Stay away from Micropro

[silencio]

Wasn't sure where to put this, if it doesn't belong feel free to delete it.

In responding to an earlier thread about the P4T-533C I realized I had enough to say to start a new thread. Here goes.

I bought mine from Micropro. When I bought it, I bought the board, processor, and memory. When I recieved it, it was already put together and stuffed into the motherboard box even though it didn't fit, one RIMM wasn't seated, and the CPU fan was connected to the power fan plug which left the CPU fan monitor in the bios in a failed state. To top it off, there was piece of tape over the CPU fan so that I couldn't remove it without voiding their warranty (that's what the big red note inside said).

I got my A+ in 1997 and I did benchwork for years. Who are they to assemble my components and then tell me I can't change them? Anyway, I put the board in (I replaced a P4T-E) and it comes up with "wrong CPU speed" but that's common on a new board so I don't think anything of it. I reboot and all is well. XP sees everything and suprisingly, doesn't even ask me to re-activate. I ran the machine a few days occasionally rebooting and everything seemed fine until, I shut it off.

Come to find out, every time I cold boot it, it won't post then comes up with a wrong CPU error. At first I thought AHA! That's why they prebuild it, they're putting the wrong CPU in. But, I checked it with Intels CPU identity chip and it was the right processor. Apparently the board was just flakey. It would also randomly report either 54meg or 64meg of memory to windows (which made XP craaaaawwwl).

So, I hit their web page to find out about the RMA, they had a number and I called. Luckily I only had to wait 5 minutes and talk to one monkey before being sent to voicemail. I left them my invoice number, a quick description of the problem, and a request for a cross ship RMA. Later I got a voicemail back that said "please call us." I called back, got the SAME monkey and the SAME voicemail. I called back again, explained to the monkey what was happening, sat on hold longer this time, then got the same voicemail again.

So, I tried the RMA web page. I put in all my info and specifically requested a cross ship RMA. Two days later I got an RMA. Then I called to get the cross ship going and it was the wrong RMA. I had to get a new one from the customer service guy. And I had to pay shipping out of my pocket. I get the new board and wow, it works good. No CPU or memory problems. But, SOF II seems to be a little sluggish. I look closer at the CPU (Intel app) and it's the wrong one. It's a 2.4 400 chip and not a 533.

So, I call directly to customer service this time. I get the guy on the phone and tell him it's the wrong CPU. He say's I don't care you have to get a new RMA and I can't give you one it has to come from the Tech dept. He sends me over there and AGAIN I get voicemail. This time I camp on my phone waiting for them to call back. I explain the situation and ask to simply try swapping out CPUs because I hadn't sent the other board back yet (it had only been 1 day). He say's no you have sent the boards back intact AND, you have to pay for shipping AGAIN!! I didn't bother trying to explian my tech background because it wouldn't have been worth the time. I ordered the board AGAIN.

Now I'm $2500 into my credit card but I finally get a working board. Lucky me.

It's been over two weeks since I sent the first board back and about 12 days since I sent the second board back and I've still got all the charges on my card.

Moral of the story, Micropro sucks.

[NooNoo]

I admire you patience, I would have escalated that very quickly indeed....

[imaeditedbysowulo]

I've danced that dance so many times with so many different companies that I will never buy anything mail order when it comes to computers.

You can't put a price on all that frustration and wasted time. I've got one customer who's good for at least one $55 service call a month where I show up at his house for 15 minutes just to tell him that a M/B he bought off the internet is defective and he needs to send it back.

I gave him a reputable local shop for parts months ago, but he always says that their prices are too high and continues to buy JUNK off these fly by night internet resellers. Not to mention he's paying $70 for ECS boards when for $85 he could get a good ASUS board locally.

Some people's kids...

[techs]

silencio wrote:
XP sees everything and suprisingly, doesn't even ask me to re-activate.

Off thread but interesting. When I replaced my mobo with a different brand six months ago I had to call microsoft cause XP needed to be reactivated. I just replaced my mobo a week ago (same co., newer model) and it didn't ask to be reactivated (hmmm?)

[The Computer Valet]

Could it be that Microsoft's own protection scheme is as flaky as other things?

Man, this is going to come off sounding like a flame...

But I read some OEM literature today that said that Windows 2000 Server has an uptime of 99.95%.

The asterik next to it notes that "other" things "outside of the operating system" can affect this rater.

Well, I'll be. You mean to tell me that if I build the most benign box ever, install Windows 2000 Server on it, don't install any third party stuff, it'll stay up 99.95% of the time?

I can't believe it!

[silencio]

LOL! The trick to keeping a server up is don't use it, don't breath on it, don't update it, if it works don't even blow the dust off it.

[silencio]

Wow, what a lousy day. An hour ago I my T1 install set for tomorrow was cancelled. Bellsouth, who've been here twice, have failed to bury the phone line. I've got 30 yards of phone line laying across my driveway and lawn.

The IBM ultrastar replacement came Friday. I put it in today, it doesn't work. It won't format in windows, i have a string of parity and controller errors a mile long in the system log, I can low format and verify media in my scsi cards bios and the drive fitness test claims nothings wrong. But, the drive fitness test never runs the "analysing media" portion of the test. I tested the other two drives in the machine just to make sure everything was ok with them. When I test the other two drives it does a quick scandisk type thing. It doesn't do that with the IBM drive.

This thread seemed like a good low proile place to rant some more about lousy service and crappy RMAs. =)

I wonder if www.ibmharddrivessuck.com is taken?

[Komodo]

Call your credit card company and dispute the charges. There is now ay in hell you should settle for that and be paying through the *** in that way.

[Ya_know]

Call your credit card company and dispute the charges. There is now ay in hell you should settle for that and be paying through the *** in that way.

Credit card companies usually only give you 60 days to dispute a charge. Since the last post before yours in this thread is over 18 months old, I have to think that he has either resolved the issue, or bit the bullet and gave up...

[format c:]

I have a four foot Klingon sword ( Looks evil ) known as a bat'leth , If some company gave me that treatment, I would be inclined to pay them a vist with this huge blade

I prefer to buy from my local vender, I can look at the part before slapping down the plastic, Next is a nice Video card upgrade

[amyb]

LOL! The trick to keeping a server up is don't use it, don't breath on it, don't update it, if it works don't even blow the dust off it.

Isn't that the truth!!

[Escape_Driver]

Happens all the time with that board "P4T-533C" 3 out of the 10 I got here did the same thing. And It pisses me off when people buy stuff off the net and want me to fix for free...