I might have broken my 1080 ti and I need help getting an out of warranty repair.

[hhamama66]

I was cleaning my 1080 ti to with a paper towel and put my block back on when I noticed something loose on the PCB. I tapped it with a plastic spudger and it broke off. I don't know what this thing is, it's a tiny silver rectangle and I have no idea if it's important, but I'm too scared to plug my card in. It's a 1080 ti FE, which I bought used and was working perfectly fine beforehand. I have no receipt, it probably has no warranty and there's probably no way to contact the seller. I'll attach a picture of the card so maybe someone more knowledgable can assess. So far I've tried contacting EVGA and they said they don't do out of warranty repairs and I can't get a hold of anyone from nVidia right now. What can I possibly do?

[Fasauceome]

2 minutes ago, hhamama66 said:

So far I've tried contacting EVGA and they said they don't do out of warranty repairs

Did you give them your serial number and confirm that the warranty was expired?

 

Also, don't tell anyone that you broke it, or that you disassembled the card. They'll try to peg you with the warranty sticker but that's illegal in the US. 

[Gamerman3245]

Don’t quote me on this but that looks like a resistor.

[hhamama66]

5 minutes ago, fasauceome said:

Did you give them your serial number and confirm that the warranty was expired?

 

Also, don't tell anyone that you broke it, or that you disassembled the card. They'll try to peg you with the warranty sticker but that's illegal in the US

I did not. I assumed that because it's a two year old nVidia FE card (as in, it came in an nVidia branded box) that it has no warranty. I also decided to tell them the truth because I figured customer support reps are more willing to help you if you just tell them the truth.

[hhamama66]

6 minutes ago, Gamerman3245 said:

Don’t quote me on this but that looks like a resistor.

Could be, but I don't know my PCB components like at all, aside from the obvious ones like th capacitors, memory chips and GPU

[Fasauceome]

2 minutes ago, hhamama66 said:

I did not. I assumed that because it's a two year old nVidia FE card (as in, it came in an nVidia branded box) that it has no warranty. I also decided to tell them the truth because I figured customer support reps are more willing to help you if you just tell them the truth.

as an nVidia reference card, nvidia support ought to be the ones to help. 

[Evolution.]

3 minutes ago, hhamama66 said:

I also decided to tell them the truth because I figured customer support reps are more willing to help you if you just tell them the truth

you messed up there buddy honesty goes a long way but not in all cases.

[Gamerman3245]

2 minutes ago, hhamama66 said:

Could be, but I don't know my PCB components like at all, aside from the obvious ones like th capacitors, memory chips and GPU

This is why you never forget anything in electronics class. But to be for sure that looks very similar to a resistor. It’s a possibility that you have a dead card now. Who knows unless you pull-up the GPU map of all the components.

[hhamama66]

10 minutes ago, fasauceome said:

as an nVidia reference card, nvidia support ought to be the ones to help. 

I'll try to contact them tomorrow morning as it doesn't seem like anybody is available in chat at this hour.

[hhamama66]

16 minutes ago, Gamerman3245 said:

This is why you never forget anything in electronics class. But to be for sure that looks very similar to a resistor. It’s a possibility that you have a dead card now. Who knows unless you pull-up the GPU map of all the components.

I sure as heck couldn't tell you and I'm not brave enough to plug it in and find out. At this point, I'm positive the card can be salvaged so I'm not stupid enough to risk any more damage than I've already done.

[hhamama66]

18 minutes ago, givinghell said:

you messed up there buddy honesty goes a long way but not in all cases.

So, call back from a different number, try to give EVGA the serial number and pray they accept it or some guy over there is having a good day and will take pitty on me?

[WereCatf]

43 minutes ago, Gamerman3245 said:

Don’t quote me on this but that looks like a resistor.

Nope, those are ceramic capacitors. The card would most likely work without them, just might be unstable. Wouldn't be a difficult thing to replace them, either, as long as OP didn't rip the pads out.

[WereCatf]

22 minutes ago, hhamama66 said:

I sure as heck couldn't tell you and I'm not brave enough to plug it in and find out. At this point, I'm positive the card can be salvaged so I'm not stupid enough to risk any more damage than I've already done.

Find some local nerd at e.g. a hackerspace, pay them $20 to solder two ceramic caps there and you're good to go.

[hhamama66]

34 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

Find some local nerd at e.g. a hackerspace, pay them $20 to solder two ceramic caps there and you're good to go.

I found a couple local electronics shop that are hopefully open tomorrow so I'll just keep asking around and making phone calls until I find someone willing to fix this card.

[hhamama66]

Update: a local guy who works in a tiny backroom resoldered them for $60. He said one of the pads broke off but there was just enough left for him to fill and solder the resistor back on. He did also say that he thinks that those two resistors aren't absolutely necessary and that they're only there to make power delivery a little smoother. Anyway, it's alive.