Gigabyte GTX460 Direct RMA

[chronidus]

Indeed I hope they do.  In other news I was able to get hold of a 6870 to test my PC with ( I wanted to make sure I was not overlooking anything like a bad PSU etc ).  In terms of power consumption, the GTX460 and 6870 are pretty close with the ATi version only pulling like 2-3 watts less.  Anyway

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/577/system6870.jpg/

As you can see this card is working absolutely fine in this system, I have put it under Furmark and 3DMark Vantage and it does incredibly well.  So I think at this point we can kind of remove the PSU from the situation.  So it comes down to this, it cannot be the CPU since I contacted Intel and they said it wouldnt cause a problem like this, it cannot be the RAM because it was tested several times and infact is brand new.  It cannot be my SSD as I very much doubt an SSD could effect the system in such a way.  It cannot be the PSU because the PSU is running a card that is very similar in terms of power consumption and is more than fine.  It cannot be the MOTHERBOARD because not only is the board brand new but it is also running this 6870 with absolutely no problem's with stability or PCI-E lane problems. 

So if we follow this line of reasoning, it can only be the NVIDIA GPU that is at fault here.

[chronidus]

They have repaired the card and it is on its way back to me within the next 24hours.   Apparently it was caused by minor scratches to 2 chips which made them become non-functioning.  They sent me pictures of where the scratches were and they have also shown me a picture of the card running at its full x16 mode.  I guess it was my fault after all, but it does mean there was something wrong with the card and I will be contacting OCUK to tell them they were wrong .  I am glad this is finally over!

[Dark Mantis]

Hi well it looks like you are getting to the end of this game then. Please post the pictures of the "damage" to the card as I would certainly be interested. Maybe it wasn't you who damaged the card anyway, it could always have been OCUK.

[chronidus]

Dear Sir,

Your item has been repaired.

Damage was caused by 2 chips non functioning. These chips are located at
the base of the card close to where it is slotted into the VGA slot. I
am advised the damage was possibly done upon removal of the VGA and the
card was possibly removed at a slight angle causing fine scratch marks
to these sensitive chips thus causing the problems. (Please see attached
photo's)

The photo's attached show the damaged chips, image 1 with the red arrows
giving location of damage. Images 2 and 3 and 4 show the damaged chips
in close up before repair. Note the blurry outline particularly in image
2, these are the scratch type marks causing the problems you are having.

Image 5 gives summary details after repair to these chips (which were
replaced) during testing. BUS interface is now  PCI-E @ 16X.

I am advised to inform you, that care must be taken when inserting and
removing the VGA from it's slot.

This item is likely to be despatched back in the next 24hrs.

Regards

Returns Dept

The following image's were attached to this email:

http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/2055/001n460so1gi.jpg
http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/2779/002damagechips.jpg
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/995/003damagechips.jpg
http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/5921/004pqh.jpg
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8007/005systemsummary.jpg

As for the card itself, it was sent out by Next Day Delivery via City Link and WILL be with me on the 3rd (Aka) Today

[chronidus]

Small update: City Link were late picking up and my card and a bunch of others were not sent out yesterday, the card has however now been sent out and I'll receive it on Monday

[Dark Mantis]

Hi

The first picture was  in my opinion not scratches but heat marks where the coating on the surface had bubbled . The rest of the photos were of no consequense as they were of missing components but ones that are not supposed to be there.

[chronidus]

Well those 2 heat marks were not there when I sent it to OCUK, I visually inspected the card so many times that my eyes almost turned into GTX460's lol

[Dark Mantis]

I wouldn't be at all surprised but it is now hard to prove that. Gigabyte has done the repair anyway yes ?

Sometimes we just have to learn from our mistakes and I prefer to use a well respected retailer like EBuyer and they have an excellent returns policy if there are any issues.

[chronidus]

Yep they have done the repair, confirmed the card as working and have shipped to me for delivery on Monday, excellent RMA service by Gigabyte and whenever I phoned, the call was picked up pretty damn fast, in short very impressed.  As for OCUK I called them up, informed them that their RMA was wrong and the card did have a fault, they did not offer to pay me back (shocker) but they did update the RMA-Note apparently.  I already told them I will not be buying from them again. ^.^

[AceRimmer77]

Yep they have done the repair, confirmed the card as working and have shipped to me for delivery on Monday, excellent RMA service by Gigabyte and whenever I phoned, the call was picked up pretty damn fast, in short very impressed.  As for OCUK I called them up, informed them that their RMA was wrong and the card did have a fault, they did not offer to pay me back (shocker) but they did update the RMA-Note apparently.  I already told them I will not be buying from them again. ^.^

I expect nothing else from OCUK, if you visit their forums you will find every avatar is a character from goodfellas, just like the gangsterd they are in RL. 

[Dark Mantis]

I am afraid that they don't have a very good reputation on the whole especially on the returns and servicing front. You would think they would try harder as any business only survives on it returning customers.

[AceRimmer77]

I am afraid that they don't have a very good reputation on the whole especially on the returns and servicing front. You would think they would try harder as any business only suvives on it returning customers.

Exactly, I am very surprised they are in business, my card was with Pixmaniua who have a bad rep tho I found the RMA to be pain free, I even forgot to send off my RMA coupon with my borked card just my original invoice.

[Dark Mantis]

Well at least they didn't get stupid and pedantic about it and just got on with the job of fixing it.