SK22 weird shutdown problem

[SHUTTLE - Eric Wang]

Re: SK22 weird shutdown problem

Glad we we have finally figured out the problem.

[MrRubbs]

Re: SK22 weird shutdown problem

Hi Guys,
We've now RMA'd 13 of the SK22's (no thats not a typo - 13 out of 90 !). The last 12 have been returned this last week as barebones(case + motherboard), a complete waste of time, effort and packaging. They all exhibit the same fault (in varying degrees). I hope that within a month we'll have some working PC's with the original cases (cases were security marked, with a windows COA sticker on!), yet another good reason for returning/swapping just motherboards!
We may have to think carefully about using Shuttles in the future, we've had terrible trouble with the SK22's, also a LOT of trouble with SK83's with fan problems, and further back in time SK61's have now started developing similar fan/cooling problems.
Please, get the reliability problems with Fans/fan controllers/cooling fixed!
Regards,
Dave.

[SHUTTLE - Eric Wang]

Re: SK22 weird shutdown problem

so you RMA'd 12 SK22s and 12 have been returned and they still have the same problem?
Thank you for your feedback, i will let HQ know about this.

[MrRubbs]

Re: SK22 weird shutdown problem

Hi Eric,
I've returned them through our supplier, so they've now had all 13 ( 1 a few weeks ago, then the final 12 recently). At present we've had non returned to us, but should get one back within the next 2 weeks(I hope).
They all exhibited the same fault in varying degrees, and the ones I returned have either had the Q bios on or later and then some will have been reverted back to the original N bios(depending on how much testing I did!).
It would have been nice for AMD/Shuttle to work together to come up with a BIOS fix, but on the ones I tested it didn't look as if the main bios code was executed at all. Have the Engineers that designed the motherboards designed a shut down mechanism that protects the CPU in case of overheating, that doesn't require the CPU to be active, and do the front panel lights indicate the status of the fault?
I only hope that someone can better describe the fault process, because my concern now is for the rest of the SK22's. Will some of those fault once the ambient temperature rises sufficiently?
If the fault mechanism is sufficiently well understood, could we bypass the fault by changing the value of an onboard resistor/thermistor/diode etc?
I only hope that by the warmer months, we know the scale of the problem!

Regards,

Dave.

[SHUTTLE - Eric Wang]

Re: SK22 weird shutdown problem

I think the best way to try fix this problem is by sending one of your faulty machines to our branch in California. There's a new BIOS rev T, not sure if your still keen on trying. But sending it back to our branch and having the tech support there help you, problems on their side will be automatically directed back to our FAEs.

[MrRubbs]

Re: SK22 weird shutdown problem

Hi Eric,
All 13 of the faulty SK22's are now with our supplier (can I mention who they are?), and so far we've not had any more of the remaining ones exhibit the same fault.
It's very likely that the supplier will return these to Shuttle (I'm not certain which branch(UK or Europe) they will be sent to. These will then be tested and hopefully we will them have good/working SK22's returned to us.
In 25 years of working with computers I've never had so many faults in one batch (sorry-there was the Fujitsu 10G hard drive failures several years back which was rather inconvenient, and the Sony Li-ion batteries recently-what is happening to stress testing/accelerated aging testing?).
If you need any further details I could contact our supplier an ask if they could email those details to you, I have all the serial numbers but I don't know how easy it would be for you Globally trace where in Shuttle the faulty SK22's have been sent to!

Last and Final Update(8th June 2011)

In the UK the Shuttles where repaired by Enta Group(Entatech).

Almost ALL of the Sk22's have failed in some shape or form, another common developing problem has been the PSU's failing due to Leaky/blown electrolytic Capacitors, this has lead to some PC's only booting up if the network lead was disconnected, if the PSU is repaired replaced then these Shuttles continued working(or developed into Blowers), others failing completely.

Several years on we've not bought a shuttle PC since the SK22 incident.

Thanks for your help Eric,
Regards,
Dave.