What the hell is going on with MSI?

[kapone32]

So I bought a MSI X570S Ace Max and absolutely fell in love with it. The PCIe allocation, the features, the VRM and stability were all exemplary. Windows 11 will love your system if it is all NAND and this board delivered on those fronts. I have one of those WD AN1500 and since you can basically put any drive in there it has 4TB of storage (for the 1 TB price). The issue is that X570 is limited in terms of lanes. The beauty of this board is the 3rd PCIe slot is wired at x8. That meant that I was seeing 6 GB/s sequential as the x8 fills the slot allowing the Marvell controller to run at full speed (WD AN1500). As an example the Asus X570-E Strix can only run at x4. With that I see 3 GB/s sequential in the bottom slot. One of the features of MSI boards is Memory Try it. Even the boards that are given negative sentiment like the X570 Pro have this feature and I have used it with my APU system since the 3400G.

With that I was able to run DDR4-4000 18-18-22-22 no problem on the Ace Max board. Then one day I started getting WHEA errors. Then the weirdest thing that I have ever seen on AM4 happened. The 2nd RAM slot the one that you use first on builds became unrecognizable to the BIOS. I had to plug in 4 sticks just to get the PC to boot. Since that is a $600 board I started an RMA. I had no problem with the RMA but after 35 days I get an email stating that they were going to refund my RMA. Bemused I called them. While the associate was on the phone I had the website that I bought the board from up with the listing for the board. As the associate was telling me that they had no stock to give me I could see that I could buy the board for $50 less and have it delivered tomorrow.

I do have a ton of AM4 hardware( I can't believe they have 500 different boards) and I have noticed that the quality of AM4 boards from MSI have gotten a little flaky, like Gigabyte flaky.

Has anyone else had any problems with MSI boards made in the latter stages of 2021? The X570 lineup was pretty solid when it first came out. In some ways X470 is better from some vendors (MSI) than their X570S variants. The thing is the even the USB allocation is stellar. Now I am conflicted, do I get another one but the RMA should take about 2 weeks.

 

[damric]

They seem backlogged for support issues. The level 1 techs are also terrible right now, but it didn't used to be that way for MSI.

 

[kapone32]

They seem backlogged for support issues. The level 1 techs are also terrible right now, but it didn't used to be that way for MSI.

I know I have used them before and it was pretty painless. I do like to watch their live streams though and it was what turned me onto the board.

 

[ir_cow]

Bad batch maybe? It happens to all of them.

But good on MSI for the refund. Since they can't replace it, you get to go buy another board of your choosing. How can you complain about that?

 

[kapone32]

Bad batch maybe? It happens to all of them.

But good on MSI for the refund. Since they can't replace it, you get to go buy another board of your choosing. How can you complain about that?

Because this is the latest AM4 board from MSI and I actually would have preferred a new board. For them to lie to me about having no stock was what triggered me.

 

[qubit]

I'd get the refund and buy the new board if I were you. That resets the warranty and your buying rights and avoids you possibly getting some duff reconditioned job from MSI as a "fix" for the fault. Saving that $50 is the cherry on top.

 

[MarsM4N]

Because this is the latest AM4 board from MSI and I actually would have preferred a new board. For them to lie to me about having no stock was what triggered me.

Ehm, "the website you bought it from" & MSI's RMA office are two different shoes. Just because a shop has it in stock doesn't mean MSI has it in stock.

Fine but important detail regarding RMA handling, did you set up the RMA via the shop or with MSI directly?

 

[kapone32]

I'd get the refund and buy the new board if I were you. That resets the warranty and your buying rights and avoids you possibly getting some duff reconditioned job from MSI as a "fix" for the fault. Saving that $50 is the cherry on top.

Totally agreed but I am looking hard at the 5800X3D which muddies the waters..

 

[Deleted member 202104]

Because this is the latest AM4 board from MSI and I actually would have preferred a new board. For them to lie to me about having no stock was what triggered me.

Just because the website you bought the board from has stock, doesn't mean that MSI's RMA department for your region does.

They're offering you a refund. They could just keep you waiting for a repair or a refurb to come into stock.

Totally agreed but I am looking hard at the 5800X3D which muddies the waters..

What does that have to do with MSI?

 

[tabascosauz]

From dealing with GB and Asus, I don't think RMA dept generally draws units from the same inventory as sales, so the product being in stock doesn't necessarily mean anything about whether or when you'll get your replacement. I feel like RMA generally tries to repair not replace when possible, so when the situation arises that they must use a new board it takes awhile.

They all want to make money first and foremost, I guess.

As for MSI boards, I've had a 2021 B550I Gaming Edge Max and a 2021 Unify-X, both worked fine.

Id kill for an RMA that's as fast as 2 weeks

 

[eidairaman1]

Because this is the latest AM4 board from MSI and I actually would have preferred a new board. For them to lie to me about having no stock was what triggered me.

Go AsRock this Cycle

 

[kapone32]

Ehm, "the website you bought it from" & MSI's RMA office are two different shoes. Just because a shop has it in stock doesn't mean MSI has it in stock.

Fine but important detail regarding RMA handling, did you set up the RMA via the shop or with MSI directly?

In Canada after 30 days they will advise you to RMA with MSI. When you do an RMA you must provide them with the vendor and invoice. As this board was released in December it probably is no longer produced and the boards have all been distributed into retail channels.

Go AsRock this Cycle

Unfortunately As Rock is hard to find at decent prices for their Taichi and rival boards.. I know exactly what you mean though.

 

[eidairaman1]

In Canada after 30 days they will advise you to RMA with MSI. When you do an RMA you must provide them with the vendor and invoice. As this board was released in December it probably is no longer produced and the boards have all been distributed into retail channels.


Unfortunately As Rock is hard to find at decent prices for their Taichi and rival boards.. I know exactly what you mean though.

B550 Steel Legend is running a 5800 without any trouble

 

[mclaren85]

I have the exact same model of this motherboard. And haven't experienced (Thank God) anything like this.
But I did experienced the same problem with my Asus Tuf x570 mobo.

PS. My problem with Asus was no WHEA but random freezes although rare.

 

[kapone32]

B550 Steel Legend is running a 5800 without any trouble

I know but there are not enough PCIe variables on B550. as I need at least x8x8 with lane splitting and full PCIe 4.0 bandwidth on the 3rd slot. Only the premium X570 boards have that so the Taichi is the only board that supports that but is not as flexible as the Ace Max. Literally I am relegated to Unify, Strix-E, Crosshair Hero

I have the exact same model of this motherboard. And haven't experienced (Thank God) anything like this.
But I did experienced the same problem with my Asus Tuf x570 mobo.

PS. My problem with Asus was no WHEA but random freezes although rare.

It could be my own fault for running 4000 Mts on the RAM but the temps never went past 40 so I did not think it was an issue, Or it could be a bad batch like someone said. The board is killer when it works. The Unify pales in comparison because the lane splitting is genius on the Ace Max.

 

[mclaren85]

temps never went past 40

Which temps are you reffering to?
If you mean fanless chipset mine is 60 degree Celcius.

 

[kapone32]

Which temps are you reffering to?
If you mean fanless chipset mine is 60 degree Celcius.

RAM

Which temps are you reffering to?
If you mean fanless chipset mine is 60 degree Celcius.

I guess because I have the Chipset working hard with my Drives I saw around 68C

 

[mclaren85]

I guess because I have the Chipset working hard with my Drives I saw around 68C

Sometimes I think that x570S chipsets (fanless version) have some kind of design error. Even 60 degree of Celcius is too much let alone 68 C. Too much overheating will eventually cause the chipset to require the costly reballing procedure.

 

[AlwaysHope]

MSI Z590 unify, working well here with OC cpu every day.

 

[kapone32]

Sometimes I think that x570S chipsets (fanless version) have some kind of design error. Even 60 degree of Celcius is too much let alone 68 C. Too much overheating will eventually cause the chipset to require the costly reballing procedure.

The Chipset was fine. I was running A SATA RAID array, 1 4.0 NVME and a RAID NVME plus another SSD through the chipset so it was working but I feel your sentiment. The heatsink is pretty substantial though.