So I've been having fun with memory the last few days. First, my board was seeing my 3x2 sticks in dual channel mode instead of triple, with Windows not wanting to use 2gigs. Then, after some mucking around, it found 6gb in triple channel, but it still refused to use a channel.
Do some troubleshooting, narrow it down to the first channel refusing to work. So I call EVGA tech support, at 11pm, after the MLG games for the day wrap up, and presto, in less than 10 minutes, at a stupid hour on the weekend, get a tech guy on the line.
I ask about RMA. He asks if I've registered my motherboard. Of course, I haven't. My graphics cards, yes. Motherboard? No. No big deal, just pop the case, and he adds it to my account with the serial number and my email addy. Awesome.
Then, instead of just telling me box it up and be SOL for a while, first he asks me if I've messed with my cooler recently. As it turns out, and as you intrepid followers of my spastic blogging know, I have, and right before this started happening.
As we all know, (right?) with recent Intel CPU's, the memory controller is on the processor instead of the motherboard. Messing with my cooler could have caused one of the pins to not be in proper contact, losing me a memory channel. This has happened before, and instead of just doing the corporate drone working a boring night shift thing and telling me to box it up and call back in the morning, he told me to try that first.
So, tomorrow, when my hands are steady and my eyes aren't blurry from exhaustion, I'll be checking that. Fingers crossed.
Just got to say, EVGA just proved to me, beyond a shadow of a doubt, my premium for their parts isn't just a brand, a logo, or e-peen.
Oh wow that is really good tech support. I work in IT so I've dealt with terrible support before, last week I spent forty something minutes just to get through to Dell chat support...
But gl with fixing bent pins, I've tried to do so on a P4 socket before and it can be damn difficult. Hopefully you have a really small needle-nose pliers.
On June 05 2011 14:06 TheToast wrote: Oh wow that is really good tech support. I work in IT so I've dealt with terrible support before, last week I spent forty something minutes just to get through to Dell chat support...
But gl with fixing bent pins, I've tried to do so on a P4 socket before and it can be damn difficult. Hopefully you have a really small needle-nose pliers.
My dad builds tube guitar amps for a hobby, any weird tools I need I can borrow from him.
I'm really hoping this is all it is, but even if it isn't, that's still awesome tech support in my book, and worth paying a premium for, for the people who tinker all the time.
And yeah, I hear tech support horror stories from my wife all the time, she does IT for a big medical technology company.
Yeah, the support was one of the reasons I got EVGA products when I had to rebuild after my PSU shredded my PC last year, but it's always nice when the support turns out to be as good as advertised.
24/7 support doesn't guarantee you get someone competent at a stupid hour, or have short hold times, or helpful, friendly people who do more than the minimum.
On June 05 2011 14:23 hugitout wrote: stealth advertising ftw
I actually PM'ed a mod about this, just to be sure. I wouldn't call this advertising, really, since I'm not linking, listing prices, or discussing specific products, aside from support.
Since the support and warranty are the two major reasons you would pay the sort of premiums you do on their parts, being happy about them being what they're supposed to be is reasonable.
Far be it from me to argue with a mod, but aside from possibly the circus music, I'd much prefer if that was nothing like the process I go through tomorrow.
EVGA has been my sole provider of computer stuff for a long time...
I got two mis-matching cards a while back when I bought them, and they gave me two of the GTX485 superclock editions for no charge after sending in my one 480/460. They were like "well....someone screwed up big time, just send them back and we'll free overnight an upgrade"
Can't argue with that.
Also, back in high school in my Computer Engineering class, we did a legacy project to see how far back our PC "know how" went, and I was like...shit yeah pentium pro!!
Someone bumped it off my desk AND stepped on it, and I couldn't go get new parts by that point. I learned that a mechanical pencil is a PERFECT pin-straightener tool. I had to straighten a billion pins and it was the fastest and safest way, better than pliers imo. And no not really a billion pins, but the PPro has a ton of pins on it and almost half were squished.
I totally refuse to buy any video card from anywhere but EVGA now.
I had a Geforce 8600 that I registered and got a 1 year warranty on. It blew up after 1 year and 1 month. I figured what the hell, I'll give it a shot, and contacted tech support. They replaced my card anyway, even though the warranty had died a month previous. Additionally, they sent the card instantly, before they even retrieved my broken card. I had a replacement in 3 days. On top of all of this, they didn't manufacture the 8600 anymore, so my replacement was an upgraded 9600.
EVGA is awesome, the step-up system is great as well, i waited for a new generation of graphics card but needed something to be able to boot my newly-built PC (last one was AGP so couldn't pop that in). Bought a 8800GTS then stepped that up to a GTX 280 on release.
Their forums are really helpful and friendly, i get EVGA motherboards just for knowing i can turn to those guys for any questions, they've helped me through many a bluescreen!
On June 05 2011 23:48 Thrill wrote: EVGA is awesome, the step-up system is great as well, i waited for a new generation of graphics card but needed something to be able to boot my newly-built PC (last one was AGP so couldn't pop that in). Bought a 8800GTS then stepped that up to a GTX 280 on release.
Their forums are really helpful and friendly, i get EVGA motherboards just for knowing i can turn to those guys for any questions, they've helped me through many a bluescreen!
Nice. Haven't used step-up myself, but it's a sexy concept.
The forums are definitely awesome, and save trying to dig through google for motherboard specific advice.
And it damn well worked. Awesome tech support, especially for 11pm on a Saturday. Now i just get to fix my BIOS settings, my OC, and everything else back up.
On June 06 2011 03:48 JingleHell wrote: And it damn well worked.
Congrats man, that's awesome, saves you huge trouble!
Yeah, I'm not complaining about avoiding an RMA. And since I took the time to do better cable management, and had to put new thermal paste in, I'm cooler, quieter, and just as fast as before.
My end result was more of a sigh of relief as I got a post beep. Of course, I didn't have to straighten a pin, just reseat the cpu, since the pins are on the socket, and designed a bit differently on X58.
I give all credit for succesful post to my sonic screwdriver, which I always have pointed at my PC when trying to get it to start after monkeying with something.
On June 06 2011 06:57 JingleHell wrote: My end result was more of a sigh of relief as I got a post beep. Of course, I didn't have to straighten a pin, just reseat the cpu, since the pins are on the socket, and designed a bit differently on X58.
I give all credit for succesful post to my sonic screwdriver, which I always have pointed at my PC when trying to get it to start after monkeying with something.
Well that's good to hear.
Ironically though, the doctor almost always has the sonic screwdriver pointed at the computer monitor when he's trying to hack/fix a computer...
On June 06 2011 06:57 JingleHell wrote: My end result was more of a sigh of relief as I got a post beep. Of course, I didn't have to straighten a pin, just reseat the cpu, since the pins are on the socket, and designed a bit differently on X58.
I give all credit for succesful post to my sonic screwdriver, which I always have pointed at my PC when trying to get it to start after monkeying with something.
Well that's good to hear.
Ironically though, the doctor almost always has the sonic screwdriver pointed at the computer monitor when he's trying to hack/fix a computer...
Well, most of the times you see him doing that, it's either some sort of remote terminal or standalone system, so it generally makes sense.
EPT
