Rusty Chokes

[Am486DX100]

http://www.semiaccurate.com/2010/01/15/ ... ty-chokes/

"..... Now we feel that it’s our duty to report this issue, not because we want to get the company in trouble, but because we owe it to our readers. The matter of the fact is that the rusty chokes could cause a catastrophic failure of the motherboard they’re fitted to and fry the CPU mounted on the socket in the motherboard. ...

... The models known to be affected include the P5P43TD, the P5P43TD Pro (Intel P43 chipset), the P5G31D-M Pro (Intel G31 chipset), the M4A785-M and the M4A785D-M Pro (AMD 785G chipset). If you own one of these boards we’d suggest that you visually inspect the chokes for any signs of rust and contact your reseller ASAP if you discover any, as it should be replaced under warranty.

Potentially this could be a significant RMA issue for Asus, but as we don’t know how many boards are affected by this issue, it’s hard to tell how big of a problem this is. As we mentioned at the beginning, we weren’t the first to discover this and you can find pictures by owners of these boards here, here and here, as well as some pictures of a board unboxing here where the author seems to have completely missed the fact that the chokes were covered in rust. ..."


Does anyone have the above problem?

[Boundless]

Am486DX100: > Potentially this could be a significant RMA issue for Asus, ...

... who are departing the MB business.
_________
Whether Pegatron will generously honor warranties
for boards sold as "ASUS" remains to be seen.

[Boundless]

Am486DX100: > Does anyone have the above problem?

That's actually a later question.

An earlier question is: Is it, in fact, a problem?
Or is it just cosmetic?

The SA article conjectures: "could cause a catastrophic failure",
but reports zero such outcomes so far, and doesn't even
explain what the putative failure mode is.
________
So this could be just normal SA "sky is falling" reporting,
or things could as awful as they certainly appear to be,
in which case the "goodwill" value of assets Pegatron is
buying from Asustek may have just taken a nosedive.

[Am486DX100]

Thanks for the feedback.

Maybe this is a possible flag for those computers that are in a high heat and/or humidity environment.

I have no idea how these chokes are assembled. When the clear lacquer splits or cracks....?

[Boundless]

Am486DX100: > Maybe this is a possible flag for those computers
> that are in a high heat and/or humidity environment.

My guess is not. If there is a problem, the moisture appears to be
built in, and is going to progress irrespective of GPS coordinates.

> I have no idea how these chokes are assembled.

Nor do I, and as I poke around on it, I'm beginning to suspect
that SA knows even less than you or I .

> When the clear lacquer splits or cracks....?

That's my guess as to possible failure mode:
The structure would develop cracks, and become a substantially
less effective inductor. The loss of regulation might damage
downstream components before the choke itself actually
has pieces fall off.
________
Data point: SA has a forum.
None of the readers there are reporting failures, so far.

[Am486DX100]

http://www.semiaccurate.com/2010/01/18/ ... part-deux/


"WE’VE HAD SOME criticism on our original story about the rusty chokes on certain Asus motherboards that got pointed out to us, so we decided to do a follow up. This time around we’ve done what many of the comments around the web have asked for, we cracked one of the chokes open to see what it looks like on the inside. ...."


These questionable chokes will have to start causing problems and failures before anything could be done.

Paint the Ford Pinto brown so it'll hide the rust! The gas tank works fine too!! (Just don't get rear ended, or you're scr3wed. )