Maximum PC

Is it me or has over time hardware become way too failure prone? All of my last 5 builds have resulted in an RMA for one component or another. I can remember the first troubleshooting I had to do years ago when the ram I got was bad. Since then I have had issues with mice, motherboards, tons of video cards, power supplies and even an LCD monitor.

Are hardware RMA's the result of pushing the edge or technology or are manufactures just shipping more and more junk??

All I have to say is that is pretty dang frustrating. One of the most aggravating failures was with an R.A.T 7. Installed fine but it would not track AT ALL on my black Humanscale mouse tray. For that matter I couldn't get it to track on anything black! It worked just fine on white or any other color. Even when I exchanged it it still didn't work. What is up with that?

Anyways.

From my own personal experience, I have only had two defective products out of the box. The first was a floppy drive (which I didn't feel was worth the cost of shipping back to NewEgg for an RMA) and the second was a PSU from Corsair that had a faulty +5V rail. I RMA'ed an XFX motherboard, but only after I discovered that I had inadvertently underpowered it with a 450W PSU, so I don't count that one as being attributable to being defective out of the box. I realize that some products can arrive DOA, but I have to wonder if they really left the manufacturer that way or if they became that way due to being mishandled during shipping (yes, accidents do happen!). After reading reviews of various products on NewEgg and Amazon, I also have to wonder if the product might have been inadvertently damaged by the consumers themselves as they may not be taking enough precautions or doing enough research before attempting to install the product(s) themselves. This is particularly true of SSDs! I hear people complaining that they have issues with these devices when they try to bring their laptop or desktop systems out of sleep mode (this is due to the way certain motherboards and their BIOS revisions implement sleep mode), or they have issues with the drive dying or failing on them within a matter of days, weeks, or months after purchasing and installing them (possibly due to cheap power supplies or overclocking), etc.

Despite the possibilities mentioned above, I firmly believe that every manufacturer can and will ship the occasional lemon, or they will manage to produce a specific product (think IBM Deskstar hard drives in 2000-2001) that winds up being a spectacular failure with the consumer. Hell, Intel has made their fair share of technological flops in the past decade of so by attempting to support RDRAM or introducing the BTX formfactor concept to consumers. Most modern motherboards, videocards, and other computer components have also become more complex and demanding in their power requirements with little (or no) room for error than those that were manufactured a decade ago, so combining them with a so-called "bargain" power supply unit may also account for a product being DOA. There are just so many factors to consider that it's difficult to attribute the increase in RMAs to technology alone.

You have made some very valid points, all of which I agree with. I have under powered things and static shocked cards. And I have had my fair share of poorly packed DOA items. But even if I filter those instances I still get the impression that hardware is getting more sensitive.

One thing that has changed over the years is that I have evolved from a value based consumer to an early adopter. Toying with the newest hardware seems to have introduced an added level of troubleshooting. I have had $1200 worth of video cards that would not pass standard benchmarks.

Researching issues online you see a large amount of variable data that leads me to believe there is a growing amount of compatibilty issues. I have had motherboard manufacturers tell me a version of a CPU is not supported, or that you have to slow down RAM settings to gain stabilty. To me I feel like i am wasting my money. I have given up on Sli twice, and am at the point where I may avoid being an early adopter. I hate getting 45 minute into a skirmish only to have it crash to desktop.

I have always believed that being an early adopter of new technology brings an element of risk with it. After all, new technology is just that--new. Early adopters live on the "bleeding edge" of technology and assume the risks associated with it (including paying a premium price for having the latest and greatest motherboard, videocard, etc.) I do not consider myself an early adopter as I simply do not have the disposable income to pay for the latest hardware, and I am content to let others experiment with such before I decide to buy such items (usually after something newer takes its place and the price of the item goes down as a result).

You are correct that new technology results in more RMAs, and it is usually because there are (and always will be) bugs to work out in the new technology, no matter what form it takes. You are also correct in saying that the hardware is becoming more sensitive, both in terms of the ability to withstand physical abuse during shipping as well as any voltage issues associated with the "grid" or the power supplied to it by a less-than-reliable PSU. This is particularly true of motherboards, videocards, and SSDs. Motherboards have become more complex and have more I/O ports and headers than what they had back in 1999 when I purchased my first computer. Videocards are far more capable as well. And as someone who purchased and installed his first SSD a little over a month ago, I can tell you that they blow mechanical hard drives away in performance, but only if you do your homework and due diligence before purchasing and installing them. While I have no doubt that you know what you are doing when it comes to working with hardware, I cannot say the same thing about every one else who posts a negative review of a product that they purchased and then RMAed for one reason or another. Nonetheless, I believe that as technology moves forward, the number of RMAs (legitimate or otherwise) will tend to increase.