Blown solid capacitors: I've never seen it. (pics)

let me paste my conversation with xfx support

[ 3/8/2010 2:02:37 AM] I powered on my system today, on the boot screen was full of block artifacts. I knew right there, that there was a problem with the video card. I opened up my box, took out the card; and saw a couple of capacitors were burst. Can i still send my card back for repair or replacement? How long will the repairs take? Thanks in advance for your quick response.
[JEDY 3/8/2010 10:15:09 AM] Hi, please note thatwarranty is only officially with the reseller. We provide support for XFX products up to 2 yrs from the date of manufacturer, including a courtesy RMA service where it is difficult for people to obtain RMA service from the reseller, but please note that as your product was manufactured well over 2 yrs ago, I`m sorry we cannot help here. Best Regards.Jedy
[ 3/9/2010 10:18:47 AM] Hello Jedy, i`ve bought your product, thinking i can avail of your lifetime warranty at the time; and its still posted at your site http://www.xfxforce.com/en-us/Features/DoubleLifetimeWarranty.aspx now you are telling me its only good for two years?!?

btw i got the card from tigerdirect dec 2007
 
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I've seen some heavy duty ones blow that were used in mains to low voltage transformer circuits, those babies pop and let a massive jet of some kind of steam out the top. Funnest part of our boring electronic engineering course :/
 
techpimp said:
let me paste my conversation with xfx support

[ 3/8/2010 2:02:37 AM] I powered on my system today, on the boot screen was full of block artifacts. I knew right there, that there was a problem with the video card. I opened up my box, took out the card; and saw a couple of capacitors were burst. Can i still send my card back for repair or replacement? How long will the repairs take? Thanks in advance for your quick response.
[JEDY 3/8/2010 10:15:09 AM] Hi, please note thatwarranty is only officially with the reseller. We provide support for XFX products up to 2 yrs from the date of manufacturer, including a courtesy RMA service where it is difficult for people to obtain RMA service from the reseller, but please note that as your product was manufactured well over 2 yrs ago, I`m sorry we cannot help here. Best Regards.Jedy
[ 3/9/2010 10:18:47 AM] Hello Jedy, i`ve bought your product, thinking i can avail of your lifetime warranty at the time; and its still posted at your site http://www.xfxforce.com/en-us/Features/DoubleLifetimeWarranty.aspx now you are telling me its only good for two years?!?

btw i got the card from tigerdirect dec 2007
Click to expand...
Keep us posted. I want to see what they say.
 
techpimp said:
let me paste my conversation with xfx support

[ 3/8/2010 2:02:37 AM] I powered on my system today, on the boot screen was full of block artifacts. I knew right there, that there was a problem with the video card. I opened up my box, took out the card; and saw a couple of capacitors were burst. Can i still send my card back for repair or replacement? How long will the repairs take? Thanks in advance for your quick response.
[JEDY 3/8/2010 10:15:09 AM] Hi, please note thatwarranty is only officially with the reseller. We provide support for XFX products up to 2 yrs from the date of manufacturer, including a courtesy RMA service where it is difficult for people to obtain RMA service from the reseller, but please note that as your product was manufactured well over 2 yrs ago, I`m sorry we cannot help here. Best Regards.Jedy
[ 3/9/2010 10:18:47 AM] Hello Jedy, i`ve bought your product, thinking i can avail of your lifetime warranty at the time; and its still posted at your site http://www.xfxforce.com/en-us/Features/DoubleLifetimeWarranty.aspx now you are telling me its only good for two years?!?

btw i got the card from tigerdirect dec 2007
Click to expand...

What the heck? I've never read of that happening before except from users/forums in the UK/Australia, etc.. I'm in Canada and I just RMA'd an 8800GT from Fall 2007 with XFX. Yes they sent me back a defective 8800 GTX from 2006, but that's another story. Contact the XFX rep on [H]ardforums because that smells like BS unless you are not a North American customer or the card you bought was not a double lifetime warranty product.

xfx said:
*Double Lifetime Protection only available in North America (United States and Canada). Applies to select graphics cards products only. Restrictions and qualifications may vary based on state or region. See XFX Support section for more details on the Limited Warranty for XFX-branded products in North America. Warranty terms for other regions vary.
Click to expand...

Even the Tigerdirect Page says Lifetime Warranty
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...asp?EdpNo=3048551&csid=ITD&body=WARRANTY#tabs
 
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Spare-Flair said:
Even the Tigerdirect Page says limited Lifetime Warranty
Click to expand...

Theres a link for them to send you the documentation. Also its clearly stated on the warranty card that comes with the card (usually on top of the card so its the first thing you see when you open the box) that you need to register your card in a certain amount of time in order to get the lifetime warranty.

Now don't get me wrong, im not trolling you. Im not happy with XFX either. I built a system for a good buddy of mine and the fan stopped working. He didn't register the card in time and only has a 2 year warranty. Its JUST over the 2 year mark and I am in the same boat as you, only MY PERSONAL reputation is at stake because when we built the system, I told my client it had a double life time warranty. Was it my fault that he didn't register it? No. But it still makes me look bad as a reseller/builder.

XFX is one of many companies who have shady RMA procedures.

EVGA: Used to warrant all of their cards with a lifetime warranty. Also required registration but would sometimes work with you if you had your sales receipt. A few years ago, they started changing model numbers. Now your NON-top end video card was only warranted for 2 years. They did this after they built up a reputation of good customer service and rock solid warranties. Hook, line, sinker. I hope that Nvidia's next lineup of videocards and lawsuit with Intel puts EVGA out of business. Good riddance.

XFX: Ahh, the savior of ATi. I remember when they came over to ATi and how happy I was to see a company who had a good reputation built up. I was actually kind of excited when my first XFX card started to fail. It was fully under warranty (registered in time) and I was the first owner. I had to talk to 3 different reps before I got an RMA number. To add insult to injury, I got back a video card that was in worse condition than the original. I gave up at that point and the 8800gs became the most expensive thing shot by my .223.

HIS: The card that is in my system is an RMA from HIS. I didn't have any issues getting an RMA number but the time it took to get me a new card was just uncalled for. The site states 30 days from the day they receive it to the day they send it out. They were 1 day shy of the full 30 days. I was without my card for almost 2 months including shipping time and there was no option to expedite it.




Moral of the story?
1. Register your card before it goes in your system.
2. Buy BFG. They don't fuck around with their warranties. No fine print.
3. Pray to whatever god you do or don't believe in that BFG will become an AMD board partner.
 
This is a very interesting discussion on warranties. I was actually going to buy an XFX 58XX in the next couple of weeks.

I did not know that they had a habit of using questionable caps; that's unsettling. I had also heard that their double lifetime warranties were the best in the industry. Very disturbing indeed.

At the risk of thread hijacking, what is a good manufacturer for ATI based cards? (since I'm obviously out of touch)
 
Roman79 said:
This is a very interesting discussion on warranties. I was actually going to buy an XFX 58XX in the next couple of weeks.

I did not know that they had a habit of using questionable caps; that's unsettling. I had also heard that their double lifetime warranties were the best in the industry. Very disturbing indeed.

At the risk of thread hijacking, what is a good manufacturer for ATI based cards? (since I'm obviously out of touch)
Click to expand...

I don't know the specifics of why that guy had RMA problems other than the fact that the card he bought seems to be a 2 year limited warranty and not a lifetime warranty. It's most likely because the lower end cards do not get the same unlimited double lifetime warranty the higher end cards do.

In the past 2 months, I have sent back two XFX cards for RMA with no problems other than the fact that I recieved one defective RMA return and had to mail it yet again at my own cost. I have just bought an XFX 5870.

The questionable caps are more likely to be used on lower end cards as well as non reference cards so I'd recomend you buy a reference card.
 
I actually had blown caps on an xfx 8600 awhile ago as well. I didn't even register mine and they were still willing to replace it. The ticket process was slow, but the guy that responded to my ticket didn't seem to care that I never registered it two years before it happened.

I just bought a xfx 5870, as I felt like they did a good job for me previously.
 
If you are talking with Jedy than you have your region set to Asia or Australia. He is not part of the North American team. Your ticket would only end up with them if your region is set to Asia or Australia. Check your account setting on our site and PM me your ticket ID so that I can look in to it.

techpimp said:
let me paste my conversation with xfx support

[ 3/8/2010 2:02:37 AM] I powered on my system today, on the boot screen was full of block artifacts. I knew right there, that there was a problem with the video card. I opened up my box, took out the card; and saw a couple of capacitors were burst. Can i still send my card back for repair or replacement? How long will the repairs take? Thanks in advance for your quick response.
[JEDY 3/8/2010 10:15:09 AM] Hi, please note thatwarranty is only officially with the reseller. We provide support for XFX products up to 2 yrs from the date of manufacturer, including a courtesy RMA service where it is difficult for people to obtain RMA service from the reseller, but please note that as your product was manufactured well over 2 yrs ago, I`m sorry we cannot help here. Best Regards.Jedy
[ 3/9/2010 10:18:47 AM] Hello Jedy, i`ve bought your product, thinking i can avail of your lifetime warranty at the time; and its still posted at your site http://www.xfxforce.com/en-us/Features/DoubleLifetimeWarranty.aspx now you are telling me its only good for two years?!?

btw i got the card from tigerdirect dec 2007
Click to expand...
 
XFXSupport said:
If you are talking with Jedy than you have your region set to Asia or Australia. He is not part of the North American team. Your ticket would only end up with them if your region is set to Asia or Australia. Check your account setting on our site and PM me your ticket ID so that I can look in to it.
Click to expand...

That's what I had thought, his post sounded like the ones I had read on UK and Australian forums about XFX 2 year warranties. XFX Double Lifetime is only in North America.
 
If it isn't under warranty, are you going to fix it? They aren't that hard to replace.
 
Yup I'm in Asia; in the Philippines to be exact. I had the card shipped back to my brother in TX so he can arrange everything. XFX was gracious enough to RMA the card from there. To cut a long story short, my brother emailed me today saying he just got the replacement card from XFX; thing is from a factory-overclocked 8600gt 256MBddr3 card, now i have a plain vanilla 9500gt 1GBddr2 card.

Am i getting the short end of the stick with this deal, performance-wise?
 
I'd have to say they are pretty comparable with you getting the slight better end of the stick. I'm just curious, why all the troubles and the shipping costs for a 3-4 year old 8600gt? Seems like your shipping cost to the states and then to the manufacture and back to you could be possibly more than the value of the card itself!
 
hbidad said:
I'd have to say they are pretty comparable with you getting the slight better end of the stick. I'm just curious, why all the troubles and the shipping costs for a 3-4 year old 8600gt? Seems like your shipping cost to the states and then to the manufacture and back to you could be possibly more than the value of the card itself!
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its not to the states, its to ontario. And yeah, it was $12, but they pay for return shipping.

I got my card back a while ago: they sent me a 9500GT 1GB, which, before you ask, is a linear shrink of the chip in the 8600GT, so I'm happy.
 
Philippines-->Texas-->manufacture..
Texas-->Philippines

3 shipping charges was only $12.00? If so, cool deal!!
 
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some of the caps on the 939 evga motherboard in my GF's pc look just like that. it's stable, though.
 
techpimp said:
Yup I'm in Asia; in the Philippines to be exact. I had the card shipped back to my brother in TX so he can arrange everything. XFX was gracious enough to RMA the card from there. To cut a long story short, my brother emailed me today saying he just got the replacement card from XFX; thing is from a factory-overclocked 8600gt 256MBddr3 card, now i have a plain vanilla 9500gt 1GBddr2 card.

Am i getting the short end of the stick with this deal, performance-wise?
Click to expand...

No, the 8600 GT sucks no matter how high you clock it, and no amount of DDR3 will change that.. The 9500 GT sucks less -- it at least sometimes flirts with mediocrity. So, you actually came out on top in a big way.
 
hbidad said:
Philippines-->Texas-->manufacture..
Texas-->Philippines

3 shipping charges was only $12.00? If so, cool deal!!
Click to expand...

MrWizard6600 said:
its not to the states, its to Ontario, California.
Click to expand...

lol.

Mr XFXSupport can probably elaborate on this but i suspect there's a couple guys in a warehouse down there performing what repairs they can on cards like these and junking anything that requires more than an hours worth of attention; for them it might not even be cost effective to solder on some new caps.

Either way, they got my new card to me in < 2 weeks with no hassles at all, even after a fault of my own. 5 Stars in my books. Needless to say I can name a number of board partners who wouldn't have given me a new card and it saves me the $50+ it would take to replace it.
 
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you could try replacing the caps to see if that'll fix the card if the warranty is out.
 
That sucks, but the performance of an 8600 GT is not that hard to replace. Heck, they could easily upgrade that video card for something better for half the price they originally paid for it.
 
Really guys? The fan's dirty? Have you opened up an average user's machine, smoker's, or corporate pc, ever? I've seen much worse than that.
 
^ Agreed ^

I work corporate support. I dread having up open up laptops...disgusting.
 
lloose said:
Theres a link for them to send you the documentation. Also its clearly stated on the warranty card that comes with the card (usually on top of the card so its the first thing you see when you open the box) that you need to register your card in a certain amount of time in order to get the lifetime warranty.

Now don't get me wrong, im not trolling you. Im not happy with XFX either. I built a system for a good buddy of mine and the fan stopped working. He didn't register the card in time and only has a 2 year warranty. Its JUST over the 2 year mark and I am in the same boat as you, only MY PERSONAL reputation is at stake because when we built the system, I told my client it had a double life time warranty. Was it my fault that he didn't register it? No. But it still makes me look bad as a reseller/builder.

XFX is one of many companies who have shady RMA procedures.

EVGA: Used to warrant all of their cards with a lifetime warranty. Also required registration but would sometimes work with you if you had your sales receipt. A few years ago, they started changing model numbers. Now your NON-top end video card was only warranted for 2 years. They did this after they built up a reputation of good customer service and rock solid warranties. Hook, line, sinker. I hope that Nvidia's next lineup of videocards and lawsuit with Intel puts EVGA out of business. Good riddance.

XFX: Ahh, the savior of ATi. I remember when they came over to ATi and how happy I was to see a company who had a good reputation built up. I was actually kind of excited when my first XFX card started to fail. It was fully under warranty (registered in time) and I was the first owner. I had to talk to 3 different reps before I got an RMA number. To add insult to injury, I got back a video card that was in worse condition than the original. I gave up at that point and the 8800gs became the most expensive thing shot by my .223.

HIS: The card that is in my system is an RMA from HIS. I didn't have any issues getting an RMA number but the time it took to get me a new card was just uncalled for. The site states 30 days from the day they receive it to the day they send it out. They were 1 day shy of the full 30 days. I was without my card for almost 2 months including shipping time and there was no option to expedite it.




Moral of the story?
1. Register your card before it goes in your system.
2. Buy BFG. They don't fuck around with their warranties. No fine print.
3. Pray to whatever god you do or don't believe in that BFG will become an AMD board partner.
Click to expand...

I believe VisionTek also have limited lifetime warranty on their cards as well. I have an old Ti4600 from way back. I had to send it back because of a non-working fan and turn around time was 2 weeks from when I send it off to when I got a replacement. That was years ago though before they closed shop and then came back with only ATI cards. That Ti4600 is still working in an old comp I have setup in the garage for quick internet and emails. Now I have a XFX in my main rig and I wonder if their "double lifetime warranty" is worth anything.
 
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