Frustrating RMA problems (7950GT AGP)

[oshout]

Hello,

I've been a frequent lurker of the board in the past few months.

The 7950GT AGP XFX card I've recently purchased from newegg worked for about a week before needing to be RMA'd. It was artifacting at POST

After I got that RMA back, as soon as I plugged it up, it was having the same problems-- artifacts at post.

When I say artifacts, I mean to say that there are blocks of 'text' that seem to move around, colors, lines, ect. ect.

On the windows loading screen it did this really cool matrix effect in which it looked like my monitor was tearing itself apart with static conveyer belts.

Anyway, I sent in a second time and just got it back this last Friday.

A week from then, I'm having the same exact problem. I'm tired of RMA'ing the same card for the same problems. It's not free to UPS something.


[list]I play WOW on the highest quality with V. sync on which nets me a constant 60FPS and which doesn't cause my card temp.s to rise above 145F
Supreme Commander, medium/high settings


I'm not sure what I expect to be done. I mean ultimatley, I regret the purchase, in that sense I feel that there is no reason to believe the card will be fixed the next time it's sent in ($270 card + $50 in shipping- wasted), and that I would of been better getting a cheaper PCI-E card and a PCI-E mobo.


Does anyone know what the chances are XFX will exchange this AGP card for a similarly priced PCI-E?

[xfxsupport]

Hmm, sorry to hear that! If the RMA replacement is not working correctly I am sure I can help out. Start a support ticket and let me know the ticket number. I cant speak for over seas support but for North and South American customers if you have an immediate problem with an RMA replacement we will go out of our way to get the issue resolved.

[Miker]

If you blow 3 cards it is probably because of bad power going to the card. What PSU you have?

[kiwiplayer]

I went through a few 8800GTX before i finally recieved one that was fault free. Every card was reported back to me as having a fault of some kind so it wasnt my setup.
i was lucky that the store was very helpful and they tested the current card i have before sending it out.
It happens, sometimes your just unlucky enough to recieve a few bad cards, one in a million chance but it happens.

the artifacts your describing is usually bad memory, power shouldnt be the problem. your computer should have been crashing, shutting down or showing other problems with stability.
what are your system and card temps? since the cards are lasting a week before they are showing problems, ram overheating could be the reason for this.
is yours the passively cooled model or the one with a cooling fan?
if it's passively cooled then system temps and air flow are very important.
check your serial number and make sure your not recieving the same card everytime.
are you using the newegg RMA process or XFX?

Edit: it appears to be a common problem with the 7950GT AGP version. maybe XFX can help with the courier costs.

[Miker]

I have the same card... It Artifacts on POST sounds like bad power to me...

[oshout]

Unless my power supply is lieing to me, I have 2 12v rails, one with 19 amps and one with 20.

I have the video card on it's own rail with out anything else. I have a large heatsink for my CPU that cools down the whole case; when I used speedfan to watch my temps, it stayed at about 145 at a 'normal' load, and the highest I ever saw it was 165.

I did however note that Norton System Benchmark gave my computer a tiny 2d processing score-- so small that it didn't even register on their benchmark (something like a .46 out of a possible 700)-- on the benchmarks I ran using Futuremark (the last two cards 'crashed' while benchmarking, so I stopped using Futuremark..) I noticed that the 2d processing simulation ran horribly.

And in all (3) the computer has hard locked during the game Supreme Commander, which forces me to restart to find fragments at post. I read elsewhere on the forums that people's videocards broke in a similar way after playing the same game.. Maybe it's requiring 2-d rendering (it does that) and the card can't handle it??

I am using XFX for support for the card repairs (opposed to newegg) and I am also receiving the same card back after an RMA.

My ram has passive cooling on it (system ram) (2g system ram)
My Processor has a huge heatsink, and like i said earlier my temps are all low/acceptable
The card I have has a fan, it's not the passive cooling model..

I submitted a ticket, the number is 115672

Thanks for your help and your solutions are greatly appreciated!

[kiwiplayer]

so everytime you RMA the card to XFX, you recieve exactly the same back? same serial number?I have a large heatsink for my CPU that cools down the whole casedo you have any case fans? is there air flow in the computer?
supreme commander could be causing your video card ram to over heat if you dont have enough case air flow. just a thought :grin:

[Miker]

These cards have so many problems it is like a 1/100000 chance to get the same problem 3 times in a row. There is probably something in your system that is blowing the cards.

PSU (sounds good though)
Airflow?

[Xero (1)ne]

It kinda sounds like what I went through on another computer that had an old monitor on it. Try using a different monitor or checking your cables. Also, what airflow do you have in the case because these cards get extra hot so it's no surprise if their overheating.

[oshout]

Try using a different monitor or checking your cables.
Envision EFT950, or something like that. It's not that old, but the connection is analog. I would try another monitor but I don't have a decent one handy.


Also, what airflow do you have in the case because these cards get extra hot so it's no surprise if their overheating.
I have one (80) infront of my HD's, blowing air in
One (80) at the top, sucking air out
one (120) on the CPU, with a huge heatsync that blows into the 'airpath' of the exhaust fan
one (120) on my PSU that is an exhaust for the CPU as well
One (80) on the back of my case which blows even more air at the CPU, but also cools down the ram, Northbridge and helps the videocard some.

I did have a case fan on the side of my case that blew air in (at the card), but my CPU heatsink is so large that the mech. that holds the fans on the side, won't fit. My card crashed while I had the fan on the side (before the large heatsink) and I did a temp. test recently, which showed the GPU at 145 load (as stated above). The cards exhaust points toward my HD's which is then taken away by the case exhaust.

so everytime you RMA the card to XFX, you recieve exactly the same back? same serial number?
Yes, or I should say that it has the same invisible 'mark' I put on the first card i sent in. ( I do that with all my RMA's, call me paranoid)

[Sadasius]

I doubt very much it has anything to do with his computer. I am on my second RMA myself and I can tell you that I have one of the most stable computers on the planet because of all the quality gear plus all the precautions taken. The card has something wrong with it and he is not the only one who had to RMA this card several times over. In fact some people have given up on this card and just did not bother to RMA anymore. The card is getting discontinued obviously as all the vendors are starting to pull the card from their shelves due to the card being so faulty. Even TigerDirect has pulled it as well as Newegg.

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=2234&msg=3013023

So when it comes to him RMA'ing this card 3 times....No it is not impossible nor improbable as this card is faulty to begin with. Too many RMA's. Heck even the reviewer from this site got a first card that was a dud right from the start. My first card was a dud as well from the start and the second card lasted a week and a half. That does not say much for this card. A friend of mine went and bought a 1950XT instead after seeing what I went through with this card. I am trying to be as good a sport as possible with this card but it is rather hard to keep a smile when you shelled out almost $500 for a broken card, after market cooling and a mess of shipping fees and having nothing to see for your troubles.

***EDIT***
In point of fact when I get my new card I doubt it will last as well and when it goes belly up like the others previous I am going to ask to trade in for a motherboard instead. I need to upgrade and instead of taking a loss with this sytem I might as well turn it into a positive for a new system. I dont' know if they will do that but I have to try and salvage something somewhere here.

[kiwiplayer]

it has the same invisible 'mark' I put on the first card i sent in. ( I do that with all my RMA's, call me paranoid) well that sucks, I would've thought the card would have been completly replaced since it was new. atleast we all now know why it's consistantly the same problem, it's exactly the same card.
does the serial number match the same serial number you used to open a ticket?
If so either your card is testing as okay or theres an incompatibility with your mobo. are you using the latest bios for your mobo?

personally, i think it's the card thats at fault considering it appears to be the most common fault that the 7950GT has.

hopefully XFX support can help you get the problem sorted out, even sort out a different replacement card :smile:

[xfxsupport]

Yes, or I should say that it has the same invisible 'mark' I put on the first card i sent in. ( I do that with all my RMA's, call me paranoid)

This statement is untrue, each RMA you have had you have received a totally different video card as a replacement. I will admit and apologize that you have needed multiple RMA's in this situation, but not once have you received the same card as a replacement. We only do this when we can not duplicate the customers problem and we make it well known that we are sending their video card back to them (even then often we will send a replacement card to help the troublshoot their problem)

[Sadasius]

I will have to agree with Shannon here on this. I cannot believe that they would send you the same card. It would not make sense business wise as you will have to keep shipping it back and they shipping it back to you creating cost for no reason. The reason why it is the same serial is because they change the sticker I believe on the card so that you keep the same serial for your guarantee. They did this on mine as well.

Despite how much I dislike this card in particular I cannot and will not believe that statement as well. XFX support is awesome and if it were not for that I think I would have went nuts by now. They bend over backwards to make you happy.

[xfxsupport]

His replacement video cards have all had different serial numbers.

[oshout]

I've just noticed that the mark I made is duplicated all over the card (it was a permanent marker dot on the side of the card). So I may of confused my mark for that which the card may endure normally.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you guys out to be the bad guys. I understand that issues come up, and I am willing to take blame unto my computer, if it is truly my fault.

When I last talked to the XFX Ticket Tech, he said that I must of had really bad luck to have two bad cards and after reviewing my system specs, he didn't think it was my system causing the problem.

[xfxsupport]

Its totally understandable in your situation to get a little defensive, however I didnt want other readers to think that happens. I will be teaming with the support staff to get your video card here (I will tell them to send a shipping label if you live in the US) to get it here. I will also take a closer look at your RMA/ticket history to see if its possible something is causing this issue for you.