EVGA claims minor rust as physical damage. What do you think ?

[Jorona]

Well, I was thinking they had environmental operating specifications on the box and/or manual. However, now after extensive searching on their site and in the original documentation for my 480, I can find nothing. Therefore, they should be honoring this warranty. It if had operating specs that said not over 80% humidity or something, then I would understand the decline. They don't though, so yeah. EVGA needs to do the right thing and replace that card.

 

[jonneymendoza]

i recently rma'd my 480gtx which was ALSO water cooled and i threw the stock cooler away. fast forward a couple of weeks later and they sent me a brand new 580gtx.

no huff or puff at all.

EVGA are the best manufactures for gpu's hands down

 

[Maxx_Power]

i recently rma'd my 480gtx which was ALSO water cooled and i threw the stock cooler away. fast forward a couple of weeks later and they sent me a brand new 580gtx.

no huff or puff at all.

EVGA are the best manufactures for gpu's hands down

If that would have happened to the OP's card, it would have been great as well. You didn't even have a stock cooler to give back... I used to get XFX for NV cards for their lifetime warranty. They used to state that you can do whatever you want to the card, just that when you return it, put it back in its original configuration (cooler, BIOS, etc). They DON'T allow this anymore (look at that warranty void sticker on the heatsink screw).

 

[CannibalTrout]

I haven't read through all the follow-up posts past the the OP but if I was EVGA I decline warranty on a card like that. Plain and simple that PC is running in an evironment not suitable for a PC.

Try running a dehumidifier? I have PCs in my basement and I have the DH running almost year round to keep things nice and dry.

Or get one of those moisture absorbing cans and put in near your PC (or in it I guess).

EVGA sells their cards all over the world in all types of environments. It's up to the consumer to make sure their purchases are setup in a suitable environment. It's like buying a non water proof camera and expecting to use it in a rainforest without premature failure.

 

[THUMPer]

I haven't read through all the follow-up posts past the the OP but if I was EVGA I decline warranty on a card like that. Plain and simple that PC is running in an evironment not suitable for a PC.

Try running a dehumidifier? I have PCs in my basement and I have the DH running almost year round to keep things nice and dry.

Or get one of those moisture absorbing cans and put in near your PC (or in it I guess).

EVGA sells their cards all over the world in all types of environments. It's up to the consumer to make sure their purchases are setup in a suitable environment. It's like buying a non water proof camera and expecting to use it in a rainforest without premature failure.

Kind of a lame excuse...
EVGA sells cards to customers around the world. You can't predict the type of environment the card goes into. Plain and simple, Lifetime means lifetime. He should have a new card.

 

[scharfshutze009]

My theory is a sound one. I am not sure where your "thousands upon thousands" statistics come from, but I can tell you that many steel computer components I have come across before showed rust to some degree. Yes, galvanic corrosion requires SOME moisture, but unless you have 0% humidity (not possible, since standard humidity is measured as relative humidity), it WILL occur depending on the metallurgical formulation of the screw/springs and their coating process/materials. For example, here a user on a Canadian forum posted this about rust on a video card, a 8600:

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=113452

Notice how rust has ONLY PREFERENTIALLY occurred on the crystal oscillator casing ? Apparently it resulted from direct interaction/touching of the heatsink mounting hardware (so galvanic corrosion and/or poor design and/or poor plating). I can't find you "thousands upon thousands" of examples, but just a few is enough to illustrate a point.

The OP will soon post some pictures of his computer, particularly to other steel objects, screws, etc to PROVE that the rusting occurred ONLY to the screws/springs of the EVGA card.


I strongly disagree. Observe how automotive manufacturers tailor/suit the amount of rust proofing to meet their various rust perforation/body warranties in regions down south and regions above the snow belt. The point is, the normal usage is defined regionally and geographically. No ONE SHOE FITS ALL. Where the OP lives, humidity IS a known factor, and part of the norm. Most houses are NOT thermally insulated in the tropics, nor are they moisture proofed/vapour proofed. NO AMOUNT OF DEHUMIDIFICATION is possible in a very vented dwelling, as is the common/typical/expected situation where THE OP LIVES.

The Death Valley is ONE small region in the US, whereas the entire tropics is a LARGE area surrouding the equatorial belt. That is not even comparable in terms of the amount of consideration a design should anticipate in the normal usage scenario.

ALSO, as the OP pointed out, he uses and excercises proper cleaning with dusting via compressed air.

Here is a table of galvanic corrosion per type of metal used per environment:

http://www.galvanizeit.org/about-ho...ng-does-hdg-last/in-contact-with-other-metals

I'd guess EVGA used/purchased Nickel plated screws/springs, as do most hardwares.

This maybe the problem "ALSO, as the OP pointed out, he uses and excercises proper cleaning with dusting via compressed air.
" because if you tilt the can at an angle it shoots out a flamable fluid, which could be the cause of the rust. He should have used an antistatic vacuum or blower which provide much better results for removing dust.

 

[Maxx_Power]

This maybe the problem "ALSO, as the OP pointed out, he uses and excercises proper cleaning with dusting via compressed air.
" because if you tilt the can at an angle it shoots out a flamable fluid, which could be the cause of the rust. He should have used an antistatic vacuum or blower which provide much better results for removing dust.

Usually it is just butane or other inert compressed gasses like carbon dioxide in the compressed air cans. Certainly nothing caustic or moisture bearing to my knowledge...

 

[AT-AT28]

And you wonder why they got rid of the lifetime warranty on GPU's. Cases like this are a perfect example, its just no longer finacially viable to deal with issues like this. With the technology industry moving so fast, anything past 5 years old is utterly so slow and old it becomes pointless to maintain a warranty on products like that. Its an 8800GT with "maybe" a value of around $30 nowadays, ditch and move on with life. I couldn't even get $50 from my old evga GTX 260, so what does that tell you about the rapidly decline market value that is PC hardware?

 

[jonneymendoza]

And you wonder why they got rid of the lifetime warranty on GPU's. Cases like this are a perfect example, its just no longer finacially viable to deal with issues like this. With the technology industry moving so fast, anything past 5 years old is utterly so slow and old it becomes pointless to maintain a warranty on products like that. Its an 8800GT with "maybe" a value of around $30 nowadays, ditch and move on with life. I couldn't even get $50 from my old evga GTX 260, so what does that tell you about the rapidly decline market value that is PC hardware?

well said

 

[Deleted member 222586]

Honestly..............

The guy's 8800 series GPU died after what.....5 generations of GPUs have come and gone?
I would say about 5 years now give or take.
The guy is crying because EVGA wants to charge him 39 dollars to replace it.

I'm not buying the rust argument......really, the GPU just died of old age and prolonged use, but to expect EVGA to send you out some brand new product for nothing is a little bit far fetched.
Yeah maybe years of high humidity hastened the death of the card?

Again, if you were trying to sell that GPU on H Forums, what would you expect to fetch for it? 10 dollars?
This is alot of whining about a well used, "ancient" GPu that finally gave up the ghost. It is WELL beyond it's "lifetime".
Consider yourself fortunate you're getting anything from EVGA, the 39 bucks sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

Whenever you buy a product, there are certain conditions. EVGA clearly stated what a "lifetime" warranty was... and thus it doesn't matter how old the product is: you expect it to work forever... or to be replace once it doesn't anymore.

Its as simple as this: If EVGA doesn't like the concept of "lifetime" stuff, then they better not announce it because it definitely is a huge selling point.

And you wonder why they got rid of the lifetime warranty on GPU's. Cases like this are a perfect example, its just no longer finacially viable to deal with issues like this. With the technology industry moving so fast, anything past 5 years old is utterly so slow and old it becomes pointless to maintain a warranty on products like that. Its an 8800GT with "maybe" a value of around $30 nowadays, ditch and move on with life. I couldn't even get $50 from my old evga GTX 260, so what does that tell you about the rapidly decline market value that is PC hardware?

Why should he ditch it? The product he bought stated lifetime warranty, and thus the company should honor such agreement.

I find it amusing that people just ditch the bonus of products they bought, for no aparent reason. Hey, I'm not the one offering any warranty, but I'm the one buying stuff that points everywhere LIFETIME LIFETIME LIFETIME LIFETIME. They used it as a selling factor... now stfu, and honor it.

 

[Revdarian]

I haven't read through all the follow-up posts past the the OP but if I was EVGA I decline warranty on a card like that. Plain and simple that PC is running in an evironment not suitable for a PC.

I already posted their warranty statement about physical conditions, and if you bother to read it, it doesn't say anything about humidity. Also as someone else pointed out, the material that comes with the cards doesn't either, so this is a huge screw up on EVGA themselves.

BTW try and start handing out warranties and then denying them for reasons not stated legally on the warranty itself, then tell me how long you will last until you get sued to heck and back.

Also i bet that the camera, unless it is a warranty-less el cheapo product, does have information about working enviroment, unlike the card... in any case as i stated in a different post, this is why i would have never given a Lifetime Warranty, and above all, i would have sat my ass with a lawyer and a technician to try and look for every loophole or non disclosed event that could cost me extra.

 

[Maxx_Power]

I haven't read through all the follow-up posts past the the OP but if I was EVGA I decline warranty on a card like that. Plain and simple that PC is running in an evironment not suitable for a PC.

Try running a dehumidifier? I have PCs in my basement and I have the DH running almost year round to keep things nice and dry.

Or get one of those moisture absorbing cans and put in near your PC (or in it I guess).

EVGA sells their cards all over the world in all types of environments. It's up to the consumer to make sure their purchases are setup in a suitable environment. It's like buying a non water proof camera and expecting to use it in a rainforest without premature failure.

This is the Caribbeans we are talking about. How do you run a dehumidifier in a place that is chronically humid and windows are always open ?

Seems to me that a better solution is simply to use materials suitable for the local climate. Not that rust is a really big electronic concern, since most electronic components are made from metals that do not rapidly oxidize, just a few screws here and there.

 

[Direfox]

I think everyone can agree that lifetime warranty doesn't mean you can extremely abuse something, then expect a new replacement. And we can agree that any item with a lifetime warranty thats been kept in excellent condition but fails anyway should be replaced.

Where many of us are disagreeing is where exactly this case falls in between the two extremes. A local NAPA store that also had a machine shop in the back had computers that would last 6 months at the most because of metal dust in the air. It got to a point that they had to eat the expense because the computer companies would not warranty the computers and was a big factor in them discontinuing having the machine shop in the store. It was clearly understood that lifetime warranty doesn't mean "anything goes, any environment, any conditions."

To tell you the truth I am a little bit torn on this case, but looking at the pictures of the card make it look pretty nasty. And I thought EVGA trying to meet in the middle was a good thing, not dropping the ball or trying to cheat the customer. Lot of hate for EVGA by some people in this thread, but I dont see that they are doing anything underhanded. They have handled situations like these with more generostiy in the past though.

 

[Maxx_Power]

I think everyone can agree that lifetime warranty doesn't mean you can extremely abuse something, then expect a new replacement. And we can agree that any item with a lifetime warranty thats been kept in excellent condition but fails anyway should be replaced.

Where many of us are disagreeing is where exactly this case falls in between the two extremes. A local NAPA store that also had a machine shop in the back had computers that would last 6 months at the most because of metal dust in the air. It got to a point that they had to eat the expense because the computer companies would not warranty the computers and was a big factor in them discontinuing having the machine shop in the store. It was clearly understood that lifetime warranty doesn't mean "anything goes, any environment, any conditions."

To tell you the truth I am a little bit torn on this case, but looking at the pictures of the card make it look pretty nasty. And I thought EVGA trying to meet in the middle was a good thing, not dropping the ball or trying to cheat the customer. Lot of hate for EVGA by some people in this thread, but I dont see that they are doing anything underhanded. They have handled situations like these with more generostiy in the past though.

I agree with you that the interpretation on what is and isn't strictly speaking covered under "lifetime" or not warranty. It is up to a good lawyer to spell out the finer details.

I just have to say that the rust is, as far as we know of 8800 failures, UNLIKELY to be the direct culprit, AND that where the OP lives, Saharan dust naturally coats things in rust/mineral oxides, and a well ventilated computer is no exception. You can see that point by looking at the picture with the fan blades, the dust clearly looks reddish/brownish (like the screws), where as regular house dust looks greyish.

I see what you would call "generous" warranties like what a poster said:

A few years ago I was in charge of handling warranties for a Dell contract with a Pemex refinary. over 650 pcs.
You can not imagine the enviroment where many of the PCs were used.

I replaced over 160 motherboards with SEVERE rust during that year, Some of them more than once.

They all fell under warranty.

and then I see this EVGA attitude, in comparison to Dell no less, it sure provokes thought.

 

[Relayer]

please understand that a warranty and a guarantee are two different things. Your card is not guaranteed to last forever. Warranties always have exceptions.

 

[///AMG]

please understand that a warranty and a guarantee are two different things. Your card is not guaranteed to last forever. Warranties always have exceptions.

In this case, the exception wasn't anywhere in writing. Doesn't say anything about operating conditions. Would you not assume if there is nothing in writing that states the specific conditions a card should be run in, and they sell it in his market then they have to consider market conditions as normal. Its like saying I am going to sell arctic gear, in Antarctica and then the person uses the gear in the Arctic conditions and it fails because its too cold and in the warranty it doesn't state what conditions is normal. But you have to assume that since they are selling it for use in that environment then its built for that environment and it fails then does the warranty not cover that? At least thats my understanding of it. Regardless of length of the warranty, I believe this should be covered if the don't specifically state that it shouldnt be ran in this environment or within certain conditions then its void, and the defects had nothing to do with the failure of the product as a whole.

 

[magoo]

If this kid got back a fully functional 8800GT would he be satisfied?

I have two XFX 8800 GTs sitting in an old PC I don't use anymore. Honest truth.

I'd be happy to send him one for shipping plus 39.95, but mine are as is.
That said......they still might be covered by the old XFX double warranty, who knows, then we could come back in two years and bash XFX.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

I think everyone can agree that lifetime warranty doesn't mean you can extremely abuse something, then expect a new replacement. And we can agree that any item with a lifetime warranty thats been kept in excellent condition but fails anyway should be replaced.

Where many of us are disagreeing is where exactly this case falls in between the two extremes. A local NAPA store that also had a machine shop in the back had computers that would last 6 months at the most because of metal dust in the air. It got to a point that they had to eat the expense because the computer companies would not warranty the computers and was a big factor in them discontinuing having the machine shop in the store. It was clearly understood that lifetime warranty doesn't mean "anything goes, any environment, any conditions."

To tell you the truth I am a little bit torn on this case, but looking at the pictures of the card make it look pretty nasty. And I thought EVGA trying to meet in the middle was a good thing, not dropping the ball or trying to cheat the customer. Lot of hate for EVGA by some people in this thread, but I dont see that they are doing anything underhanded. They have handled situations like these with more generostiy in the past though.

but see, there in lies the difference between this case and the case of that napa shop. in the case of the napa shop something YOU the consumer are doing is causing the computers to fail, common sense would be to protect the computers. in the case of the original poster this is a naturally occurring issue that the consumer has absolutely no control over. yeah sure they could of coated the card with something to protect the screws but then you voided the warranty thus defeating the whole purpose of buying a card because of its "lifetime" warranty. i still think evga's on the hook for this one, as far as paying money to RMA, minimum i'd expect to see the person paying shipping due to their location but thats about it.

as for the people complaining about how the cards 6 generations old blah blah blah. yes the cards 6 generations old but not everywhere is on the same time scale as us. places like where the original poster lives are still selling 8 series cards on store shelves. because they are 2-3 generations behind everyone else.

 

[ClearM4]

If this kid got back a fully functional 8800GT would he be satisfied?

I have two XFX 8800 GTs sitting in an old PC I don't use anymore. Honest truth.

I'd be happy to send him one for shipping plus 39.95, but mine are as is.
That said......they still might be covered by the old XFX double warranty, who knows, then we could come back in two years and bash XFX.

How about when your HD7970 breaks under warranty they charge you $39.99 + shipping

 

[magoo]

How about when your HD7970 breaks under warranty they charge you $39.99 + shipping

I have no problem paying a fee for RMA if, under realistic conditions, I need it. The HD 7970 was nearly $500, I'll be very happy paying under 10% for a working replacement. That card is nearly a year old now.

I do not expect that level of "free" compensation unless I just opened the box and took out a DOA. But generally at that point you are dealing directly with the retailer.....different story.

Certainly NOT 5 years later when the piece is essentially worth nothing as far as 3D rendering is concerned.

Case in point......my 2 year old Sapprhire HD 4890 blew up......I used it in my HTPC.....got an RMA number and sent it into Sapphire's US repair depot. I paid the shipping. They replaced my card identically and charged me $25.
I was completely satisfied with that.

 

[Maxx_Power]

I have no problem paying a fee for RMA if, under realistic conditions, I need it. The HD 7970 was nearly $500, I'll be very happy paying under 10% for a working replacement. That card is nearly a year old now.

I do not expect that level of "free" compensation unless I just opened the box and took out a DOA. But generally at that point you are dealing directly with the retailer.....different story.

Certainly NOT 5 years later when the piece is essentially worth nothing as far as 3D rendering is concerned.

Case in point......my 2 year old Sapprhire HD 4890 blew up......I used it in my HTPC.....got an RMA number and sent it into Sapphire's US repair depot. I paid the shipping. They replaced my card identically and charged me $25.
I was completely satisfied with that.

Whether or not something (GPU or not) is worth VALUE (monetary or not) to you isn't evaluated the same way when the same item belongs to someone else and in their respective perspective.

Regardless of how you FEEL about the value of your card (which is subjective), EVGA offers a warranty to replace them when they fail. The terms are defined OBJECTIVELY, and the replacement card is deemed of equal or greater performance, not SUBJECTIVE VALUE, monetary or otherwise.

 

[magoo]

So your two year old Sapphire card was out of warranty (2 year warranty, right?) and you paid $25 for a replacement? Nothing wrong with that. If the card was out of warranty, then a charge is acceptable. If it was in warranty, why did you pay them a dime?

In EVGA's case, they have a lifetime warranty on the card and want to charge to "honor the warranty".

If your $500 video card fails in warranty, why would you be willing to pay a company to honor their warranty? That makes no sense, unless of course you broke the $500 card and it didn't just fail on it's own.

My Sapphire was out of warranty, if I recall.
I was happy that they replaced it at all.
If my $500 card failed in warranty after two years of faithful service, I would not mind paying 39 dollars to have it replaced.
EVGA used to sell warranty add-ons for Cross-shipping and one or two day service for alot more, if I recall.

Whether or not something (GPU or not) is worth VALUE (monetary or not) to you isn't evaluated the same way when the same item belongs to someone else and in their respective perspective.

Regardless of how you FEEL about the value of your card (which is subjective), EVGA offers a warranty to replace them when they fail. The terms are defined OBJECTIVELY, and the replacement card is deemed of equal or greater performance, not SUBJECTIVE VALUE, monetary or otherwise.

I think that 39 dollars is entirely reasonable after 5 years.
But again that's just me.
After 5 years, to use for gaming it's no better than a Wii or probably on the same level as the XBox.

EVGA made a reasonable offer.
They could have told the guy to go pound sand.

 

[AltTabbins]

I understand that its still under warranty, but rust isn't something that should be covered by warranty anyways. Theres a lot of ways to prevent that kind of damage from happening. I've lived in Florida for half my life and with even the tiniest amount of maintenence, rust wont build up.

 

[Maxx_Power]

I understand that its still under warranty, but rust isn't something that should be covered by warranty anyways. Theres a lot of ways to prevent that kind of damage from happening. I've lived in Florida for half my life and with even the tiniest amount of maintenence, rust wont build up.

As is often recommended, the OP DOES use compressed air to dust out the computer/GPU.

Beyond that, I don't imagine coating the screws/metal parts with vaseline would be regular/typical/normal maintenance.

Exactly as you are saying, Florida has (I think) a relative humidity higher than that of the Carribbeans (where Puerto Rico is average 77% year round). Thus I'm thinking that the screws were probably not plated well, or the plating started wearing off (due to improper plating).

 

[kuyaglen]

So, do I believe EVGA is trying to deny a valid warranty claim? You bet I do.

I dont.

 

[chaikovski2002]

If this kid got back a fully functional 8800GT would he be satisfied?
I have two XFX 8800 GTs sitting in an old PC I don't use anymore. Honest truth.

I'd be happy to send him one for shipping plus 39.95, but mine are as is.
That said......they still might be covered by the old XFX double warranty, who knows, then we could come back in two years and bash XFX.

I dont think he would be satisfied, he would make a thread and bitch about how EVGA should have stepped him up to a 680 for free.

 

[djgizmo]

Going to have to agree that EVGA has the right to deny. Computer components have a limited environmental variables which need to be considered by the purchaser. I've seen many times the max operating ambient temperature / humidity printed on boxes of electronics before. However, if those environmental variables aren't printed on the box, then its becomes a gray area.

Yea, it sucks. Yea, they offer a lifetime warranty... however its a LIMITED lifetime warranty, which expects the the purchaser to use the product within normal operating conditions. Like compudocs said, you don't put mission critical servers outside in tiki huts to be exposed to the elements.

If moisture in your computer room is above 60% constantly... you need to invest in a dehumidifier or otherwise face moisture damage.

 

[AT-AT28]

I dont think he would be satisfied, he would make a thread and bitch about how EVGA should have stepped him up to a 680 for free.

Truth has been spoken here today

 

[Jorona]

Going to have to agree that EVGA has the right to deny. Computer components have a limited environmental variables which need to be considered by the purchaser. I've seen many times the max operating ambient temperature / humidity printed on boxes of electronics before. However, if those environmental variables aren't printed on the box, then its becomes a gray area.

Yea, it sucks. Yea, they offer a lifetime warranty... however its a LIMITED lifetime warranty, which expects the the purchaser to use the product within normal operating conditions. Like compudocs said, you don't put mission critical servers outside in tiki huts to be exposed to the elements.

If moisture in your computer room is above 60% constantly... you need to invest in a dehumidifier or otherwise face moisture damage.

I'd agree with you if I could find a set of variables, but they aren't on their website or in the paper work that comes with their cards. My 480 has no operating environment specs on any of the paperwork or the box. Seeing as they don't say anywhere that you can't run in at 100% humidity 24/7, I think his warranty claim is valid.

 

[Maxx_Power]

I dont think he would be satisfied, he would make a thread and bitch about how EVGA should have stepped him up to a 680 for free.

Truth has been spoken here today

Wild accusations and speculations have begun. You should play the stock market.

As the OP have said: "The card would have been 5 years old by the end of this December so I was quite satisfied with the lifetime of the product."

This is OP's plan: "I know the card is old and I was saving to upgrade to a GTX660 and using the 8800gt as a physx card so having to fork out $70 was my main concern here and that it would lead to me receiving the same product fixed when I could have just bought a new 9800gt from amazon for $64."

THIS IS WHAT WE KNOW. NOW, let's deal with the reality instead of psycho-analyzing everyone's motives in a vain attempt to weaken their position(s).

 

[Maxx_Power]

Going to have to agree that EVGA has the right to deny. Computer components have a limited environmental variables which need to be considered by the purchaser. I've seen many times the max operating ambient temperature / humidity printed on boxes of electronics before. However, if those environmental variables aren't printed on the box, then its becomes a gray area.

Yea, it sucks. Yea, they offer a lifetime warranty... however its a LIMITED lifetime warranty, which expects the the purchaser to use the product within normal operating conditions. Like compudocs said, you don't put mission critical servers outside in tiki huts to be exposed to the elements.

If moisture in your computer room is above 60% constantly... you need to invest in a dehumidifier or otherwise face moisture damage.

Environmental conditions are NOT listed, in the specifications online or the boxes, or the user manual.

EVGA DOES have humidity ratings on some other products they have with an upper range of 80% (e.g., their PCoiP client boxes). Apple lists theirs up to 95%, I'm not sure of others off the top of my head.

As for mission critical servers ouside in tiki huts.... I think the appropriate response would be to engineer and design things appropriate for where they are going to be used, that's the end of it.

 

[Direfox]

Environmental conditions are NOT listed, in the specifications online or the boxes, or the user manual.

EVGA DOES have humidity ratings on some other products they have with an upper range of 80% (e.g., their PCoiP client boxes). Apple lists theirs up to 95%, I'm not sure of others off the top of my head.

As for mission critical servers ouside in tiki huts.... I think the appropriate response would be to engineer and design things appropriate for where they are going to be used, that's the end of it.

Engineer the product so even the 1% who would use it in those conditions will be bullet proof? Add $xxx.xx dollars to a card so that it will be usable in any extreme environment, (because yes, it does cost money to do that). On a video card that most people will use for about 1-2 years. Your line of reasoning does not make sense to me.

 

[magoo]

Wild accusations and speculations have begun. You should play the stock market.

As the OP have said: "The card would have been 5 years old by the end of this December so I was quite satisfied with the lifetime of the product."

This is OP's plan: "I know the card is old and I was saving to upgrade to a GTX660 and using the 8800gt as a physx card so having to fork out $70 was my main concern here and that it would lead to me receiving the same product fixed when I could have just bought a new 9800gt from amazon for $64."

THIS IS WHAT WE KNOW. NOW, let's deal with the reality instead of psycho-analyzing everyone's motives in a vain attempt to weaken their position(s).

I'm sorry man, so the kid says he essentially would have purchased a 9800 off Amazon for 64 dollars?

Then why is he complaining about EVGA wanting to charge 34 dollars to replace his rusted card?

Last but not least, if you look at the photos, and the kid says he routinely blows the card clean, that fan and the PCB beneath it look very dirty; not including the "red sahara dust" or whatever fancy name you gave it. If I was sending my card back for RMA, I'd sure as hell get it as pristine as possible.........this isn't.

This whole thread stinks of trolling EVGA.......I'm just sayin'.
And I am far from any kind of EVGA fan.

 

[AltTabbins]

As is often recommended, the OP DOES use compressed air to dust out the computer/GPU.

Sorry.. I can't hear what you are saying because the pictures are screaming other things so loudly in my ear. You don't get that kind of caked dust with regular basic maintenance, mean just look at the fan. You can tell that he hasn't done any kind of basic cleaning in that card for a very long time.

 

[djgizmo]

I'd agree with you if I could find a set of variables, but they aren't on their website or in the paper work that comes with their cards. My 480 has no operating environment specs on any of the paperwork or the box. Seeing as they don't say anywhere that you can't run in at 100% humidity 24/7, I think his warranty claim is valid.

Check the back of the manual, its usually where the technical / electrical specifications are located.

 

[Maxx_Power]

Sorry.. I can't hear what you are saying because the pictures are screaming other things so loudly in my ear. You don't get that kind of caked dust with regular basic maintenance, mean just look at the fan. You can tell that he hasn't done any kind of basic cleaning in that card for a very long time.

As the OP pointed out, look up Saharan dust. It does look like that and coats everything in that region (a large amount of places geographically). It is mostly mineral oxides and looks reddish/brown. You can see it on sat maps.

Given this, the OP would have to clean VERY regularly to avoid ANY buildup. I only suggested that the OP does clean it once in a while.

The fact of the matter is, no matter the amount of cleaning, you are not going to stop rusting. In fact, cleaning removes the previous layer of oxides allowing exposure of fresh surfaces, potentially accelerating the oxidation process. Then you end up with pitted screws/metals. Based on their logic, EVGA may argue then that the screws were physically damaged.

 

[Maxx_Power]

Engineer the product so even the 1% who would use it in those conditions will be bullet proof? Add $xxx.xx dollars to a card so that it will be usable in any extreme environment, (because yes, it does cost money to do that). On a video card that most people will use for about 1-2 years. Your line of reasoning does not make sense to me.

You are not saying what I said. You are saying what you wanted to interpret.

I will paraphrase what I said for you:

given that the card is sold in markets where rusting maybe a problem, the card should be geographically tailored to fit the local needs. Car manufacturers do this all the time on something much more elaborate and costly, why can't EVGA ? My response on the example of servers in tikki huts illustrates that if one targets those environments with their products, then one's product must necessarily be engineered to suit. Since your market is LOCAL, distribution is LOCAL, marketing is LOCAL and warranty is LOCAL (regional), there is NO REASON why the statistics used for reliability engineering is GLOBAL. THAT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE.

This doesn't necessarily cost a lot of money. Stainless steel screws are cheap, nickel plated screws have many grades, and if EVGA really was worried about cost, then why allow people to RMA their cards WITHOUT original heatsink/fan assemblies ?

As another poster have said in paraphrase again, you can not sell an item with a given warranty in a place where normal usage likely results in some type of wear and tear, then refuse warranty when the item does predictively undergo that wear and tear.

 

[Maxx_Power]

Check the back of the manual, its usually where the technical / electrical specifications are located.

It is not there. I checked online and skimmed through their GPU literatures on specifications from the 8000 series to the 600 series. No mention of humidity.

 

[Maxx_Power]

I'm sorry man, so the kid says he essentially would have purchased a 9800 off Amazon for 64 dollars?

Then why is he complaining about EVGA wanting to charge 34 dollars to replace his rusted card?

Last but not least, if you look at the photos, and the kid says he routinely blows the card clean, that fan and the PCB beneath it look very dirty; not including the "red sahara dust" or whatever fancy name you gave it. If I was sending my card back for RMA, I'd sure as hell get it as pristine as possible.........this isn't.

This whole thread stinks of trolling EVGA.......I'm just sayin'.
And I am far from any kind of EVGA fan.

I'm not sure if you read what I posted. The OP said that he ALREADY paid 25 dollars to ship the card out of country WITHOUT the knowledge that EVGA will deny their warranty. No where did the warranty statement say that some rusting on the screws/brackets constitutes a denial in warranty. At this point of time, he is out of 25 dollars, and they are asking for another 34 dollars (originally 70 bucks) to replace the card. He is saying, had he known that they would do this, he could have bought one from Amazon instead.

It is a statement made in HINDSIGHT, not FORESIGHT.

You should also be respectful and not refer to the OP as some "kid". We have no knowledge of OP's age, NOR should it matter in judgement/prejudgement or connotation.

I actually think EVGA WAS pretty good, for support. I don't develop personal fan-fair, but EVGA WAS always on my recommendations list (GPUs only, won't touch their MOBOS with a 10 foot pole), which this (and other similar cases the other posters have pointed out) seems to disprove.

 

[magoo]

I'm not sure if you read what I posted. The OP said that he ALREADY paid 25 dollars to ship the card out of country WITHOUT the knowledge that EVGA will deny their warranty. No where did the warranty statement say that some rusting on the screws/brackets constitutes a denial in warranty. At this point of time, he is out of 25 dollars, and they are asking for another 34 dollars (originally 70 bucks) to replace the card. He is saying, had he known that they would do this, he could have bought one from Amazon instead.

It is a statement made in HINDSIGHT, not FORESIGHT.

You should also be respectful and not refer to the OP as some "kid". We have no knowledge of OP's age, NOR should it matter in judgement/prejudgement or connotation.

I actually think EVGA WAS pretty good, for support. I don't develop personal fan-fair, but EVGA WAS always on my recommendations list (GPUs only, won't touch their MOBOS with a 10 foot pole), which this (and other similar cases the other posters have pointed out) seems to disprove.

Yup I read the whole thing.
Generally you have to discount the shipping costs.....everybody has to pay to ship back an RMA, so yeah, it's part of the cost of doing business. How in the hell are you supposed to predict whether an RMA will be accepted or denied, especially on a 5 year old part?
He could have called first, right? Foresight as you say.
But to bitch like this when you were willing to simply plunk down twice as much is silly and smacks of an adgenda.
I don't mean any disrespect in calling someone a kid, or guy or girl or whatever.....as most likely one of the oldest guys on this forum, everyone is a kid to me.

Lastly, I've had a bunch of EVGA stuff, including at least a dozen GPUs and 4 or 5 motherboards.
I've yet to have a GPU problem.
Motherboards are a different problem, their 680i boards were horrid, but they resolved my issues completely, without a problem.
My son runs a P55 FTW that is 2+ years old and going strong.
I used to use an X58 Classified that was one of the best MBs I've ever had, period.

Lately I've been using ASUS MBs.

Anyway, I think EVGA handled this PERSON'S (politically correct phrasing) RMA just fine.

My offer is still open to sell him an XFX 8800GT for 39.95 + shipping.