Official GIGABYTE Forum
Questions about GIGABYTE products => Graphic cards => Topic started by: chronidus on May 27, 2011, 01:07:27 pm
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Well I got my card back from OCUK, they claimed to have done an extensive test on the card and there is nothing wrong with I but honestly I don't think they did, because the card is DoA upon receiving it back. So much for OCUK's RMA service, I guess you were right DarkMantis. I have packed the card away, there is no point keeping it in my machine at this point and I will go and get a bag for delivery for the card ready to be sent to Gigabyte. I forwarded my problems to returns@gbt-tech.co.uk with a request for an RMA number so I guess its just a matter of time now. Anyone have an idea of the average wait time before I get the card back?
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Hey DarkMantis...as we originally speculated the reason the card is DoA is because the card's bios has become corrupt. We were able to get the PC into another machine and we saved the bios for the card and it came out with a file size of 0 which I am sure cannot be right. I dont know how to flash the bios on the card and I dont have any floppies to hand for a windows 98 disk. Is it worth trying to flash the card before RMA?
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I have been able to get the card running thanks to having a spare card but now it seems the card is running at 1x on the Primary PCI-E slot.
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I think that it will be advisable to just RMA the card to Gigabyte and make sure that they know the history of problems. I would also ask for a run down of any repairs/tests done.
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OCUK did test and they said performance was fine (HA!, never shopping there again). But it looks like the loss in performance is because the card is running at 1x and not 16x. I have tested a 4870 and a GTX470 from a friend in this motherboard and it works fine at x16. Considering the problems I am just going to RMA the card to Gigabyte. It's really kind of sad that I have to go through this to get a working PC but I guess needs must when the devil rides. I am almost convinced now this was caused by that damn Z68's dual graphics function. But at least I have now been able to pinpoint the problem. By the way DarkMantis thank you very much for being so patient with me, I appreciate it ^.^
So in short: Diagnosis of bad performance: Card stuck at 1x PCI-E Link Speed
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Well please let us know how it all turns out in the end. ;)
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Will do. Say out of curiosity how many people have complained about OCUK in the past for the RMA's on these forums because it sounded like they dont have a very good reputation around these parts heh
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I am afraid I couldn't comment on that but needless to say that there have been others.
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Well I put in a request. I'll probably get a response on Tuesday because I sent it after Friday 5.30pm. Mostly due to bank holiday Monday here. I'll resend the email on tuesday just incase and ill let you guys and gals know what happens
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Yes I am afraid you are right that it won't be until Tuesday at least to get an answer and probably after that.
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Its ok....I dont mind waiting so long as this card will be sent off THIS week and will be back to me before the end of the month. I'll be sending the card via next day delivery, I am just waiting on the RMA number. I am also writing up a list of things I have done to test the card, how many systems its been tested on, a list of the problems that are related to the card, my current system spec's, etc...I am trying to make it as detailed as possible as to help speed up the RMA
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Got a response from them pretty fast this morning along with the RMA number. I have shipped the card to them via Royal Mail Special Delivery (Next day delivery and covered for loss for up to £1000). So now its just playing the waiting game, I have forwarded an email to them with a list of all the ways I have tested the card etc. So yeah just got to sit and wait now
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Well Gigabyte have come across there in a rapid fashion. Good response Gigabyte! Please let us know the oucome when you get it back or repaced etc . ;)
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Dear Sir,
I am advised by our engineer to send in any on screen shots of what you
are seeing and advise which software you are using prior to sending in
the goods as we feel this is not a VGA issue but a software one.
I got that e-mail at 9am, they received the card at 12 o'clock dinner time. I have sent an email back explaining why its not a software problem in this instance in my view as other cards work fine in the same system but the card displays the same problem in all the systems I have been able to test it in. This card exhibits the same problem in every system ive put it in but I know for a fact that the drivers I have used have in the past worked completely fine and the card has run fine with them.
Update: I contacted them by phone, call was answered within 30 seconds and the guy who answered was very helpful. I explained the problem and he has forwarded the email I sent to them. He said I should get a response to this RMA this week, the card was literately been scanned in as we were chatting. I explained myself the best I could and he has informed me that before they send the card back if they find no fault found, they will send screenshots of the card and how it performed on their systems etc.
Another Update: Just incase they find nothing wrong with the card, I contacted Intel, to make sure it was not a problem with my i5 SB CPU. They assured me that while it would be possible for the PCI-E lanes on the CPU to be faulty, it would not cause such a precise error with just a single card and not reproduce the same problem with another card, it would cause more troublesome problems so that rules out the CPU. I have ruled out the memory, and SSD so that leaves only one thing. If this card comes back as working fine and they can get the card working at 16x with all its full performance intact then it means that the only other thing it could be is a faulty PSU right?
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Well I for one will look forward to seeing the outcome of the board. Let's just hope that they give it a thorough test
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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/ (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.
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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 :P. I am glad this is finally over!
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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. :-\
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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://img713.imageshack.us/img713/2055/001n460so1gi.jpg)
http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/2779/002damagechips.jpg (http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/2779/002damagechips.jpg)
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/995/003damagechips.jpg (http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/995/003damagechips.jpg)
http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/5921/004pqh.jpg (http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/5921/004pqh.jpg)
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8007/005systemsummary.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
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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
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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.
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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
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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. ;)
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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. ^.^
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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. :D
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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.
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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.
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Well at least they didn't get stupid and pedantic about it and just got on with the job of fixing it.