Now that my Gigabyte motherboard CMOS/BIOS is half-dead and no longer functioning, I find it a tad irritating to have to update / adjust the Vista time in order for it to its automated functions like Windows update, Kapersky anti-virus update, and all the other essential automatic updates. Since they all rely on the system clock to determine when it should trigger itself to download the required software and data to run. So it is kind of troublesome to this everytime, not to mention it can’t reboot without resulting in black screen unless I shut off the main power to clear the CMOS.

Since the Gigabyte motherboard is more than 1 year old, All IT will charge a handling fee of RM$30 for taking the motherboard to the agent for warranty claim although the warranty for it is 3 years. I thought I could save the RM$30 by bringing the motherboard directly to the agent themselves, and got the contact number from All IT support staff.

It seems there are two distributor for Gigabyte in Malaysia, so depending on the motherboard version, I will have to contact the correct one for warranty claim. However All IT only have one number in their phone book so I took that one and gave it a shot. The distributor was called Nation-Tech Sdn Bhd, calling them up they said they were agent for the Intel versions of the Gigabyte motherboards, and I should contact their counterpart namely Inforce Sdn Bhd who are the distributor for AMD versions of Gigabyte motherboards.

Ok, after getting the contact details from Nation-Tech, I called up Inforce and inquired about the warranty claim. And surprise, surprise! Though they are the authorised agent to distribute AMD versions fo Gigabyte, they still need to sent it back to Nation-Tech for parts replacement! I can’t go directly to Nation-Tech because I need to register the warranty claim with Inforce first. This is a very unusual arrangment, but I guess I have no choice but to follow their procedure.

And since my motherboard is rather old model, I think it came out around year 2007 since the BIOS date showed that date in the error message, Nation-Tech may or may not have replacement parts. If they don’t have, they will need to send it all the way back to Taiwan! All in it would probably take about one month or so to get my PC to its original state.

Hmm… If I didn’t want to wait, my alternate idea was just to buy another motherboard for replacement. A quick visit to the All IT store during lunch time, I checked some of the motherboards available. I couldn’t find one that is suitable, because if too cheap, it didn’t have support for Firewire, and the better priced versions do not support the AMD Athlon CPU. AMD is moving more towards the tri-core Phenom versions and many motherboards support only those chips.

So looks like my best bet is to claim warranty and have to do without a desktop PC until it was all fixed. Sigh…

Gigabyte distributor/agent contact:
1) Nation-Tech S/Bhd
Lot 16556 Jalan 20, Taman Kencana
Cheras, Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-4280 6636

2) Inforce Sdn Bhd
Block A, 7-3-1, Megan Corp Park
Jalan 2/125E, Taman Desa Petaling, Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-9058 9011