Did I get scammed? Bought a 9800M GT off Ebay, received a Quadro 3700M

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Tantalum

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Just like it says in the title, I bought a 9800M GT from ebay for $270 with shipping to replace the broken 9800M GT in my Sager NP9262(Clevo D901C), however upon installing the card I was shown a pre-boot screen saying "nVIDIA, Bios 62.92.3b.00.00 - Engineering Sample Model Not for Production 1024MB", I hit F2 and it showed that I was using a Quadro 3700M in the BIOS page.

I looked up the 3700M found out it has twice the memory of my 9800M GT and faster clock and shader speeds, thought they might have sent me the wrong card, but just to test :3 , I tried to play a quick game of L4D(After uninstalling my old drivers via the Nvidia uninstall tool and installing the newest drivers for the Quadro series) only to have the game freeze, red fuzzy blocks appear all over my screen and a warning popping up saying that the Nvidia driver had managed to break itself. Amazingly however the computer did not restart, it reset itself to 800x600 8bit color and the fuzzy lines and artifacting stayed up on the screen.

I sent an email to the seller stating how they sent me the wrong card, AND that the card was apparently DOA(I checked the heat via speedfan, card idled a 40C and never went above 60C) they replied by telling me that it was impossible for them to have sent me the wrong card, since a 3700M looks completely different according to them(Despite the fact that google image search and the Nvidia website disagrees) from a 9800M GT.

So now I may be out $270 and with a useless 3700M. Does anyone know if it might be a error in the video bios? Maybe making the card think it is a 3700M with 1024mb of memory when it is really only a 9800M GT with 512? Or could it be that the ram chips are getting to hot? I re-used the heatpads from my 9800M GT but could the heatpads possibly be damaged after removal? Causing the memory to overheat when I try to run anything that uses the card?

If nothing else works I suppose I could try reflowing my broken 9800M GT since I think it was a heat-based failure rather than actual damage to the chips. The card kinda slowly failed over a week after giving me some artifacting/crashing in games.
 
yay ebay!

I have reapplied thermal pads several times when doing thermal analysis on ftth gateways with no perceivable adverse effects. I doubt they are seroiusly degraded unless they obviously look damaged, torn, contaminated with dirt, etc. They should mate securely with a little compression.

Looking over wiki, the 3700M is basically the same core as the 9800M but with more SP's activated and typically with more memory. Historically, the Quadro line uses the same silicon as the GeForce line, the difference is in the bios, the Quadro card's bios and drivers are tuned for Pro OpenGL applications. Because of this; sometimes there are incompatibilities or performance degradation when compared to the "equivalent" GeForce model card. From what I've read, it's usually not a major dip in performance. Since these use the same GPU, I'd have to assume the supporting PCB circuitry is going to be near identical, logically, I'd think the 9800M and 3700M PCB's would look near identical.

Everything I read on the bad 9series mobile parts, was not a reflow issue, but a screw up in the manufacturing of the IC, missing chemicals/missing layer/wrong chemicals etc IIRC. Meaning heating the components to reflow will not help. Sounds like you'd lose nothing in trying, just cautioning not to get your hopes up.
 
A reflash of the bios would be the best bet, reflash it with a GeForce 9800M bios, then regular GeForce drivers would work. You might lose access to the extra 512MB of memory, but probably not a huge loss if you gained performance/compatibility/stability. But no clue how you'd go about doing that.

nVidia doesn't publish tools for bios flashing like the Taiwanese mobo makers do. You may be SOL.
 
Could I possibly reflash with a 9800M GT 1024mb bios? I have heard a few things about these cards existing somewhere out there. Does anyone know how I would go about flashing the bios? I know it can be done with desktop cards since people do it for volt modds, the process shouldn't be too different for a mobile GPU I hope.

EDIT: Just saw on that image you posted that the Quadro core actually says Quadro on it, I'll check the core of my card and if it also says it I'll send a pic to the people I bought it from.
 
you got scammed, thats an engineering sample board. Unlike ES chips, ES motherboards, and/or GPUs don't work very well (have seen them in the past in customer machines... god knows how they got there.)

Regardless of what they say.. the fact that the card says engineering sample on boot, when they (I assume) stated used or new 9800M, you didnt get what you ordered

Hope you used paypal...

Edit: I worked on an ES dell laptop once with an ES nvidia card, the laptop wouldnt work right till i eventually found a tool from dell to flash its bios to a new one, before that, installed the nvidia driver would totally screw shit up (half the screen wouldnt work and would be covered in lines).
However, i would never want an ES part in my laptop.
 
Just got a reply from the seller, my options are to either trade this card in for his other listing(A Quardro FX770M) or get a full refund for the card and try to find another vender selling a 9800M GT for less than $500 or keep the card and get a partial refund.

What would you guys recommend? OmegaAvenger, you mentioned how you got a ES card to work using a bios flash, do you think that would be worth it?

I'm kinda torn between a partial refund there is still the chance of getting it working somehow, even having a semi-working card is better than nothing and sending the card back for a full refund...If I get a full refund there is the chance I won't be able to find another 9800M GT that is being sold for a sane(Under $500) amount.
 
Return it for a full refund and get the right card. Sounds like they are trying to rip you off. If the 3700M is better than the 9800M GT, why did you get it for half the price of other 9800M GT's? As others have said...you dont want an ES.
 
Tantalum said:
Could I possibly reflash with a 9800M GT 1024mb bios? I have heard a few things about these cards existing somewhere out there. Does anyone know how I would go about flashing the bios? I know it can be done with desktop cards since people do it for volt modds, the process shouldn't be too different for a mobile GPU I hope.

EDIT: Just saw on that image you posted that the Quadro core actually says Quadro on it, I'll check the core of my card and if it also says it I'll send a pic to the people I bought it from.
Click to expand...
That, print where it says Quadro, is probably a photoshopping, to make it look pretty and flashy for the photo-op.
 
Tantalum said:
Just got a reply from the seller, my options are to either trade this card in for his other listing(A Quardro FX770M) or get a full refund for the card and try to find another vender selling a 9800M GT for less than $500 or keep the card and get a partial refund.

What would you guys recommend? OmegaAvenger, you mentioned how you got a ES card to work using a bios flash, do you think that would be worth it?

I'm kinda torn between a partial refund there is still the chance of getting it working somehow, even having a semi-working card is better than nothing and sending the card back for a full refund...If I get a full refund there is the chance I won't be able to find another 9800M GT that is being sold for a sane(Under $500) amount.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but the difference is was the correct card in the correct laptop. I geuss it would be worth a shot, but if it bricks the card you'll be SOL
 
Decided to just send the card back for a full refund, I only hope the guy doesn't try and tell me I broke it somehow and choose not to refund my money.

Even if I get the money back I still have the problem of no laptop >.<. Right now my only option is to get a card from the MxM-Upgrade website, with either a 9700M GT(I think its around $400) or a GTX 280M(About $720) neither of which are good solutions. For the price of either one of them I could buy myself a GTX 285 and still have some money left over.
 
It is illegal for anyone to sell you an Engineering sample (ES's are property of the company that made it, in this case nvidia). If he does not fully refund or refuse to refund you, file a dispute against him on ebay and claim is not the item that you have ordered. In any case, you as the buyer have the upper hand in this case, not the seller.
 
Feedback can be faked, when your friends buy phantom products/real ones, and give you great feedback anyway, or the same guy with multiple aliases or previous usernames.

Great feedback does not make you immune to mistakes or selling a bad product, I would personally get a refund, it's your right as a customer, and if it becomes a problem take it to Ebay and let them deal with it.
 
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