Need RMA advice

[Ancalagon44]

Hey everyone,

Long story short, I bumped the HDMI cable while it was attached to my graphics card and now it looks like my card is toast. PC won't boot with it in. Tried another one and it boots with it in.

You can't see any physical damage but it is definitely toast.

My question is.... should I try to RMA it? Would it be immoral and/or unethical?

 

[VirtualLarry]

My question is.... should I try to RMA it? Would it be immoral and/or unethical?

I guess that depends on how you "bumped" it. Did you use a ball-peen hammer to do so? In that case, I wouldn't RMA it.

OTOH, HDMI is meant to be consumer hot-pluggable, and as such, I don't see how plugging or unplugging the cable could damage the card to the point of non-functionality.

 

[Ancalagon44]

I bumped the cable from above while the machine was off. I can't see any physical damage to the card or the port but it is damaged.

So I contacted the vendor and told them what happened. They said that whether or not the warranty covers the damage would depend on whether there is any visible physical damage. They said send it in for them to evaluate.

I will send it in. At least now they know and I am not lying to anyone. If they approve the RMA, then great, if not, that's also okay.

 

[Rifter]

Id RMA it for sure, it doesnt sound like you physically damaged it, and as VL mentioned it is a hot swappable standard.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

RMA it, this is normal use scenario, nothing abused etc.

 

[Craig234]

You were right to ask, you were right to tell them, this is user damage. There's a chance the card was somehow defective contributing but it seems unlikely. If it's covered, great.

 

[AntonioHG]

I had a similar experience a couple weeks ago with a defective motherboard and a modded GPU.

MSI had put out a motherboard that was defective at launch (BT did not work) and I finally had a chance to get it out of the PC and RMA it. So I disassembled it and noticed a pin was missing from the USB 3 header. It wasn't like that out of the box, so it must've been me plugging or unplugging the stupid connector. I sent a message to find out what they would do and they were cool with it and I got the replacement board.

With the GPU, I had an XFX R9 290x and modded the baseplate by cutting out a notch to add a VRM heatsink. I told them about it when the thing died and they replaced it as well.

I think it's best to just let them know so you won't end up embarrassed and out of the shipping cost if they reject it.

 

[Ancalagon44]

Well I shipped it there, they tested the GPU thoroughly and it is fine. They stress tested it, they tested all of the connectors, and everything works fine. So, the GPU itself is fine.

I know some people have had bad experiences with RMAs in which the tests were not thorough etc etc. But, in this case, the problem was so bad that the PC would not POST at all. They would have noticed that. It failed to post 9 out of 10 times, it wasn't difficult to replicate. And, they sent me photos of the card running. A few of them.

I have FINALLY got my Ryzen build up and running my borrowing a friend's GPU (an Nvidia 1070). So, this means that the memory, CPU and motherboard are all fine. Everything is working, but, that was not the case with my GPU in the PC. And, now I know that my GPU is in fact fine and was not damaged at all.

So not sure what to make of that. I will be getting my own GPU back next week and will try it again. Not sure what I will do if it fails to post - I have never heard of a motherboard not liking a GPU. If it fails to post, I will take it back to the shop and tell them the GPU has tested and found to be fine. They can independently test it if they want.

 

[mindless1]

They might have some sort of test jig that doesn't require the same startup identification a motherboard does to post. I wouldn't set it up like that, why would you want to have to wait for all that and boot an OS to test thousands of cards in a row every day?

As far as who is to blame for damage, some acts are obviously excessive but IMO the industry is splitting hairs sometimes, as they willingly adopt standards where ports become more and more fragile and don't necessarily pick the highest quality ones or devote as much PCB copper as possible to soldering them down, and other means of mechanical reinforcement. mHDMI for example, shouldn't even exist on non-portable equipment.

Anyway what I would do is put another video card in at the same time and see if you can get a bios flash utility (or anything else, Device Mgr or whatever) to recognize the *dead* card.

Is your computer case mounting bracket flimsy? Sometimes they (or a card/card's own bracket) are a little off spec and a bump could cause a card to sit just wrong and not make good electrical contact while another card does. I noticed you wrote "failed to post 9 out of 10 times" which tells me it's not totally dead but instead probably some intermittent contact issue whether card to motherboard or broken solder joint on the card.

Are you sure the system is failing to post or is it possible it is posting but just no output to the monitor?

 

[Ancalagon44]

When I took it into the shop to test, they said it was not posting because he had this wireless mouse that had a green LED that would light up on POST. That did not happen with my card - the LED did not light up green. In addition to nothing appearing on the screen.

So, really not sure. I will see what happens next week when I get my card back, should be Monday or Tuesday. Then, I will try it again and see if it works. Maybe we just seated it incorrectly all those times? Would seem odd but not impossible.

The other thing I can do is that I actually still have my old AM3 board with its Phenom II still in it and cooler still mounted with DDR3 still there. So, I could put that motherboard back into my case and test it with that, see if that board posts with the card.

 

[Rifter]

The other thing I can do is that I actually still have my old AM3 board with its Phenom II still in it and cooler still mounted with DDR3 still there. So, I could put that motherboard back into my case and test it with that, see if that board posts with the card.

Dont go through the work of putting it in a case just to test a GPU just bench test it.

 

[Ancalagon44]

Okay well now there is more to the story.

I got the GPU back yesterday and tested it last night. Still nothing.

On first boot, it turned the monitor black - ie getting ready to show something. On a reset, the Asus (motherboard) logo came up. After that, nothing. No display at all.

Ideas? The vendor said they tested it thoroughly, and I'm inclined to believe them. They are a small online shop that specializes in gaming hardware. Not an Amazon or something.

Could it be that the card will somehow work with PCIE 2 but not PCIE 3? New board is PCIE3, old one is PCIE2. I guess I will have to swap boards back to my old board to test the card. Ugh, lot of effort!

The problem is that I can't even sell it before I know whether it is working properly.

I have contacted both the vendor of the graphics card to tell them I am still not happy, as well as the vendor of the motherboard to ask for their advice. The motherboard is fine but I'm hoping he will have some ideas on what I can do or what the cause could be.

 

[mindless1]

Tough spot to be in, I would clear m'board cmos and see if that helps.

I apologize for not reading backwards but is there any chance your PSU is weak and can get a lower powered card to post but this extra current is too much?

 

[Ancalagon44]

Tough spot to be in, I would clear m'board cmos and see if that helps.

I apologize for not reading backwards but is there any chance your PSU is weak and can get a lower powered card to post but this extra current is too much?

Trying the CMOs battery thing now.

No, no chance it is the PSU, because:
#1 PSU can power a 1070 just fine
#2 same PSU was used to power this same 480 before, in a different motherboard.

EDIT:

Just tested the card in my old motherboard and it works fine. I really am lost.

Oh and the CMOS battery trick did not work either.