Asus announces a recall program for its Z690 Maximus Hero motherboards

Just prior to Christmas, reports of failures and buring components on Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Hero motherboards started to emerge. Normally an isolated incident or two wouldn’t be cause for alarm, but in the days since, more reports have emerged. After an investigation, Asus has begun preparations for a recall and replacement program, so if you’re using one of these popular boards, you might want to turn it off and seek a replacement. 

Users took to social media and the Asus ROG forum to report their experiences. One user, maximumrog57, went into detail with pictures, a couple of which we have included in this post.

The user reported that his/her board would not completely post, with a BIOS post code of 53, which signifies a RAM issue. An inspection revealed burnt components adjacent to the memory slots, which would indeed explain the failure of the memory subsystem. Other users have reported similar experiences with audible pops, burning electronic smells and system shutdowns.

Well known youtuber Buildzoid from Actually Hardcore Overclocking did some digging and reported that a specific capacitor on the Z690 Hero was incorrectly installed. Asus has since confirmed that this is the case and will offer replacements.

This is the full statement from Asus:

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.

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 iOS
https://www.asus.com/us/support/MyASUS-deeplink/

Best regards,

The ASUS Team

We're pleased to see Asus act quickly on this issue. If you've got a board from one of the affected batches, it's good to know you're covered before you have a problem. Buildzoid also deserves credit for his investigation (and having it confirmed). We reviewed G.Skill's Trident Z5 DDR5-6000 memory and have also used Team Delta DDR5-6400 and didn't come across any issue when testing on Asus' Maximus Z690 Apex. Of course, the Apex features a much different memory VRM design, so that's not surprising. We hope that this was an isolated manufacturing glitch. Hopefully users will get their replacements and it will all be in the rear view mirror soon.