Intel's Atom C2000 chips are bricking products

Hi @asriznet, mine's still working, however I've had to power it off for the last month due to me working on the house and having to constantly turn power off for sockets.

In my previous experience, my boards have lasted 1-2 years before showing signs of problems, so I suspect, and this is only assuming if there's still a fault in the current batch of boards being sent out, that it won't be until 2019 until I see any more issues.

One interesting piece of info I have found, which I'm not sure if I need to worry about or not though, is that the CPU itself still seems to report a B0 stepping.  I run Linux on my system, and running "cpuid | head -n15" outputs info from the CPU itself.  On my system is reports an Avoton B0 stepping, whereas the errata that Intel released was addressed in the C0 stepping.

According to the motherboard box though, it does say it's C0 stepping, so I'm not sure if it's a reporting fault in cpuid, or if it is indeed something sinister.  Sadly, the only way for me to tell for certain is to pry the heatsink off the chip on the motherboard and check that's actually written on the chip itself, which with the house work I've been doing lately, hasn't lent me the time to do!

I'm not sure how many people still track this thread, but if anyone else who's had replacement boards is able to confirm if their system reports a B0 or C0 stepping, that would be helpful - if some C0's are being reported, that would help suggest that fixed CPUs are indeed in the wild, and it might just be my tool, being a tool.

I can't say I spotted any temp anomalies, although I have heard of others having that issue.  Normally, I run mine in an open case with a fan nearby circulating some air, but not directly onto the heatsink, and it's never felt or appeared to get too warm to the touch.

When my board did fail, ASRock did ask about my power sensor readings though, and on both occasions I had the same issue with ATX+5VSB, +3VSB, and BAT showing a reading -  everything else was Not Available as you say.  Also, if you check carefully, you might spot that some of the values never change, which I consider to be quite unusual.

Just to help clarify my events if they relate to yours as well, I'd find my system would crash and not POST.  If I removed all power from the system by turning off the PSU, left it for a while, and turn back on, the board would power up and fans etc.. would spin, but would never POST.  I could leave it like that for 24 hours, with no change, but it'd still be powered up.  I'd see more sensor readings at this stage:

  * ATX+5VSB
  * +3VSB
  * Vcore
  * VCCM
  * +1.1
  * +1.0
  * BAT
  * ...and my fan RPMs.

At this point, if I powered the system off from the power button on the front of the system, and power it back on at any point after this, the system would begin to start up again, fans spinning etc.. for about 2 seconds before it auto shut off.  At that point, my sensors just read:

  * ATX+5VSB
  * 3VSB
  * BAT

Note as well, that *all* of my voltages always reported a value that never changed apart from ATX+5VSB which did fluctate slightly, which I'd expect.  But my +3VSB for example, always read 3.48 volts, even after swapping PSUs, and the BAT signal always reported 3.159 volts even with the battery removed!

The point at which ASRock decided to issue me an RMA was when they noticed that the +3V, +5V, and +12V signals were always showing Not Available, which apparently did "not look good".

Hope that helps somewhat..!

wantastic wrote: I can't say I?spotted any temp anomalies, although I have heard of others having that issue.? Normally, I run mine in an open case with a fan nearby circulating some air, but not directly onto the heatsink, and it's never felt or appeared to get too warm to the touch. When my board did fail, ASRock did ask about my power sensor readings though, and on both occasions I had the same issue with ATX+5VSB, +3VSB, and BAT showing a reading -? everything else was Not Available as you say.? Also, if you check carefully, you might spot that some of the values never change, which I consider to be quite unusual. Just to help clarify my events if they relate to yours as well, I'd find my system would crash and not POST.? If I removed all power from the system by turning off the PSU, left it for a while, and turn back on, the board would power up and fans etc.. would spin, but would never POST.? I could leave it like that for 24 hours, with no change, but it'd still be powered up.? I'd see more sensor readings at this stage: ? * ATX+5VSB ? * +3VSB ? * Vcore ? * VCCM ? * +1.1 ? * +1.0 ? * BAT ? * ...and my fan RPMs. At this point, if I powered the system off from the power button on the front of the system, and power it back on at any point after this, the system would begin to start up again, fans spinning etc.. for about 2 seconds before it auto shut off.? At that point, my sensors just read: ? * ATX+5VSB ? * 3VSB ? * BAT Note as well, that *all* of my voltages always reported a value that never changed apart from ATX+5VSB which did fluctate slightly, which I'd expect.? But my +3VSB for example, always read 3.48 volts, even after swapping PSUs, and the BAT signal always reported 3.159 volts even with the battery removed! The point at which ASRock decided to issue me an RMA was when they noticed that the +3V, +5V, and +12V signals were always showing Not Available, which apparently did "not look good". Hope that helps somewhat..!

I know this is really late, I doubt any of yous still have your board knocking around but I had issues with one of my c2750d4i and I came across this thread purely by accident.. I tried it and it's magically revived my board for the time being.


How to fix Asrock c2750d4i with C2000 bug

Good Luck