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

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if you read the thread, this is not a problem of the quality BFG has out of hte box when you buy a card. its the quality of their RMA cards.
 
lithium726 said:
if you read the thread, this is not a problem of the quality BFG has out of hte box when you buy a card. its the quality of their RMA cards.
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While I can certainly understand that, I don't believe for a second that they sent you 5 or 6 defective video cards. The odds are overwhelmingly against it. Personally, I think something in your system is killing your cards. This of course needs to be proven, but I think it's reasonable to work under that assumption. Test the cards in another computer for a week and see what happens to them.
 
from all the symptoms he describes, it sounds like the cards are being under powered..
 
Sorry to hear about your RMA issues, it really had me concerned because I just had to RMA one of my BFG 6800GT PCI-E cards as started artifacting - blocky text at POST, etc. fortuanately I had a second 6800GT PCI-E to troubleshoot with and a spare PC.

I'm happy to report my RMA experience was very good with BFG, they received my card on 11/10 and I received the replacement on 11/15.

The replacement card looked new and had a blue pcb vs. the green one I sent back, other differences are that the BIOS is different on this card as the 2D and 3D clocks are both set to 370, The fan speed also seems to be less. I also noticed that the green LED by the power connector is red on this card, at first I thought something was wrong but it benches 3Dmark05 the same as my last card and I played about 45 min of BF2 with no issues.

Since bought both of my BFG 6800GT's a the same time for SLI, now I have two different revision cards - supposedly not an issue for SLI with the latest drivers. I'm not too worried about it as I had already upgraded my SLI rig with (2) BFG 7800GTX 256 cards.

All in all I would rate my BFG RMA experience as excellent
 
Sir-Fragalot said:
While I can certainly understand that, I don't believe for a second that they sent you 5 or 6 defective video cards. The odds are overwhelmingly against it. Personally, I think something in your system is killing your cards. This of course needs to be proven, but I think it's reasonable to work under that assumption. Test the cards in another computer for a week and see what happens to them.
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then why is the current, fourth card working absolutly fine, with the exception of *MINOR* artifacting in ATItool?

btw, when i put these cards in, they exhibiting problems from the very begenning. nothing developed over time. a couple of the cards were noticably dirty too.
 
vmerc said:
.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.
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The problem is that you are assuming that he will recieve a brand new card. I work in large industry. If a customer sends a damaged unit in, it is replaced with a repaired RMA. We recieved used product, so we send used product. RMA deps in industry cost big money, and are usually understaffed, and overworked. I'm willing to bet he got someone elses returned/bad cards in return.
 
revenant said:
from all the symptoms he describes, it sounds like the cards are being under powered..
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He also mentions he's had the PSU in three different machines over a period of time. I don't know the wattage of said PSU, but even if you measure the five and twelve volt rails, and they show to be fine, you are still not covering all the leads, and all the voltages across the entire PSU.

An example of this: E-Machine PSU's in many Pentium 4 based machines will test fine, however there is a purple wire, which often reads out of spec by as much as +6v on a line that's normally supposed to be 3.3v or 5v. So I wouldn't rule out PSU's or motherboard as a cause for these sudden video card deaths. In those cases, PSU testers and those techs who only check the 4 pin molex, 5v and 12v pins to determine if a PSU is the problem or not, will miss this issue because they aren't checking everything. So even after they've replaced the defective motherboard (which actually dies due to the extra voltage given by the PSU), the problem continues to occur.

When trouble shooting any problem, you have to look at all possibilities. To say that it's not a PSU problem, because it's never been a problem before, or because your Geforce 5200 works fine, is not good tech work. Not when 5 or 6 cards have died because of it.
 
its an Antec Neopower 480. dual 12v rails, 15/17a. it has powered 6800GT SLI without a problem. it has powered my winchster/6800GT agp system no problem. it powered my Barton/6800GT agp rig no problem. it powered my x2 mancheter/6800GT Agp rig no problem. its powering my x2/6800GT pcie system fine. like i said, the card works fine, minus VERY minor artifacts in ATItool, which ONLY show up in far cry under the guise of flashing textures.

BTW: im not the OP :p
 
lithium726 said:
its an Antec Neopower 480. dual 12v rails, 15/17a. it has powered 6800GT SLI without a problem. it has powered my winchster/6800GT agp system no problem. it powered my Barton/6800GT agp rig no problem. it powered my x2 mancheter/6800GT Agp rig no problem. its powering my x2/6800GT system fine. like i said, the card works fine, minus VERY minor artifacts in ATItool, which ONLY show up in far cry under the guise of flashing textures.
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I am sorry, while I can understand your logic, I don't see that as conclusive. I appologize for how my posts may sound, my experience tells me there is something else at work here. Not to say BFG couldn't have screwed up. I just don't see it as likely.

Good luck with your issues. I hope they are resolved to your satisfaction soon.
 
i dont understand how it is not conclusive... card one has a fucked up temp sensor, card two has a bum DVI port and wont post all the time, card three just up and dies for no reason (which didnt happen on any of other ones) while also exhibiting the posting issue. card 4 works great, minus the very minor artifacts, which i dont mind much. it takes nothing away from gameplay.

im sorry, but that sounds like bad video cards. nothing else would cause said issues.
 
lithium726 said:
i dont understand how it is not conclusive... card one has a fucked up temp sensor, card two has a bum DVI port and wont post all the time, card three just up and dies for no reason (which didnt happen on any of other ones) while also exhibiting the posting issue. card 4 works great, minus the very minor artifacts, which i dont mind much. it takes nothing away from gameplay.

im sorry, but that sounds like bad video cards. nothing else would cause said issues.
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Well, I am sorry if I missed those symptoms in your previous posts. If that's the case and each card displayed different behavior, that makes alot more sense.
 
.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....
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Just out of curiosity, where did you work..Best Buy or CompUSA.
 
Sir-Fragalot said:
Well, I am sorry if I missed those symptoms in your previous posts. If that's the case and each card displayed different behavior, that makes alot more sense.
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its in detail in post 57 :)

its ok, it was a few pages back
 
Alias said:
The problem is that you are assuming that he will recieve a brand new card. I work in large industry. If a customer sends a damaged unit in, it is replaced with a repaired RMA. We recieved used product, so we send used product. RMA deps in industry cost big money, and are usually understaffed, and overworked. I'm willing to bet he got someone elses returned/bad cards in return.
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Q.F.T. All y'all that are saying it's impossible he got 5 cards that were bad, stfu. This man speaks the truth. The OP said they all exibited different symptoms, some being DOA, the lastest one dying after 2 hours of use or so, one smelling burnt before he even put it in his machine, etc.

I think that all RMA depts boil down to about the same service, so there's no reason to think this is a problem with BFG specifically, there are going to be a few isolated events like this every so often, the only thing you can do is roll with the punchs and then if you ahve to, speak with higher-ups.
 
Russ said:
Q.F.T. All y'all that are saying it's impossible he got 5 cards that were bad, stfu. This man speaks the truth. The OP said they all exibited different symptoms, some being DOA, the lastest one dying after 2 hours of use or so, one smelling burnt before he even put it in his machine, etc.
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im not the OP, i was just backin him up with what happened to me
 
a couple of the cards were noticably dirty too.
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Same as they were here...Now I straight up told tech support that asthetics aren't my top priority, the heatsinks going to be facing down, nobody will see it...All I want is a card that works...

He also mentions he's had the PSU in three different machines over a period of time.
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Does this pertain to me the op? Or lithium...Now I've only used 2 psu's (Thermaltake Silent Purepower 480 watt and the Turbo Cool 510 Deluxe)

Just out of curiosity, where did you work..Best Buy or CompUSA.
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Well as a computer tech I've worked for the US Navy on Saufley Field and Click-Fix Computers in Pensacola....And I was home theater in Best Buy....

im not the OP, i was just backin him up with what happened to me
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And I def appreciate someone else sharing their rma experience.....

I think that all RMA depts boil down to about the same service
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Even though I want to switch company's, and I know I'm going to sound like a jackass posting this....but.....QFT

All y'all that are saying it's impossible he got 5 cards that were bad, stfu.
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EDIT: Got approval....Here's how I feel about the whole situation... http://www.cheesies.net/videos/bobsaget.wmv BOB SAGET!!!
 
when I said "under powered" I meant either psu line or from the agp slot... the mobo does all the voltage regulation for the agp slot, so the psu could be fine and the card could still be getting under volted from the agp slot... even though agp cards draw more from the external power line, it still needs adequate power from the slot. :)
 
Rtstrider said:
So now I'm on the phone with tech support.....Now if it was my system the card would just be dead right? Like just shut off, and no artifacting correct? lol.....I mean even in the post on my system is artifacted...Oh and I just dropped of the card at my old pc shop....I told the owner to take it home and use it for 2-3 weeks, and let me know whether it's good or bad...I told him to throw everything he's got at it....So now we'll see if it's my system or what......Oh and as I was on the phone with tech support...It was like magic, because UPS dropped by with another card from BFG...So that's the card I took to the shop....Now my asus board is v 2.something....Don't know if that plays a factor in here or not....So we'll see in the following 2-3 weeks whether something in my system is the culprit or whether it's the card itself....

EDIT: My agp slot was set to 1.5 volts...What's the proper setting? this was the asus default....And yes I've been using an fx5200 in that agp slot, it's a known good agp slot....
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1.5v is the proper setting for AGP.
 
we can sit and bicker about the RMA quality but the problem still hasnt been solved. how about focus on the SOLUTION? you can debate the problem all day. it could be this. it could be that. or it could be gremlins like i said before.

how about this:

thoroughly test the mobo, card, and PSU in different scenarios for a few days. somewhere in there you will determine what the problem is.

try diff cards in your mobo, diff PSU with your modo.

try diff mobo for your card with diff psu.

somewhere, you will find the problem.
 
Well what is the proper agp voltage from the motherboard for AGP? I have it set at the defualt 1.5....It goes from 1.5-1.8.....Now I can't test it for 2-3 weeks from now....I'm letting my old boss have it for a couple weeks and see how it runs on his system....

EDIT: And did I forget to mention...............BOB SAGET!!!

EDIT #2: Well just read two or three posts back 1.5 is the proper agp setting....
 
1.5 is correct. thats what mine is on, even though i KNOW i have a bad mobo. but i hope it works out for you.
 
2 or 3 weeks man? WE NEED INSTANT GRATIFICATION!

But seriously, it's either gonna work or it ain't.
 
lol The thing is the ones that died, other than card #3, died after a couple hours of use....So I want my old boss to have it for a couple of weeks and stress test it, with Quake 4, FEAR, maybe even Flight Simulator 2004......Just gaming stuff...Anyone have any gpu burn in links or any higly graphical stuff I could set a loop on or tell him to for a through stress test...And is it possible to set a loop in Aqua Mark 05? (I believe that what it's called.....)
 
You can loop 3dmark05 rthdribl is good also
http://www.daionet.gr.jp/~masa/rthdribl/index.html

Rtstrider said:
lol The thing is the ones that died, other than card #3, died after a couple hours of use....So I want my old boss to have it for a couple of weeks and stress test it, with Quake 4, FEAR, maybe even Flight Simulator 2004......Just gaming stuff...Anyone have any gpu burn in links or any higly graphical stuff I could set a loop on or tell him to for a through stress test...And is it possible to set a loop in Aqua Mark 05? (I believe that what it's called.....)
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machwireless said:
I would scrap Asus all together. They have major compatibilty issues with the big guys in vid cards. I got rid of mine when they had compatibility issues with ATI.

I went through 5 A8V-Deluxes. Scrap AGP and Asus. There isnt much support for AGP anymore anyway.
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lol hardly. more likely you have major issues building computers. thanks for the laugh tho.
 
no. it was the mobo. i got confirm on that from Asus. problems with the A8V Deluxe. Tried em in different rigs and everything. My friend's K8N came DOA. He scrapped Asus after three of those.

and you can frankly go to hell too.
 
machwireless said:
no. it was the mobo. i got confirm on that from Asus. problems with the A8V Deluxe. Tried em in different rigs and everything. My friend's K8N came DOA. He scrapped Asus after three of those.

and you can frankly go to hell too.
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problems with the A8V Deluxe != ASUS/AGP problems. my 6800GT ran great in my A7N8X Deluxe, and Nvidia/Intel chipsets are much, much better than any Via POS ever was. i would blame the chipset on that board before blaming asus.
 
lithium726 said:
problems with the A8V Deluxe != ASUS/AGP problems. my 6800GT ran great in my A7N8X Deluxe, and Nvidia/Intel chipsets are much, much better than any Via POS ever was. i would blame the chipset on that board before blaming asus.
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I'm gonna have to agree. In Nvidia's readme it even shows How they have to make a workaround for via chipsets AGP support to even run stable on those chipsets. I've had 2 motherboards with Via chipsets KT133A and KT 400 and both caused me nothing but problems. Did Intel after Kt 133A and was happier did Nforce 2 after KT 400 and was happier after as well.
 
Lord_Exodia said:
I'm gonna have to agree. In Nvidia's readme it even shows How they have to make a workaround for via chipsets AGP support to even run stable on those chipsets. I've had 2 motherboards with Via chipsets KT133A and KT 400 and both caused me nothing but problems. Did Intel after Kt 133A and was happier did Nforce 2 after KT 400 and was happier after as well.
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I had an ATI 9800 pro. Not an nvidia. now explain that.
 
machwireless said:
I had an ATI 9800 pro. Not an nvidia. now explain that.
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Ok we're getting more than a little bit off topic here. Can we just wait for the results or what?
That's not directed at you specifically mach.
 
vmerc said:
Ok we're getting more than a little bit off topic here. Can we just wait for the results or what?
That's not directed at you specifically mach.
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I only made that statement to say that Asus was the problem with my issue. Confirmed by Asus. So I spent 2gees on a rig that is basically still a paper weight until I decide to give up AGP.
 
machwireless said:
I had an ATI 9800 pro. Not an nvidia. now explain that.
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my 6800GT cuases errors with my Apollo Pro266T board. my GF4 Quadro doesnt.

the chipsets just have shitty compatability issues. always have, and unfortunatly, they probably always will.

The 6 series draws more power than the 9800p. this could have caused the issue. latency on the AGP port could also have done it, but voltage signaling is what made my 6800GT unusable on that system.
 
i dont know. but my emachines mobo hasnt let me down in 4 years and all my cards have worked in it. dont care what yall say about emachines. they are the best cheap computer you can buy.
 
My Asus A8V Deluxe worked beatifully for the past year with a BFG 6800GT. I just swapped it out (still working) for the eVGA combo.

I have had numerous Asus motherboards with Via chipsets and none ever gave me problems.
 
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