RMA status...

[dbunder]

Well, since all the threads are gone, here's a new one on my faulty 7900GT RMA debacle.

Found it was bad about a month ago. Talked with XFX (slowwwwwly). This last Thursday I got a cross shippnig form from XFX. They need it filled out and faxed or emailed back with a copy of your credit card (front and back) and your ID. They'll be shipped Fedex ground, signature required (yay!). You have 30 days to return your card to XFX. If they don't receive it within 30 days, you get charged for the card. In my case (XFX 7900GT EE), I'd be charged $280.

That's pretty much it. They're on it. :) Thanks XFX!

[tomato]

Glad to hear it's all working out, dbunder. I do hope that you have better luck with this new card ;) Keep us updated once you have received your new XFX 7900GT EE

[dbunder]

Glad to hear it's all working out, dbunder. I do hope that you have better luck with this new card ;) Keep us updated once you have received your new XFX 7900GT EE

Absolutely!

It took XFX forever, which is my only problem. I understand they had no control over shipping times of new cards, but their ticketing support was INSANELY slow. For everyone trying to get an RMA or other ticket resolved, try to get the support rep's email address and use email instead of tickets. It goes insanely fast, and the two I've dealt with are extremely nice and helpful. Hoping for a new card by the end of the week! A working one, dammit. ;) I've missed you, FEAR. And Prey, oh how I want to play the hell out of you.

I hope these new batch of cards are sold retail (I'm sure they will be), as I'll want to SLI by fall or so. Also waiting on a reply about if my new card will be clocked at 520/1500 like my faulty one is.

missing City of Villains double xp weekend...
-j

[dbunder]

New card should be coming tomorrow, providing someone is home to sign for it! Woo! I will be at a doctor's appt all day, but a housemate should be around. Failing that, the housemate will be around Tuesday. XFX required fedex to get a signature.

I sent in my required information monday, the card shipped thursday.

No word on clockspeeds, etc until I get it. XFX has been totally unresponsive to my specific questions like that. I just have to wait. I'll let you guys know. And more importantly, whether the clockspeeds are right or not, I'll let you guys know if it actually *works* after a few hours of testing. Wish me luck! The model number isn't the same as my defective one, but close enough to fear that it's the wrong clockspeed.

I have ~30 days to return my card (just the card, no included cables, manual, NOTHING) to XFX. It has to be packaged securely and in an anti-static bag or the original shell casing it was shipped in. I'm using a box I got a HDD in, packed lovingly with peanuts, and the shell casing I got my card in. They need the RMA# printed on the box, an invoice or receipt proving you purchased the card, and I believe that's it.

That's all I've got now. I hope this info is helpful to whomever else is still having issues with XFX support. I wish they had answered my questions. I'm getting my card, yes, but I know nothing about what I'm getting, and support has still been very slow. That's the only thing I'm disappointed in, and wow am I disappointed.

But I AM getting my card after weeks and weeks of unresponsive support - and providing it works and is clocked correctly - I can (almost) forgive the bad XFX support. They're helpful when they respond, but you're lucky if you even get a response sometimes.

If you have any questions, post here or PM me. I'm around a lot. ;) Sorry if I repeated any info, I'm awfully sleep deprived and about to faceplant. heh heh.

[werty316]

Greats news and hopefuly you won't be struck with bad luck twice.

[tomato]

Good to hear dbunder! Let us know how it all pans out ;)

[dbunder]

Got it! Ran it through a test that made the other bomb over and over now, and no issues whatsoever! Clocked the same, has a cool aesthetic change to the card. Uses the old firmware. The only issue I see having is it has the exact same model as the bunk cards, same revision #, so if I want to purchase another for SLI soon, I'll have no idea what I'm getting until it gets here...

[dbunder]

Hmmmmmm... not good.

Forceware 91.33, fully clean install.

3dmark 05: Full pass

3dmark 06: First 3 game tests, full pass, snow test, sometimes pass, sometimes fail. Artifacting. On the same benchmark I got *always* fail on my old card.

HL2 Lost Coast video stress test: Fail. Artifacting at various parts. Big (10x10px or so) purple and black blocks at various points during the demo.

The card is cooled well. Actually *very* well. But the XFX video ram doesn't have coolers on it in the stock configuration.

Gonna move on to some real game tests... will update.

XFX... when will you get your stuff together? Looks like you're gonna have to cross-ship me another card.

Btw, I have tried this with both the stock BIOS and the new BIOS that was posted last week.

Update 1:
---------
FEAR - Hardlocks computer after less than 30 seconds of play. I was at least able to get through about 5 minutes of play on the old card.

Update 2:
---------
City of Villains - No noticable flaws yet, but I haven't played much. I'll be happy if I can at least occupy myself with CoV whilst XFX gets me fixed up.

Prey - Won't even start without a hardlock.

Serious Sam 2 - I'm not even gonna bother installing it. I have another broken card.

I'm pretty sure they just sent me the exact same card as I had before, praying that it would work. No dice, folks. xfxsupport, one of your employees has an email, and you have a new support ticket. Get on it. Quickly. I can't even express my frustration.

Over the weekend I strenuously tested ALL my other hardware. HDD, CPU, memory, everything else there's a test for. Everything is working at 100%. So no blame on my other hardware.

[dbunder]

Fellow forum folks, is there ANY way this could be a drivers issue? I seriously doubt it, but it's worth trying other drivers. Which do you recommend?

[Kougar]

I suppose it's possible it might be a driver issue, but if so then it would be affecting many other 7900GT owners.

What's your full system specs, especially the PSU?

[werty316]

Try downclocking your 7900GT and see if that fixes anything and if it doesn't chances are another RMA is required.

[dbunder]

Let's see, from top to bottom, specs...

PSU: Enermax Liberty 500w 12v1@22a 12v2@22a (34a peak)
Optical: LiteOn dual layer DVD burner
Floppy drive (yeah, I use it once in a while)
HDD: Seagate 7200.10 SATA2 320gb, external Hitachi SATA2 250gb
Mobo: EPoX 9npa+SLI, all chipset drivers up to date
Memory: 2x1gb Corsair XMS DDR400
Proc: Opteron 146 2.0ghz
Video: My second cruddy XFX 7900GT EE

When I install new hardware, if I have anything overclocked or my memory timings lowered, I change everything back to defaults to ensure I get clean test results with the new hardware.

Pretty barebones, and is hardly taxing the PSU. I can easily get another 7900GT in there, if I could only get one of them to work. Ugh.

I'll try downclocking, but even if it works, it's another RMA for me. Now I have two cards to ship back. The last one didn't work when I downclocked it, but it's worth a shot. What am I gonna do, damage it more? :) I'll try some different drivers as well, but I seriously doubt that's the problem.

xfxsupport, haven't seen you for a while here, but if you're still reading, my new ticket # is 60670. Thanks.

edit: underclocking both the gpu and memory makes the screen turn on and off til i reboot, just the gpu makes the screen shut off, and just the memory makes the screen turn on and off. it's fried, and was more or less DOA when i got it. as soon as i got through the first benchmark (the snow in 3dmark 06) without issues, repeating the test or running more or less any game either artifacted or hardlocked the computer. the factory overclock on the memory instantly fries it as soon as you use it, it seems. le sigh. on to card #3, i suppose. at this point i'd accept a new, slower one that's not factory overclocked if i were reimbursed by the price difference (about 40 bucks) by one means or another. as long as it worked.

[GIBSON]

Man that sucks, I'm feeling with you dbunder. That's like 1 chance in a million that the second card wouldn't work either :s

[Kougar]

Any chance you can plug that puppy into someone else's computer for some test benching?

Also did you run http://www.drivercleaner.net/ (http://www.drivercleaner.net/) then install some fresh drivers?

[dbunder]

I always do clean driver installs using DCPro. I've done three installs. 91.28, 91.31, and 91.33. To my understanding, the .37s only fix issues with GX2s.

Friends with PCIe are few and far between (most friends are laptop gamers), but I have one I can pass on one of my bad 7900GTs to and they can try it. But if it doesn't work in mine, I doubt it'll work in anyone else's. I stole his PCIe 6800GT when I first found my card was bad a while ago, and it passed with shining colors, so it's not my PCIe slot(s), my motherboard, or a bad driver install.

Wrote a rather humorous post at http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=192222 about this whole ordeal. Ahh, sleep deprivation.

[xfxsupport]

Dear Dbunder, I am sorry that we are having such difficulty iwith your system. We are testing all 7900 replacement cards extensivly for any fault prior to sending them out. I agree that you shold not have to go through this just to get your system up and running. I will look into your ticket and see what we can do for your situation.

[tomato]

Ouch, sorry to hear about your continued woes, but I have confidence that XFX will sort it all out for you ;)

[dbunder]

Hmmmm... is there any way in hell this could be related to my memory? My memory passes all tests, but I've heard of issues with Corsair and EPoX boards. My roomie has some extra Mushkin lying around that I can try, I just want to know if there's any possible way this could be the problem before I go ahead and do it.

As far as XFX support, I'm being treated VERY well. They just want a good, working card in my hands and I've been in communication with a specific employee at XFX about my case. It's pretty awesome. As soon as I send back my original bad card with a tracking #, they will ship out another card as soon as they receive the tracking #. My last card took 2-3 days to get here, so hopefully by Monday or Tuesday next week I'll have another card. And hopefully it will work.

I've tried my friend's 6800GT again in my box (running now), and it works without a single hitch. So it's not my mobo. I've done this test before with his card, I just wanted to make sure. I've run it through the same test suite I did with my XFX, and no problems at all.

No longer frustrated with XFX - I'm sure we will get me a working card, or failing that, we'll come to a compromise to get me a different card that's comparable to the one I ordered from ZZF.

[werty316]

If you ran memtest86x and no errors were found, more specifically on tests #5 & #8, it can't be your memory. Memory errors ususally don't give you corrupted display. You could try different memory sticks but I doubt it will help. I am sure you are aware already that alot of pre-overclocked 7900GTs produce corrupted display because the cards have been pushed to their limits. I don't think there has been any problem with stock 7900GT cards. Maybe I should overclock mine and what happens. I think you just have a case of bad luck it seems. Did you try downclocking it yet? Hopefully you'll get one that works.

[Beowolf]

Sorry to hear about all your woes mate, I'm in the same boat wateing for my retailer to rma my card it's been two weeks and still nothing back yet,
How long would an RMA take direct to XFX to Australia if I get another dodgy card ?

Cheers Beo

[rush2112]

I'm waiting for my third xfx 7900gt(470mhz version). The first had the crazy lock-ups and artifact and the second one was actually physically damaged on arrival:( . Since I shipped my first out on June 12 I've been without a card for almost 2 months. Been waiting 2 weeks for a replacement to my second rma card. :mad:They take forever processing my cards and sending out new ones!!