AMD Customer Service: Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

[Suntower]

Just got off the phone with an AMD tech.

Good news? Yeah, my CPU is fried and is fully covered under warranty.

Bad news? They won't fix it because I didn't send them the fan and complete packaging that the gizmo came in. BTW: the guy said that using 3rd party fans (like Zalman) '...is something we generally frown upon.' That's a quote.

Oh well. It's only $500. And a week's lost time.

Moral: Keep yer packaging. (I -guess- that's the moral.) :roll:

 

[Eric Dahlberg]

The same moral applies to claiming hard drive warranties.

 

[Suntower]

OK, just got off the horn with a 'Customer Service Manager' @ AMD. They are FedExing a replacement. Nice save, AMD!

HOWEVER, the technician also sent me a note claiming -repeatedly- the following:

We will always recommend using the included AMD fan. We have done extended tests on various 3rd party fans and none improve temperature more than 1-2 degrees over a long continuous test. Also, we haven't found one that improves the reliability or increases the longevity of the chip. In fact, we have found some that are so heavy that their weight can create airgaps between the fan and the chip which defeats their whole purpose.

That's pretty tough talk, but I guess I have always bought these Zalman thingees on the un-scientific notion that 'more is more'. Maybe they are right.

But it turns out it was the mobo. They ran the chip for a 65 hour test with no failures at an avg temp of 51C. Using a stock AMD fan, of course.

Interesting.

---JC