Friday, September 30th 2022
ASRock's X670 Motherboards Have Numerous Issues... With DRAM Stickers
This one is likely to go down ASRock's internal history as a failure of sticking proportions. Namely, it seems that some ASRock motherboards in the newly-released AM5 X670 / X670E family carry stickers overlaid on the DDR5 slots. The idea was to provide users with a handy, visually informative guide on DDR5 memory stick installations and a warning on abnormally long boot times that were to be expected, according to RAM stick capacity. But it seems that these low-quality stickers are being torn apart as users attempt to remove them, leaving behind remnants that are extremely difficult to clean up and which can block DRAM installation entirely or partially. I, for one, would never install a DDR5 module if I thought there was a chance for some paper bits to have fallen on to the DRAM slots - paper and glue bits within the DRAM slots don't seem particularly conducive to a successful motherboard POST.
In the meantime, the company has already announced that it's not only aware of the problem, it's willing to accept RMAs for motherboards that sport the impossible-to-cleanly-peel stickers (consumers should contact their retailers and e-tailers for the exchange). Information around forums where this issue is being discussed don't seem to point to any instance of actual motherboard damage resulting from the stickers - enough patience or an entire motherboard exchange seem to be two solutions to this problem. The company also announced that its latest motherboard batches on AMD's X670 chipsets no longer carry the stickers themselves, due to several BIOS-level improvements that have brought down the boot times, making the informative stickers unneeded. Still, when one takes into account the consumer and company cost of activating an RMA process, it seems that the company shouldn't have skimped on the sticker quality itself.
Sources:
Reddit, ASRock
In the meantime, the company has already announced that it's not only aware of the problem, it's willing to accept RMAs for motherboards that sport the impossible-to-cleanly-peel stickers (consumers should contact their retailers and e-tailers for the exchange). Information around forums where this issue is being discussed don't seem to point to any instance of actual motherboard damage resulting from the stickers - enough patience or an entire motherboard exchange seem to be two solutions to this problem. The company also announced that its latest motherboard batches on AMD's X670 chipsets no longer carry the stickers themselves, due to several BIOS-level improvements that have brought down the boot times, making the informative stickers unneeded. Still, when one takes into account the consumer and company cost of activating an RMA process, it seems that the company shouldn't have skimped on the sticker quality itself.
75 Comments on ASRock's X670 Motherboards Have Numerous Issues... With DRAM Stickers
It always pissed me off to no end when I purchased a PC game (yep, back in the glory days of physical copies!) when the price sticker wouldn't peel nicely off the box. Especially those stupid fucking price stickers that Best Buy used that doubled as a security tag for the "theft prevention" alarms at the entrances. I spent hours, sometimes, painstakingly try to remove some stickers off boxes because I didn't want them to be a blemish on the boxes. Sadly, thought, those anti-theft price stickers from Best Buy had to stay on because they'd only come off by tearing the box.....I still hate Best Buy for using those price stickers from all those years ago.
If I picked up an ASRock board and the sticker wouldn't peel off and left residue and paper all over everything, I might just break the damn thing in half....well, I would have in my younger days. These days I'd be pissed if I had to drive back to the store I was just at to return for another one or a different board......or worse, have to spend money to return it to an e-tailer to exchange it and then wait days/weeks for the item to get returned, processed and a replacement shipped out.
They could have just made some cheap plastic insert for the DIMMS that had a sticker on the plastic piece - then you just pull the plastic piece out. Or, as already mentioned, people could just consult the user manual.
So many options and they decided to go with the worst one.
Jokes aside. Everyone loves stickers.
Stupid friggin ASSruk, tryin to save a 1/16 of a cent or so on crapper hole quality stickers...
sooo glad I've neva bought any of their junk :D
To remove said material, simply do it just like removing a DIMM from the 1st and last slots.
That said, if the board's manual already has that info, why is there a need for this in the 1st place?
I guess it backfired and now everyone is calling Asrock and emailing Amazon about disgusting leftover sticker and adhesive instead.
Kit and board for reference:
www.newegg.com/g-skill-32gb/p/N82E16820374422
www.newegg.com/msi-pro-x670-p-wifi/p/N82E16813144551
And yet they decide to glue the IHS to the CPU, with toothpaste, nonetheless!