Quite a sticky situation

M

MurderCityDevil

Gawd
Joined
Dec 6, 2007
Messages
724
Okay, here's the deal. I have an EVGA 8800GTS 512 card that I recently put into a step-up for the 9800GX2. At the moment, I'm like 18x in queue, so I figure I have at most maybe a week before i do the actual card shipping. However, there's a problem. Today I was messing around with my new vista 64 bit installation, trying to get my pci wifi card's drivers working, and somehow, after a reboot, my card just died. Long story short, everything works just as it should - I can power on, post, even boot into windows, but my card displays no signal. To those who have an 8800GTS, you know that right when you power on the comp, the fan will spin at 100% for a few seconds as it goes through POST, and then it will settle down and you'll get an image on your monitor. Well, if I try to turn the monitor on, aka force the card to display something, the fan will throttle up, fail, and go back down, over and over again until the monitor shuts off because there's no signal. I called tech support and tried a whole bunch of stuff, but basically the guy said the card failed.

I then told him that I'm trying to step up and asked what I should do, and he said that I should, on the "down-low" send the card to EVGA and if they said anything about it not working, to tell them that it was completely functional when I sent it to them. I asked if this would actually work and he said it was worth a try, so I don't have any other choice really. The shitty thing is I'm stuck without a computer that can play games as I don't have any other graphics cards.

Do you guys think I can get a successful step-up? and if not, what should I do?
 
and this person knows your name and where youre from? Just how much would you trust this voice on the phone?? I wouldnt trust them as far as I could throw this house.. .but thats just me...


remember... karma will get ya..
 
If the card is still under warranty with evga I would have no reservations about sending it in for step-up. It doesn't seem like you did anything to cause it to fail.
 
trinibwoy said:
If the card is still under warranty with evga I would have no reservations about sending it in for step-up. It doesn't seem like you did anything to cause it to fail.
Click to expand...

If it's under warranty, what difference does it make? EVGA would have to replace that one anyway and then you would step up...unless you fall out of the step-up date range.
 
ok, but think about it from my standpoint. as far as i or evga know(s), i am completely not at fault for the card breaking. Let's assume that it just gets screwed up during the shipping process. I have absolutely no power over the ups man's mistakes, so why would i be cheated out of a step-up because some third party messed it up? electronics break all the time. I think the people at EVGA are pretty nice about this kind of thing, from what I've heard about their customer service. And if i get any resistance, I can at least talk to them using a logical standpoint. And let's say that they don't want to do my step-up. Since I'm under warranty, I'll ask for an RMA. They would then have to go through the process of sending me a new one out of their pocket, where i would promptly send it back to them to do step-up again, and then they would be left with an 8800gts that they would have to sell as refurbished or b-grade or whatever they call it, losing them money. It just doesn't make any sense for them.

Regardless, i'd like to try and get the card working, so here is what is going on, in case someone can help me. The card is seated properly in the slot, power is connected, all other components are working properly. When i press the power button, the system goes through post; my lcd poster goes through check cpu, det dram, vga bios, count mem, etc etc, and boots into windows, because then the poster just displays the date and time like it would if I booted normally. The card's fan though, does not spin. The monitor goes into standby since there's no signal. But If i turn the monitor on, the card fan begins to spin up, then stops. It's the same type of noise that a cd drive makes when it tries over and over again to read a disk that is corrupted or scratched or whatever. It spins up, gives up, spins up, gives up, and then stops as soon as the monitor goes back into stand-by. I've tried changing ram, trying the second pci-e port, different port for the monitor cable, re-seating it, clearing cmos, and loading bios defaults (without a monitor), i just press the keys from memory blindly. It's always the same thing. Any suggestions at all?
 
MurderCityDevil said:
Okay, here's the deal. I have an EVGA 8800GTS 512 card that I recently put into a step-up for the 9800GX2. At the moment, I'm like 18x in queue, so I figure I have at most maybe a week before i do the actual card shipping. However, there's a problem. Today I was messing around with my new vista 64 bit installation, trying to get my pci wifi card's drivers working, and somehow, after a reboot, my card just died. Long story short, everything works just as it should - I can power on, post, even boot into windows, but my card displays no signal. To those who have an 8800GTS, you know that right when you power on the comp, the fan will spin at 100% for a few seconds as it goes through POST, and then it will settle down and you'll get an image on your monitor. Well, if I try to turn the monitor on, aka force the card to display something, the fan will throttle up, fail, and go back down, over and over again until the monitor shuts off because there's no signal. I called tech support and tried a whole bunch of stuff, but basically the guy said the card failed.

I then told him that I'm trying to step up and asked what I should do, and he said that I should, on the "down-low" send the card to EVGA and if they said anything about it not working, to tell them that it was completely functional when I sent it to them. I asked if this would actually work and he said it was worth a try, so I don't have any other choice really. The shitty thing is I'm stuck without a computer that can play games as I don't have any other graphics cards.

Do you guys think I can get a successful step-up? and if not, what should I do?
Click to expand...

I think your going to have to RMA the card. The stepup faq states:
Card must be in working order and free of cosmetic and physical defects
Click to expand...
I cant believe tech support would suggest this "on the down low" crap, Evga tests your return card. He should know this. I suppose he didnt mention that if they reject it you will be charged for shipping your rejected card back to you. You should try to email Joe Darwin and explain the situation and ask how you should proceed. Cant hurt.
 
Swap out your power supply to rule that out as suspect.

Also, you should cancel the Step-Up and RMA if it can't be revived. How many days left on Step-Up?
 
you defiantly need to RMA it, and then do the stepup

They definatly test your card because they turn around and sell it as refurbished
 
Agreed. I would not try any of that "on the down low" shit, the rep that told you that should be warned (not fired unless he says that regularly) - that is circumventing EVGAs stated policies and won't hurt them in the end, it will hurt you. And YES they do test step-up cards (for the stated refurb cards as well as RMA replacements), so they will know. Although what should happen in that case (re: the stated "it's still under warranty" thing), delay the step-up process until it's all worked out, but as they say better to be safe than sorry.

Personally, I'd PM RussianHAXOR, or Joe Darwin (jdarwin), or any of the other possible EVGA people that post here (or head on over to their own forums), and get their input on how you should proceed. How long do you actually have left in the step-up window period? If it's real soon and having to do an RMA first would put you outside that window, contacting one of the EVGA reps direct would be your best bet (I've not had great experiences w/ phone reps in general not EVGA really). So at least they can flag your card to extend the step-up date or something, if it comes to it (or just say "YES send in for stepup, we'll take care of it" [and flag the account accordingly]).

link: EVGA's support page. Of note Alex H. and Jacob K., being the (main?) RMA reps, and Jacob K. I think posts here sometimes. Also, there's Jacob Freeman (j_freeman @ EVGA boards IIRC; "Product Manager") - he was a very helpful guy during (and quite post [for me]) the 7900 fiasco, maybe PM him over there.
 
thank you guys for all the replies, and I'm starting to agree that what the phone rep told me was crap. Here is the e-mail I just sent to Joe Darwin, tell me what you think.
Hi Joe. I was advised by someone off of hardforum.com to e-mail you for help on my situation, so here goes. I bought an EVGA 8800GTS 512 on December 11th, 2007. I wanted to step-up to the 9 series but my 90 day window ended before the 9800GX2 came out. Luckily, EVGA provided an extension on the window and I immediately got into the queue. I am currently #158 in line, and have been waiting for almost a week since number 400 something. Just yesterday as I was messing around with a wireless pci network card and trying to get it to work on vista, my GTS died. Basically what happened is after one of my numerous re-boots, the card stopped displaying any video signal on the monitor. I don't think it's necessary to outline specifically what the symptoms are, but I will gladly tell you exactly what the situation is and all the things I tried when trouble-shooting, if you need me to. Basically, I've ruled out any other components of my system being at fault and concluded that the card had died, for reasons unbeknown to me. I called EVGA tech support and the guy agreed that the card had failed.

When I told him I was in the process of a step-up, he told me that I should send the card anyway and to say that it was functional when I sent it. I'm not trying to get anyone in trouble, but like the members on hardforum agreed, this would not work and that the tech rep gave me bad advice. So now I'm stuck as to what to do. I understand that EVGA will test the card and see that it does not work, which would make step-up impossible. The card has no cosmetic damage or any modifications done to it, so I have not broken my warranty in any way. In this case I would have to RMA it and receive a replacement, but in doing so, I think I would either be disqualified from the step-up that I so badly want, or simply would not meet the 120 day deadline throughout all the time lost while shipping going back and forth. I want you to know that I bought my card virtually the day it came out, and paid a higher amount specifically because I chose EVGA with the hopes of stepping up to the approaching 9 series as well as receiving superior customer service. I ask, then, that you please help me out in any way you can and try to see the situation from my point of view. As far as I know, I can do nothing to get the card working again (believe me, I've spent many hours as it is, trying to balance work and school simultaneously), and I did nothing that could purposefully cause any damage to the card. I'm suffering already without a working computer, and will continue to do so throughout this entire process.

I sincerely ask that you help me and also understand how much I want to do the step-up, and that I'm completely willing to pay to get my 9800GX2; moreover, that I chose your company specifically for this opportunity, and how excited I was when you extended it to 120 days. Please let me know what I should do. Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.
Click to expand...
 
bump...i'm going crazy waiting for a reply and not being able to use my comp...my step-up queue is steadily getting closer.

can any EVGA reps tell me what they think if I don't hear from joe soon?
 
The process will take a while.
Go to BB and get a video card. If you don't like it within the 30 days, just take it back...
 
You should have put EVGA in the title, then it would have been noticed by [H]ardOCP's official EVGA rep who would probably be able to help you better.
 
ok, well since my step-up position jumped crazily all the way down to #6, i decided I needed to call EVGA and try to talk to Joe directly. Joe was unavailable, but i explained the situation to another service rep, and he confirmed what the first one said - that I should send in the card without any hesitation and that everything would work out fine. He confirmed this with his lead supervisor and told me it was okay. He also said that if the warehouse gave me any beef that I should give them a call again and they would sort it out. This is such a relief. I love EVGA. If everything does go smooth, when I'm the proud owner of my new 9800GX2, i will gladly make a thread praising EVGA for their superior service. I can't believe they are so kind.
 
i would give it a try it is under warranty i would do it what are they gonna do anyway the person that opened the box and took the card out could have zapped it with static
 
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