From: nospam@needed.invalid   
      
   On Wed, 7/16/2025 9:34 AM, bad sector wrote:   
   > On 7/16/25 4:44 AM, Paul wrote:   
      
   >> Off for your RMA I guess.   
   >   
   > You're never wrong so 'ideally' I should put the board together again and   
   try the motherboard power-button but all the CPU installation and removal   
   risks bending the pins so I won't. The board is back in its box and goes RMA   
   as soon as I get the    
   shipping label. I asked them to foot the shipping both ways but they'll   
   probably decline, that means that by the time it leaves here it will already   
   have cost me retail price + $150 or so + many months of my life and I STILL   
   haven't seen the NEW and    
   faultless product that I had *PAID* for.   
   >   
      
   My experience here wasn't flawless either.   
      
   My Zen3 build "started in blackness and watching little LEDs",   
   so I've been through the rough parts of this exercise. And making   
   mistakes, on "what that LED actually means".   
      
   Then, months after the build is finished, I was getting   
   the weird OS shutdowns (not seen on Linux), which cost me   
   a small fortune to fault-isolate. The knee jerk reaction,   
   would have been to send my 5000 series processor for an RMA,   
   but experience tells me it's not the processor as   
   they're very reliable as parts go.   
      
   So I ended up getting an extra motherboard, testing, finding   
   the CPU was fine. And then I started fuzzing the config   
   (shut off RealTek NIC, shut off iGPU, install Nvidia card,   
   install Intel NIC, finally it settled down). That does not mean   
   it is "fixed", either. it means I'm allowed to use it.   
      
   I think the experience is intended to "build character",   
   if you know what I mean.   
      
      Paul   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)