Complaint Review: MSI Micro-Star International - China Or Taiwan Other

One of the most known motherboard manufacturers, MSI (Micro-Star International), are ripping off their customers They won't help you, once you've purchased from them, they'll leave you on your own, with no customer support or technical inquiries.

I've purchased an MSI P35 Platinum Motherboard from them & about a month after I got it, I contacted their technical support, for a BIOS modification. The reason I contacted them I because the coding of their BIOS are causing a slow-system-startup & are damaging Hard-Drives.

Every time the user turns on his/her PC, it will go on for 4 seconds, then turn off for 4 seconds, then it'll turn back on again. Thus, the user would have to wait more than 10 seconds, before Windows starts loading. The thing is: The MSI P35 Platinum was intended as a High-End motherboard, which ISN'T for office use. It is for use in environments where power users do benchmarks, game benchmarks, etc. This is not a motherboard for the average user just to do office work. It was designed for High-End users, which demands a lot of power from their systems for 3D Multimedia, High Definition Audio & Ultra Fast Processing. The motherboard is also intended for overclocking, which is exactly what every High-End user wants. The stock speed for this motherboard is 1333Mhz FSB, while their website states that the motherboard is capable of running at 1600Mhz, which means it can be overclocked well.

So, I am an overclocker, I want to run my Processor at 1600Mhz FSB, as their website states it can run. The only problem is: when overclocking, the system would turn ON(4secs)OFF(4secs)-ON(4secs)-OFF(1sec)-ON. This means that the user will have to wait an extra long period of time & this is a High-End board?

When you're running the system at stock, the ON-OFF-ON sequence will only happen once, which is still unwanted. So--- I contacted their Technical support, telling them that I want a modified BIOS (software 1-mb in binary size), which doesn't do the ON-OFF-ON procedure every time I switch on my PC.

They then gave me a Reply, telling me that this isn't possible, it's a Chipset Limitation, which means that it physically isn't possible, because the motherboard was designed that way. So--- I kept moaning for about 6 months, because I know a lot about computers & the hardware, I know when someone is taking me for a ride. Other nice manufacturers like Asus, Gigabyte, Biostar, used the EXACT same Intel P35 Chipset on their motherboards & their motherboards doesn't go ON-OFF-ON-OFF-ON. So, after a total of 9 months I was still moaning & a representative gave me this reply: if you insist on this, we may try to contact with the relevant BIOS engineer on this issue. & we have checked the bios engineer and they may modify a new bios file for the issue of turing on-off-on, but it will influence the performance of memory. Actually, the motherboard turning on-off-on, it caused by P35 chipset. and it will influence your hard disk.. I waited 9 months for this! because this is how long I had to keep fighting, however the BIOS modification took THEM less than a few hours.

The issue was somewhat resolved, except they took away the FSB:DRAM ratios. The motherboard doesn't go ON-OFF-ON anymore when running it at stock, but when overclocking with more than 12.5%, then it would still go ON-OFF-ON (this is better than ON-OFF-ON-OFF-ON). But still, they can fix it (if they want to). I told them that the system is fine with stock speeds, but still does the ON-OFF-ON when overclocking, but again, they just told me: For your concern,we have sent you bios A7345ICI.104 last time which has remove full reset completely. There is no use in a High-End motherboard, which doesn't have FSB:DRAM ratios. So--- I contacted them again, asking them to put it back, with the code which doesn't require the ON-OFF-ON procedure.

The representative told me: Sorry that we could modify a bios for you as we checked with some bios engineers that because of the chipset and hardware designs,the two functions could not be achieved synchronously. ? Again, they are LYING!

I modified the BIOS myself & uploaded it on Rapidshare, where quite a lot of people have been downloading it. They LIED! If I could do it myself, then why couldn't they? I managed to modify a BIOS which doesn't have the ON-OFF-ON & which does have FSB:DRAM ratios. Other P35 Platinum users are willing to do anything to get this BIOS (that's if they haven't already gotten them an Asus or Gigabyte & got rid of the MSI). I wrote an article on a forum, where I've put the BIOS, which I modified & a lot of people have been downloading it. The users even gave me comment: Thanks a lot for your work on this. & I'll try this one tomorrow! The on-off-on procedure is killing my SSD partitioning table!! And it's an OCZ Vertex 120 - not a cheap one! Thx for your help!

I also told them to add an option to the tRAS list, for the memory timings. My RAM supports tRAS = 8 & the P35 chiset supports values up to 3 (the lower the tRAS, the better the performance). So, I asked them if they can add an option for this, because I want to run my RAM at tRAS = 8. Again they told me: we checked again with the bios engineer and they said it cannot add "8" option for tRAS list due to the limition of P35 chipset. ? Again, they are LYING! So I just kept fighting & moaning, when after a looooooong time they gave me a reply: We had asked bios engineer to try to add the option of 8 for DRAM RAS# Activate to Prechar. we will let you know ASAP if the new beta bios is finished..

? Again, now suddenly it's possible, but before this, they accused Intel. This is MSI which are the monkeys, not Intel. MSI are a bunch of LIERS!

I'm still fighting with them to modify a complete BIOS which doesn't require the ON-OFF-ON. I'm not making any progress & I'm NOT the only user complaining about this. I've even spoke to people on some forums, which told me they have the exact same problem, with customer support lying to the clients, customer support which doesn't want to do their work. Some people even told me that I should get another motherboard, which also has the P35 chipset, but just of a better brand, because MSI is too weak to do it.

I suddenly gain respect for ALL other motherboard manufacturers & finally understands why some people says : MSI Suck, MSI has weak technical support, MSI is junk, etc

Come On, a manufacturer, lying to it's clients? A manufacturer who indirectly tells it's customers F*** Y**, we won't help you!

This is MSI!

By the way, EVERY single Reply I got from them contained Spelling & Grammar mistakes. I even contacted them to tell them there are spelling & grammar mistakes on their own website, which they got fixed quickly.

I'd rather keep fighting & get what I want, I just can believe that there are people which are as dumb and idiotic as they are, I thought it was only the monkeys in the zoo. I've spend more than R1800.00 ZAR on this motherboard & now I'm sitting with problems. Luckily, I'm not the only one which has problems with MSI.

They work like this: You contact the Representative, He contacts the BIOS Engineers, They give feedback to the Representative & He contacts You! The representative always has spelling & grammar mistakes in the Replies. They once gave me a reply, containing such a huge spelling mistake, I couldn't even make sense out of it: As the option to adjust PCI frequency,it is not obviously functioned actually. ? WTH

I'm also still trying to get them to fix a mistake in their BIOS, where the computer would freeze when entering standby, which means, you'll lose all you work. Guess what? They won't fix it, because it's a Chipset Limitation.

Hmmm, Just tell the client: Chipset Limitation, then you don't have to work????

They are also telling me that they can't add Command Rate to the BIOS menu for the RAM, because it's only for DDR3. Every user can agree with me, that this is definitly a lie! I know a lot of people with DDR1 & DDR2 motherboards, which does have Command Rate options. Next, they'll most probably be telling me it's Chipset Limitation.

There are just too many problems with this manufacturer. MSI REALLY STINKS!

Carel

Brits

South Africa