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If you have the new Hero board, check this component: (shown here) If the component has the stripe on the right side, you should be perfectly fine. If you have a motherboard with the component in the wrong orientation (stripe on the left side), disconnect the board from power immediately and stop using it. It is a fire hazard. Continue reading for more information on why you need to do this.
There have been two reported types of this component: the 150 one (shown here) and this G157 with variants (shown here). Both are aluminum poly capacitors, and they need the stripe to be on the right side in order to function properly.
See this video for more information on how this component causes the damage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VkO4wiEAY4
If your board has the stripe on the left side of the chip:
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Disconnect the board from power immediately.
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Proceed with caution.
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You have three safe options:
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Wait for official confirmation of this being the issue. (Do not use it or connect it to power if you choose this route)
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Return the board.
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If you cannot return the board for whatever reason, you can try to warranty it through ASUS, although this is not recommended. Past experience has shown that ASUS will do everything possible to fail or reject the warranty, so its probably not worth it to attempt this.
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Be careful with whatever route you choose.
TLDR: If this component: (shown here) has the stripe on the right side, you are fine. If the stripe is on the left, disconnect the motherboard from power immediately.
In regards to your 3rd suggestion:
As much as I've enjoyed Asus products, their "support" department is, by far, one of the WORST that I've ever dealt with. It is beyond frustrating to request ANYTHING from ASUS Support. So much so, that after my last interaction, I'm now considering never purchasing anything ASUS-related again.
It seems that at some point over the last decade, someone up high in ASUS decided they need to cut quality control and support costs and it's slowly been affecting their products and service.
After my last ordeal, I emailed the CEO's office, per their website's suggestion, to point out how backwards their support system is and why it was such a bad experience as a customer, made some logical suggestions for improvement, and all I got for a reply was something along the lines of "We're sorry you had a bad experience. Is there anything else I can help you with?"
I swear, they either don't care, or have extremely low reading comprehension skills.
IMO, returning is the safest/least stressful course of action to take, if possible. I've been screwed by a couple Newegg Shuffle bundles, so hopefully not to many people have that holding them back...
ASUS Announcement Regarding Maximus Z690 Hero Issue
To our valued ASUS Customers,
ASUS is committed to producing the highest quality products and we take every incident report from our valued customers very seriously. We have recently received incident reports regarding the ROG Maximus Z690 Hero motherboard. In our ongoing investigation, we have preliminarily identified a potential reversed memory capacitor issue in the production process from one of the production lines that may cause debug error code 53, no post, or motherboard components damage. The issue potentially affects units manufactured in 2021 with the part number 90MB18E0-MVAAY0 and serial number starting with MA, MB, or MC.
You can identify your part number by referring to the product packaging: Please reference the attached image
As of December 28, 2021, there have been a few incidents reported in North America. Going forward, we are continuing our thorough inspection with our suppliers and customers to identify all possible affected ROG Maximus Z690 Hero motherboards in the market and will be working with relevant government agencies on a replacement program.
Thank you so much to everyone for your patience and support while we are working through the replacement program.
If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact ASUS customer service.
As noted - Based on our ongoing review no other ASUS Z690 motherboards are affected including FORMULA.
To our valued ASUS Customers,
ASUS is committed to producing the highest quality products and we take every incident report from our valued customers very seriously. We have recently received incident reports regarding the ROG Maximus Z690 Hero motherboard. In our ongoing investigation, we have preliminarily identified a potential reversed memory capacitor issue in the production process from one of the production lines that may cause debug error code 53, no post, or motherboard components damage. The issue potentially affects units manufactured in 2021 with the part number 90MB18E0-MVAAY0 and serial number starting with MA, MB, or MC.
You can identify your part number by referring to the product packaging:
Furthermore, we now have an online tool that offers you a quicker way to verify if your board.
The tool is hosted on the website - https://www.asus.com/support/rog-maximus-z690-hero-checking
As of December 28, 2021, there have been a few incidents reported in North America. Going forward, we are continuing our thorough inspection with our suppliers and customers to identify all possible affected ROG Maximus Z690 Hero motherboards in the market and will be working with relevant government agencies on a replacement program.
Thank you so much to everyone for your patience and support while we are working through the replacement program.
If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact ASUS customer service.
ASUS North American Support contact options -
ASUS Support Website - https://www.asus.com/us/support/
ASUS Online Chat - https://icr-am.asus.com/webchat/icr.html...
ASUS MyASUS App - You can use via Windows or Android or iOShttps://www.asus.com/us/support/MyASUS-deeplink/
Best regards,
The ASUS Team
Recently Asus has opened preorders on an evangelion theme maximus z690 hero. I’m a huge eva fan so i think ima buy the board regardless but that price mark (about $700 USD) is way more than i’m used to for motherboards. I’m also only used to AMD.
How does this compare to $200 boards like the Aorus b550 pro? Is a motherboard like this really good? I want to feel better about my purchase.
Also if anyone knows, will the price go down?
thanks beforehand!
Got a z690 maximus hero with the cap being reverse. Should i just wait it out to see what asus says or replace it for another one from Newegg (cant return as its a combo). Got till February to replace.
I wouldn't think twice about replacing it, and I definitely wouldn't use it unless you want to risk a house fire.
Stop using it, mine popped yesterday and ASUS is refusing to acknowledge the issue directly. its not worth the risk. Ive posted everywhere about the issues ive had, lets wait and see what happens. Ill update my reddit post when ASUS gets back to me if you are interested in seeing what happens.
What ram and Pentium Chip does reddit recommend?
Should I wait for 13900k (24 cores) Pentium Chip or 13700k (16 cores) - last chip for this board before next gen boards
New chips do not release until October 20th. OR just save money and buy a 12700k (12 cores)
Anyone have a Z690 Asus motherboard?
Ram is confusing. DDR5 bc this board requires DDR5 and prefer G Skill/Trident RGB.
Maybe this ram?...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09MYK7BVZ/ref=ox_sc_saved_image_3?smid=A3TOECTKC4OEBD&psc=1
Some people say not to get 4 sticks and just get two sticks bc of hardware issues. I don't really know much about timings and latency. There are just so many choices...
Debating between 64gb ram or 128gb ram
This is all paired for 3090 Eva Asus and saving money for OLED TV.
Can anyone please kindly help? Thank you!
Hi all,
I'm at wits end here since all I did was update the BIOS when giving my machine a fresh Windows install.
I went to update to Build 4505 (Up from one of the earlier 4xxx or later 3xxx) and my system won't POST out of "SAFE Mode."
I did not do any hardware upgrades. I did not do any hardware changes. I never overclock and prior to attempting to update BIOS and reinstall Windows, my machine was flawless for the past 2 years.
Any ideas please?
Mobo: ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 HERO
RAM: 2x Dual-Channel 16GB (total 4x sticks for 64GB RAM over two RAM sets)
CPU: Intel 12900K Alder Lake
I built this system back in 2022 and it's been great, up until now.
Help! I work from home and depend on this machine for work :(
Hey everyone,
Right now I'm doing a PC build using a 12900k/rtx 3090 and am still torn between motherboards: the strix-e or the hero. I'm aware of the issues that the hero's have been having with reverse capacitors, but I've just noticed that ram speed for the strix-e tops out at 6400, whereas the hero has 6400+.
If I was trying to ensure I don't need to replace this mobo for a while, should I not upgrade to the hero? Or is it not worth it, especially given the issues going on with that board right now.
Thank you!
Are you dead set on Intel? Have you looked at the Crosshair VIII Extreme yet?
Personally, I'd wait on the Hero until they've figured out the capacitor issue though from what I recall reading about it, it was only a certain batch and not all of them are having the problem.
What are you using it for that the ram speed of 6400+ will mean that much?
What about the eVGA motherboard line?
https://www.anandtech.com/show/16970/the-intel-z690-motherboard-overview-over-50-new-models-with-ddr5-support/21
So recently I just bought me a rog maximus z690 hero WiFi mobo, and I bought some corsair ddr5 64gb at 5200mhz I got a two pack so it’s 128gb total, each stick is 32bs, any ways I’m pretty frustrated to say the least with the whole ram compability, simple Question will this ram work with this board or will it not??? I didn’t see it on the Asus recommendation list etc so this is why I’m all bummed out thinking I just waisted my money… please can someone enlighten me.
I know that its proper socket, but when I look at the motherboard to purchase, it only lists 12th and 13th gen. As far as my understanding goes its the proper socket and the bios will be the same, are there any drawbacks from getting this Z690 for a 14900k vs the newer Z790?
Motherboards in question:
https://www.newegg.com/asus-rog-maximus-z790-dark-hero/p/N82E16813119660
https://www.newegg.com/asus-rog-maximus-z690-hero/p/13-119-504?Item=13-119-504&cm_sp=product-_-from-price-options
Don't really use Wifi either, so don't care about Wifi7
Edit: I guess the only real difference between the z790 and z690 are just better PCIe compatibility, basically faster ram speeds. Seems like it doesn't really matter what motherboard you get if peripherals aren't important factors.
I ordered my PC on 12/23 with an expected ship date of 1/24. When the Hero motherboards got recalled earlier this month my order got put on hold with a possible ETA of 2/3 for the motherboards. The representative is unsure if 2/3 is completely set in stone because of the possibility of supply chain issues. However, I was told that they could switch the Z690 Hero to a Strix Z690-E and get my order out by the end of this week.
Is the Hero motherboard worth waiting additional weeks for or is the Strix-E just as good? I've been PC-less for about a month and a half now and I pretty much need a computer soon or I'll fall behind this college semester (well that, but foremost, I miss having a computer in general). I'm getting a bit antsy, but I don't want to make the wrong decision so I'm asking for your opinion. I do plan on overclocking the system and getting the most out of it.
Hyper Liquid Alloy Black Mamba:
CASE: LIAN LI PC-O11 Dynamic XL Full-Tower
MOTHERBOARD: Asus ROG Maximus Hero Z690 (or Strix Z690-E Gaming Wifi)
CPU: Intel i9-12900K
GPU: GeForce RTX 3090
RAM: 32GB 6000Mhz DDR5
STORAGE: 2TB Seagate® FireCuda® 530 Heatsink (PCIe Gen4) NVMe M.2 SSD
+ 2 more NVMe SSDs and a HDD I will install myself.
POWERSUPPLY: Corsair RM1000X 80 PLUS Gold certified
Got a near identical bulls and purchased it yesterday. 5000 about after the 5% discount code. Yours ship? And how long should I expect to wait? And congrats on that build. I myself got the strix since other Maximus was a bit out of my price range and the I also heard about the hero delay.
Geez, this is a gorgeous build and I’m jealous.
Both motherboards seem perfectly feasible for the other components, but I understand why you may want to stick with the higher-end of the two. I assume CPPC will compensate you for the difference in price.
My question is, of the features of the Z690 Hero that the Strix Z690-E is missing, is there anything in particular that you feel strongly about having that you think you would miss out on?
I guess the Hero would be marginally better for heavy overclocking, but with the 12900k you would have to set up some VERY powerful cooling solutions before you max out either board without running into temp issues with the CPU.
Honestly this is hard to compare because all of these specs are so high-end that you’re really cherry-picking for some very diminishing returns.
Edit: Whatever you go with, please post pics of the final build. I would love to see how this gorgeous beast turns out.