bought a 3090 FE with a bad fan, bad idea?

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Gabe3

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so I saw a 3090 FE with a bad fan and hdmi port on ebay and bought it for $500. seller has free returns. I'm wondering if I made a mistake, I can't seem find replacement fans for it in the US. the teardown looks like a pain. wondering if I should tell him to cancel the order. any idea where to get a fan for it?
 
jobert said:
If you have to ask then I think you know your answer.
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I might end up doing something like this if its the bottom fan. my case has bottom intake fans anyway

if its the top fan I guess I can pull the dead fan out and zip tie something on
 
If the card works other than the issues specified, then there's no reason to second guess yourself, or make the seller stressed out over trying to deal with this thing. What you gotta do is get down and dirty and fix that thing up with serious mechanical genius. I'm in the middle of building an ITX system right now, and if you heard about what I did to the RAM to make them fit, you'd be shocked.
My next task will involve the longest PCIe daisy chain I've ever imagined, but if I can get an M.2 slot to extend into a full PCIe slot, and from there, get both a USB Type-E header, AND Wifi on there, that'd be just awesome, but I'm a little skeptical it would actually work. Still, when it comes to these sorts of glorious projects, just remember that you're here on Hard, and not LinusTechTips Forum, so it's your duty to get [H]ard and then turn this broken RTX 3090 into something that actually works, even if it's a raw hack.
 
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I got the card today. the hdmi port looks fine, one of the display ports has physical damage, and the bottom fan doesn't work. the graphics score in time spy is 16924. from what I read it should be scoring close to 20k.

the temps in gpu-z were,

hot spot: 94
memory: 90
gpu: 75

hot spot temp I guess should be closer to 88 from what I read but I don't know if 94 is enough to cause throttling? the memory temp is low. If this was a mining card, could it have some bios mod that would make it benchmark low? how would I check for that? theres scratches on the screw hole covers so someone has definitely been in this thing lol. you're suppose to use tape to lift the covers off
 
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A dead fan, ok - shoulder shrug, as long as you are able to compensate for it.
An undeclared dead port, you have no idea what you are getting yourself into.
Return it with bad review.
 
For 500 smokes, I would block it or put AIO. Port as long as I have 1 that works is good enough. Port with physical damage clearly means card is fine. Ports die all the time. Fuck 'em.
500 is a deal.
Ask some hard dude to ship you his FE cooler (tons would have it thrown in some nerd cupboard).
 
The hardest part about the tear down is removing the LED connection wire. I ripped the whole connector right off the PCB trying to get it loose. Other than that, it's pretty straight forward. Lots of write ups about which thermal pads to use as replacements.
 
I think you should return it OP, you don't seem to want to deal with the headaches of putting an AIO on it or messing with any issues it might have.
 
Furious_Styles said:
I think you should return it OP, you don't seem to want to deal with the headaches of putting an AIO on it or messing with any issues it might have.
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At this point I think OP is a PoS if they return it when they knew about these issues in advance. But I'm aliso the type of person that lets hardware rot in my closet rather than dealing with buyers :ROFLMAO: .

I would just make a post in the FS/T section looking for a 3090FE heatsink. I'm sure there are several users that would be happy to unload them.
 
Kardonxt said:
At this point I think OP is a PoS if they return it when they knew about these issues in advance. But I'm aliso the type of person that lets hardware rot in my closet rather than dealing with buyers :ROFLMAO: .

I would just make a post in the FS/T section looking for a 3090FE heatsink. I'm sure there are several users that would be happy to unload them.
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As a long time seller on Ebay I'd not be happy about it either. It made me basically hate the company.
 
Nenu said:
A dead fan, ok - shoulder shrug, as long as you are able to compensate for it.
An undeclared dead port, you have no idea what you are getting yourself into.
Return it with bad review.
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It was declared (kinda) OP was under the impression there was a bad HDMI port but it looks like it was actually a DP instead. Ultimately this is OP's fault through and through. He knew he was buying a defective item from the start and chose to roll the dice. Kind of baffling if you ask me. If I *really* wanted 3090 performance and a touch better, I'd just spend the extra coin for a 4070Ti. As fast or faster, far less power, better RT performance. Or spend the $500 on a used 3080 which isn’t barely slower.
 
Furious_Styles said:
I think you should return it OP, you don't seem to want to deal with the headaches of putting an AIO on it or messing with any issues it might have.
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He cant after ripping the fan header from the PCB, its his now.
 
Nenu said:
He cant after ripping the fan header from the PCB, its his now.
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I never ripped anything. I don't think anyone read my second post in this thread but the card is under performing and the seller never mentioned the phycially damaged display port.

EDIT: whoops I forgot to mention the HDMI port is dead, no damage to it. so 2 non working ports.
 
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Sometimes when you buy broken stuff on ebay you can score a win and sometimes not. It is part of the game and the risk. Know what you are getting into for next time though. I enjoy doing it myself but prepare ahead of time before bidding/buying. Try to walk back in your head how things could have broken. Like the connector, dp connectors can have latches on them so maybe the person just yanked on it until it broke loose in which case what kind of other things could someone like that do to a video card? Bad fan, did it jam and burn out or did it run for so many hours that the bearing wore out? Maybe a mining card but not a business, more personal and just likely running in a bedroom or uncontrolled temp room so maybe fan had less potential life anyways.

Or maybe seller doesn't know and is just buying up amazon return pallets, you can tell that from what their other sales look like (ie he is selling 3 broken video cards, 6 toasters, back massager, and a pressure cooker with an EU plug in the US).

If you return it it might come back on you as a bad seller review if it was marked as a broken item. But up to you.
 
Gabe3 said:
I never ripped anything. I don't think anyone read my second post in this thread but the card is under performing and the seller never mentioned the phycially damaged display port.

EDIT: whoops I forgot to mention the HDMI port is dead, no damage to it. so 2 non working ports.
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Sorry, I thought you created post #14, my bad :)

Wow about another bad port, makes me wonder what that card has had to endure.
Although, perhaps it has another cards bios, I've done that before and knowingly lost the use of some ports. Worth checking.
Though I'd return it if theres physical damage.
 
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Nenu said:
Sorry, I thought you created post #14, my bad :)

Wow about another bad port, makes me wonder what that card has had to endure.
Although, perhaps it has another cards bios, I've done that before and knowingly lost the use of some ports. Worth checking.
Though I'd return it if theres physical damage.
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That is interesting. Considering his performance numbers if we take that as absolutes, i wonder if it was 'upbadged' in firmware. Like is it really a 3070/3080 flashed as a 3090?
 
WilyKit said:
It was declared (kinda) OP was under the impression there was a bad HDMI port but it looks like it was actually a DP instead. Ultimately this is OP's fault through and through. He knew he was buying a defective item from the start and chose to roll the dice. Kind of baffling if you ask me. If I *really* wanted 3090 performance and a touch better, I'd just spend the extra coin for a 4070Ti. As fast or faster, far less power, better RT performance. Or spend the $500 on a used 3080 which isn’t barely slower.
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I forgot to mention the hdmi port is also dead so 2 non working ports. the seller never mentioned the physically damaged display port. The reason why I wanted a 3090 over a 4070 ti is I think the 3090 with its extra vram would be better at VR because of the high resolution demand.
Darunion said:
Sometimes when you buy broken stuff on ebay you can score a win and sometimes not. It is part of the game and the risk. Know what you are getting into for next time though. I enjoy doing it myself but prepare ahead of time before bidding/buying. Try to walk back in your head how things could have broken. Like the connector, dp connectors can have latches on them so maybe the person just yanked on it until it broke loose in which case what kind of other things could someone like that do to a video card? Bad fan, did it jam and burn out or did it run for so many hours that the bearing wore out? Maybe a mining card but not a business, more personal and just likely running in a bedroom or uncontrolled temp room so maybe fan had less potential life anyways.

Or maybe seller doesn't know and is just buying up amazon return pallets, you can tell that from what their other sales look like (ie he is selling 3 broken video cards, 6 toasters, back massager, and a pressure cooker with an EU plug in the US).

If you return it it might come back on you as a bad seller review if it was marked as a broken item. But up to you.
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The seller has free returns, so no risk for me. They have to accept the return no matter what. If anything I could leave negative feedback for them due to there being 2 non working ports, but I won't. If I had to pay for return shipping I would.
 
Gabe3 said:
I forgot to mention the hdmi port is also dead so 2 non working ports. the seller never mentioned the physically damaged display port. The reason why I wanted a 3090 over a 4070 ti is I think the 3090 with its extra vram would be better at VR because of the high resolution demand.

The seller has free returns, so no risk for me. They have to accept the return no matter what. If anything I could leave negative feedback for them due to there being 2 non working ports, but I won't. If I had to pay for return shipping I would.
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Might be best just to return it, with a few problems and underperformance, you will never be happy with it im thinking.
 
Nenu said:
A dead fan, ok - shoulder shrug, as long as you are able to compensate for it.
An undeclared dead port, you have no idea what you are getting yourself into.
Return it with bad review.
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Bad review? Why? The problems were declared up front.
 
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Gabe3 said:
I forgot to mention the hdmi port is also dead so 2 non working ports. the seller never mentioned the physically damaged display port. The reason why I wanted a 3090 over a 4070 ti is I think the 3090 with its extra vram would be better at VR because of the high resolution demand.

The seller has free returns, so no risk for me. They have to accept the return no matter what. If anything I could leave negative feedback for them due to there being 2 non working ports, but I won't. If I had to pay for return shipping I would.
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The card had multiple known problems, why would you spend $500 on a card you knew was trash? Should be no surprise if you find more issues. Heck, I stay away from cards from sellers on here if they replaced the cooler with a water block and include the stock cooler.
 
WilyKit said:
The card had multiple known problems, why would you spend $500 on a card you knew was trash? Should be no surprise if you find more issues. Heck, I stay away from cards from sellers on here if they replaced the cooler with a water block and include the stock cooler.
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It was $200 cheaper than they normally sell for. I can deal with a bad fan and hdmi port. but since its under performing and it has a second bad port yeah it sucks. I talked to nvidia they don't repair cards and won't warranty it either due to the physical damage to the display port.

Back it goes.
 
Gabe3 said:
It was $200 cheaper than they normally sell for. I can deal with a bad fan and hdmi port. but since its under performing and it has a second bad port yeah it sucks. I talked to nvidia they don't repair cards and won't warranty it either due to the physical damage to the display port.

Back it goes.
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Its probably underperforming----because only 1 fan is cooling the card.

But yeah, I would return it. Undeclared damage is no deal, for me.
 
chameleoneel said:
Its probably underperforming----because only 1 fan is cooling the card.

But yeah, I would return it. Undeclared damage is no deal, for me.
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the temps aren't bad though. and the bottom fan is the dead one, I have 3 bottom intake fans in my case.
 
Gabe3 said:
the temps aren't bad though. and the bottom fan is the dead one, I have 3 bottom intake fans in my case.
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The hotspot temp is bad, and you are definitely not boosting to full capacity and likely throttling. You should have made note of the clock speed in addition to temps.
 
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aliaskary77 said:
As of post 29, OP was returning it, assuming they did end up returning it.
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I'd definitely return it - as for warranty/RMA - what is Nvidia's policy for transferable warranty? I bet there isn't any. AMD doesn't accept transferable warranty and AMD-centric AIBs don't either - I think you'd have to buy an ASUS, Gigabyte or MSI card.
I would stick to those AIBs if going with a used Nvidia card.
I wouldn't want to mess around with a declared fan or hdmi port problem.
 
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