB short circuited for no reason.

[happy smiley]

Hello!

I have a GA-965G-DS4(rev. 2.0) Mother Board. CPU: Intel E4300, 1.8Ghz.
I've enjoyed this MB for 2.5 years now.

Last week, for unknown reason, my computer stopped working altogether. When I press the power button, the PSU refuses to start.
The symptoms are such:
1. When I plugged the PSU to the MB, but only the 24 pin connector, the board turns on, but there is no BIOS, and except for the CPU fan starting to work, nothing else happens.
2. When I connected the 12V2 cable to the MB, the PSU refused to start, and everything is "dead", until I remove the power completely (turn the PSU off and then on again).
After taking out all hardware from the MB (including the processor) except for the power button, nothing changed. I've tried several PSU's, and another processor. I've also put the PSU and processor into a different computer and they work fine.

Conclusions:
This led me to believe that the board is indeed to blame, possibly due to a short circuit, and that the PSU is protecting my computer by refusing to turn on.
I took a multi-meter and started checking for short circuits, and I was a little shocked to see that ALL legs of the 12V2 socket are shorted to one another. Not only this, but I touched one of the pins of the 12V2 connection and then touched various parts of my board, and they are ALL short circuited! The attached pictures show the 12V2 socket and the back of my board. All 4 legs of the 12V2 are shorted to one another, and I circled in read the areas I touched with my multi-meter. All are shorted to the 12V2 pins.

I don't know of any power surge or failure (I'm using a UPS anyways) and all of my other hardware is working fine. Unfortunately, I had just a one year warranty, so I'll have to buy a new one. I want to try and fix this, but what could have done this and what can I do?

Thank you very much!
 

[jonj678]

I'm pretty certain that comes under manufacturing defect, i.e. not fit for purpose. Take a read through the sales of goods act 1979, I suspect Gigabyte are required to repair/replace it as long as 2.5 years is considered an unreasonably short lifespan for the board. This argument is strengthened by the good name of gigabyte.

That said, I thought all old gigabyte boards had a two year warranty, and newer ones a three year one. The post is on here somewhere, I think the changing point was 2003 in which case your board is still under warranty anyway.

[happy smiley]

I would love to believe that it's still under warranty, but the store said it had 1 year only.
It seems illogical to me as well, but I guess that a little persistance is neccessary.

I love my Gigabyte board, it is powerful and beautiful.

[oggmonster]

That board will have a 3 year warrenty if it was made after 2003 (which it was) but the warrenty is direct with Gigabyte and not the store

[happy smiley]

Thanks a lot!

Who do I contact to replace theboard, then?

[oggmonster]

Try raising a support request. Also try emailing returns@gbt-tech.co.uk though i've heard people have been having emails bounce back from that address recently 

[happy smiley]

Thank you.

BTW, do you know why the newer boards don't have the copper silentpipe cooling that boards had when I bought mine?
I guess they weren't effective? But they look really good...

[happy smiley]

I got a reply from the returns team, at least an automated one, saying they'll reply within 48 hours.

Other then that, I'm kind of stuck in the middle between the store and the distributor.
The store I bought it from won't tell me the name of the distributor they got the board from. They claim it cam with a 1 year warranty.
Since there are only two distributors in my country, I've contacted both of them, but they don't want to help me because they don't work with the end customer. They want me to talk to the store.

When the board left factory it had a 3 year warranty (same as all motherboards manufactured by Gigabyte after 2003). Somewhere along the way, someone decided to give the end customer just a 1 year warranty, and I believe it's wrong! 

[happy smiley]

This is the end, my friends...

I got a reply (very quickly!) from the returns team, and it's really really unfortunate that the support ticket I opened is dated exactly 3 years and 1 week after the manufacturing time (which is of course not the same as the time I bought it, which was 2.5 years ago).
So they'll ask the person in charge on the returns to allow this case to be handled, but sadly that it will almost certainly not going to be the same model as this is a end of life item.

So the bottom line is that since I'll have to spend money and time to have is fixed, it's better if I just buy a new one.

So thank you oggmonster and everyone else for all the help you've given me!!!

Bye.

[oggmonster]

Okay no worries, they should tell you which board they will send back (if it is replaced), they may even send one which is compatable with your current setup.