Question EVGA giving false diagnosis to not accept RMA now.

[aigomorla]

So it has begun... eVGA denied RMA on this guy saying board is broken.
This guy found it was a blown mosfet, and also bad ram.
Its a Red Lipped 3090 FTW3.... which were known to have solder issues, and these were the cards blowing up in New World.

Yeah, them saying they would honor RMA's.... Im starting to think they wont, and it was probably a PR thing so they could get rid of the last stocks they had.
Very Sad day to see a video like this, because eVGA usually RMA'd a card as long as it didn't look like you ran them over with a truck.
Now a tiny scratch on the PCB, and they will just say NOPE.

 

[DaaQ]

So it has begun... eVGA denied RMA on this guy saying board is broken.
This guy found it was a blown mosfet, and also bad ram.
Its a Red Lipped 3090 FTW3.... which were known to have solder issues, and these were the cards blowing up in New World.

Yeah, them saying they would honor RMA's.... Im starting to think they wont, and it was probably a PR thing so they could get rid of the last stocks they had.
Very Sad day to see a video like this, because eVGA usually RMA'd a card as long as it didn't look like you ran them over with a truck.
Now a tiny scratch on the PCB, and they will just say NOPE.

Thank you for the video link, I have to say this one was very interesting, and if needed, guy seems to know his repair stuff.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Anyone with an ounce of forethought saw this coming. Maybe not so quick, but it was inevitable.

EVGA fanboys on Reddit kept parroting the "they have stocks for RMAs" but it's not like EVGA is keeping one RMA card for every card they sell. It's probably 5% or less of their overall inventory.

If they expect that stock to make it 3 years, then they're going to have to tighten up the RMA process and that means more people are going to get burned on legit RMAs.

 

[aigomorla]

Thank you for the video link, I have to say this one was very interesting, and if needed, guy seems to know his repair stuff.

This guy is like a pro at repairing GPU's and Asus Laptops.
He's like the Louis Rothman of Apple, when it comes to GPU's and Gaming Consoles.

He is definitely my hail Mary go to guy.
He has even reballed the GPU on a gigabyte 3090 to a ASUS one, and somehow magically restored it.

But watching his videos made me learn not to buy gigabyte. The quality on them are so bad.
But he has yet to do a Zotac card, so im wondering if Zotac's aren't so bad.
I have a Zotac 1080Ti which is on a waterblock and its rocking hard even til this day.
Ive had 1 Zotac fail on me, but that is 1 out of 8 cards ive bought from them.
They are not the best at cooling, but they can be re padded, Re Tim'd and resinked even.

But yeah i saw this coming too.
You just can't and wont survive, if you RMA blindy like they did.
And sad thing is i think you have to pay to have the card sent back.
So i probably won't even bother mailing my card out to them, i'll mail it to him and give my hail mary that way.

 

[DooKey]

I've been getting a 404 error since yesterday when I try to go to evga.com

edit: It's working now. LOL

 

[fleshconsumed]

Fascinating repair video, but given the effort it took to repair it I just cannot see how it is cheaper than buying a new card. Shipping card back and forth to repair, several hours of repair time, and cost of donor components is not cheap.

 

[igor_kavinski]

This video may tank the value of the remaining eVGA cards on the market.

 

[IntelUser2000]

EVGA was never as awesome as people say it was. For one their GPUs are among the lowest chance of getting it repaired.

They had an amazing marketing team capable of hiding the flaws.

This guy is like a pro at repairing GPU's and Asus Laptops.

Off topic, but I knew guys way better than him and at repairing GPUs way longer than he did.

 

[aigomorla]

Off topic, but I knew guys way better than him and at repairing GPUs way longer than he did.

I think there is like 2 on youtube, and 1 i know not on youtube.

The northridge guy is also fairly excellent.
The other guy whose from poland.

And i remember shimano at overclocking competitions would have a butane soldering iron with him at all times to quickfix anything that may happen during a overclocking competition.

lol....

 

[TheELF]

Now a tiny scratch on the PCB, and they will just say NOPE.

A dented board is not just a scratch, it shows considerable force applied to the card and is a legit reason to deny RMA.

Also mosfets get burned out/weakened by too many volts going through them for too much time so overvolt/overclock which means the RMA might have tested more than just looking at the dent.

And a bunch of the ram failed as well which could also have been due to them being overclocked/run outside specs.

 

[aigomorla]

A dented board is not just a scratch, it shows considerable force applied to the card and is a legit reason to deny RMA.

Also mosfets get burned out/weakened by too many volts going through them for too much time so overvolt/overclock which means the RMA might have tested more than just looking at the dent.

And a bunch of the ram failed as well which could also have been due to them being overclocked/run outside specs.

Incase you missed it, i stated that the card was a red lipped 3090 FTW3.
These were the 29 or so cards which were not supposed to go out retail according to jacob from eVGA.
They were the ones which blew up when playing new world.

I think eVGA should of replaced them, because it was a red lipped.
Red lip meaning it has a red clown lip at the base of the heat sink.

Also eVGA used to replace cards in way worse condition then that before.
I have RMA'd a few cards with them, where caps fell off, the PCI-E holder bent because of how some cases are not perfectly alligned, and warped due to GPU sag.
Never once have i been denied a RMA.
Id think GPU sag is worse then that scratch.

Its just a red flag to me in how eVGA Will handle the left over RMA's on their GPU's.
But it probably won't matter for me much, as i will probably be on the next gen hopefully before the card starts showing age or dying.

 

[Shmee]

Scary. I wonder what I should do with my EVGA 3090.

 

[IntelUser2000]

A dented board is not just a scratch, it shows considerable force applied to the card and is a legit reason to deny RMA.

Also mosfets get burned out/weakened by too many volts going through them for too much time so overvolt/overclock which means the RMA might have tested more than just looking at the dent.

And a bunch of the ram failed as well which could also have been due to them being overclocked/run outside specs.

This just adds to my perception of EVGA hype being overblown. Their product quality was nowhere near as people thought it was. If it wasn't for the supposedly excellent EVGA RMA service, they'd have failed naturally over time. Maybe they knew their products sucked and covered it up with the RMA. An inefficient way of doing so if you ask me. A better product would reduce RMA and support costs.

Another article was talking about how EVGA's CEO just wanted out and chose an irresponsible manner of doing so, rather than doing it properly and leaving an option for another guy to take over or go to AMD/Intel route. 80% of business and employees now have a murky future thanks to that idiot.

I think there is like 2 on youtube, and 1 i know not on youtube.

The northridge guy is also fairly excellent.
The other guy whose from poland.

<--Add 1 more to that list

Granted I'm nowhere skilled as the people I mentioned.

 

[amenx]

Been following this guys channel for some time. He certainly knows his stuff. Anyone with an expensive non-working GPU (or any HW) can confidently send their stuff to him for an accurate assessment of exactly what the issue is.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Scary. I wonder what I should do with my EVGA 3090.

You could put thermal pads on the RAM chips so they run cooler.

Replacing GeForce RTX 3090 Thermal Pads Improves GDDR6X Temps By 25C

Keep calm and mine on

www.tomshardware.com

 

[Shmee]

You could put thermal pads on the RAM chips so they run cooler.

Replacing GeForce RTX 3090 Thermal Pads Improves GDDR6X Temps By 25C

Keep calm and mine on

www.tomshardware.com

That is a pretty cool idea(lol), but would that void the warranty? Especially with this allegation of EVGA shadiness?

Depending on how the new AMD cards are and the prices, I might consider a trade or something for one of those. What would be really cool is if EVGA offered a 7900XTX or something, and allowed me to step up lol.

 

[igor_kavinski]

That is a pretty cool idea(lol), but would that void the warranty? Especially with this allegation of EVGA shadiness?

Not sure about that. Maybe ask their support? You could also undervolt the card so it runs cooler and there is less chance of thermal issues causing early failure. I think this card should be enough for your needs for at least 3 years more.

 

[Shmee]

Yeah, usually I leave it just stock these days, and it does seem to keep plenty cool, at least from what I recall when monitoring. Also I do set an FPS cap of 270 in a lot of games, so this could also help.

 

[Aikouka]

That is a pretty cool idea(lol), but would that void the warranty? Especially with this allegation of EVGA shadiness?

Depending on how the new AMD cards are and the prices, I might consider a trade or something for one of those. What would be really cool is if EVGA offered a 7900XTX or something, and allowed me to step up lol.

In the US, you can't use stuff like warranty void stickers anymore. Albeit, that doesn't stop products from having them, but they can't be enforced. You can change out the pads all you want. If EVGA wants to claim that that replacing the pads damaged the card in some way, they can always go that route, but that's it.

 

[Stuka87]

I don't like the sensationalism that this guy does. I mean sure, its YouTube, so you have to do it a bit. But he makes so many assumptions (like claiming EVGA did no test at all because they he didn't see giant probe dents in the solder). Though I had to laugh at his comment about a degreed EE getting a "five figure paycheck, what am I doing with my life".

The guy is fine at doing repairs from what I could see, and based off my own (albeit dated) experience. But the constant quips gets so old.

However, I am wondering why this guy even had this card? EVGA had a program to replace all of the red trim cards. Why did this owner wait 2 years?

 

[TheELF]

In the US, you can't use stuff like warranty void stickers anymore. Albeit, that doesn't stop products from having them, but they can't be enforced. You can change out the pads all you want. If EVGA wants to claim that that replacing the pads damaged the card in some way, they can always go that route, but that's it.

The sticker is not the problem, being able to open a device under warranty has nothing to do with if you break it (void your warranty) or not.
Good luck to you arguing against paid engineers that you applied professional skill and that the pads you used are up to the makers specs...

 

[aigomorla]

You could put thermal pads on the RAM chips so they run cooler.

Replacing GeForce RTX 3090 Thermal Pads Improves GDDR6X Temps By 25C

Keep calm and mine on

www.tomshardware.com

why stop there.... use thinner pads and copper shim the rest...

 

[VirtualLarry]

Scary. I wonder what I should do with my EVGA 3090.

I'll buy that for a dollar!

 

[A///]

Scary. I wonder what I should do with my EVGA 3090.

if ya send it to me I'll keep it safe in my super duper safe 6000 that also happens to look like one of my desktops.

 

[IEC]

Yeah, usually I leave it just stock these days, and it does seem to keep plenty cool, at least from what I recall when monitoring. Also I do set an FPS cap of 270 in a lot of games, so this could also help.

I'm running my eVGA RTX 3080 FTW3 Ultra at 70% power limit. I still boost over 2000MHz in games and with power usage capped around 220W I figure I'm not only gaining efficiency, I will probably prolong the life of the components since they're not running as hot.

Agree with FPS cap. No point going much over my monitor refresh anyways.