You’d think that a company that sells motherboards directly to desktop PC manufacturers would have a little faith that those users can build a PC. This is apparently not the case for Asrock, at least on some variants of their high-end motherboards for the new AMD AM5 socket. Several Reddit users have opened up their X670E motherboards to find a huge sticker covering the RAM DIMM slots, which in at least some cases caused damage to the slots when the user removed it.
According to Reddit posts identified by TechSpot, the sticker is ostensibly a guide to installing RAM. It shows you where to put single or dual DIMMs if you are not using all four slots simultaneously and how long to expect the first (very time consuming) boot based on how much memory is installed. All useful information and maybe it’s understandable that Asrock wants to highlight it – maybe too many people were returning motherboards after putting a DIMM in the wrong slot and seeing the computer fail to boot.
But there had to be a better solution than placing a piece of paper directly on top of hundreds of sensitive electrical contacts, complete with sticker. Several users have reported that the sticker ripped when they removed it, leaving behind a sticky residue and an incredibly delicate cleaning job. Buyers ready to assemble new, lightning-fast Ryzen 7000 desktops with these very expensive motherboards weren’t amused. Some got lucky removing the stickers by applying heat beforehand, but others were left with a sticky mess that rendered their RAM slots inoperable.
The story has a happy, or at least satisfying, ending. An official statement from Asrock says the company will accept exchanges on motherboards that have sticker residue in the RAM slots. It also says that an updated BIOS version solves the long initial boot problem and therefore new motherboards will not come with the sticker. Still, it’s an embarrassing illustration of what can happen when you don’t trust your customers.
