Anyone get a PNY GTX260 that was bent?

[mazeroth]

I recently purchased a brand new PNY GTX260 video card off ebay. The card arrived in the plastic cellophane with the PNY stickers on the cellophane and everything inside was brand new and sealed. Upon inspection of the card I noticed the tab that you screw down into your case is bent big time on the left side of the card. I also see that where the right screw hole is it's bent down in the center, as if a screw was put in extremely hard. I can only imagine the force that was required to bend that tab as badly as it is. Otherwise, the card is in mint condition.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com...53682_3939968c6e_o.jpg

The seller sells a ton of these on ebay and has flawless feedback for all the GTX 260s he's sold. Check out for yourself:

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eB...name=VIP:feedback:2:us

I think I'm going to bend them back myself and see if the card works before trying to return it. I was just checking in here to see if anyone else purchased a brand new card before and received it damaged.

 

[badnewcastle]

Originally posted by: mazeroth
I think I'm going to bend them back myself and see if the card works before trying to return it. I was just checking in here to see if anyone else purchased a brand new card before and received it damaged.

I would take a cloth and and attempt to bend it back with some light needle nosed pliers. Cloth would help reduce any potential damage to the surface in case you need to return the card.

 

[AmberClad]

There was someone a few months ago who also received a card with a bent PCI bracket (different card though - either a 4850 or 4870). IIRC, it was bought from NewEgg, not eBay.

 

[Hauk]

Wow that's either some terrible quality control, the seller is buying factory returns, or the seller (or who he's buying from) is re-sealing boxes. As hard as some of these explanations may be to believe considering you saw everything sealed, any is possible. I've been ebaying for ten years, could share a couple fraud stories.

You're right, it took some force to bend the bracket that much. All may be fine after bending back, but ooh I'd be cautious. I'd notify seller and maybe even Paypal that you're going to fully test the card and if there are any issues, you want full refund.

 

[nitromullet]

It's hard to tell from your picture, but it actually sort of looks like the backside of the HSF is bent. It looks like the plastic SLI dust guard is not flush with the back of the card. Hard to tell if it's just the angles in the picture though. If the back of the HSF is bent, I would suggest contacting the seller to request a replacement or refund.

That being said, it looks like it was damaged during manufacturing IMO. That looks like it would be pretty difficult to do during install/uninstall. Plus, if the box/card was sealed there would be no way for the seller to know about the damage, so I'd give them the benefit of the doubt.

 

[Creig]

Originally posted by: mazeroth
I recently purchased a brand new PNY GTX260 video card off ebay. The card arrived in the plastic cellophane with the PNY stickers on the cellophane and everything inside was brand new and sealed. Upon inspection of the card I noticed the tab that you screw down into your case is bent big time on the left side of the card. I also see that where the right screw hole is it's bent down in the center, as if a screw was put in extremely hard. I can only imagine the force that was required to bend that tab as badly as it is. Otherwise, the card is in mint condition.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com...53682_3939968c6e_o.jpg

The seller sells a ton of these on ebay and has flawless feedback for all the GTX 260s he's sold. Check out for yourself:

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eB...name=VIP:feedback:2:us

I think I'm going to bend them back myself and see if the card works before trying to return it. I was just checking in here to see if anyone else purchased a brand new card before and received it damaged.

That's what I would do as well. Just inspect the card carefully to make sure nothing else is damaged or tweaked. Especially try to see if the cooling surface is flush with the GPU. Every now and then we see someone with a card that comes from the factory bent up a bit. It happens.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: badnewcastle
I would take a cloth and and attempt to bend it back with some light needle nosed pliers. Cloth would help reduce any potential damage to the surface in case you need to return the card.

No, don't use cloth! Cloth will slip. Put electrical tape on both sides of it, if you're going to try to unbend it. Electrical tape will protect the metal from scratching, also, but it won't slip like cloth would. I'd send it back without doing anything else to it, if I were you. I agree that it looks like that most likely happened at the factory.

 

[reallyfull]

I've used Live cashback to make make my PC upgrade a little cheaper. I had this same exact problem with another seller except the other end was bent. The card was listed as new and when it arrived it was sealed. When I opened it and did my inspection I noticed the problem right away. Well, I emailed the seller, returned the card and got a refund minus the return shipping. :\ The seller re-listed the card as "New, opened only to inspect contents" I just ended up ordering a card off Newegg.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: mazeroth
I also see that where the right screw hole is it's bent down in the center, as if a screw was put in extremely hard.

No, those slight bends are intentional and come from the factory like that. I've seen them before on other cards. The left-most tab, though, is definately bent beyond how it comes from the factory. I would just try to bend it back into shape myself.

 

[Zap]

I've actually seen bent rear brackets on brand new cards, though it is always the other end, not the screw end. Most likely it was accidentally dropped and inspected (test rigs often are just bare boards to make testing quicker, so they won't notice damage around screw area).

Originally posted by: nitromullet
It's hard to tell from your picture, but it actually sort of looks like the backside of the HSF is bent. It looks like the plastic SLI dust guard is not flush with the back of the card.

That is kind of normal on GTX 260/280 cards to a slight degree, though this particular area may have suffered from the same impact that damaged the rear bracket. For anyone who have removed the fansink off these cards, there is this pliable material right where the back plate meets the rear bracket. This pushes against the back plate and it isn't uncommon to have the end of the plate bow outwards slightly where it pushes against this material.

 

[zod96]

When I got my 4870 brand new from newegg my bracket was like that :-( not as bad but it was bent enough where it didn't seat properly in the pci slot.