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Big Visiontek warning (kind of degraded into troubleshooting with the last post)

P

Pudgygiant

Senior member
I bought a visiontek xtasy ti4600 a couple months back (used), and the fan died yesterday. I read up on their forums and apparently it's a common thing. So I thought, hey, I might as well upgrade the whole hsf on it from the blue orb to a crystal orb. There was paste holding the hsf to the gpu, which I thought I could handle, as I had read that it's quite easy to remove it if you chill it down. So I chilled it, and the hs came off without much of a problem, and I put the crystal orb on. But alas, it wouldn't boot. I'm assuming SOMEHOW I damaged the core. So I call them up today, and ask how I would initiate a warranty for this. Apparently, replacing a DEFECTIVE HSF is regarded by them as "tweaking" the card, which VOIDS the warranty. This alone is not much of a surprise, as from what I hear a lot of companies are doing that these days. No, what steams my bacon (think about THAT phrase) is that their warranty policy is not outlined ANYWHERE! The best they can offer me is a freaking $30 credit towards an upgrade. Do I have grounds to report this to the BBB?
 
And who was the moron that told them about the modified heat sink?!?!?! I think Visiontek owners need to band together for a class action suit....BOTH of my Visiontek ti200 cards have had the fan die. When I contacted Visiontek they offered to repair the cards if I sent them back, but flat out refused to send me a new fan. Apparently, $10 for me to ship the card, 5 seconds for them to clip a new fan on, and $10 to ship it back is the more cost effective than dropping the measly little fan in an envelope
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😀
 
Huh choco, actually you give me an idea... (if I'm stepping way out of line with this mods edit this, I definitely do NOT mean to cause trouble)

I got a whopping 2 months of use out of this $120 card. I might as well pick up some thermal paste and a new blue orb and put it on with the defective fan... Then claim it "stopped working one day".


EDIT
And minendo, how is that a valid argument? Nowhere does it say that modifying (which as I told the CSR was definitely NOT my intent, only to get it into working order) voids the warranty!
 
Originally posted by: chocoruacal
And who was the moron that told them about the modified heat sink?!?!?! I think Visiontek owners need to band together for a class action suit....BOTH of my Visiontek ti200 cards have had the fan die. When I contacted Visiontek they offered to repair the cards if I sent them back, but flat out refused to send me a new fan. Apparently, $10 for me to ship the card, 5 seconds for them to clip a new fan on, and $10 to ship it back is the more cost effective than dropping the measly little fan in an envelope
rolleye.gif
😀
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Now think about that statement. Do you really expect them to carry out their warranty servicing by sending you a fan so you can change it yourself and void the warranty ..... you aren't making any sense
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Originally posted by: minendo
Originally posted by: Pudgygiant
Do I have grounds to report this to the BBB?
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No. You modified the card.
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Agreed

Thorin
 
See, when I crushed the core of my AXP with an alpha hsf, I completely agreed with AMD not honoring the warranty, BECAUSE IT WAS SPELLED OUT IN FULL. The reason this makes me mad is it says nothing about it! Sure, one could claim that that's standard practice, modifying a card voids the warranty. I may even go so far as to say, yes, that IS fairly standard practice. But does that give them the right to say "Hey, lifetime warranty!" then not tell me jack about it or honor it?
 
Originally posted by: thorin Now think about that statement. Do you really expect them to carry out their warranty servicing by sending you a fan so you can change it yourself and void the warranty ..... you aren't making any sense
rolleye.gif
😛
Thorin
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Nice try....but in this case the dude replaced the entire heatsink/fan unit with other parts. That not the same as clipping a new visiontek/factory fan on; I wouldn't consider that modifying the card
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I'm assuming SOMEHOW I damaged the core.
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Yeah, way to go, definitely grounds for a BBB complaint
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Pudgygiant,

I just got off the phone with Visiontek Tech Support and asked about the warranty clause for your specific card. It appears as though the bankruptcy claim by Visiontek and recent purchase of certain aspects of the company has left your warranty supported by a company which no longer exists. The tech support representative offered an additional extended warranty, but I did not get the cost on that. He did mention however, the extended warranty covers any modifications made to the card.
 
Originally posted by: chocoruacal
Originally posted by: thorin Now think about that statement. Do you really expect them to carry out their warranty servicing by sending you a fan so you can change it yourself and void the warranty ..... you aren't making any sense
rolleye.gif
😛
Thorin
Click to expand...

Nice try....but in this case the dude replaced the entire heatsink/fan unit with other parts. That not the same as clipping a new visiontek/factory fan on; I wouldn't consider that modifying the card
rolleye.gif
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Visiontek is hardly gonna classify joe average as a Certified Service Technician and continue to maintain their warranty after they send you a fan and you may or may not install it correctly.

Thorin
 
I had a visiontek GeForce 2 ti 200's fan die before the company went under...
They sent me a new one in the mail.
Just dropped it in an envelope.
 
Originally posted by: thorin
Originally posted by: chocoruacal
Originally posted by: thorin Now think about that statement. Do you really expect them to carry out their warranty servicing by sending you a fan so you can change it yourself and void the warranty ..... you aren't making any sense
rolleye.gif
😛
Thorin
Click to expand...

Nice try....but in this case the dude replaced the entire heatsink/fan unit with other parts. That not the same as clipping a new visiontek/factory fan on; I wouldn't consider that modifying the card
rolleye.gif
Click to expand...
Visiontek is hardly gonna classify joe average as a Certified Service Technician and continue to maintain their warranty after they send you a fan and you may or may not install it correctly.

Thorin
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They did it for me. It was common before the company went under and was bought. It's pretty standard amongst all videocard manufacturers afaik

 
My BBB question was not about the fact they won't replace it, it's about the fact they're holding me to terms of a warranty which has no readily available documentation.

EDIT*
And minendo, I called and asked about that warranty and the CSR said "There is no such warranty". Sounds almost like there WAS such a warranty at one time but people (like me) were taking advantage of it.
 
Originally posted by: Pudgygiant
EDIT*
And minendo, I called and asked about that warranty and the CSR said "There is no such warranty". Sounds almost like there WAS such a warranty at one time but people (like me) were taking advantage of it.
Click to expand...
The technician I spoke with was ready to sell it to me. However, I don't have a visiontek card. Filing with the BBB will do absolutely nothing since the company who provides your warranty is non-existant.
 
I'm running a 128mb Visiontek TI-4200 video card. The fan is still working on the video card and I had it since the first part of the year.

 
This kind of digresses to troubleshooting, but someone PM'd me saying that the green area around the chip actually contains leads (which I didn't know). I took a pic with my crappy digicam and touched it up (it's still crappy).
Here it is

The area in the top left is the gold triangle on the corner, some of it is ripped off, could that be a problem?

The bottom-right is the dark green area around the chip where I can see wires (which you definitely can't see in the pic). I think that may be the problem.

I'm picking up a conductive pencil and good magnifying glass to try to fix this. It'd be cool if I did.

Credit goes to killrose for telling me that could be the problem
 
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