Recapping the Caps
It looks like the Dog was a little premature
when he announced the URL for Abit’s pend-
ing settlement over blown capacitors on its
motherboards. The URL http://www.abitsettlement.com
is correct, but the web site wasn’t yet online
last month. It’s expected to be up by the time
you read this column. If you missed last month’s
column, motherboard manufacturer Abit has
tentatively agreed to settle a lawsuit alleging
its motherboards used faulty capacitors. The
settlement applies to the following Abit boards:
BE6, BE6II, BF6, BX-133, KA7, KA7-100, SE6, VH6,
VH6II, VH6T, VP6, KT7-RAID, KT7A, KT7A-raid,
VL6, VT6X4, SA6R, and BX133-RAID, purchased
between 1999 and now. Owners of these boards
will be eligible for an extended warranty and
repairs resulting from failed capacitors. Folks
who had their boards repaired prior to the
settlement may be eligible for a reimbursement.
For more information visit http://www.abitsettlement.
com. For real, this time... hopefully.AMD Remarking
A bust in Asia should remind consumers to
exercise a modicum of caution when buying
CPUs. Taiwan police reportedly seized some
60,000 Athlon XP and Athlon 64 CPUs that had
been “remarked,” or counterfeited. In this
case, the scallywags somehow got their mittson CPUs earmarked as defective and were
remarking them for higher speeds and thus
higher profits, according to the news site
DigiTimes.com. The CPUs might have been
stolen from an AMD plant, but that hasn’t been
confirmed. As many as 1 million remarked
CPUs could have been shipped to Germany
and China, according to news reports. None
of these chips are known to be bound for
American soil, but it’s nonetheless wise to take
precautions whenever you purchase a proces-sor. Here are a few simple tips
to keep in mind:
4 Buy a retail-boxed pro-
cessor if possible. Most of the
remarking targets OEM, or tray,
processors that come without
the packaging. Although this
isn’t a 100-percent guarantee,
it’ll greatly lower your risk and
give you AMD’s three-year war-
ranty to boot.
4 Before installing your
new CPU, carefully examine it to
see if it has been tampered with.
Put the chip under a good magni-
fying glass and good light to see
if the bridges have been altered
(on an Athlon XP), and look for
any other visible signs on the
chip that don’t seem “factory.”
4 Buy from an
authorized AMD or
Intel distributor
or reseller. Or at
least buy from a store
or web site you’ve done
business with in the past and
trust. The best stores will have a liberal return
policy that doesn’t punish end users with restock-
ing fees if there’s a problem with the product.Too Good to Be True, Not
DEAR DOG: I’ve been seeing lots of “get free”
ads on the net lately, such as the ones look-
ing for “product testers.” While I’m very
confident these can’t all be true, the free
iPod announcement at http://www.freeipods.com,
seems rather convincing.
I have no idea how it can possibly work
when you don’t even need to pay to get it,
but I’ve heard friends say they’ve done it
and they only need to refer X more people
until they get their free product. Plus,
I’ve seen these ads on respectable sites. I
was wondering if the Dog could look into
both of these—the product testers and the
free iPods—and see what the deal is and if
they’re legitimate.
— AARON GINGRICHTHE DOG RESPONDS: If it’s too good to be
true, then it probably is. Except this time.
While the Dog thinks consumers’ Spidey sense
should always kick in when someone offers
“free” products, Freeipods.com is a completely
legitimate operation. The site is run by Gratis
Internet, which employs the same business
model as the people who hawk towels, t-shirts,
and mugs at football games. You know the
offer: Apply for a credit card and get a free
towel with your team’s logo on it. Only, instead
of a towel, you get an iPod.
Freeipods.com asks you to sign up for one
of several available services or products, such
as a one-month trial of Blockbuster rentals, a
subscription to USA Today, or one of several
credit-card offers or online music services.
Some of the services are free, but others aren’t.
In the case of Blockbuster, you must sign up
for one month at $9.95, with subsequent months
costing $14.99. Blockbuster, of course, hopes
you’ll like its service enough to continue to
using it beyond the first month.
Abit >AMD >Free iPod >EverythingComputing.com >Apple
Say hello to Opal,
WatchDog of the MonthWatchDog (^) Maximum PC takes a bite out of bad gear
24 MAXIMUMPC MARCH 2005
THIS MONTH: The WatchDog goes after...
Freeipods.com
appears to be
a completely
legitimate web
site from which
you can get
a free iPod if
you convince
several of your
friends to sign
up for services.
“
”
IF IT’S TOO GOOD TO BE
TRUE, THEN IT PROBABLY
IS. EXCEPT THIS TIME.