Failed 980: Best strategy for getting support from MSI

[Pwndenburg]

Hi, I've heard from various people that getting support from MSI can be very difficult. I started noticing odd sound issues and skips during normal desktop video usage of the card. As time went on these continued to worsen. I had the sound running off of the GFX through hdmi through my tv so I suspected the card immediately.

After updating all drivers and all the other usual troubleshooting items, I removed the card. When using onboard GFX and headphones all glitches and issues are gone. When I examined the card I saw some sort of greasy liquid on the back of it as if something has burst. I was not surprised by this as I heard a loud click come from the general area of the card as this problem started.

Anyway, what would you do now that I'm beyond 30 days and am stuck with MSI?

 

[tviceman]

RMA it like anyone else.

 

[Pwndenburg]

Thanks for the helpful and insightful reply. Of course I'm in process of the RMA, was hopeful that someone who had been through the ringer with it would be able to give their experience and perhaps avoid SOME of the typical RMA BS.

 

[DooKey]

I RMA'd a 5870 to MSI several years ago and overall it was a good experience. As a matter of fact they upgraded me to a Lightning since they didn't have vanilla cards in stock. At first they wanted to give me money for the card, but I refused and said I wanted a replacement. As soon as I told them that they sent me the lightning.

 

[tviceman]

Thanks for the helpful and insightful reply. Of course I'm in process of the RMA, was hopeful that someone who had been through the ringer with it would be able to give their experience and perhaps avoid SOME of the typical RMA BS.

I have RMA'd twice with MSI. Both times I got replacement cards that worked. Both times they took the maximum amount of time they allotted for the RMA to run. Both times their communication with me was minimal (product received, RMA issued, product shipped). If you have not sent your card in yet, take a picture of the serial number on the card to make sure they do not send you back the same card unfixed.

 

[Pwndenburg]

Thanks for the insight on the matter. Sorry for my tone earlier, I had just found out In any case, at my age its just not as big as a deal as it used to be. I'll rma, they'll one out that works or they won't, that simple. Sorry for the frustration thread. Delete if you don't mind. When I actually think about it, this is my first bad vid card ever. I mean I've never had one fail during its lifecycle even. I'm really one of the lucky ones.

 

[bystander36]

Thanks for the helpful and insightful reply. Of course I'm in process of the RMA, was hopeful that someone who had been through the ringer with it would be able to give their experience and perhaps avoid SOME of the typical RMA BS.

The only advise I can give is to be detailed about what the problem is, and what you've done to test it. If you had another GPU to test, to be sure it worked correctly in the same situation, that would help.

The only time I've RMA'ed a card, I had zero trouble. I assume it is because I was detailed on the problem, and what I did to test and confirm the card was bad.

 

[Pwndenburg]

On the up side, the vid card has to be ok; because, now I'm having the same exact issue with sound and video irregularity on the onboard and mobo. Given that my Haswell is not a K version, the only thing left is the motherboard right?

 

[nurturedhate]

Have you tried using a different cable?

 

[birthdaymonkey]

Unfortunately these kinds of issues can be hard to nail down. It could be the motherboard, or it could be a software problem on your system. Audio glitches are often related to DPC latency - if you have high DPC latency it can be caused by a buggy driver or software on your machine. Motherboard utility software is one of the usual suspects, as are hardware other monitoring programs.

Try running Latencymon or DPC Latency Checker and see if you're getting spikes. You should also try and troubleshoot the problem by swapping out hardware as much as you can. An easy step might be to try running from a monitor via DVI and plug your headphones into the audio jack - see if the problem is limited to your TV/HDMI output.

 

[Pwndenburg]

I think I've found the cause; however, I have no idea what has caused it. My computer has suddenly lost the ability to effectively manage memory. I just happened to glance at task manager and saw that after being on for an extended period of time that around 6.0/8.0 gigs of RAM are being used while idle at the desktop.

It doesn't seem to be able to dump memory. The only things I have done over the last week was download an update to the windows toolbar and force a trim of my ssds through magician. It appears the RAM itself is fine; but, my comp has lost all ability to cycle it. I tried running malwarebytes and the standard windows defender.

Sorry this became such a long-winded thread over it; but, I'm quite puzzled as to the cause of this behavior. Perhaps I should wipe the system and fresh install?

 

[birthdaymonkey]

I think I've found the cause; however, I have no idea what has caused it. My computer has suddenly lost the ability to effectively manage memory. I just happened to glance at task manager and saw that after being on for an extended period of time that around 6.0/8.0 gigs of RAM are being used while idle at the desktop.

It doesn't seem to be able to dump memory. The only things I have done over the last week was download an update to the windows toolbar and force a trim of my ssds through magician. It appears the RAM itself is fine; but, my comp has lost all ability to cycle it. I tried running malwarebytes and the standard windows defender.

Sorry this became such a long-winded thread over it; but, I'm quite puzzled as to the cause of this behavior. Perhaps I should wipe the system and fresh install?

I doubt that is the cause of your problem. Windows will use memory if it's available to cache things and won't bother freeing up memory until it's needed by a program.

 

[Pwndenburg]

Well, I figured it out. It is a incompatible windows update with my particular setup. I'm running 8.1 and I noticed the problem started around 3 or 4 days ago. I looked and noticed I had a bevy of updates that day. I uninstalled them and placed the card back in. Happy computing, well at least (I think) I've found the solution.

 

[Pwndenburg]

After playing a few videos and games I determined that wasn't gonna cut it either. So, as a last ditch effort I updated the bios and so far so good for a day or so. Hope it turns out to be the only issue. Not sure what made it go away the onboard sound update or the bios flash; but, I see marked improvement and it appears to be holding up. So, nice maybe no RMA for me.