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BFG, FYI on Underclocking

A

Agamar

Golden Member
Just so everybody knows, BFG will not warranty a card that has been overclocked (as a policy). Here is the story:

Got one of those BFG 6800 Ultra OC's in from Outpost during the last sale.
It would run a game like Battle for Middle Earth just fine. Running the CS: Source Video stress test would cause it to pause for up to 4-6 seconds. Thinking it was my Antec 350W PS, I replaced it with a 500W with 28A on the 12V rail. Anyway, same problem. So, being the tech guy I am, I underclocked it to a "normal" ultra (400/1000). Worked great I then clocked it back up to 415/1100, still worked. At 420/1100, it started pausing again. Now the tech support guy comes on and say "Since you underclocked the card, you have voided the warranty, but we are going to replace it this time." Oh, and they will NOT do a cross-ship, no matter if you give them the credit card info or not. Since my machine doubles as a workstation, I told him I would have to wait for a while (after all, the card runs great at 415/1100).

Anyway, just an FYI for those that don't know....This isn't a slam on BFG, just something that I was surprised to hear. <-- Edited, forgot how to "here"
 
sounds fair to me really, if you had been a pc-noob and doing those things to your card, you may have been denied the replacement, however you obviously came across as knowing what you are doing 🙂
 
I'm not too suprised, if you change the product at all from how its intended to be run, then it technically could be your fault it if stops working. Even if your intentions weren't to exploit BFG, but fix your own product, if it stops working then you'd need to get BFG to fix/replace it before you try to do so yourself.
 
To be honest I was a little disappointed with their customer support. Well I emailed them and the guy who finally responded (3 days later) seemed to understand that I knew what I was doing and talking about so he said they'd issue me an RMA and that I needed to call some number.

I called the number, and the guy I talked to was nice enough, but when I told him how the 2nd DVI port would only recognize my 2005 and 2001 as an analog CRT (I switched monitors to see if maybe it was just the 2005 causing the problem), and then I said that the card was idling at about 75C. He said that if I was just RMAing because it was running that hot that I wouldn't be able to because thats about normal for a 6800GT (nevermind that I told them about my other GT idling at 50C and my x850XT PE idling at 45C, and the fact that I have two 120mm fans that blow 90cfm, a 90mm fan, and that my CPU idles at 25C). He issued the RMA because of the DVI port, but he seemed reluctant to do so, which I can understand, as they need to weed out the ones that are bogus.

I didn't even bother to ask to cross-ship, as I figured it would be a no go, and I would still be able to use my computer without it. Hopefully I'll get a fully working and cooler running one back sometime next week.

I'm not saying their support was bad, but its not as great as what I'd heard (at least so far). They were nice and it was reasonably quick for their response. I'm surprised it took them 3 days to respond to my e-mail, but when I called I was on hold for maybe 5 minutes tops and the guy was nice.

Then again, to be honest, I haven't had to deal with any other video card companies support, so I don't really have anything to compare it to. It might be saying something though that I haven't had to contact the support.
 
If you wouldn't mind, could you post how long it takes you to get your card there and back when it gets in. I am reluctant to send it in if they take longer than normal (1-3 weeks) to get a card back to me.
 
I've had to deal with Abit's video card return customer support (if you can call it that), and it was a nightmare.

If what both of you explain is called bad service, then I'd hate to see what you guys would call Abit's (the cursing of Abit would probably get you censored).

I now have two BFG cards in the house, but haven't had to return either yet (knock on wood). However, the reason I have BFG cards is because of the nightmare experience I had with Abit.

If my experience with BFG was the same as you guys have had, it would still be 100-times better then Abit's customer service. If you get a working card back in three weeks, it would probably be a couple months faster then what it took me to get service out of Abit (and I still got a craptacular, defective product back).

I know most companies wouldn't touch you with a 10-foot pole if you modded your card by over/under-clocking. The fact BFG did after you admited you changed the clock says volumes there. Frankly, maybe I'm a bit dishonest, but I would never admit to BFG or any company that I over or underclocked a card if I was expecting to get a return/replacement card. Yes, yes, we're all computer geeks and know what we're doing, and certainly an UNDER clock shouldn't be a bad thing, but personally, I would never admit such a thing if I wanted a replacement. Just set the bad card back to its default settings, call the company and say it's bad, Bad, BAD!
 
Lol, yeah, I might have fudged it if I had been overclocking it and it went bad, but since the card is working, I figured I would go ahead and give him the whole scoop. I have never really overclocked much of anything I have owned. I have added lots of things to make the default devices run cooler, though (heatsinks, bigger fans, spit-shine)
 
I go by the Stevie Nicks song "Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies" usually works best with customer service if you want a return (and it's not NewEgg, cuz they take everything).

Slight exagerations to the problem and omissions of changing default settings usually gets fewer questions and/or hesitations on their part. As long as you are returning an actual bad product under good intentions, why not "pad" the story to make sure you get the service you deserve if the company stuck you with a defective product.

I wouldn't return a product I managed to break of my own fault (I don't think I've ever broke one of my own stupidity), but darn-straight I want to make sure if they stuck me with a bad product, I should get a working one instead. Always tell the truth to customer service*

*but pad it if you must!
 
I'll update with my experience once its all said and done. I'm not going to judge them until its done with, as they could still surprise me (either in a good or bad way), so I'll just wait and see.

The thing is, I'm not comparing their tech support to another company, I'm comparing it to what I think is considered good service, as I've heard that BFGs support is stellar.
 
Originally posted by: Wolfshanze
I go by the Stevie Nicks song "Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies" usually works best with customer service if you want a return (and it's not NewEgg, cuz they take everything).

Slight exagerations to the problem and omissions of changing default settings usually gets fewer questions and/or hesitations on their part. As long as you are returning an actual bad product under good intentions, why not "pad" the story to make sure you get the service you deserve if the company stuck you with a defective product.

I wouldn't return a product I managed to break of my own fault (I don't think I've ever broke one of my own stupidity), but darn-straight I want to make sure if they stuck me with a bad product, I should get a working one instead. Always tell the truth to customer service*

*but pad it if you must!
Click to expand...

Crazy idea: don't modify your parts from stock if you want warranty coverage, or return things just because you don't like them or think they're not performing well enough? Then you don't have to lie (or, as you colloquially refer to it, "pad" the "truth")?
 
i know you changed the spec from the actual advertised spec but, underclocking? i mean would that hurt the card in anyway, by making it do less work? i know theyre jus covering their backs, probably thought you overclocked at first untill you properly explained, but i cant see why they'd have a mega problem with it, your running the card under spec
 
Underclocking actually can damage a card. If you slow the transistors down too much, they get stuck. Just like if you don't drive a car for a year, rust will form on the rings, the fuel will be crap, battery will be dead.





























😀 😉
 
Hmm..transistors can get "stuck". That is a new one. But anyway, in my case, I only underclocked it to what a default 6800 Ultra is supposed to run at. I am sure that didn't damage the card 😉
 
Originally posted by: Agamar
Hmm..transistors can get "stuck". That is a new one. But anyway, in my case, I only underclocked it to what a default 6800 Ultra is supposed to run at. I am sure that didn't damage the card 😉
Click to expand...

Hence the smilie and wink(ie?). LOL... I'm surprised more people didn't pounce and take any chance available to tell people they're wrong. 🙂
 
Crazy idea: don't modify your parts from stock if you want warranty coverage, or return things just because you don't like them or think they're not performing well enough? Then you don't have to lie (or, as you colloquially refer to it, "pad" the "truth")?
Click to expand...
I did mention I've never had to return something that was my fault. That's your ethics right there. What I was getting at, is that some companies act like the world must be on-fire to accept a return that is clearly THEIR fault.

If it's not working right, you sometimes have to really, REALLY tell them it's not working right for them to get it through their thick skulls.

Don't be so quick to judge Matthias.

P.S.
I don't overclock anything... I've returned maybe three bad parts in the last 10 years, and all were defective from the company, not because I broke it or wasn't satisified with performance.
 
Originally posted by: Wolfshanze
Crazy idea: don't modify your parts from stock if you want warranty coverage, or return things just because you don't like them or think they're not performing well enough? Then you don't have to lie (or, as you colloquially refer to it, "pad" the "truth")?
Click to expand...
I did mention I've never had to return something that was my fault. That's your ethics right there. What I was getting at, is that some companies act like the world must be on-fire to accept a return that is clearly THEIR fault.

If it's not working right, you sometimes have to really, REALLY tell them it's not working right for them to get it through their thick skulls.

Don't be so quick to judge Matthias.
Click to expand...

Well, from your previous post, what you were saying could easily have been construed as "yeah, it's OK to lie to a company to RMA a part you've messed around with, as long as you're sure it's their fault" (specifically, the part about "omissions of changing default settings"). Just don't change the settings in the first place, and you won't have to "omit" or "pad" anything. You get onto a slippery slope there -- "Well, I'll just underclock it to see if that fixes it; they'll still take it for RMA." "Well, I'll just flash another BIOS on it to see if that fixes it; I can just flash it back and RMA it." "Well, I'll just put a different cooler on there to see if that fixes it; they'll never know if I put the original back on, and I know what I'm doing."

If something is not working right, send it in for RMA. A company that gives you a hard time about RMAing something is maybe not a company you should be buying from.
 
Well guys...I found my problem and won't even be RMAing it after all.. My chaintech must have a problem with the 6800 and Fast Writes...Turned it off in the bios and set the clock to default and everything is fine. Previous 5900XT ran fine with Fast Writes. Just assumed it would be the same with the next gen card.
 
Originally posted by: Zebo
Total BS. This is a case where some things are better left unsaid..
Click to expand...
^ What he said. I'm thinking (about the BFG CSR) WTF??? How could someone that clueless be hired for online tech-support. 🙁

(For anyone reading this - technically, there are some devices that actually do have a minimum clock speed, as well as a nominal/max clock - chips that do not have so-called "fully-static" cores to them, and have to have some sort of clock to drive a refresh cycle of the chip's internal state. But the underclock in this case was still quite high enough for such a thing to not be a problem. Also, I cannot concieve how underclocking could cause any damage, even if the clock was slowed below acceptable operating range. Not that that would have even been an issue here, 400Mhz is plenty fast enough.)
 
If you're turning off fast writes to get something to work, you probably have a card this is "funny".

10-1 most 6800 users out here do NOT need to turn-off fast writes to get their cards to run, they just plug it in and go. I've often heard the same thing about the 6600GT card... well guess what... mine runs WITH fast writes enabled, but some folks seem to have to turn it off to get it to run.

To me, these sound like borderline-bad cards. You shouldn't have to turn off speed enhancing features to get a card to run when a "proper" video card runs just fine with such features enabled.

It's a lot like: "I bought a new car, and everytime I go over 60mph, the engine stalls"... the simple answer is "don't go over 60mph". Does that mean the car is okay because you can always drive it under 60mph?

How many 6800 users out there have fast write enabled? I'm curious.
 
well i know that if u email them, it takes them forever to get back at u but calling them will get ur problems done quicker
 
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