Need some advice

S

Sheppard

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 3, 2011
Messages
1,199
I need some advice on a problem...
I sold a gentlemen an used R9 290x for 230. When I shipped the item I pulled it out of a working computer and packaged it in anti static bag and shipped it.
A month later the gentleman messaged me and told me he installed the GPU into his wifes computer, installed the drivers and everything went fine, and then the card crashed while launching a game. This happened twice according to the buyer and then the card went dark. I have no way of verifying this.
I told him I would help him figure it out and he sent me the card back. There is no physical damage to the card that I can detect. There was a VERY slight electrical smell from the 8 and 6 pin connectors but that might be nothing at all. The card will not boot at all. On both BIOS ATIFLASH -I command reports no adapter. Its as if the bios have been erased completely. The card wont even power the computer on when used alone.

I need some advice from the community on how I should proceed. Is this responsibility mine after 1 month of having the card? I purchased the card from the original owner but so far ive failed to get in contact with them.
I leave the buyers name out of this because im simply asking for advice on what to do.
 
That is different. It depends on the terms that were agreed upon. In my opinion one month of having the card I would like to think one has had enough time to test it. I think it is not your issue through. If the card is under warranty the it's a moot point I guess. Hope everything works out.
 
No offense, but any real answer is not going to be had without both sides of the story. Half of a story gives a half-cocked and half-baked answer.

Assuming you haven't already, please PM this anonymous gentleman with a link to the thread and ask him to join in if he'd like. It's not required for him to show up, of course, but it's a good idea for everyone if he does.

Besides, even if you (somewhat understandably) don't feel like being courteous, it's pretty much standard procedure.

Please also post good photos of the card in question, particularly of the area around the power connectors you mentioned. That will be of some interest to me -- I don't know graphics cards, but I know electronics, and that smell is frequently indicative of something having gone tragically wrong...

On that note -- while I certainly don't have enough info to form a meaningful opinion as to what wrecked the card, it does sound like someone really should take a look at their power supply's voltages under load...

But the first thing is to get the other human half of this transaction into this thread to tell his side.
 
posting pictures of the PCB would be pointless, ive literally gone over this thing with a fine toothed comb. I cannot find any physical damage period. Ive spent an hour at least counting every resistor on the board.
 
OK, then, good. Not all dead electronics show physical marks of their demise, however...

Still, at this point, what we need most is the other fellow's accounting of their own story.
 
Sheppard said:
posting pictures of the PCB would be pointless, ive literally gone over this thing with a fine toothed comb. I cannot find any physical damage period. Ive spent an hour at least counting every resistor on the board.
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You didn't mention the wattage of his PSU. It's possible he starved the card of power and it fried.
 
I asked him his specs.

Power Supply: eVGA 1000w G2 SuperNova
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3
Processor: AMD FX-8350 Black
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB)
Disk: Crucial M555 256GB
 
starhawk said:
No offense, but any real answer is not going to be had without both sides of the story. Half of a story gives a half-cocked and half-baked answer.

Assuming you haven't already, please PM this anonymous gentleman with a link to the thread and ask him to join in if he'd like. It's not required for him to show up, of course, but it's a good idea for everyone if he does.

Besides, even if you (somewhat understandably) don't feel like being courteous, it's pretty much standard procedure.

Please also post good photos of the card in question, particularly of the area around the power connectors you mentioned. That will be of some interest to me -- I don't know graphics cards, but I know electronics, and that smell is frequently indicative of something having gone tragically wrong...

On that note -- while I certainly don't have enough info to form a meaningful opinion as to what wrecked the card, it does sound like someone really should take a look at their power supply's voltages under load...

But the first thing is to get the other human half of this transaction into this thread to tell his side.
Click to expand...
Best advice in the thread. It's hard to make a call without the full story.
 
After a month I would not have accepted a return. Not to be a dick, but there is no way of knowing what he has done with the card after all this time. 7 day returns max for DOA's only, 3 days is better, and keep track of the serial numbers with photos so nobody can pull a bait and switch.

Though hopefully it is under warranty, just send it in for replacement.

Did the guy you bought it from, or you, or the guy you sold it to mine coins with it? The reason I ask is cards that are mined with will often continue to mine for quite some time without issue, but will show problems and die when you start to play games with them after all that abuse. This of course depends on the miner settings, oc, heat, etc. Not all mined cards are bad, not at all. Just if they aren't cared for.
 
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I'm the one who purchased it, and what he states it true, so in this case not really two sides of the story. But I'll offer some more details.

The reason for the delay is that it was one of many parts purchased for a new computer build for my wife (which was a Christmas gift). On Christmas she got all the parts (still in the packaging they came with, most new) and then I put it together, installed Windows 8.1 Pro, drivers, Origin, Dragon Age Inquisition (her poison at the time). It ran for about 5 minutes before crashing causing the machine to lock up. Powered it off, then back on. Verified all the drivers were current, turned the game settings down from max to medium and tried again. This time after 2 minutes it crashed, locking up and the screen going dark.

Powered it off, then back on...only to have no screen. Popped in her old Radeon 6870 and it came to life. At that point I tried the card on two different machines with no success. Now I've built a couple of dozen machines in my lifetime and have never seen this, so that's when I contacted Shepard asking if he had the information to RMA the card. He wanted to look it over as well as contacting the person he got the card from, so I shipped it to him and he's been trying to get it working .
 
I completely understand about the Christmas gift/reason for delay. We did the same thing in my house. Very odd. Sounds almost like the PS isn't able to keep up or something. Obviously the 1000w PS mentioned above is enough umph for the 290x. Maybe the card just bit it at that time.
 
...or, defective power supply... I've heard of such things. It doesn't appear, from an admittedly quick stop at the relevant Newegg reviews page, that there's too many problems with that particular supply... hmm...

It's not a simple current draw issue, since (obviously) we don't have a 500+ watt card on our hands (google sez! ~290w TDP).

Hey, carl, is that power supply under warranty?
 
Or sometimes things just die. It's not impossible that the card crapped out.

I say this a thousand times, ALWAYS check the items out as soon as they arrive. PERIOD.
 
I'm trying to force flash a bios on the card but it's like it's just gone period. I can't get atiflash or 3 different motherboards to even recognize there's even a card in the slot. I've never seen anything like it. All the cards I've ever seen go bad at least post the computer even with artifacts everywhere. The only thing that happens is the fan spins. Core won't warm up at all.

At this point what should I do?
 
Sheppard said:
I'm trying to force flash a bios on the card but it's like it's just gone period. I can't get atiflash or 3 different motherboards to even recognize there's even a card in the slot. I've never seen anything like it. All the cards I've ever seen go bad at least post the computer even with artifacts everywhere. The only thing that happens is the fan spins. Core won't warm up at all.

At this point what should I do?
Click to expand...

You have two options, refund (and hope you can RMA it) or tell him it's been too long and send it back (and hope HE can RMA it).
 
carlbme said:
I'm the one who purchased it, and what he states it true, so in this case not really two sides of the story. But I'll offer some more details.

The reason for the delay is that it was one of many parts purchased for a new computer build for my wife (which was a Christmas gift). On Christmas she got all the parts (still in the packaging they came with, most new) and then I put it together, installed Windows 8.1 Pro, drivers, Origin, Dragon Age Inquisition (her poison at the time). It ran for about 5 minutes before crashing causing the machine to lock up. Powered it off, then back on. Verified all the drivers were current, turned the game settings down from max to medium and tried again. This time after 2 minutes it crashed, locking up and the screen going dark.

Powered it off, then back on...only to have no screen. Popped in her old Radeon 6870 and it came to life. At that point I tried the card on two different machines with no success. Now I've built a couple of dozen machines in my lifetime and have never seen this, so that's when I contacted Shepard asking if he had the information to RMA the card. He wanted to look it over as well as contacting the person he got the card from, so I shipped it to him and he's been trying to get it working .
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Do you not have your own machine to test such items in?

Waiting a month to test such an item purchased used on the forums is no excuse.

Sheppard said:
I'm trying to force flash a bios on the card but it's like it's just gone period. I can't get atiflash or 3 different motherboards to even recognize there's even a card in the slot. I've never seen anything like it. All the cards I've ever seen go bad at least post the computer even with artifacts everywhere. The only thing that happens is the fan spins. Core won't warm up at all.

At this point what should I do?
Click to expand...

If atiflash won't see the card at all, you'd have to mod the card to make it see the bios presuming the card is electrically functional. Don't bother.

Assist with an RMA if you can.
 
Sheppard said:
I'm trying to force flash a bios on the card but it's like it's just gone period. I can't get atiflash or 3 different motherboards to even recognize there's even a card in the slot. I've never seen anything like it. All the cards I've ever seen go bad at least post the computer even with artifacts everywhere. The only thing that happens is the fan spins. Core won't warm up at all.

At this point what should I do?
Click to expand...

Have you tried booting up the mobo with a different card while leaving this card in a secondary slot and atiflashing it that way? This usually works when the BIOS gets screwed up since you can't boot with it. If that doesn't work though the card could be fried. I've seen a lot of mined cards find the end of their life in this way. Hopefully you can RMA it.
 
starhawk said:
...or, defective power supply... I've heard of such things. It doesn't appear, from an admittedly quick stop at the relevant Newegg reviews page, that there's too many problems with that particular supply... hmm...

It's not a simple current draw issue, since (obviously) we don't have a 500+ watt card on our hands (google sez! ~290w TDP).

Hey, carl, is that power supply under warranty?
Click to expand...

It is, she's been using it in the "Christmas machine" since it was built. The only thing is she's currently using her old 6870 instead of the 290X.

SunnyD said:
Do you not have your own machine to test such items in?

Waiting a month to test such an item purchased used on the forums is no excuse.
Click to expand...
I do, several I could of used. I should of but didn't, lesson learned.
 
A pity, oddly enough, about the PSU -- if it were out of warranty, I'd say crack it open and post photos of the guts, maybe that would help us get to the bottom, electronically at least.

But you do NOT want to do that if it's got a warranty on it. Warranty goes POOF! if you open it up...

Yeah, I'd recommend an RMA assist at this point as well; sorry it got borked and all...
 
I'm actively trying to get in contact with the old owner. In the mean time I'll do whatever I can to revive if I can find something. I just want the guy to have a working card but u don't want to get shafted along the way also.
 
Sheppard said:
I'm actively trying to get in contact with the old owner. In the mean time I'll do whatever I can to revive if I can find something. I just want the guy to have a working card but u don't want to get shafted along the way also.
Click to expand...

Going beyond the scope of this thread - what brand is the card? If it's MSI, Asus or Gigabyte you may not need the original owner's intervention thanks to serial number based warranties. Sapphire, Diamond, HIS, XFX, etc., all require registered cards and receipts unfortunately. You may want to check with the manufacturer directly to see if there's any way to proceed with a RMA sans purchase verification/registration regardless.
 
Can anyone point me to voltage check locations to see if power is even making it to the rest of the card?
 
I had a similar situation happen to me. I ended up refunding the guy his money and eating the card as a total loss even though I'm sure he broke it (obviously not as courteous as the guy here). RMA was denied due to "physical damage" (I hate Sapphire RMA's...0-3 with them).
 
1 month is too long. I always specificy "1 week from the day it is delivered" on my sale thread. I am not newegg or amazon, so 30 days is not realistic for a used card.
 
Just to be clear, I've never asked for a refund from Sheppard because I also agree that a month is to long for a used card. Just was hoping to have it RMA'd or to see if he could find a way to fix it so that my ignorance in not testing it right away didn't put me out all $270 for this card.
 
I know. You have been more than reasonable. This thread is not accusatory at all and meant only for collecting advice.
 
Sheppard said:
It's a powercolor
Click to expand...

You will need a copy of the invoice from the original owner then.

The good news is that Powercolor is actually pretty good about warranty service provided the card is still in warranty and you can provide the proof of purchase, even if it isn't in your name.

Just remember, the more YOU do to the card, the more potential there is for you to do something to VOID the warranty on the card if it hasn't already been.

Best of luck.
 
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