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eVGA 6800GT - Be Warned!

S

Spiffae

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 17, 2003
Messages
159
I just recieved my Newegg eVGA 6800GT PCI-E, and as I took the fan/heatsink assembly in order to install my Zalman heatsink, i found that the fan wire is inexplicably epoxied down to the PCB.

There's no way i'm going to completely void my warrantee and cut the wires on either side of the epoxy (what if it's DOA?) so i'm sending it back and buying an XFX card - a google search on "6800gt wire glued to the PCB" pulled up a few articles, all about eVGA cards.

Has anyone else encountered this problem? I'm annoyed, but if I can get Newegg to fully refund me, I can order a different card today and have it by monday.
 
Huh I wonder if they just started doing that recently or with pcie cards. I have an older agp eVGA 6800gt and the fan isn't epoxied down.
 
Man I really can't imagine them using anything other than hot glue. I had an eVGA AGP and I think I would have noticed. To get a waterblock on my PCI-e BFG, it was a total bitch to remove the fan. The little plastic port the plug sits in might have a hairline crack it was so hard. I've gone back and forth with cooling I just wont push it all the way back in again.
 
shadowbreaker513 said:
If you already took the heatsink off, you can't send it back.
Click to expand...
luckily i noticed the wire was epoxied down before i started prying things off - it's just a drop right as the fan wire touches the PCB, but i'm not going to mess with that.
 
Alternately -

So maybe I lifted the HS a little bit to see what was going on under there, and maybe I could lie to NewEgg, but I wouldn't feel to good about that. Thank goodness I have a conscience.

I think I'm going to just snip the wires on either side of the drop of epoxy and pray that the card isn't DOA. If it is it will be a hassle, but I can save for a few weeks and buy myself a new one. That certainly wouldn't be the ideal situation, but I've never had a DOA graphics card, and I just hope I don't start now.
 
i had the same problem with my E-Vga 6800 GT Agp .. the fan power connector was STUCK .. took some twezzers and almost f-ed my card up . :D
 
Sottilde said:
Why didn't you test it before you replaced the cooling?
Click to expand...

Because i'm an idiot? I could have, but I didn't, so oh well. Also, the thermal pads are all unmelted before the first run.It makes getting them off a lot easier. Crossing my fingers, the Shuttle comes tomorrow.
 
you're going to rma a card because the fan plug is glued to the card so that it won't come out and fuck up the card and fail? . wtf do you mean inexplicable, obviously its so it won't come out somehow and fuck up the card. a company trying to make sure their cooling fans don't fail is a problem? haha. as if replacing the stock heatsink with a new one won't void your warranty anyways. amazing what nerds do these days.
 
I had the same thing going through my head as WSlyce when i read the thread. You found out you can't screw with the card without them noticing so you're gonna send it (a perfectly working card) back?
 
Well I have two eVGA 6800GT PCI-E cards. One has the fan wire glued down and the other doesn't. Personally I think that since not all the cards have the fan wire glued down, removing it is safe. You could easily recreate the original installation of the fan should you need to for warranty purposes.

I doubt they are tracking ones that are glued down vs. ones that aren't. I think they did it because that wire is too long and during installation its possible to pinch the wire. I almost did when I installed my first card that didn't have the glue. The second one of course had the glue and that wasn't a problem.

I wouldn't send an eVGA back to the vendor in exchange for an XFX card. eVGA overall has much better quality and less problems. Just my $.02.
 
eVGA sells a copper insert for cooling so even if you take the top part of the HSF off your still covered by warranty.

My eVGA 6800GT didn't have that apoxy'd fan lead but when i was replacing the stock HSF with the Zalman VF700-Cu I did end up breaking a small piece of plastic off the fan lead retention mechanism. it's really a b*tch to get off.
 
Spiffae said:
There's no way i'm going to completely void my warrantee and cut the wires on either side of the epoxy (what if it's DOA?) so i'm sending it back and buying an XFX card.
Click to expand...

That makes alot of sense....not even try to boot the card up when you get it to check for DoA, then want to not snip the wires so you can send it back if you break it.

Yeah, you won't get flamed up and down in the [H]. :p
 
Hmm...I just received my second Evga 6800GT for SLI but haven't opened it as of yet, however my other one was fine, although they didn't have enough thermal paste on the GPU, so I put some AS on there and that brought the temps down about 5 degrees.
 
mine was epoxied down as well. instead of spending hours chipping away at it, i just cut it and slapped on my zalman cooler.
 
Mine was glued down too. Just snipped the wires. Also, it was next to impossible to get that fan connector out of the card. Made installing the Zalman very difficult.
 
in case you haven't returned it yet, a friend of mine got an XFX card and there was glue in the screw holes for anti tampering

and removing your HS doesn't void your warranty, how do you think evga could sell copper replacements and they say sorry, your warranty is void
 
well, eVGA told me on the phone that taking the HS off voids the warrantee - I'm glad my screws came out at least! End of story - my card works, i cut the wire, installed my VF700Cu, and my machine is running beautifully. Too bad I had to cut wires to get it going.

EDIT: Also, just noticed all the flames :eek: - i suppose i deserved 'em. I didn't RMA anything, I put some AS on the Zalman, cut the wires, and that's that. Shoulda just kept my mouth shut.
 
lol...ignore the flames..its not really a big deal :p and yah, you should've kept ur mouth shut haha, and besides, most people saying that taking off the fan heatsink etc would void the warranty, but they would return it anyways, I know my 16 year old ass would lol...
 
I think some folks are misunderstanding what he said. He said he didn't want to cut the wires so in case it was DOA he could return it, then he said he hadn't taken the HS off yet (although he did admit to prying it up and whatnot). He wasn't trying to get away with returning a dead card, he had good intentions and was trying NOT to mess things up. Granted, he should have tested it before replacing coolers and now he is aware that removing the heatsink voids the warranty, thanks to the remarkable subtlety of the guys around here (j/k :D ). No flames are necessary, they're completely optional. ;)
 
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