Z790M PG Lightning/D4 woes

I do not think in my 59 years have I EVER been to a place where long time customers are treated like 3rd class non citizens.

I cannot even create a topic anywhere other than here concerning my gripe.

Well here it is!!!!


Up until last week I had been purchasing ASRock motherboards in my shop for my own systems and custom builds..... UNTIL LAST WEEK.

I got a system back with a degrading Intel 13th generation i5 CPU.

I got ASRock's latest BIOS code from the support site and flashed it. The flash completed 100% then restarted.... then restarted again.... then restarted AGAIN.... infinitely! Now I have a worthless Z790M PG Lightning/D4 motherboard stuck in a continuous boot loop.

I asked for help but was told the board is out of warranty!!! Are you kidding me!!!! ASRock caused this problem with a defective BIOS flash!!! I am pissed off!

No help from ASRock for a problem ASROCK caused. This seems to be a theme lately as I see ASROCK boards headlining the news causing problems.

You don't want to help me by sending me a $5 BIOS chip? Fine. I took a chance by ordering one off eBay from overseas for $15. I'll see how this turns out.

As of last week. ASROCK products will never be purchased in this shop again. We are DONE!!! Do not think this ends there. It does not. Product reviews and comments will follow based on what I have experienced dealing with ASROCK. This company cost me money. I cannot but hope to do the same for ASROCK. ?¤¬?¤¬?¤¬

I can appreciate wanting to make the most of one's time by heading off spammers. I really can. It can be difficult to make the most of resources in these times.


I am not even sure why I posted here but I feel compelled to let someone, anyone know what is happening on the front lines and hopefully give ASRock a chance to correct this error. Maybe I am just a simple customer who has purchased a mere few hundred ASRock products and I mean NOTHING in the realm of hundreds of thousands or millions of units. I do not care if it is one or one million. This is WRONG. To go from a working machine before ASRock firmware was applied to a boat anchor after just is not acceptable.

I have solder and desolder stations here. I can replace a BIOS chip. I thought I would give ASRock a chance to contribute to their mistake. I can see ASRock is only interested in legaleaze so since my board is over the one year line they legally have no interest in helping me what so ever. I honestly did not know this board only had a 1 year warranty. I would never have purchased it to begin with. 3 years is normal as far as I am concerned. One year is pitiful and should have told me how much ASRock stands behind this dumpster fire of a board. I truly have learned something.

So now I go forth in spreading warnings to anyone who will listen to run far and fast from ASRock. Your Customer Service warranty person Samantha Ramirez has made it plain I will not be helped and is ignoring my emails these last few days. samantha@asrockamerica.com

Yes I am a real person. Yes I am angry. Yes I have been in this industry for 40+ years. No worries. There are other board makers out there. I will go there from now on and continue to spread the poison ASRock gave me.

Technically, no, ASRock hasn't broken any rules.... but.
If using the board is burning up CPUs because of overvolting and the only solution is to replace the firmware... THEN using the firmware ASROCK provided causes the motherboard to cease to work, then I disagree. I feel they ARE responsible for this. I purchased this motherboard in good faith with the understanding it would not destroy things plugged into it. Well, the firmware solution caused the motherboard to destroy itself.... so I guess it won't hurt any more CPUs now. Problem solved right?

I take precautions. The board and PS are plugged into a UPS battery. I make sure there isn't a bunch of stuff plugged into the board. This should have been straight forward. It was. The flash completed without an issue, it restarted after 100% completed flashing then ran off the rails.

I'm not the first guy this has happened to with this board. There are others.
https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=31102&title=reboot-loop-after-bios-update

I did nothing wrong. The board is still fine. It isn't like it was physically abused, overclocked with liquid nitrogen or something. It sat in a law office it's entire short life basically serving a few files to attorneys.

I wish I knew what I could buy to flash this chip. I would buy it and put it in my tool box. I can count on one hand the number of times this has happened to me since flashable BIOS's have even been a thing. I flash Dell RAID cards (LSI) to be used as HBA adapters all the time from a PC with a Win98 DOS partition.

https://www.amazon.com/AiTrip-EEPROM-Programmer-CH341A-Adapter/dp/B07VNVVXW6

Possibly?

You know the crazy thing is, I have already received a brand new boxed i5-13600k replacement CPU yesterday from Intel Kentucky service center. I would have thought help from ASRock would have come before I got help from Intel in making this right.