GPU RMA Question

[Wats]

So I have a Sapphire video card, it has the black screen of death issue. I thought I fixed it, turns out I didn't.

Here's my question: If I have sort of, might of, maybe I did change the thermal paste at one time to MX-4, do you think they will refuse my RMA if and or when they find out?

I've never dealt with Sapphire RMA so I'm a bit nervous about sending all the way to w/e it's suppose to go just to have it show back up in 6 months, exactly the same.

[mvitkun]

I would contact tech support, via support ticket,ask them if you would be voiding your warranty if you were to change the thermal paste,without saying that you did.

and if they say that your warranty would be voided then try sending it back anyway,they might not find out...

[TechFan@ic]

I think they'd reject the RMA because of that.

[Wats]

I would contact tech support' date=' via support ticket,ask them if you would be voiding your warranty if you were to change the thermal paste,without saying that you did. and if they say that your warranty would be voided then try sending it back anyway,they might not find out... [/quote']

Hmm.. If the shipping isn't too bad I think I'll risk it.

I think they'd reject the RMA because of that.

Product Warranty will not be valid even if returned after purchased for the following cases:

-Products that are defaced or physically damaged and modified by customer.

S#@%, you're right.

[mvitkun]

I would contact tech support' date=' via support ticket,ask them if you would be voiding your warranty if you were to change the thermal paste,without saying that you did. and if they say that your warranty would be voided then try sending it back anyway,they might not find out... [/quote']

Hmm.. If the shipping isn't too bad I think I'll risk it.

I think they'd reject the RMA because of that.

Product Warranty will not be valid even if returned after purchased for the following cases:

-Products that are defaced or physically damaged and modified by customer.

S#@%, you're right.

it's not defaced,unless you broke some of the plastic from the shroud or ripped off a sticker.

and it's not physically damaged or modified .....by you.the product of it's own accord stopped working...right?

the thermal paste isn't a modification...it's maintenance.

thermal paste dries up and becomes less effective,replacing it may be required to keep the product working optimally,and if the heatsink is ever removed,to re-seat and create better contact with the gpu in order to better dissipate the heat, it's always advised to replace the thermal compound.therefore it's not damaged or modified,replacing the thermal paste and re-seating the heatsink is a common troubleshooting technique to improve temperatures.

besides unless theres a very distinct color difference between the sapphire thermal paste and the mx-4 I doubt that they'd be able to know from a glance.

[Wats]

"besides unless theres a very distinct color difference between the sapphire thermal paste and the mx-4 I doubt that they'd be able to know from a glance."

Sapphire had this green square of paste on there. It looked like a pad you'd find on a piece of memory but it wiped off like normal paste.

Anyway, thanks for that input, mvitkun!

[eshbop]

Just RMA, doubt they'll pull it apart to check if you've swapped out the paste. They're not going to open up every card they get in for RMA, just no practical.

[Wats]

My fear is I'll get the same card back, wasted a few weeks and they'll say "Well, we couldn't find anything wrong with it" :L

I need to find that person that has dealt with Sapphire RMA and knows how they do things a little bit..

[mvitkun]

if it actually has issues that can be easily reproduced then that won't happen (most likely).

just make sure to test it with another monitor,and try to test it in a different system if possible to make sure that there is a problem.

[TechFan@ic]

AMD gave h them hell for the black screen of death issue, so by now I would imagine they are very well aware of it , just make sure you mention it .

[Wats]

I get the black screen only when I do certain things. Like have a game in windowed mode and a youtube video playing while the game is behind the video.

Or an easier way is to run Heaven and watch a Youtube video. Happens within 10 minutes, sometimes within seconds.

There's other ways it happens but I won't get into every scenario. I will try it in another PC before I ship it out though. The last time I had it in another system was so I could yet my brother experience crossfire. He never got the black screen, but my card was the slave card. Hm...

[TechFan@ic]

I get the black screen only when I do certain things. Like have a game in windowed mode and a youtube video playing while the game is behind the video. Or an easier way is to run Heaven and watch a Youtube video. Happens within 10 minutes' date=' sometimes within seconds. There's other ways it happens but I won't get into every scenario. I will try it in another PC before I ship it out though. The last time I had it in another system was so I could yet my brother experience crossfire. He never got the black screen, but my card was the slave card. Hm... [/quote']

What specific model have you got? from what I've been reading it's most commonly associated with the sapphire 7870 .

[Wats]

I've done so much reading about :P

I have SKU# 11199-03 (yeah I memorized it) Sapphire 7870 OC Edition. So far, from what I know, every SKU# below -04 has the Black Screen issue.

[Wats]

So this is no longer a thread about the question of Sapphire RMA.

Here's what's happened so far...

I lent my Sapphire card to my brother, told him to use is like he would use his Gigabyte card.

He has already had the Black Screen of Death.

He also lent his Gigabyte card to me, so I could use it like I would normally use my Sapphire.

I have not had the issue, once.

So that pretty much proves the Sapphire card is the issue.

Just a follow up. This thread can die now. :]