Ok BFG You've beyond lost a customer...CARD #5 DOA!!!!

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Rtstrider

Gawd
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Well I just got card #5 in the mail....Not even 2 hours in my machine...Dead....I metered my ps rails, and they're just right, 12.05 and 5.06....I've been running a fx5200 on my machine as a spare card....And it's lasted almost weeks now without the slightest problem.....So it's not my motherboard....But all I have to say as that as soon as I get this card back from RMA it's up for grabs...I'm going the evga route.....Any other good companys or recommendations? I know evga is pretty good because my best friend has the same machine I do same specs and everything, and has been running an Evga 6800 for almost 8 months solid now....Oh and BFG's product manager supposedly tested this card himself....I even got the email from him...Here it is as follows:

Just wanted to let you know that I am personally testing a 6800GT card for you and it will go out overnight today with a pre-paid tag for return shipping.



David Ash

Product Manager

BFG Technologies

[email protected]

www.bfgtech.com

www.bfggaming.com

So yeah...I'm through with BFG and warnings to all you other buyers out there, if you want a card that runs right the first time, steer clear of BFG...(and no I'm not a troll, I'm just posting my real life experience)...And before you ask....I haven't overclocked any of my video cards....So I'm not the one at fault....

EDIT: And yes this is the system in my sig
 
I've read a few reports like yours, and thats what made me buy my soon to arrive evga 7800 gtx. It's a shame too because I live about 15 mintutes from BFG's headquarters in Lake Bluff, IL. I'd rather support a local company

I guess if I ever did buy a card from them and it went bad, I guess I could just drive over and pick up a new one.

Sorry about your cards, I betting shipping 4 times was a bitch.
 
Well no it's not the shipping that was a bitch...The ups store is on my way to and from school, lol....It's just more aggrevating than (can't finish off in fear of getting banned)!! But yeah....The only good thing I can say about them is that well....At least they've been rmaing me for the past few weeks...I'm going to talk to the supervisor...Although I've been on hold for 30 min not even talked to a tech yet....And say "Hey at this point can you just send me a brand new card" I mean the ones they send back out are refurbs.....I'm starting to wonder though....Does it have something to do with the shipping? I mean is there possible heat problems in the shipping process that may have caused this?
 
Rtstrider said:
] I mean is there possible heat problems in the shipping process that may have caused this?
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I am curious, where do you live?

It could be static killing the boards. This time of year is alot dryer and when humidity decreases there is an exponential increase in static charge build up.
 
Pensacola, FL...And no...It is never dry here...Always humid....Btw Pensacola is in the FL panhandle
 
Yep been running a PNY fx5200 in there while my cards have been in the RMA process....It's basically them sending out bad cards...All they need to do is just send me a brand new one instead of the refurb pieces of crap....

EDIT: BTW I'm still on hold.....
 
I believe there's a gentleman from BFG that sweeps through these forums every now and then, so you may get lucky enough to have him notice your little topic here.

I'm sure that this might very well be BFG at its worst and you're at the receiving end. This sort of thing happens as the result of growing pains, and it's to be expected now and again. Just remember that any company will act in its best interested until you make the call to go to someone else. I would've dropped them in favor for another company after the second DOA, but that's me.
 
Yeah well I'm a pretty patient guy....And that guy that sweeps the forums...He's to one that contacted me.....And he said he'd like to make this right...Better yet here's the pm:

Rtstrider,
Please send me your personal information so that I can look into your issue personally. I would like the chance to make this right for you.

Thanks,
Scott Herkelman
EVP
BFG Tech

He's aka Sherkelman on here....

EDIT: I'm still on hold...I have to go to bed I have a test in the morning...All I have to say is I better get an ultra out of this and if that were to happen then I would possibly consider sticking with BFG.....Kinda as a sorry we sent you 5 DOA cards....Including one that was beyond obvious...It looked like it had been dropped in a mud puddle, and you could smell the burnt electrical smell from quite a ways away from the card...Now that's just adding insult to injury
 
Something is killing the cards. And, an FX 5200 living in your system is not a good test. That uses the AGP power only. Have you even tried another PSU? I know you say the voltages are fine, but what about grounding and amperage? This sounds like a PSU issue to me. 5 cards DOA and to continue putting them into the same machine is not the best method to find root cause. The BFG card is a reference design and switching brands will not improve things.
 
HeavyH20 said:
Something is killing the cards. And, an FX 5200 living in your system is not a good test. That uses the AGP power only. Have you even tried another PSU? I know you say the voltages are fine, but what about grounding and amperage? This sounds like a PSU issue to me. 5 cards DOA and to continue putting them into the same machine is not the best method to find root cause. The BFG card is a reference design and switching brands will not improve things.
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I'm gonna have to Agree. There is no way BFG and even Sherkleman personally tested a card, boxed it and sent it to you and then you received the 5th one in a row that doesn't work. The common denominator in all these equasions is your system. Try another high end power supply, remove all but one stick of ram and remove all other cards from the rig. begin adding things back gradually if you get the card to work.

BTW can you be a bit more specific as to what happens when you plug the card in the system, attach the power cable (should be a dedicated cable) and then power up the system. What happens afterwards? Also just remembered, did you ask them what their QA results were for the 4 cards you sent them back. If they passed then they should have stopped you on card # 2 or 3 at worst case scenario.
 
You're either cursed or something in your system is killing these cards, but that's
just rediculous to blame BFG. BFG has a pretty good reputation, so you're
0 for 5 situation seems like user error to me.
 
rfwinters77 said:
You're either cursed or something in your system is killing these cards, but that's
just rediculous to blame BFG. BFG has a pretty good reputation, so you're
0 for 5 situation seems like user error to me.
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QFT
I would think by card number 3 the OP might be able to notice a pattern. I'm sure BFG will be glad to have him off their backs when he sells his RMA card and fries an EVGA.
 
Yeah dude you really need to wake up. This is an almost mathematical impossifuckingbility. You can't possibly be blind to the permutation involved here:

Let's say 1 out of the every 1000 BFG cards fail. That's got to be around industry standard for failure rate on video cards otherwise they'd make no money. So take .1% failure rate. Now raise .1% to the FIFTH power - that's .001 raised to the power of 5. That's the chances that you could receive five broken video cards in a row.

That's about .00001% probability. It's just impossible. Your machine is killing these cards off, there's no two ways about it. I guarantee you whatever other brand you drop in there that's the same calibre of video card will die as well.
 
Okay check this out you have 2 different posts about this.

Here's something I want to throw at ya. I used to have that case. The Xaser 3 series has a weird fan controller. on 1 controller you can attach only 3 fans and on the other you can attach 4 fans. I had a weird issue when I had them connected improperly that my system would randomly reboot. Try disconnecting your fans and leaving the system side pannel open. I noticed you can surf the web on this system even with the 6800GT so that means you are getting a display. Verify that your harware acceleration in windows is set on full. Also if possible attach a DX diag report to your next post so that we can review. I might be able to throw something your way if I see that. Lastly this motherboard has an agp pro slot with a plastic tab on the far left of the slot. You should-not remove that tab. If you did and still have it reinsert it into the slot. I'll try and help you with this but I need more info.
 
i agree with above.

Throw the bfg in another machine before sticking it in your "DEATHSTAR"
 
same thing happened to me :(

im on card #4 ATM. it works, but it slightly artifacts at stock. have a feeling ill be calling the supervisor i spoke to back, and getting ANOTHER RMA.

i, too, just ordered an eVGA 7800GT. they won me over with lifetime warrany, HSF changes, Free COD2, 460/1.1 at $319. i just couldnt justify NOT getting it.

no, his system is not killing the cards off (well, its possible, but unlikely in my expierence). ive been through the same shit that he has - 4 cards now have something wrong with them out of their RMA dept. EACH AND EVERY ONE HAS SOMETHING DIFFERENT WRONG WITH IT. even the level2 tech (supervisor) agreed with me and didnt know WTF was going on with their RMA dept, especially when 1. x600, x300, PCX5300 work great. 2. each card has a different problem. 3. my power supply has handled 6800GT SLI, so its definatly not an issue. its like theyre taking peoples RMA cards and shipping them out for RMA, quite honestly.

edit: The PSU has also been through 3 systems and never, ever given me a problem.
 
I am glad I do not have your problem. My BFG 7800GT is kicking ass!
However, I just bought it a week ago and now they are offering COD 2 with the 7800's. I sent them an email and asked if they would send me a copy since I just bought it. I hope they will honor their new deal for my card.


EDIT- I just received an email from BFG and they are sending my a copy of the game. Thank you Sherkelamn and John Malley for your help....BFG truly kicks ass!!
 
Rtstrider said:
Pensacola, FL...And no...It is never dry here...Always humid....Btw Pensacola is in the FL panhandle
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off topic but i love that city, hows it over there right now? i havent been there in a long while
 
I actually hope there's something wrong with his system. If BFG is sending out faulty refurbs to people someone needs a kick in the nads.
 
I can only think that brain dead management would be responsible for such an idea as simply sending out a bad card that had already been RMA'd by someone else, 4 times. Sure it would save money in the short term, but you would lose current customers, and potential (like me after I've read a few of these threads) ones as well.

When my friends NF7-S had a bad ethernet and sound connector, I RMA'd it. Abit sent me a very apparently used one back. Used is fine as long as it works, but this one didn't even post. I called an complained and they sent me a nice shiney new one after that. They didn't even ask me to send the bad Mobo back.

It could be his system too. Maybe the the 5200 isn't placing the same demands as the newer card. But I still think its BFG.
 
its definately possible. the guy who said it was a.00001 chance does not have an argument. those would be the odds if all the cards were new, but the cards you get from the rma dept are refurbs. so they fix dead cards and send em out. and i had an incident with ati where ive already sent in a 9800pro 3 times and every time it comes back with a dead core.

ill have to say my bfg 7800gt is amazing though, so you cant really hate on bfg since they do make good cards, its just their rma dept needs to be restaffed and rethought.
 
A.D.FIFTY said:
the cards you get from the rma dept are refurbs. so they fix dead cards and send em out.
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This is the way I look at this whole mess.

1st card =BFG
2nd card=BFG
3rd card= I would start really looking at my system
4th card= It would have to be my system
5th card= It would be my system.

I dont care how many people have gotten bad cards through RMA's but 5 times?

Not very likely IMO.
 
That's funny. I ran a BFG FX5200 for more than a year... Not a single problem and was OCed to hell and back - ran fine.

I'm now running a BFG 6800NU... Been running for 12 months not a single problem, runs perfect.

If it wasent for eVGA offering the Free mobo with 7800GT, I'd be going with BFG again. Like said above, I believe its your system.
 
MattWeb said:
This is the way I look at this whole mess.

1st card =BFG
2nd card=BFG
3rd card= I would start really looking at my system
4th card= It would have to be my system
5th card= It would be my system.

I dont care how many people have gotten bad cards through RMA's but 5 times?

Not very likely IMO.
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I agree. I mean I've seen some pretty bad RMA horror stories, and even lived through them as a service tech trying to get parts from vendors, but I have to say 5 bad cards in a row, refurb or not is right up there with getting hit by an asteroid. It's just too damned unlikely. I'd stick the card in another machine and let it live there for a few days. Then if your machine kills it after that, you know it's your PC.
 
Actually I wouldn't be shocked if it was BFG sending out duds. Sometimes customer service is just terrible. I had to return my Hercules 9800 Pro and 1 month later
they sent me a replacement in a padded envelope. Needless to say it was damaged during transit. :rolleyes:
 
Wolfmyst said:
I've read a few reports like yours, and thats what made me buy my soon to arrive evga 7800 gtx. It's a shame too because I live about 15 mintutes from BFG's headquarters in Lake Bluff, IL. I'd rather support a local company

I guess if I ever did buy a card from them and it went bad, I guess I could just drive over and pick up a new one.

Sorry about your cards, I betting shipping 4 times was a bitch.
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I had a similar problem with bfg. It took them 3 times. The third time they upgraded me from a 5900 128mb to a 5900 256.I was happy. I'm also about 15 minutes away from lake bluff but they would'nt let me go there and pick it up.
 
hmm when i rma'd my bfg 7800gtx 256 .. i got it back in three days with a brand new sealed retail one .. so i doubt it was a refurb .. i even asked 3 different people from bfg and they said i would get a brand new one back .. never had a problem with the 3 bfg cards i have owned .. 2 256 7800gtxs and now my 512mb gtx
 
Matrices said:
Yeah dude you really need to wake up. This is an almost mathematical impossifuckingbility. You can't possibly be blind to the permutation involved here:

Let's say 1 out of the every 1000 BFG cards fail. That's got to be around industry standard for failure rate on video cards otherwise they'd make no money. So take .1% failure rate. Now raise .1% to the FIFTH power - that's .001 raised to the power of 5. That's the chances that you could receive five broken video cards in a row.

That's about .00001% probability. It's just impossible. Your machine is killing these cards off, there's no two ways about it. I guarantee you whatever other brand you drop in there that's the same calibre of video card will die as well.
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.001^5 = 0.000000000000001

That's 1 QUADRILLIONTH or as a percent 1 TEN TRILLIONTH of a percent chance.

Even if the failure rate of the refurbs is higher. Say 1 in 10.... that's .1^5

.1^5 = 0.00001

That's 1 THOUSANDTH of a percent chance of this happening. Possible.....?

Without real failure rates, these are only estimations, and bad ones at that. I really doubt that the refurb failure rate would be as high as 10% or even 1%. What would they even do to refurb a card? Nothing on the board is workable by hand except maybe the VGA connectors. Also consider that refurbs would be tested before they go back out, and they would have to pass every test that a new card does.
 
Its not impossible but highly unlikely. My roommate had a 5900 go bad on him he sent it back and a got his 5900 with a new fan. Basically his 5900s fan died and his machine would lockup or not run. he plugged it in and it wouldn't work, he then got another RMA sent it in and now has one that works fine.

His DOA was his old card since at first glance it only seemed to be cooler issue. But I have to agree with everyone else 5 RMAs is a bit much, even if the RMA department is full of refurbs it still seems the law of averages would lead you to 2-3 good cards by now. I would recommend trying the new card in another system for awhile before putting it into yours.

Also I am not a big fan of your attempt at blackmail. I understand your want and need to get a working card but demanding an ultra as the only way you will continue to buy their cards is a little low. It also reflects bad on you, if this is truly their fault, it looks bad to sit their and sell your time and frustration for a measly couple dollar upgrade, and gamble with your future purchases that you won't be screwed over again.
 
i agree with the lot. it aint the cards. that is too many with the exact same prob. i got an old 5500 that still works great and the 7800GTX in my friends rig is still running smooth after sitting in the back window of my car for a month and I was living in GA at the time in the middle of July. Plenty heat there but the card works fine. You got gremlins dude.
 
same thing happened to me
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At least someone here can sympathize with me...Now you guys are asking about the symptoms....This one just starting artifacting on the hardforum site. Like I was getting red dots on the black background....I'm even installing these things with a grounding strap...Now when I rma this next card....I'll take the new one and drop it by my old shop and let my old boss have it for a week or two, just to eliminate the whole "my system is killing it" possibilty....
 
At least someone here can sympathize with me...
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yeah, seems like everyone is either 1. ignoring the fact that this happened to me or 2. not reading my post

his story is not unlikely, based on my experiences.
 
dude i really dont think its your puter. when i had recieved the 9800pro i rma'd through ati i recieved it with the heatsink bately hangin on. i got horrible artifacts. even in the bios. then stuck in a 6600gt and it worked fine. refurb cards are total pos. truthfully if the core on a card is dead, the card cant be salvaged. you cannot solder on a new core. which is where most of these artifacts are coming from.
 
Now see at least I'm having I won't say "supporters" but at least I have someone who doesn't doubt it could be the rma process....And about the gremilins......I thought it was just bull, but I guess you could call it gremilins....Oh and to the person who asked about p-cola...My mom said it's a tit bit nipply this morning, but I haven't gone outside yet....I've got class in 30 min....So I'll give you a weather update when I get back, lol....
 
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