Halp my graphics card is b0rked - MSI/OcUK RMA Experience

[Mojo]

So I finally bought Fallout 4 whilst it was on offer. Played it all night Friday, most of yesterday and went to play it again today... and my monitor says 'No Signal Detected'.

I jiggled with the cables for both monitor and PC. No luck.

So I opened her up, less blue LED light than usual on the graphics card. Tried reseating it, jiggled the PCI-E power connectors (2x 6 pin), no difference. The graphics card fans power up, and eventually after it POSTs (I assume, because I can't see anything) it seems some of the graphics cards blue LEDs are getting power but not all. Usually I can tell it's working fine by the blinding blue light.

So I'm on integrated graphics now.

I'm gonna try a couple of things. Different output (maybe its a RAMDAC?) if I can find a HDMI or DP cable, different VGA power cables, then I'll try taking the heatsink off, cleaning and reapplying thermal paste. Can anyone think of anything else to try? It could possibly also be the motherboards PCI-E slot but my gut tells me it isn't because it's newer than the graphics card by a couple of years and my PCI-E wifi card is working fine. I assume I can test that by putting the graphics card in a lower slot even though it isn't 16x?

It's a MSI GeForce GTX 670 OC PE 2GB, and I've had it for... almost 4 years so it's well past it's warranty. If it is truly dead it's a shame because it still plays all my games pretty well.



If I do have to replace it, it seems I'm a month early for the GTX 1070 and I don't think I can survive that long, but considering the rumoured prices it would seem silly to pay £200+ for a GTX 970? Or to stay at the same level, I guess the GTX 960 won't be replaced for a while yet? I'm wary of going to AMD because one of the games I play - FSX - works better on Nvidia. For reference, I play at 1080p and that's unlikely to change soon so perhaps I should just stick to my usual budget of <£200.

[Jez]

Slam a new one in there you can get last gen cards like the 970 for cheap and they will play anything on the market excellently. The new gen is lovely but it's just out and you can bet by the time you want to upgrade again the new gen will have matured nicely and be at a sensible price.

Treat yer self.

[Mojo]

Slam a new one in there you can get last gen cards like the 970 for cheap and they will play anything on the market excellently. The new gen is lovely but it's just out and you can bet by the time you want to upgrade again the new gen will have matured nicely and be at a sensible price.

Treat yer self.

Err... but my point was that the new GTX 1070 is going to be the same or only slightly more expensive than the GTX 970 still is now so that wouldn't make sense? £230/£260.

[Raid]

Just out of curiosity, have you tried gaming on the integrated graphics? Last time I tried one I was pleasantly surprised at what it could do. Granted, flight sims aren't generally known for their low system demands, but FSX is 10 years old now. It might run well enough to tide you over until those new chipsets arrive.

[Mojo]

I haven't, no. I'll give it a go and see how well it does now.

Just tried the spare 2x6 pin power cable, switching output HDMI, and running it in the 8x slot. No joy.

Dug through my emails however and it isn't as old I thought. Only got in August 2013 so it may still be under warranty. I'll email the place I bought it and see.

EDIT: Nah, there's no way I can survive on the Intel HD 4600. It's so choppy even on low settings. I've fired off an email to Overclockers. Will see what they say. Otherwise it's time for a new card. I don't think I'd want to spend £260 on the GTX 1070 anyway considering how little gaming I actually do, but then there's the possibility of getting a much better card when it is released as they drop the pricing on the previous generation. Ugh.

Just placed an order for this in case Overclockers say no: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00 ... UTF8&psc=1

£137 seems too good to be true. Who knows if they'll honour it when it comes back in stock.

[Jez]

Ah ok. Made an assumption that the new gen stuff was going to be selling for a lot more than than the 970.

[DjchunKfunK]

A bit late, but my advice would be to wait as even if the 1070 is too much for you it will cause the 970 to drop in price. It's only a few weeks.

[Mojo]

Yeah. Well that R9 380 I ordered isn't in stock yet anyway. Anyway turns out Overclockers are going to send my card to MSI as it's still under warranty so I'd only be using the R9 380 for a couple weeks (I can return DSR for 14 days now, thank goodness). Does anyone have any experience of that? They aren't likely to repair/replace such an old card now are they? Will I get a refund or an equivalent replacement?

If the 970 drops to £200 or below, I'd obviously want to get that.

[Mojo]

Argh. It's like getting blood from a stone.

Spent yesterday sending webnotes trying to get an RMA number but because my email address has changed from the original order this caused a problem. Posted on the forum CS section, and they've said they'd provide a prepaid label but no email or reply since.

[Mojo]

Progress: Been sent on to MSI for further testing.

[Mojo]

Progress: Just had an email saying this has been sent out as a replacement.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/b-grade- ... 50-kf.html



Worried it might not fit in my case. Should I be worried that it's B-grade?

[Tichinde]

Probably not, it's either been sent to someone who returned it, or been repaired so you should be pretty golden.

Nice card too....

[Mojo]

Yeah, a nice little upgrade. Was expecting a boggo GTX 960 or something direct from MSI.

[Mojo]

Annnnnd they've sent it to the address on the original order.

Thankfully my mum still lives there and I was due to go and visit sometime next week anyway, but what if she didn't and and the person living there now knew an Overclockers parcel was likely to contain something expensive? Ridiculous.