I just had some horrible experience with microcenter, having built more than four rigs all parts purchased from microcenter I really can't believe I was offered this horrible support.
I recently was requested by a friend to help him build a machine. Pretty much mid-low end. I got an ASUS M3A78-EM mobo(saids to work with AM2+) and the an Phenom II X4 Black edition.(yes I was aware the CPU is a AM3). Having not that much experience with the new AM3 platform, I've inquired the sales guys and they told me AM3 CPU would work with a AM2+ board only the frequency would be capped. AM3 CPUs were the only ones that was in stock so I bought it....went home and the nightmare began...
I started getting a bad checksum error on post..., it would tell me that I need to flash the bios again. and please insert CD, floppy or USB. Unsurprisingly nor DVD or USB worked. I've never seen this kind of error before, probably corrupted bios so I took it to their knowledge bar. having inquired the knowledge bar they also agreed this error was kind of strange and I was told I would not be charged a diagnostic fee if the part is bought from microcenter within 30 days. If the diagnostic shows it was in fact a faulty hardware bought in microcenter I would not be charged a diagnostic fee plus I would be able to return the motherboard. Sounds great!
I left it there for one week and a half and received the call from the tech working on the machine. He told me the motherboard worked fine on their testing CPU(athlon II)...but wouldn't work with other three CPUs he tested. And he concluded there's nothing wrong with the board....
I wouldn't be mad if it was indeed an incompatibility with AM3 CPU to AM2+ mobo, but he said the diagnostic fee stands and it would work with a normal AM2+ chip, I got the machine that afternoon.... bought a AM2+ chip from another store(since microcenter dont carry AM2+ chips anymore only AM3) and installed it....BOOM! same error... This is probably due to a really old revision or faulty bios
Now I called customer service and they would not refund diagnostic fee... they will not admit the fact motherboard came with a messed up bios. I just can't believe they treat customers like this, especially I've been buying from microcenter for a long time. Still the sales people there are great, they have a wide collection of hardware at a good price. But for a big company like this their customer service and tech department should be better.... (1/4 work and it's a fully functional mobo???)
And my suggestion for any of you who assembled a rig and see this kind of bios problem, I suggest just RMA it, don't take it into their "knowledge bar" and go through the same thing I did and waste 3 week of time and money.
I recently was requested by a friend to help him build a machine. Pretty much mid-low end. I got an ASUS M3A78-EM mobo(saids to work with AM2+) and the an Phenom II X4 Black edition.(yes I was aware the CPU is a AM3). Having not that much experience with the new AM3 platform, I've inquired the sales guys and they told me AM3 CPU would work with a AM2+ board only the frequency would be capped. AM3 CPUs were the only ones that was in stock so I bought it....went home and the nightmare began...
I started getting a bad checksum error on post..., it would tell me that I need to flash the bios again. and please insert CD, floppy or USB. Unsurprisingly nor DVD or USB worked. I've never seen this kind of error before, probably corrupted bios so I took it to their knowledge bar. having inquired the knowledge bar they also agreed this error was kind of strange and I was told I would not be charged a diagnostic fee if the part is bought from microcenter within 30 days. If the diagnostic shows it was in fact a faulty hardware bought in microcenter I would not be charged a diagnostic fee plus I would be able to return the motherboard. Sounds great!
I left it there for one week and a half and received the call from the tech working on the machine. He told me the motherboard worked fine on their testing CPU(athlon II)...but wouldn't work with other three CPUs he tested. And he concluded there's nothing wrong with the board....
I wouldn't be mad if it was indeed an incompatibility with AM3 CPU to AM2+ mobo, but he said the diagnostic fee stands and it would work with a normal AM2+ chip, I got the machine that afternoon.... bought a AM2+ chip from another store(since microcenter dont carry AM2+ chips anymore only AM3) and installed it....BOOM! same error... This is probably due to a really old revision or faulty bios
Now I called customer service and they would not refund diagnostic fee... they will not admit the fact motherboard came with a messed up bios. I just can't believe they treat customers like this, especially I've been buying from microcenter for a long time. Still the sales people there are great, they have a wide collection of hardware at a good price. But for a big company like this their customer service and tech department should be better.... (1/4 work and it's a fully functional mobo???)
And my suggestion for any of you who assembled a rig and see this kind of bios problem, I suggest just RMA it, don't take it into their "knowledge bar" and go through the same thing I did and waste 3 week of time and money.
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