Anyone up on their warranties? Got refused a warranty from Palit

[dug777]

I've put a billion cards in there before, and always used the screws to hold them firmly in the slot to the case, in this case i used two screws as it was a double slot bracket, so there's no doubt the card was seated properly...

Now for what really happened. I put the 6800GS in my rig (tbred-b at 2.1Ghz. A7V8X mobo, Antec truepower 380w (24A on the 12v version), 1GB RAM), ran a few 3d marks, which ran perfectly, then left the machine idling for a few hours (blank screensaver) while i did some other work. I smelt burning, bent down to sniff it, the smell got worse, and the mobo beeped, then it died.

The psu was totalled, as was my mobo. Now these had both worked perfectly with my heavily oc'd 6600GT and 9800 pro, and the 6800GS (PCI-E core, smaller process than the 6800GS/GT AGP) shouldn't even have taxed my Truepower at load, let alone at idle...after several hours...

I take it i'm screwed and that ~260AUD is gone forever? What annoys me is that as far as a i can see, from any viewpoint, the 6800GS destroyed itself and a large proportion of my rig, at idle

Just after your views on the matter

Okay so it's almost certainly caused by the card being incorrectly seated in the slot, especially after what Captante said, but i KNOW there's no way it was my fault, i've put say 7 cards in there with no problems before. So it got me thinking, how could it have ended up in the slot incorrectly. Luckily i had a pic of the card and bracket from when i bought it, and lo and behold, it would appear that the bracket is not aligned correctly on the card:

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/dug777/DSC05512.JPG

See that abnormally large gap between the svideo connector and the bracket? Looks to me like the culprit is clear...

Suck it Palit, i'm a comin' to get ya :|

 

[Corporate Thug]

dug? is that you? when were you re-instated?

as to the thread, Palit is screwing you over IMO.

 

[Captante]

Wow didn't you just get this card?

I hate to say it, but the only time I've ever seen burned marks on the traces of an add-in card was when I DID seat an STB Velocity TNT card incorrectly into the AGP slot & cooked it, however I got lucky & the card itself was all that died, even the AGP slot itself was fine & STB replaced the card too!

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: Captante
Wow didn't you just get this card?

I hate to say it, but the only time I've ever seen burned marks on the traces of an add-in card was when I DID seat an STB Velocity TNT card incorrectly into the AGP slot & cooked it, however I got lucky & the card itself was all that died, even the AGP slot itself was fine & STB replaced the card too!

I literally had the card in my computer for about 4 hours

I guess the bracket could have been warped, thus pulling the AGP connector slightly out of the slot as i tightened the screws, bit of vibration if i accidentally knocked the desk could have been enough to work it out a little and cook it...

 

[redbox]

Glad to see your back Dug sorry to hear about your card problem.

 

[dug777]

The email i've just sent to my supplier:

The only way this could have happened was if the bracket (Palit's responsibility to align, NOT mine) was not entirely level with the card itself, thus when i tightened the screws it put pressure on the card, and slowly levered the card out of the slot. It would also explain why the computer ran with no issues for a few hours, it took some time for the pressure from the misaligned bracket to slowly lever the card out of the slot, aided by any vibrations from case fans/HDDS etc. This has NEVER happened (obviously) to any of my other AGP cards in the same case, so i am asking you to resubmit the warranty under these terms.

I have a picture showing the alignment was off (thank god i took a few pics of my new toy), if you look at the S-video connector you can see an abnormally large gap between the bracket and the connector itself. I would appreciate it if you would forward this information to Palit, along with the knowledge that i'm not going to roll over and allow them shaft me for their mistake.

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/dug777/DSC05512.JPG

If the picture doesn't hotlink, just copy and paste the text into your browser

Regards,

Dug.

 

[Hyperlite]

welcome back! yeah, you show palit whos boss.

 

[Captante]

The bent bracket could easily be the problem... I've gotten several cards that looke like that, but I've always bent the bracket to make it fit correctly before powering up.

Hope they decide to honor the warranty .. if not I won't be buying any of their products.

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: Captante
The bent bracket could easily be the problem... I've gotten several cards that looke like that, but I've always bent the bracket to make it fit correctly before powering up.

Hope they decide to honor the warranty .. if not I won't be buying any of their products.

My supplier told me to email my description and that picture direct to Palit RMA, so we'll see how it turns out, i certainly hope they honour their warranty as well, or that's the last of my cash they'll ever see, and i certainly won't be recommending them to anyone.

I'll keep y'all updated, thanks for putting me on what looks like the right track mate :beer:

 

[GundamSonicZeroX]

Welcome back dug!

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: GundamSonicZeroX
Welcome back dug!

you might also send them a link to this thread if they give you a hard time.

 

[jiffylube1024]

I've seen cards with gaps in them like that before. It might be a tough sell.

With that said if the card was in and running and then burned out after the system was on, it's not your fault. I haven't even heard of Palit before today; they don't sound like a great company...

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: jiffylube1024
I've seen cards with gaps in them like that before. It might be a tough sell.

With that said if the card was in and running and then burned out after the system was on, it's not your fault. I haven't even heard of Palit before today; they don't sound like a great company...

IIRC Palit have something to do with Gainward? Anyway they're a big brand here.

It's the only way i can think it would happen and burn out like that, i mean the card was in my case and running for at least 4 hours before the disaster...

 

[Woofmeister]

Hey, Dug's back!

 

[BassBomb]

DUG777 FTW I CONCUR

thats a crazy problem.... i doubt palit will cover your psu and mobo replacements (is teh card dead too?)

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: BassBomb
DUG777 FTW I CONCUR

thats a crazy problem.... i doubt palit will cover your psu and mobo replacements (is teh card dead too?)

I've already replaced the mobo and psu, i just want the card replaced

 

[SolMiester]

Wahey Dug!, welcome back my cross tasman brother!

With regard to the post, I too have worried sometimes when tightening the screw holding the card. Didnt know it would pull the arse end of the card out of the slot resulting in this damage though!. Big thanks for the head-up mate. So, will you be pursuing for mobo, psu with the replacement card? Could be a president for future claims, go for it mate!

Side note, I can change my Avatar back!!!!

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: SolMiester
Wahey Dug!, welcome back my cross tasman brother!

With regard to the post, I too have worried sometimes when tightening the screw holding the card. Didnt know it would pull the arse end of the card out of the slot resulting in this damage though!. Big thanks for the head-up mate. So, will you be pursuing for mobo, psu with the replacement card? Could be a president for future claims, go for it mate!

Side note, I can change my Avatar back!!!!

:beer:

If i had an infinite amount of time on my hands i might try that, but i've already replaced the mobo and psu, and i just want my card fixed and back with a minimum of hassle...

 

[Gamingphreek]

Dug how/why are the 7's in your name not bold anymore? At any rate good to see you again.

As for the card....having it being seated incorrectly shouldn't burn anything out. It could cause a blank screen, or a lack of power; but it shouldn't cause it to receive more voltage in any way.

I don't remember the pin config for AGP, but for PCI-E the last sets of pins control the transfer rate. If you want a PCI-E x4 or x8 then you can merely block out those pins that are tagged as the interconnects (9-16 or 5-16) (I can only see someone doing that for benchmarking purposes).

-Kevin

 

[manuelku]

o sh*t, that's one of those Chinese cards in the market, I went up to mainland China couple days ago and I saw these cards. Basically pretty much all videocard companies are using these cards for 7900 series, they just re-brand the card and sell them on their own. Even ELSA uses this card for their whatever 790GT battle something.

And the thing about these cards are the quality sucks.

 

[Gstanfor]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Dug how/why are the 7's in your name not bold anymore? At any rate good to see you again.

As for the card....having it being seated incorrectly shouldn't burn anything out. It could cause a blank screen, or a lack of power; but it shouldn't cause it to receive more voltage in any way.

I don't remember the pin config for AGP, but for PCI-E the last sets of pins control the transfer rate. If you want a PCI-E x4 or x8 then you can merely block out those pins that are tagged as the interconnects (9-16 or 5-16) (I can only see someone doing that for benchmarking purposes).

-Kevin

Sadly, I have to agree here. I've seen systems with cards literally half out of their sockets (the main culprit usually being the poorly manufactured case the system resides in) and its never resulted in the sort of damage you are describing.

My best guess is that your power supply was not up to the task, or the regulator for the AGP slot failed.

 

[Gstanfor]

Originally posted by: manuelku
o sh*t, that's one of those Chinese cards in the market, I went up to mainland China couple days ago and I saw these cards. Basically pretty much all videocard companies are using these cards for 7900 series, they just re-brand the card and sell them on their own. Even ELSA uses this card for their whatever 790GT battle something.

And the thing about these cards are the quality sucks.

No, most cards are not based off of the gainward design, they follow nvidia's reference design (which differs signifcantly from gainward -- palit & xpertvision's design significantly).

Palit does rebadge some of their cards for chain stores in the EU though.

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: Gstanfor

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Dug how/why are the 7's in your name not bold anymore? At any rate good to see you again.

As for the card....having it being seated incorrectly shouldn't burn anything out. It could cause a blank screen, or a lack of power; but it shouldn't cause it to receive more voltage in any way.

I don't remember the pin config for AGP, but for PCI-E the last sets of pins control the transfer rate. If you want a PCI-E x4 or x8 then you can merely block out those pins that are tagged as the interconnects (9-16 or 5-16) (I can only see someone doing that for benchmarking purposes).

-Kevin

Sadly, I have to agree here. I've seen systems with cards literally half out of their sockets (the main culprit usually being the poorly manufactured case the system resides in) and its never resulted in the sort of damage you are describing.

My best guess is that your power supply was not up to the task, or the regulator for the AGP slot failed.

It would appear to be relatively accepted knowledge that the incorrect seating of an AGP card can cause a short that leaves burn marks on the connector if it both happened to Captante, and was immediately assumed to be the source of my problems by the Palit RMA department would it not? EDIT: that came across a bit more aggressively than i intended )

I don't pretend to fully understand the matter i'm afraid, but the agp connector pins are very close together and it wouldn't take much hortizontal twisting in the socket for a short to form. From my basic electrical knowledge the only way the burn marks could have appeared on the AGP connector is if a short occurred there, so the psu is essentially irrelevant in the matter, if it had fried the card i might see damage to the voltage regulating mechanism on the card (caps/PCB traces etc) but not the AGP connector itself...correct me if i'm entirely wrong here

Regardless of this, i just can't see the psu (which was well above the task at 380w/24A on the 12v truepower 380) or mobo voltage regulator components failing at idle, and after hours of idle at that, when they survived extremely strenuous 3d benchmarking in the form of 3dmarks, and a good half hour of farcry.

Anyway, off topic it's great to be back folks :beer:

 

[TheRyuu]

Maybe this is a sign from god that you need to throw away that old stuff and get a new computer.
Cause hey, ya never know

On a more serious note, that really sucks.
Well, if your PSU is shot, and mobo is shot, then I smell some Core2Duo

 

[dug777]

Just out of interest i did some further research on of the connectors in the burnt part and they are designated 'Vrefcg' and Vrefgc' which as far as i can tell means:

'a pathway for the motherboard to supply a reference voltage, designated as VrefCG, to the card and a reference, designated as VrefGC, from the card back to the motherboard.'

So yeah, they are the voltage pathways, and short there would cause the damage i have suffered i think...