Older ATi card RMA

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foofighter06

Gawd
Joined
Dec 17, 2003
Messages
851
Hello all. I'm gonna log my experience with ATi's RMA department. I thought it would be interesting to see what goes on, since I sent in a card that has a 3 year warranty, a 9800XT, that is a limited production card. As many of you know ATi recently changed their warranty coverage; from 3 years to 1. The reasoning behind this move was so that ATi didn't have to sit on unused inventory for 3 years on tons of different cards. Hopefully they will be able to repair my 9800XT(it’s a thermal issue), but if not I'd like to see if they can reproduce another 9800XT that they have kept in inventory(costing them money).

Here is the RMA letter I attached to the card that I sent UPS today.
"Dear ATi
I own two 9800XT’s. For the past couple of months one has had severe display corruption. The artifacting begins after playing game for about 10 minutes. It starts as a couple of red or white dots on the screen. However, the number of dots increases over time. I have two identical systems setup with the 9800XT’s in them, both with adequate cooling and power. Only the one 9800XT has the problem. I’ve tried the cards in both systems, and narrowed it down to the one 9800XT. I’ve seen the dots in a couple of games, but more specifically in Doom 3 and FarCry among others.
Thanks for your time"

Thread I started relating to my current issue a couple months back:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=790153&page=1&pp=20&highlight=ati

I'm positive that my issue relates to a core that is clocked beyond what it should be, as the problem is worse when I use the factory ATi overclocking checkbox. This problem has been talked about around the web, and it was experienced in a Hardocp review a couple months back(on a x700XT that never made it to retail):eek: . Maybe my core was binned higher than it should have been?

Hopefully the new x1800XT isn't so sensitive in games as a result of ATi trying to push the cores further than they should be, cause I would love to own one. :)
 
foofighter06 said:
Status: Delivered
Delivered on: Oct 12, 2005 10:34 A.M.
Signed by: *****
Location: RECEIVER
Delivered to: US
Shipped or Billed on: Oct 10, 2005

But no sign of delivery on this page:
http://buy.ati.com/productinfo/rmainquiry.html
Click to expand...
Even if a package has been delivered, it may not get logged in their RMA system right away, perhaps as much as 24 hours later. Hitachi says specifically that in their HDD RMA warranty/FAQ - evidently, the shipping service showing delivery but the warranty provider not having any record of it is fairly common. Keep in mind that the box needs to be opened, they need to verify that it wasn't damaged during in shipping, and they also need to verify that you still qualify for the warranty before they proceed.
 
Well, no news yet.

However, I looked at the UPS receipt they gave me when I shipped it, and it seems they put the wrong RMA number on the outside of the box. :rolleyes: :(

I wish I would have caught it when I shipped it, but I didnt notice till today.

Hopefully, this will just slow the RMA process, and not cause any bigger problems. I placed a letter inside the box with the correct RMA number, just like ATi told me, so maybe they will see that. :confused:
 
Card arrived yesterday, it's a 9800XT. Which means they did lose a bunch of money in inventory costs. Instead of giving us a replacement card that is of a newer generation with similar performance, they paid to keep a 9800XT in inventory for 2 years. :rolleyes:

Oh well.

Now I gotta get home and make sure the replacement card checks out ok in a couple stress tests. ;)

Gotta love 3 year warranties though. Get them from ATi while they last. :(

Overall the ATi RMA process was quick and painless though. Couldn't ask for any better service. Thanks ATi. :)
 
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