ASUS ROG Z690 Hero motherboards are scheduled to be recalled soon due to the discovery of a major design flaw in the memory slots that could also be a potential fire hazard.
According to VideoCardz, the aforementioned design flaw involves an incorrectly installed capacitor connected to the memory. As per the report, this capacitor causes a 53 debug code out of the blue that causes the memory sticks to not be detected while installed.
A few reports even say that the capacitor can even catch fire in extreme cases. Aside from the potential fire hazard and the 53 debug code, affected boards also fail to post or exhibit component damage.
All of the affected boards seem to have been made this year with this part number: 90MB18E0-MVAAY0, and have serial numbers beginning with MA, MB, or MC. So if you can check, go ahead and take a look at the board in your system.
Most reports of these issues look to be concentrated in North America for now, as per ASUS’ post on the ASUS PC DIY Group on Facebook. So for now, anyone who bought their boards elsewhere in the world could be safe from the problem unless indicated otherwise.
But for those who are affected, ASUS promises that they’re working with the government to put forward an official replacement program.
This news comes after WCCFTech recently reported that the very same Z690 Hero motherboards are suffering from serious defects. The symptoms of the defect are very much the same: PCs not posting, and boards even catching fire.
One user called Maximumrog57 reported on the ASUS ROG forums that his particular board started suffering from issues a few days after being booted up.
The user reported a so-called “clanky noise,” then eventually woke up a day later to the board failing to post, showing the 53 debug error and some burn marks on some chips located below the board’s QLED indicator.
Z690 is the high-end chipset supporting the brand-new Intel Alder Lake 12th gen processors.
Read also: Intel Alder Lake i3 Chips Are FASTER Than AMD Ryzen 3 Series, According To Latest Leak
Alternatives To ASUS ROG Z690 Hero
Fortunately, you don’t have to buy the actual defective Z690 Hero boards if you plan to build a DDR5 Alder Lake platform. Other major board partners like Gigabyte, MSI, ASRock, and even Biostar already have motherboards on the offer, as per PCMag.
(Photo : Gigabyte)
But if you feel like these boards are too expensive for your liking, you have the option to wait for the cheaper chipsets to launch in the coming days.
Recently, popular Chinese retailer Taobao just listed a few B660 and H610 motherboards with prices starting at a far more affordable $86. Granted, most of these boards won’t even support newer tech that Intel Alder Lake brings (i.e. DDR5 and hybrid architectures), but they still offer the likes of PCIe 4.0 and 5.0, 20G USB 3, as well as SATA 3.0 connectivity.
More Intel Alder Lake boards will come soon.
Related: Intel Alder Lake CPUs Have Issues With Some AIO Cooler Models
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Written by RJ Pierce
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