MSI 290x Lightning - RMA process [Updated: Replacement in transit!]

[destrekor]

I'm beginning to suspect this card might have a hardware issue. Let me know if y'all agree.

I've had a couple days with the card running just fine all day. I haven't actually been playing any games recently, but I did do some benchmarking once I had it up and running.

Not once was there an issue. However, now, just browsing the web, at some random moment, all screens may go black and the system enters a hard lock. I haven't been able to determine a particular trigger, if there is certain web content or what.

Sometimes this crash is silent, sometimes the GPU fan immediately goes into turbo fan of death mode, super loud.

A few times, after forcing the system off and then trying to boot again, I still get no display and it seems to be locked up (no keyboard response). This last time, it took me, maybe five resets and full power toggles to get it to give video on boot.

I have the Omega 14.12 driver installed, and I did a complete uninstall and also just used DDU to clean out all remnants, then I installed again after disabling the default driver install (plus I had the network connection disabled), thus a basic driver couldn't be installed first.

A total clean install, and I was loading up Heaven (it was on the initial small menu) and loading up different monitoring software, and it did it again.

I want to register at the MSI forum and ask them to look at my vBIOS and see if there is an update, but the damn website won't let me register, I keep getting a registration fail message.

I have a second card on the way to complete a Crossfire setup. Should I also be getting Newegg to start an RMA for this current card?

Update: 05MAR2015

Finally, after receiving the card on the 25th, there is an update to the status:
"Sales/RMA NG buffer for repair run"

After looking this up, it seems that represents that it has been determined to be a bad board, and it is waiting for a slot to enter into repair. They'll attempt to repair it, and/or send a replacement. Here's to hoping it happens fast from here. But at least they have confirmed the board was bad. After all the steps, I was quite sure that would be the issue, especially since mine [second] new one is still humming along.

Update: 06MAR2015
I actually looked last night (the 5th) and they, basically, immediately moved from "repair run" to "shipped." A tracking number was provided, but last night there was no tracking data yet.

Now there is, and it is scheduled for delivery on Wednesday the 11th. I was really hoping to have it this weekend, but I can't complain, once the actual test group got ahold of it, they immediately OK'd a replacement. Now to wait and see just what I get, a refurbished replacement, a new card, or if somehow they repaired that specific card.

I've had some terrific UPS Ground shipping speeds, but they have always been nearby. This is almost all the way across the country, from California to Ohio, so I got a few days wait.

Can't wait!

Update: 11MAR2015

I've got the card. For once, UPS delivered early in the day. That, like, never happens man!

Any who, anyone know a sure fire way to determine if it is a refurb or new?
I suspect it is a refurb, as it was sent by itself in an 290 Gaming box. It has the plastic protective pieces over the ports and slot pins, but there are no plastic film pieces on the cooler like a new retail unit.

I had hears refurbs have an RF or something in the serial number, and this card does not have that.

 

[Crow550]

I had to contact support in which they added my serial so I could register it.

I had a blank screen issue when I tried to use Overdrive. I had a 6950 and uninstalled then used Driver Fusion & CCleaner before installing the 290x.

So I did a another clean install with Driver Fusion & CCleaner. Even deleting any AMD or ATI folder like the hidden ones in the User folder and registry entries but haven't tested Overdrive since Afterburner would be better anyways.

You have two BIOSes on the card so if the Original is causing issues try the other and see....

Best of luck.

 

[_UP_]

I had no such hard locks. The only thing I have is occasionally (not too often though), a crash when waking from sleep. But I have a messy windows install, so could be that. Will re-install windows soon, hopefully it'll go away.

 

[Udgnim]

probably needs a BIOS update

different card but it's a pretty common issue with R9 290 cards if you're getting black screens

can read reviews about people talking about it

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...scrollFullInfo

can send the card back to newegg but they might just ship you a card that needs a BIOS update again

 

[Crow550]

LOL when I flipped the bios switch and the PC booted. First thing it did was blue screen. Then once rebooted was fine but had to reset my video card settings.

 

[Termie]

Try using an earlier driver than Omega. It caused screen flickering for me.

 

[RussianSensation]

One of my Sapphire 7970s had black screens within 30 days of purchase on Newegg. After various driver reinstallations, I just RMAed it back to Newegg. I simply called the customer service and explained I got a faulty card. They issued a free shipping label by email and said it will take up to 5 business days to test my card to confirm that it is faulty. They take down the details of the issues. Then they asked me if I wanted a credit or to receive the same card. They simply sent me a brand new card that worked. Took less than 2 weeks for the entire process. I would RMA within the 30 day period because it's way better to deal with Newegg now than to find out the card is faulty and having to deal with the manufacturer. Since the first card you bought was at a very good price, I would ask for a replacement rather than credit if you want to stick with 290X CF.

 

[RussianSensation]

Destrekor,

Any update on your situation? Did you RMA the card with Newegg or MSI? Interesting to hear how either organization handled your situation. Hopefully you didn't send in the rebate to MSI or Newegg would automatically refuse any RMA, which would force you to do an RMA with MSI. Then MSI will probably send you a refurbished Lightning card if yours is broken.

 

[destrekor]

I've tried resetting motherboard BIOS, and even upgraded the BIOS to the latest from Asus, and still, nothing. On my board, the VGA LED is lit, indicating a GPU fault of some kind. The card has power and all indications from the card is it is ready to go.
My old GPU provides video in that slot (re-confirmed). This card does not, though the system still completes POST and boots.

There was no updated vBIOS for the card, it is on the latest one.

Yep... ended up sending in the rebate since I was afraid of not being able to collect it, as today is the 15th day since the order, and I knew I wouldn't have a new card in time. I didn't know, and didn't think to even ask, if the RMA's ship date would count as a new date for that old rebate promotion or not.

And yep, Newegg is denying the RMA.

MSI approved the online RMA request, but email support (had an open ticket for troubleshooting the card) is saying they don't do Advanced RMAs.

I'm going to give them a call and see if I can't work anything out, but it seems like I can expect a flat out refusal. Hopefully I can get them to make a note to only send a brand new card. Seems flat out wrong to send a refurbished as a warranty replacement, especially within the first 30 days of warranty.

 

[Jhatfie]

Just curious, have you tried upping the voltage? On my son's Asus 290 when testing it experienced a couple weird black screens which appeared to be triggered with when dropping between 2D and 3D clocks and appeared that potentially the voltage is drops to low for a moment in the process of switching. Gaming or load never caused the issue. So I upped the voltage slightly and it has yet to have the issue since.

 

[destrekor]

Just curious, have you tried upping the voltage? On my son's Asus 290 when testing it experienced a couple weird black screens which appeared to be triggered with when dropping between 2D and 3D clocks and appeared that potentially the voltage is drops to low for a moment in the process of switching. Gaming or load never caused the issue. So I upped the voltage slightly and it has yet to have the issue since.

Frankly, if a product can't function properly at the manufacturer's designed voltages, I'm not fixing it for them.

However, that doesn't apply. I no longer have any video at boot, full stop. It would initially crash and maybe give me fits getting the PC to boot back up with video as well; I might reboot it three times, the system boots but the monitors never display anything, and finally a fourth time or whatever the case was, all was functional. It would crash again at some point after boot, completely random, not even stressing the card. After a little while of this, it finally gave up pretending and now refuses to display video, no matter how else I might coax it.

 

[Crow550]

Yeah I think once the serial sticker is used for the rebate it's out of Neweggs hands. Unless MSI doesn't help then they might?

If you register the card with MSI they should cover it since you get a two year Warranty.

*They say you don't need to register for Warranty services.*

You did take a picture of the Serial Number before sending it in?

MSI should help as they cover extreme OCing on the card from what I have heard.

 

[destrekor]

Yeah I think once the serial sticker is used for the rebate it's out of Neweggs hands. Unless MSI doesn't help then they might?

If you register the card with MSI they should cover it since you get a two year Warranty.

You did take a picture of the Serial Number before sending it in?

MSI should help as they cover extreme OCing on the card from what I have heard.

Yeah, took a picture. Didn't even think about that for reference purposes, I had taken the picture awhile ago so I had the SN in my hand and could leave the box in my storage area. Worked out, as I said, I likely would not have thought of that otherwise.

And heck, if it was a 2 year warranty before, or still is for certain products, mine shows a 3 year warranty.


It doesn't sound like it's any trouble to get a replacement card, even with extreme OCs, even if you replaced their cooler with your own (they even include a special heat spreader solely for use in the event you do remove said stock cooler assembly). But it does seem like it is more geared towards issues later down the road, because you either get your card back, repaired, or a certified refurbished card, which remains covered under your original warranty period.
But to get a refurbished card after 15 days, hell no, not if I can help it.

I called MSI and will now be waiting to hear back. The representative I talked to say they could do an Advanced RMA, IF they have on-hand stock of the card I have. I guess they don't normally maintain a large stock because they typically don't send out new cards like that. If we can do this, they have to charge a card and will refund that once they receive my card, as long as it is not broken in a way that isn't covered under warranty.

Here's to hoping for good news! Though I would greatly prefer they do it the Amazon way, where they send the new product and only actually charge you in the event they don't get the return within 30 days.


Caught you before the edit:

*They say you don't need to register for Warranty services.

True, I think that became a law or something, because it is seemingly a universal truth that companies must honor a warranty, even if you didn't fill out that product registration card or online form in the time required, where they say "if you don't fill this out, you won't have warranty support!" Turns out, they still have to. FTC probably came down with a hammer for that some time way back and fixed it for we peasants I mean consumers.

 

[Crow550]

Perhaps. However I heard with XFX you do for the Lifetime Warranty they offer.

I don't know.... I registered my MSI card anyways. I did have to contact support to have my Serial number added to the database.

 

[cen1]

Did you try disabling HW acceleration in the browser?

 

[destrekor]

Argh... so my second card that I ordered from Newegg (for Crossfire), shipped out of Memphis in the middle of all that mess that hit that region.

It's sat in TN for 3 days now without movement, not even sure it was ever actually picked up from Newegg's facility. Was hoping to have THAT card before I even needed to deal with MSI support so that I could do my own verification that it was just the one card. Or, worse, that both cards due to their current vBIOS are simply incompatible.

This winter is very annoying.

 

[destrekor]

Update: Got a call today from MSI, and they say they do not have any on-hand stock of the 290x Lightning, so I won't be able to do an advanced RMA.

Am I seriously screwed out of a new card? Or should I not be that upset considering I still have a valid 3 year warranty on a refurbished card?

On one level I feel very cheated, but as I don't intend to keep these for 3 years this time around, I just want to make sure I have a marketable card when it comes to selling time. It seems it's basically accepted that you can RMA a card just by serial number alone so they unofficially transfer.

What if I've registered it? Can it be unregistered? Just don't register the RMA card's SN or the second card coming whenever?

 

[Z15CAM]

Make sure your golden fingers are clean (Pencil Eraser and Alcohol) and MB PCIe slots are clean with no bent wires. Always shut Down the PC. Shut off the PSU and pull the plug until all MB LED's go out.

The card may simply be loosing contact and by shutting down as you reset the Cards Bios.

 

[Plimogz]

I've recently been having issues (i.e. daily crashes, bsods, hard locks w/ sound) on my sig rig and uninstalling Afterburner seems to have helped.

Meanwhile my other system (AM3, unlocked PhenomII + 2x 7950) has been happily crunching along for a couple of weeks -- since the last power outage or whatnot...

 

[Termie]

I've recently been having issues (i.e. daily crashes, bsods, hard locks w/ sound) on my sig rig and uninstalling Afterburner seems to have helped.

Meanwhile my other system (AM3, unlocked PhenomII + 2x 7950) has been happily crunching along for a couple of weeks -- since the last power outage or whatnot...

This is a good reminder to test the system with no add-on software running, like Afterburner.

 

[destrekor]

Make sure your golden fingers are clean (Pencil Eraser and Alcohol) and MB PCIe slots are clean with no bent wires. Always shut Down the PC. Shut off the PSU and pull the plug until all MB LED's go out.

The card nay simply be loosing contact and by shutting dow you reset the Cards Bios.

The card has been in and out of the system a few times, so it has had numerous chances to be reset.

The card has been reseated as well, and I have also confirmed the slot is in working order by using a previous GPU.

The contacts are all perfectly clean, and I even took an air duster to the slot to ensure it's cleared of dust. I have an RMA approved and will be going that route. Unfortunately it looks like I have to wait until Monday, if not Tuesday, before I can test a second Lightning to confirm my theory of a bad card.

It having booted when it was brand new but now absolutely refusing to, when everything else is fine, suggests something was bad and simply needed a little pushing to finally break down.


Note: I cannot get into the OS to even uninstall or perform any tweaks. The system itself WILL boot into the OS, but without video. The video doesn't work before the system has any chance to even load an OS, so it's not a software issue of any sort. Afterburner on Windows cannot foul the card's level of functioning while the system is still at POST. Not until the old card is in will I have video during and after POST.

 

[Termie]

OK, didn't realize the degree to which this wasn't working. Can you get into the BIOS with video? If so, and if it only starts to malfunction when Windows begins to load, it's more likely a software issue.

But if you have a failure before even getting into the BIOS, the card is shot.

 

[destrekor]

OK, didn't realize the degree to which this wasn't working. Can you get into the BIOS with video? If so, and if it only starts to malfunction when Windows begins to load, it's more likely a software issue.

But if you have a failure before even getting into the BIOS, the card is shot.

Nope, after boot the monitors never once wake up with signal, not for the initial splash screen, Intel disk management display, anything.

I had tried to get into BIOS once, just by blindly hitting the DEL key until it popped up, and it probably did but I never saw it.

I first suspected some kind of compatibility issue when it was first simply giving me the black screen crashing and I could reboot into the OS again. Once it seemed to flat out refuse to provide video during initial boot, I strongly leaned toward a bad card. I tried everything like new MB BIOS and resetting BIOS, but then I got to thinking: if it booted before and now simply won't boot, and I didn't change anything in BIOS to prompt that, it can't be anything other than the GPU. Basic troubleshooting 101 basically confirms it when another card works 100% fine.

 

[Termie]

Well, an older card could work fine and you could still have a compatibility issue that isn't the fault of the new card (for instance, an older PCIe slot), but in this case, you had the new card working, and then it stopped working.

I'd say it has failed.

 

[destrekor]

Well, an older card could work fine and you could still have a compatibility issue that isn't the fault of the new card (for instance, an older PCIe slot), but in this case, you had the new card working, and then it stopped working.

I'd say it has failed.

Agreed, I still suspect a possible compatibility issue, which may very well still be there with a new card, but this card may have been destined to fail in the first place. The black screen issue at random intervals, even with the card being on the lasted vBIOS, worried me about that. Hopefully the new card, with the latest BIOS for my motherboard, will not exhibit that issue at all.

I've read of this happening enough with the 290X that it has me worried that my board simply won't work, but I've read of others either getting an older vBIOS for their card (or newer if this was awhile ago), changing voltages on the motherboard (perhaps... some did change voltages on the cards with success, many without improvement), but quite a few had RMAs that solved the problem. Manufacturing tolerances may be iffy or individual cards are more picky about the internal PCIe operating conditions than other cards.

It is a PCIe 2.0 motherboard, with the latest BIOS released in 2012, so... frankly it shouldn't be an issue, and I suspect a new card should work perfectly. Now I just have to patiently wait until Monday to find out.

I just don't care to install the old Nvidia cards, deal with the driver mess, get that all cleaned up and functional, only to clean out Nvidia drivers again and start with fresh AMD drivers in a few days.