I need help with a few questions about RMA procedure for my gigabyte motherboard

[SamuelL421]

Hi all, I have a couple questions about what to do for a gigabyte RMA...

I have a GA EX58 UD5 mobo in my workstation that has been rock solid for two years and suddenly won't post. Earlier this morning it simply stopped posting and hangs on the "c1" error (on the mobo's lcd). After playing with it all day I've decided its going to have to be an RMA. I know the error is memory related but swapping ram sticks, using different amounts, and using different brands all result in no change. I also tried clearing the cmos, removing the battery, removing cards/HDDs, etc., all to no avail.

The board was made in sept. 2009 so that places it under warranty for RMA. While I've never dealt with gigabyte's service or RMA departments, I have had bad experiences with others in years past. I also have a few friends stating that RMAs are getting much more selective and that I should take pictures, post here, call the RMA office, and double seal and package everything.

While I have no reason to doubt gigabyte or their RMA service (none of my other gigabyte products have ever failed - something I can't say about any other brand of tech components I own), I am concerned after hearing warnings about the difficulty of getting an RMA in recent years. So I figured posting here would be a good idea to calm my nerves about all this.


Whats the correct procedure I should follow for setting my RMA so that everything goes smoothly? Would you guys reccommend taking the photos of everything? What all should I package along with the board? and, finally, what is the "Customer #" and "Customer Ref #" that is listed on the top of the RMA page?

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome.

Firstly let me allay your fears regarding Gigabyte's policy on RMA returns. There have been no changes recently and the service is a s good as ever. In fact I just had my motherboard swapped out because of a failure and that only took a week.

I would suggest that you first contact your retailer but if they are not interested because of the length of time since purchase then get straight on to Gigabyte RMA section and they will give you the next step.

[SamuelL421]

Thanks for the feedback!

I just checked with newegg (where I purchased the board) and the RMA should be done directly through gigabyte according to what I found out.

That brings me back to my question about the gigabyte RMA website... What do I enter into the "Customer #" and "Customer Ref #" fields that are listed on the top of the RMA form page? Is this a number that I have to call gigabyte to get?

[MiiCK]

I recently sent a board for RMA, tried to go to retailer and they didn't want to know, so went direct to gigabyte and they were more than helpful, i had the board back within 5 days (sent monday, fixed and returned by friday)!

The customer # etc i'm not sure about as your from the US and i've never been asked for those things before, might be different in your country.

[Dark Mantis]

I would expect that the RMA section in your country will give you those numbers to fill in on the form once they have contact with you. You don't need to do anything else apart from make sure that the motherboard is well packaged but wait until you have all the details because you will probably have to put a copy of the RMA in the box.