ASRock's X670 Motherboards Have Numerous Issues… With DRAM Stickers

This one is likely to go down ASRock’s internal history as a failure of sticking proportions. Namely, it seems that some ASRock motherboards in the newly-released AM5 X670 / X670E family carry stickers overlaid on the DDR5 slots. The idea was to provide users with a handy, visually informative guide on DDR5 memory stick installations and a warning on abnormally long boot times that were to be expected, according to RAM stick capacity. But it seems that these low-quality stickers are being torn apart as users attempt to remove them, leaving behind remnants that are extremely difficult to clean up and which can block DRAM installation entirely or partially. I, for one, would never install a DDR5 module if I thought there was a chance for some paper bits to have fallen on to the DRAM slots – paper and glue bits within the DRAM slots don’t seem particularly conducive to a successful motherboard POST.

In the meantime, the company has already announced that it’s not only aware of the problem, it’s willing to accept RMAs for motherboards that sport the impossible-to-cleanly-peel stickers (consumers should contact their retailers and e-tailers for the exchange). Information around forums where this issue is being discussed don’t seem to point to any instance of actual motherboard damage resulting from the stickers – enough patience or an entire motherboard exchange seem to be two solutions to this problem. The company also announced that its latest motherboard batches on AMD’s X670 chipsets no longer carry the stickers themselves, due to several BIOS-level improvements that have brought down the boot times, making the informative stickers unneeded. Still, when one takes into account the consumer and company cost of activating an RMA process, it seems that the company shouldn’t have skimped on the sticker quality itself.