Bought a 7900GS today. Exploded after 5 minutes...

[zurraspo]

Yeah...

Bought a 7900GS AGP and Installed it today:

- Boot into Linux. Everything OK, no need to reinstall driver. 3D Working fine.

- Then I boot into Windows. Asks me about drivers, insert XFX CD... no valid driver...? Ok. Ill download it... when opening Firefox, everything halted.

I touch the gfx card, it's HOT, I proceed to check if the fan is running ok... it is. Then something explodes... in my face... frightening!!

A 470uF Capacitor. Made by Evercon... off course. The board is full of evercon capacitors. Bad Quality capacitors!!! I can't understant why a Brand like XFX is risking its reputation by using such low quality caps. I paid over 180€ for the card!

I don't know if i want another card, or my money back. I don't want to get another card with the same caps. I know it will fail sooner or later.

P.S. I will try to post a photo tomorrow. It's capacitor CE3

[Scott]

Hey man, everything is man made and sometimes it breaks. I had an Asus mobo a couple of years back that had like 6 caps all go within 2 days. I am sure if you take the card back and get another you will be happy with it.

[zurraspo]

Hey man, everything is man made and sometimes it breaks. I had an Asus mobo a couple of years back that had like 6 caps all go within 2 days. I am sure if you take the card back and get another you will be happy with it.

I know, I know, nothing is perfect. But a I work at an electronics fab (engineer), and we have suffered from bad caps (chinese made) before. That's why we stopped working with chinese capacitors.

And our boards are way less complicated than a computer graphics card, so I don't understand why XFX still uses them if they want to keep their customers happy.

[jll544]

P.S. I will try to post a photo tomorrow. It's capacitor CE3

I'd be interested in seeing that photo. My 7950GT, which uses the same board design, died after only five days. I'd be willing to bet that my card also had those junk Evercon caps on it.

Like yours, my card would become very hot, even though the GPU was being cooled OK. When crashing, my screen would flicker, then fade out as if the card was losing power (even though all readings from my power supply were fine).

For those who don't know about Evercon caps, go to http://www.badcaps.net/forum/ and search for Evercon and/or GSC (their old name).

[xfxsupport]

I know, I know, nothing is perfect. But a I work at an electronics fab (engineer), and we have suffered from bad caps (chinese made) before. That's why we stopped working with chinese capacitors.

And our boards are way less complicated than a computer graphics card, so I don't understand why XFX still uses them if they want to keep their customers happy.

I would first like to say I don’t know of any inferior Chinese made capacitors and would not discriminate against products from a specific country as all countries have had bad luck with something at one point or another. Scott as usual is right and sometimes thing do fail and I am just glad you did not get injured at all. This is a freak occurrence but like all electrical items sometimes things can go wrong. If you have any problems exchanging the video card please let me know.

XFX Support

[jll544]

would not discriminate against products from a specific country as all countries have had bad luck with something at one point or another.

I agree that we should not discriminate based on country, but as with many products, there are different tiers of component manufacturers. Evercon (formerly known as GSC) has a history of producing lower-quality capacitors.

But don't take my word for it... go to the Badcaps forums and search for Evercon or GSC. It's a forum all about capacitors, and the people there are very knowledgeable:

www.badcaps.net/forum

[Schwarz]

This is the first time I hear of something like that from a videocard especially from XFX.
I've had many videocards in my computer days and never did I see something this crazy.
But like everyone says it can happen with everything right.
Anyways you'r lucky you have an XFX i'm sure if you had bought from another maker you'd have a much harder time to RMA a card with an exploded cap :p
Anyways just an exemple good thing you don't have an ASUS hahaha its so hard to get in touch with them that you'd rather just buy another one !!

[zurraspo]

I would first like to say I don’t know of any inferior Chinese made capacitors and would not discriminate against products from a specific country as all countries have had bad luck with something at one point or another. Scott as usual is right and sometimes thing do fail and I am just glad you did not get injured at all. This is a freak occurrence but like all electrical items sometimes things can go wrong. If you have any problems exchanging the video card please let me know.

XFX Support

Thanks. I'm sorry. It sounded discriminating, and I didn't want to mean that.We actually buy (a lot) some other components from them. We just had some bad experiences with some chinese brands making caps.

I know things fail, I just got angry because I couldn't even enjoy the card at all!

Today I talked to the (online) retailer. A very big and famous one in Europe.

They told me their policy didn't include bad/burnt capacitors because XFX refuses to exchange those products with them.

They even dare to tell me all brands refuse to change products with bad caps! (I told them to just google for dell and gx270... Bose ... Abit...)

I could only speak to a salesmen. An hour over the phone. Asking technicians and then reporting me back that they couldn't exchange my card. I tried to explain to him how a capacitor works, why it fails, how it fails, everything.

Their only answer: my card was out of warranty. (they offer 2 years on all their products) after just 2 days.

Ah! And I got an e-mail. I hate e-mails for this kind of things.

It sucks.

Next steps? There's some laws and offices in Europe protecting consumers from things like these. But they're slow. In the meanwhile, I will keep calling everyday, or if necessary i will drive 250 miles to their offices.

Thanks everyone.

I never had an XFX product before... just an 8800GTS I bought for a friend of mine (he's a flight simulator fan) and I liked it, that's whay I bought an XFX.

P.S. Excuse my poor English. It's not my first language as you can see.

[Scott]

Work with Shannon my XFX support guy and I am sure he will be able to help you out getting it replaced.

[zurraspo]

The Forum was hacked... I hope our passwords/emails are safe...

And some posts got deleted. Anyway I will post again the pics I take and my last findings...:

http://www.webpersonal.net/victor/pics/P1010156.JPG

http://www.webpersonal.net/victor/pics/P1010164.JPG

http://www.webpersonal.net/victor/pics/P1010165.JPG

http://www.webpersonal.net/victor/pics/P1010166.JPG

http://www.webpersonal.net/victor/pics/P1010167.JPG

http://www.webpersonal.net/victor/pics/P1010168.JPG

My findings (thanks to R&D guys):

As you can see on those pics, there are some inductors surrounding the bad capacitor. These inductors are part of a SMPS (switching power supply). That PS seems to have supplied a bad voltage to the exploding capacitor, that's why it exploded.

I don't think we can find out anything more without 'touching' the card. And i don't want to even take it out from its case...It's jinxed to me :lol::lol:

xfxsupport I will ask for a ticket today, as I have been reading some more boards about the retailer, and they are even worse at exchanging the cards (some people have been waiting more than a year for their card).

Thanks everyone at this board.

[xfxsupport]

Once you create a support ticket at www.xfxforce.com please let me know the number.


XFX Support

[zurraspo]

Once you create a support ticket at www.xfxforce.com please let me know the number.


XFX Support

ticket# 100545

Thanks again.

[Schwarz]

Nah you won't wait that long with xfx.
You'll see they are pretty fast, anyways as far as problems I have had it was fixed very rapidly.

[peti1212]

To me it sounds like the capacitor was put on reverse. I heard that capacitors explode when they are on the other way. That's my guess. But I'll bet that you will be fully satisfied with XFX support and they will fix your Video Card in no time. :)

[zurraspo]

To me it sounds like the capacitor was put on reverse. I heard that capacitors explode when they are on the other way. That's my guess. But I'll bet that you will be fully satisfied with XFX support and they will fix your Video Card in no time. :)

Yeah, I know. That's what we thought at first, but then we checked it and it seems it's placed well.

[peti1212]

Then another reason could be because it was overloaded or overvoltage. That's my guess, maybe a cheap part.

[PP Mguire]

I have to say im experiencing a similar problem with my 7950GT. In most wanted, my 3d is flickering to the point to the terrain will disappear for a few seconds and will drop my car and ill get stuck in the concrete and cant move. I also have these caps on my mobo and my dad (being an engineer as well with a masters) says the same thing about Chineese electronics. We have a friend that works at the manuf plant of Foxconn and he says the same thing as well. We just gave him a call about it like 2 minutes ago and he agrees with whats being said about Chineese electronics. Its not discriminating the country, its just a fact that they make cheap electronics, they are cheap because they are made poorly. Its simple.

Anyways, sorry Shannon might need to actualy RMA mine this time.

[zurraspo]

Received a reply from XFX support today. They told me to contact my reseller, but as I said, my reseller refuses to exchange my card.

[xfxsupport]

I have sent an email to the head of support over in Europe letting them know you are unable to return the video card to your retailer.

[zurraspo]

I have sent an email to the head of support over in Europe letting them know you are unable to return the video card to your retailer.

Thanks a lot, I told them too.

[zurraspo]

Thanks everyone at XFX, They received my card, and now are sending me a working one.

I hope I can get it soon :)

[xfxsupport]

Glad to hear everything is up an running now. If you need anything in the future, please let me know.

[PCBONEZ]

I would first like to say I don’t know of any inferior Chinese made capacitors and would not discriminate against products from a specific country as all countries have had bad luck with something at one point or another. Scott as usual is right and sometimes thing do fail and I am just glad you did not get injured at all. This is a freak occurrence but like all electrical items sometimes things can go wrong. If you have any problems exchanging the video card please let me know.

XFX Support

That's just shamefull that you aren't aware of all the faulty caps flooding out of China and Taiwan since around year 2000.
It's a VERY VERY well know issue.
Just google "bad caps" or "bad caps plague" as it's come to be known.
---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague
---
Anyone in 'the business' that isn't well aware of this problem exists with their head in the sand.

Further, Evercon is formerly GSC.
---
http://home.so-net.net.tw/gsccap/NEW/e-company%20history.htm
---
In the industry it became so well known that GSC capacitors were crap that they had to change thier name. They may well be #1 at being BAD. Certainly in the top 5.
---
Google "GSC cap". - You will see plenty...
---

XFX would have to try HARD to find worse capacitors.
[And it probably can't be done!]

.

[Sadasius]

Well this has definitely raised an eyebrow from my direction. I have also found this link that talks about the XFX 7950 gt AGP in particular.

http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=4030&highlight=XFX

It now explains a great deal of why the cards fail so early on for people. Now I am keeping my fingers crossed for a good card. But then again with the great warranty in place I do not have to worry too much I am sure. If I have to I will just get really familiar with the help center...lol