Warning about the Chaintech VNF4

GV2NIX · December 24th, 2005

I've purchased two of these boards over the past few weeks for two budget systems I was building for other people. The first one had a chipped chipset. Two of the corners were crushed. But, luckily the board worked fine. I was pretty happy with the board, so for the second system, I bought the same one. Again, the chipset was chipped, but this time all four corners were crushed. And this time, for an added surprise, there wasn't even any TIM between the HSF and the chipset. I put on some AS5 and turned it on. Dead. So I had to get an RMA and try and get a replacement days before Christmas. I shouldn't have pushed my luck.

I don't know if all of the chipsets on these boards are chipped, but I'm guessing that a good portion are. The chipset HSF is held on with pins and very weak springs. This allows it to rock back and fourth without much pressure. I don't even want to think about what these boards go through that would rock the HSF all over enough to crush all four corners. I heard that it was a known issue from gvblake22, but he hasn't had any problems, and the first board I bought appears to be working just fine.

The board is a great budget board, when working! Maybe I just got unlucky, but if boards are getting shipped out with chipped chipsets, working or not, either way, it's not a good thing. It only takes one bad board to ruin someone's day, so I figured I'd make a thread. I hope this was helpful to some people. Spend a few extra bucks and get a Gigabyte, MSI, or Abit. I don't know if the same thing is happening to higher-end VNF4 boards, maybe not, but why take a chance?

killswitch83 · December 24th, 2005

some good info there GV, thanks a lot for it :D

I knew Chaintech had their "things", but a chipped chipset? How did that get past their QA dept, especially in that amount?

**gvblake22** · December 24th, 2005

Yes, I can actually attest to this. My VNF4 ultra shipped directly from the Chaintech RMA warehouse with the corners of the chipset all ground up from the heatsink wobbling around on top of it. But it seems to work just fine, so I guess it doesn't seem to matter :?

I actually took some picutres of it. I'll see if I can upload them when I get my computer back up and running.

But if for some reason you do buy a VNF4 Ultra (or any Chaintech for that matter) and it doesn't work right, the Chaintech customer service is trustworthy. I have personal experience with RMA'ing a board (had a broken USB port) back to Chaintech USA and it went fine.

GV2NIX · December 24th, 2005

I would take a pic of the chipset on the board that works, but I'm too afraid that I'll render it inoperable in the process, haha! I'm sure gvblake's picture will suffice. Glad this was of help. :)

killswitch83 · December 24th, 2005

why of course man, any viable info provided is welcome :D

Like I said before, I didn't even know about the chipped chipset myself, so new info for me as well

**gvblake22** · January 10th, 2006

Sorry for the delay. I thought I lost the pictures! :o

GV2NIX · January 27th, 2006

Wow... Yeah, that's pretty much how both of mine looked. I guess there's a fine line between chipsets that look like that and work and those that don't. I probably chipped it one or two angstroms more by taking off the HSF on the second one and that was enough to kill it. Bad luck... Amazing that they could even function with such severely crushed corners to begin with. :(

killswitch83 · January 27th, 2006

yeah, it seems like something could have been done about the R&D on those boards in concerns as to what type of chipset coolers they used, because I think that either there was excessive clamping force being used to hold the HSF in contact with the NB chipset, or the heatsinks used could have been warped slightly when they initially installed them. I wouldn't even think it to be Nvidia's fault, because they have good quality standards, so it would have to be Chaintech's undoing there, lol.

**gvblake22** · January 28th, 2006

Well, the spring pressure on the stock heatsink is actually pretty poor. The springs were really weak and it was super easy to wiggle it with your fingers. Taht was actually most of the reason why is was so messed up now that I think about it. If the pressure was more, it probably wouldn't have moved around as much and wouldn't have caused so much damage.

Also, I think either Chaintech or nVidia should have realized this could be a problem and placed some kind of a shim around the core of the chipset. Even just some of those little pieces of foam would have probably been enough to keep the heatsink from rocking back and forth on the edges of the chipset core its self.

killswitch83 · January 28th, 2006

I definitely agree with this, which is why I think it's Chaintech's R&D that is wacky, lol

But, I guess that what happens in the world of mass production, lol

December 24th, 2005	#1
GV2NIX Official HL Legal Counsel Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: New York, NY Posts: 136	Warning about the Chaintech VNF4 I've purchased two of these boards over the past few weeks for two budget systems I was building for other people. The first one had a chipped chipset. Two of the corners were crushed. But, luckily the board worked fine. I was pretty happy with the board, so for the second system, I bought the same one. Again, the chipset was chipped, but this time all four corners were crushed. And this time, for an added surprise, there wasn't even any TIM between the HSF and the chipset. I put on some AS5 and turned it on. Dead. So I had to get an RMA and try and get a replacement days before Christmas. I shouldn't have pushed my luck. I don't know if all of the chipsets on these boards are chipped, but I'm guessing that a good portion are. The chipset HSF is held on with pins and very weak springs. This allows it to rock back and fourth without much pressure. I don't even want to think about what these boards go through that would rock the HSF all over enough to crush all four corners. I heard that it was a known issue from gvblake22, but he hasn't had any problems, and the first board I bought appears to be working just fine. The board is a great budget board, when working! Maybe I just got unlucky, but if boards are getting shipped out with chipped chipsets, working or not, either way, it's not a good thing. It only takes one bad board to ruin someone's day, so I figured I'd make a thread. I hope this was helpful to some people. Spend a few extra bucks and get a Gigabyte, MSI, or Abit. I don't know if the same thing is happening to higher-end VNF4 boards, maybe not, but why take a chance? CPU: Opteron 170 @ 2.70GHz (270x10) Vcore=1.425V Mobo: DFI Lanparty UT nF4 SLI-DR Expert RAM: 2x 512 OCZ PC-4800 EL Elite CL2.5-4-4-10 2T (1:1) Video: ATi Radeon X1900XT PSU: FSP Group FX700-GLN 700W My Heatware

December 24th, 2005	#4
GV2NIX Official HL Legal Counsel Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: New York, NY Posts: 136	I would take a pic of the chipset on the board that works, but I'm too afraid that I'll render it inoperable in the process, haha! I'm sure gvblake's picture will suffice. Glad this was of help. :) CPU: Opteron 170 @ 2.70GHz (270x10) Vcore=1.425V Mobo: DFI Lanparty UT nF4 SLI-DR Expert RAM: 2x 512 OCZ PC-4800 EL Elite CL2.5-4-4-10 2T (1:1) Video: ATi Radeon X1900XT PSU: FSP Group FX700-GLN 700W My Heatware

January 27th, 2006	#7
GV2NIX Official HL Legal Counsel Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: New York, NY Posts: 136	Wow... Yeah, that's pretty much how both of mine looked. I guess there's a fine line between chipsets that look like that and work and those that don't. I probably chipped it one or two angstroms more by taking off the HSF on the second one and that was enough to kill it. Bad luck... Amazing that they could even function with such severely crushed corners to begin with. :( CPU: Opteron 170 @ 2.70GHz (270x10) Vcore=1.425V Mobo: DFI Lanparty UT nF4 SLI-DR Expert RAM: 2x 512 OCZ PC-4800 EL Elite CL2.5-4-4-10 2T (1:1) Video: ATi Radeon X1900XT PSU: FSP Group FX700-GLN 700W My Heatware

LinkBacks (?) LinkBack to this Thread: http://forums.hardwarelogic.com/f12/warning-about-chaintech-vnf4-15.html
Posted By	For	Type	Date
Most Popular Sites	This thread	Refback	February 26th, 2007 06:08
Most Popular Sites	This thread	Refback	February 11th, 2007 23:57

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
UPS Virus Warning!!!	stinger608	HL Lounge	5	July 24th, 2008 05:37
Warning (ST!X)...	One4yu2c	HL Lounge	8	July 13th, 2007 20:55
What should I do? RANT WARNING. :)	wtcnbrwndo4u	HL Lounge	44	June 20th, 2007 18:18
Weird warning	Jokerswild	Troubleshooting	21	December 19th, 2006 06:22
Chaintech AV-710 PCI Sound Card 7.1	fps justin	Peripherals	8	December 10th, 2006 19:31

December 24th, 2005	#2
killswitch83 Village Idiot Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: South Carolina Posts: 226	some good info there GV, thanks a lot for it :D I knew Chaintech had their "things", but a chipped chipset? How did that get past their QA dept, especially in that amount?

December 24th, 2005	#3
gvblake22 Modder-ator Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Tempe Desert Posts: 6,417 Blog Entries: 1	Yes, I can actually attest to this. My VNF4 ultra shipped directly from the Chaintech RMA warehouse with the corners of the chipset all ground up from the heatsink wobbling around on top of it. But it seems to work just fine, so I guess it doesn't seem to matter :? I actually took some picutres of it. I'll see if I can upload them when I get my computer back up and running. But if for some reason you do buy a VNF4 Ultra (or any Chaintech for that matter) and it doesn't work right, the Chaintech customer service is trustworthy. I have personal experience with RMA'ing a board (had a broken USB port) back to Chaintech USA and it went fine.

January 10th, 2006	#6
gvblake22 Modder-ator Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Tempe Desert Posts: 6,417 Blog Entries: 1	Sorry for the delay. I thought I lost the pictures! :o

January 28th, 2006	#9
gvblake22 Modder-ator Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Tempe Desert Posts: 6,417 Blog Entries: 1	Well, the spring pressure on the stock heatsink is actually pretty poor. The springs were really weak and it was super easy to wiggle it with your fingers. Taht was actually most of the reason why is was so messed up now that I think about it. If the pressure was more, it probably wouldn't have moved around as much and wouldn't have caused so much damage. Also, I think either Chaintech or nVidia should have realized this could be a problem and placed some kind of a shim around the core of the chipset. Even just some of those little pieces of foam would have probably been enough to keep the heatsink from rocking back and forth on the edges of the chipset core its self.