Gigabyte P55-UD5 BENT PINS

[ollbrett]

Hi,Last week i purchased a GIGABYTE P55 UD5 motherboard and an Intel Core i5 650 from Overclockers (Esnet Ltd) UK,
Anyway to cut a long story short I had the most frustating 3/4 days in my life (Im 55 lol)sometimes it would post and when i did manage to get Win 7 on it was fine until a restart or cold boot.
I tried everything after looking through the forum at similar problems,Then I looked at a link too Anandtech which i think Dark Mantis posted and it was about some Gigabyte motherboards having short cpu pins!.
After reading that article I thought this might be the answer too my problems, so I removed the cpu and I was gobsmacked when i looked at the cpu pins on the mobo,even with the naked eye you could see BENT pins not all in one area!.
I rang Tech support and they told me that the warranty was void because the pins are not coved by Gigabyte!.
I can understand in a way because they are delicate but I have fitted dozens and dozens of these and had no problems at all.So my question now lol ,Is this true and do i have any chance of RMA from Gigabyte ?


Thanks.

[F5BJR]

*
You can always try to ask a jeweler to adjust the pins ( They have small tools ) !!

My son has done this with a support Intel 775 with pins damaged

Pierre

[Dark Mantis]

Personally I would take this up with Gigabyte themselves, even tough legally your contract is with the retailer. It is a bit of a grey area as the pins could have been damaged before or after purchase, however there have been a few cases of this recently and I feel that it is bad QA at the factory.

[ollbrett]

Thank you for replying,I,m no rocket scientist but those pins must have been a fraction too long !,i checked the before pins before I sat the cpu down
and they were fine!.
If that turned out too be the problem surely there must have been a batch of them.

HAVE a look at the photo I took,zoom in and you will see odd bent pins all over !.


http://yfrog.com/7fbentpinsonmoboj

[Dark Mantis]

Yesw as you say there are a number of them and they are spaced around not all next to each other. Possibly a bad batch but without access to the database there is no way to tell. There have been a few cases recently that we are aware of on the forum.

[ollbrett]

Could any of you good ppl tell me how to try and get a RMA on this motherboard ?
When I went to there site it said to get in touch with the place of purchase ! who told me to get in touch with Gigabyte !,Ah well this is life lol.
Thanks.

[Dark Mantis]

If it is within the first twelve months of purchase then your contract in law is with the retailer after that period it reverts to Gigabyte. This is covered by the "Sale of Goods Act 1978".  Hope this clears it up for you.

[ollbrett]

Thank you Dark Mantis , I will be giving this company some hairdryer treatment when I get on the phone to them.
I bought the motherboard about 2 weeks ago and I thought this was not very good customer support,they take your money and that's all that they are bothered about .When I rang the Tech support when I got this problem he told me that Gigabyte didn't cover this area in the warranty and I had to get in touch with them myself so i thought fair enough I will do that,
The next day i received an e-mail from them with a RMA number and it said to send them the motherboard back too them! (I thought they had changed there mind ).
I posted it last Monday (cost £9 ) then in midweek they sent it back with a letter saying PRODUCT IS PHYSICALLY DAMAGED !SO IT WAS VOID AND THEN I GOT A INVOICE BILLING ME FOR £20.27 for inspection charge and return postage! ,this stinks..
So im nearly 30 quid down and still got the board .

[Dark Mantis]

I can see the problem from all sides and this is the trouble. Everybody is blaming everybody else. The thing is the damage could have happened at any time but I think in the interests of good Customer Relations it would be prudent for Gigabyte to fix it. The retailer's attitude stinks not to put to fine a point on it and I think you should name them. I definitely wouldn't have paid their bill. Try contacting "runn3r" Gigabyte's moderator on this forum and see if he can help. He will do if he can I am sure.

[ollbrett]

Thank you again Dark Mantis for your advice,You right about the Sale of Goods ACT 1978,The shop /seller who sold me this item is under binding contract and it clearly states that they cannot tell the purchaser to go to get this sorted out with the manufacturers, that is breaking the law and it is down to the place of purchase too sort this out !.
There is also The Consumer Protection Act 1987 which also covers me on this sale !.
DM  i dint pay these buffoons they took the payment out of my Visa Debit card without my authorization !
Oh I forgot to mention that this is my first ever Gigabyte motherboard ,not a very nice intro too them is it !.This is the name of the company:
OVERCLOCKERS  UK (Esnet Ltd)
4 AXIS ,MILLENNIUM WAY
HIGH CARR BUSINESS PARK
NEWCASTLE UNDER-LYME
STAFFORDSHIRE
UK.
I am going too ring them tomorrow and if I get no joy from this I will be making the 2 hr trip too there company and will not budge until I get this sorted !.
Once again thanks for your help.

[Dark Mantis]

Good for you! You have right on your side and sometimes have to force the issue. The transaction they made on yopur card was UNAUTHORISED and maybe even illegal without your consent and you can claim it back from your card company or bank if the retailer refuses to refund it. Good luck.

[ollbrett]

Hi guys just an update on the board.
Gigabyte have very good and quick with the RMA service and they are going to replace the motherboard.I was just a bit surprised with there report which says the following : 
Please be advised this item will be replaced as it can not currently be repaired. This is because 9 pins were damaged. We believe this was caused by a sharp implement  as the way the pins are damaged does not suggest CPU mis-alignment or put onto the board wrongly by force.
 
I am advised to inform you that should this same fault occur again, item will not be replaced again.
 
I'm very pleased with them replacing it but there is no way at all that I damaged those pins,the protective cover over the pin array was not removed until I seated the CPU so how they got damaged gowd knows !.I will let you know when I receive the motherboard and it all ends a happy story lol.
Once again thanks for all your help guys .Ollbrett.

[Dark Mantis]

That is a good end to your saga and a good advert for Gigabyte. Whio knows how the pins got damaged but there is an awfull lot of them recently and not just Gigabyte either. It hits all 1366 and to a lesser extent 1156 boards of any make. Seems to be a design flaw. So this time we can blame Intel

[ollbrett]

Hi guys,
Finally got the replacement motherboard this morning,I received a P55A-UD5 motherboard ! which looking around is more expensive than the one which I returned too them.
Anyway well done Gigabyte for there great customer service and thank you guys for all your help 

ollbrett.

[Dark Mantis]

As you say " Good for Gigabyte". It is an upgrade on your original board and newer sop your warranty will last much longer.