ABIT Computer said Friday it admits certain issues with it mainboards, and claimed its most-recent products were problem-free, following lawsuits launched Thursday.

The firm said it would reimburse or repair free of charge some of its outdated mainboards for its clients, but said it mends its products based on certain documents and experts’claims and provided that those mainboards were not tortured by overclockers – enthusiasts who practice rising mainboards and processors clock-speeds in a bid for high performance.

ABIT Admits Faulty Capacitors

“ABIT admits certain issues and will mend certain mainboards, but the company is sure that the products produced after October, 2002, are virtually problem-free,” ABIT USA spokesperson told X-bit labs.

On Thursday a group of enthusiasts announced a lawsuit that alleged ABIT Computer Group of knowingly using faulty capacitors. The plaintiffs sought ABIT to repair certain of its mainboards.

“The Class Representative alleges in this Action that ABIT Computer (USA) Corporation (“ABIT”) manufactured, marketed, and sold select models of its motherboards containing an allegedly defective component, namely, a capacitor, which was allegedly prone to failure. ABIT has denied and continues to deny these allegations and has asserted a number of affirmative defences,” states lawsuit which copy was published over a web-site on Thursday.

ABIT USA said it would only mend mainboards that were acquired from official USA dealers, which must be proved by documents. The firm said: “The proof of purchase is required to demonstrate eligibility. Proof of purchase is a receipt or an invoice.”

The Court will hold a Fairness Hearing at the Rene C. Davidson Alameda County Courthouse 1225 Fallon Street, Oakland, California at 11AM on June 1, 2005 to determine whether the settlement is fair, reasonable, and adequate and should be finally approved.

Leaking and Exploding Capacitors – Industry-Wide Issue

Leaking, exploding and deforming capacitors on conventional mainboards is an issue that has been around for years. However, in the last 12 to 48 months the problem has become pretty big as modern chips consume a lot of energy and the risk of capacitors’ failure became extremely serious.

A number of companies, namely ABIT, ASUS and MSI, recently engaged plethora of measures to avoid problems with capacitors by utilizing only quality components and perform exhaustive testing before mainboard go into mass-production. ABIT has been supplying mainboards with revamped power-circuitry since 2002 calling this technology BulletProof, while ASUS opted to use expensive capacitors on its latest mainboards for Intel and AMD processors after discovering certain issues with previous product lineup. MSI recently said its mainboards had passed rigorous TÜV Saarland torture tests.

In mid-2004 a suit against Microstar International was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by Electronic Connection Services Corporation that accused MSI of knowingly using capacitors, devices used to regulate the power supply to microchips, that can leak or even explode and cause mainboards to short-circuit. The suit, which seeks to cover any person or company in the United States who has made a wholesale or retail purchase of an MSI mainboard since 1999, seeks unspecified damages and restitution and other relief. Additionally, the suit put doubts on MSI’s ability to ship durable mainboards.