bfg gtx280 loads @107c need advice?

[adya]

hey,
as everyone knows alot of bfg gtx280 oc versions are overheating to 107c.
this is fact according to bfg .
im on my 3rd rma card from bfg and they just informed me that they will no longer accept my rma even though its reaching temps of 107c in wic and is missing dvi screws. 3rd rma card and all of them were overheating ! anyway ill never buy bfg again.
i did contact the accc in australia and the federal trade commision in the usa.
both told me that these warranties are based on good will and they are not legally obligated in anyway to honour them.
so im stuck with this card.
my question is , will fitting a w.b fix this issue? or will i be wasting more cash on something that cant be fixed?
has anyway fixed this issue by fitting a w.b?
or is there another way of fixing this? any ideas?
thanks ,adya.

[SoulsCollective]

Bollocks.

Take the card back to the shop you bought it from and demand a full refund. They're legally obligated to accept the goods back within a reasonable period if they're not performing to a level that one would reasonably expect, considering the nature of the product and the price paid. Then spend your money on a 4870 1GB, problem solved.

If you really want to stick with this particular card, I'd suggest looking around for a fan speed hack to run the fan at a higher speed and thus lower card temp. An aftermarket cooler will certainly help here, if it's not already irreparably damaged.

If you want to keep your warranty, I quote the BFG Warranty policy:

BFG Technologies warrants to the original purchaser of the graphics card included in this package ("Product") that the Product will be free from defects in material or workmanship for as long as the original purchaser (residing in the United States or Canada) owns the product, when given normal wear and proper usage. For original purchasers residing in areas outside the USA or Canada, the limited warranty for graphic cards shall be for a period of ten (10) years from the date of purchase.

In connection with such Limited Lifetime or Ten Year Warranty, all BFG graphics cards introduced on or after February 21, 2008 must be registered on www.bfgtech.com within thirty (30) calendar days of the original purchase date to activate the limited lifetime warranty or limited ten (10) year warranty. Products not properly registered will be covered from the date of purchase by a two (2) year limited warranty in Europe and a one (1) year limited warranty in the US and other countries. Proper registration includes submitting proof of purchase to BFG.

If you've registered your card, you have a 10 year warranty. No mention made of limitations of replacement or any other restrictions on how many times you can RMA. Point this out to BFG, and if the support drone you're talking to doesn't accept it then escalate. Ask to speak to a manager, then ask to speak to their manager. CC any contact with you to their customer service department, not just the RMA department. Link people to this thread, and to other threads on other forums.

Basically, don't buy this crap from them. If you keep at it, you'll eventually get in touch with someone with a brain in their head.

[adya]

yeh i tried this already. becuase the card is under manufacturers warranty with bfg . the retailer wants me to rma it with bfg,they dont want to know about it.
i told this to the accc when i phoned them. they agreed saying its under warranty so rma it . problem is theres no way of making bfg rma it if they dont want to. its a dodgy circle where everyone blames everyone else and im stuck with my 3rd rma card.
anyway, im looking at watercooling it, just want to see if anyone else has done this with a card that overheats. once im sure ill go ahead and buy one of those danger den blocks.

[SoulsCollective]

yeh i tried this already. becuase the card is under manufacturers warranty with bfg . the retailer wants me to rma it with bfg,they dont want to know about it.
i told this to the accc when i phoned them. they agreed saying its under warranty so rma it . problem is theres no way of making bfg rma it if they dont want to. its a dodgy circle where everyone blames everyone else and im stuck with my 3rd rma card.

That's the thing, though - a retailer has to honour returns themselves, even if the manufacturer won't accept it back. It's a risk they have to take, although they can (and as you can see, do) try and palm people off to the manufacturer.

Basically, you're rolling over and taking it. You bought a card with a lifetime warranty. The card has broken. You want it replaced. Keep at them. I've dealt with these kinds of situations before, you basically have to tell them that this is what is going to happen - I'm going to send this card in to you and you're going to replace it. If you're losing money because your cooling is too poor and you're having to replace cards too often, too bad. Publicity is your friend here. Point out lifetime warranty, and how they're not honouring it. Escalate to managers and customer service departments. Be polite, but be persistent and make it clear that you're not going to be fobbed off. Make it clear that you bought the card because of their warranty policy and reputation for customer service, and you're surprised and upset that you're basically being told to take a hike.

Also, whoever you spoke to at the ACC is wrong. You can legally compel them to honour their warranty policy, because when you bought their card you entered into a contract with their agent (the retailer), of which this is one of the terms.

anyway, im looking at watercooling it, just want to see if anyone else has done this with a card that overheats. once im sure ill go ahead and buy one of those danger den blocks.

Look, by all means, if you want to WC the card go ahead, and this will certainly solve your cooling problems. But the point here is that you shouldn't and don't have to - you're not left with no other option, if you don't want to be.

[adya]

yeh i know what ur saying. i did go threw all that already. this has been ongoing for many months now , like i said its the 3rd replacement card and the 4rth bfg card.
bfg are not easy to get in contact with if they dont want u to be . trust me they havent replied to my emails now for a long time . and they told me my rma is over and they will not rma my card again.
accc put me in contact with the federal trade commision in the usa since its an international company and out of the accc"s duristiction . ftc contacted me today and told me they cannot intervene becuase bfg are not legally obliged to honour there warranty and warranties are offered in good will not law. whatever that means lol
i could persue it further and try and get the retailer to replace it but hell prolly just rma it and ill end up with another dodgy bfg card lol
anyway i emailed danger den to get there opinion on wether it would fix the issue. if so ill just w.c it.
i totally aggree with u though. and a few months back i thought exactly like u do. but now i realize the law is on the big gys side not the consumer. they just pretend to be on our side so we keep on buying.

[YukonTrooper]

Have you considered where the overheating problems are coming from?

[adya]

Have you considered where the overheating problems are coming from?

ive read its related to the heatsink type there using. but not sure.
all i know is a large % of bfg gtx280 oc versions overheat like this.

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/show...=114925&page=2

http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=475440
thats just a couple of links , ive read through atleast 20 threads regarding this issue. im suprised its being so widely ignored.

[YukonTrooper]

Oh, I see. I thought it was possibly poor airflow, bad external temps, low fan speed etc., but I also thought it likely that you had all those bases covered.

Sounds like you got shafted, mate. BFG will likely tell you, "We test cards that go up to 105 degrees on a regular bases. We also test all RMA cards, and if your card does not have a temperature problem, we will not replace it."

So it's the heatsink design, and not a poor mounting job?

[Mati87]

I've read that the GTX 280's had a problem with the IHS not making good contact with the core. My PNY GTX 280 also heats up and I had another one before and it ran perfectly. The only solution I can think of is to lap the IHS, I think trying to remove it would be too dangerous. But then you'd have to find a thin copper plate to compensate for the lapped IHS, and lapping it all the way to the core is easily going to take you 12hs+ since you have to be careful not to knock anything out.

It sucks but those are your choices, I'd insist on another RMA or atleast trade it for a GTX 260 which don't seem to have this problem, or at least it isn't that common.

[adya]

I've read that the GTX 280's had a problem with the IHS not making good contact with the core. My PNY GTX 280 also heats up and I had another one before and it ran perfectly. The only solution I can think of is to lap the IHS, I think trying to remove it would be too dangerous. But then you'd have to find a thin copper plate to compensate for the lapped IHS, and lapping it all the way to the core is easily going to take you 12hs+ since you have to be careful not to knock anything out.

It sucks but those are your choices, I'd insist on another RMA or atleast trade it for a GTX 260 which don't seem to have this problem, or at least it isn't that common.

mate , i dont know how to lap the ihs or anything else thats out of my league and i wouldnt know where to start.
but would fitting a w.b be enough to control the temp? seems like u know afair bit about this so it would be good to hear ur opinion.

the temp doesnt slowly rise to 107c either. its like there in 5 seconds ! lol its crazy. does it on wic but abit slower but still reaches 107c in wic. on bf2 it doesnt heat up that much around 90c
my case has around 7 high quality fans ,both pulling and pushing. sflexs and noctuas etc its does a great job of extracting heat and the case temp has never exceeded room temp by much at all.
im still not sure wether i should watercool it or not. id be so pissed off if it made no difference ,thats what im scared off.

[dinos22]

so what reasons are you RMAing your cards on
that they are unstable as they overheat? or they just run hot??

what happens if you increase the fan speed
does it still run hot

i don't know what some of these manufacturers are thinking.......ati 4870X2 was idling at like 80C+ which i thought was ridiculous as well but the fan is set to run at lowest possible speed to reduce noise i guess

trying bumping the fan a bit man and see if that fixes it

[YukonTrooper]

Make sure your heatsink is tightened properly, and turn up the fan like the man says.

[adya]

so what reasons are you RMAing your cards on
that they are unstable as they overheat? or they just run hot??

what happens if you increase the fan speed
does it still run hot

i don't know what some of these manufacturers are thinking.......ati 4870X2 was idling at like 80C+ which i thought was ridiculous as well but the fan is set to run at lowest possible speed to reduce noise i guess

trying bumping the fan a bit man and see if that fixes it

idle without fan on 49%


load with fan 100%


dinos, with all 3 replacement cards ive had the fan @100% at stock.
after the second rma they told me 105c is fine. so i ran it at that temp for a while , not long either. result was my system shut down.
i know some people are saying 107c is fine , i disagree, ive teste wic @80c its fine then as soon as it hits around 105c it artifacts and kind of stutters and freezes up for a second or so at a time.
so should i w.c it? i dont mind paying for a w.b as i just want this over and done with its being months and i still cant play my fav games.

[dinos22]

it shouldn't be that hot

i think nvidia told me there is an automatic throttle when cards reach a critical temp which should be around 110 or 120C mark

i think your contact must be poor on the core

have you tried to take off the HS to see wtf is going on under there man

[dinos22]

i was getting around 50C load in my benchmarks recently which should be the temp with 100% fans but my ambients were around 15C during this bench

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=201837

even so if you have say 30C ambients you should not be seeing more than 65C load on the card with 100% fan

Hmm, those card easily die at 110-120c.
I would AS5 the card, that should help a bit.

no they don't die
they throttle though

[ownage]

Hmm, those card easily die at 110-120c.
I would AS5 the card, that should help a bit.

[adya]

it shouldn't be that hot

i think nvidia told me there is an automatic throttle when cards reach a critical temp which should be around 110 or 120C mark

i think your contact must be poor on the core

have you tried to take off the HS to see wtf is going on under there man

ive never pulled a gpu apart before, and with the other cards i didnt want to void the warranty. i know the warranty means now,but still i dont want to make it worse since i know very little about gpu heatsinks etc.
i mean if the bfg techs cant get it right how will be able to ? lol

[adya]

Hmm, those card easily die at 110-120c.
I would AS5 the card, that should help a bit.

As5? whats that mate?

[dinos22]

yeah i see what you mean

well the product is unacceptable
you should have a case with Dept of Fair Trading no matter how much i dislike them myself as i'm in retail business

make your case and the retailer will most likely have to take it back and give you a full refund

make sure you are well informed when you sit in front of the judge and explain it to the judge in easy to understand terms

there is no way they can get away with it if you;ve had this problem with these cards from day one

if this retailer has any gray matter i would approach them first and explain what my plans are with DeptofFairTrading. Most stores would have had experience and they will avoid hassle and give you an alternative product. That's what i would do to avoid those grrrrrrrrrr people as we've had a few cases against us which were really unfair to the retailer but what can you do...just cop it on the chin and that's it

Dino

[adya]

yeah i see what you mean

well the product is unacceptable
you should have a case with Dept of Fair Trading no matter how much i dislike them myself as i'm in retail business

make your case and the retailer will most likely have to take it back and give you a full refund

make sure you are well informed when you sit in front of the judge and explain it to the judge in easy to understand terms

there is no way they can get away with it if you;ve had this problem with these cards from day one

Dino

wow its amazing how much faith everyone has in the dept. of fair trade and accc.
i did as well until recently. dinos believe me ,dft and accc are totally useless ive spent alot of time on the phone to them and emails etc
they cant do anything.

this gy on ocau has the exact card as me bfg 280gtx oc.
he ran furmark on same setting as me with fan 100%
this is his load temp.

[adya]

oh yeh forgot to ask lol dinos what do u think? should i w.c it? would one of those tieton dd blocks fix it?

[YukonTrooper]

ive never pulled a gpu apart before, and with the other cards i didnt want to void the warranty. i know the warranty means now,but still i dont want to make it worse since i know very little about gpu heatsinks etc.
i mean if the bfg techs cant get it right how will be able to ? lol

It's actually very straightforward. Look at some photos and start taking it apart. It's easier than Lego. I'm serious about that.

I imagine their "techs" simply put it on a testbed, fired it up, saw 105 degrees, and said it was A.O.K.

[dinos22]

i had trouble pulling apart my GTX 280 cards before.....aparently you have to have some really small flat screw driver to push one part of the heatsink to separate properly.....so this card is not the most straightfoward card to disassemble hehehe

[dinos22]

wow its amazing how much faith everyone has in the dept. of fair trade and accc.
i did as well until recently. dinos believe me ,dft and accc are totally useless ive spent alot of time on the phone to them and emails etc
they cant do anything.

this gy on ocau has the exact card as me bfg 280gtx oc.
he ran furmark on same setting as me with fan 100%
this is his load temp.

ok so basically what you have to do now is pull it apart like suggested

have a look on the forum here and see what is required to pull it apart properly and then just make sure the core is making contact as well as other parts of the card

reseat it and try again

otherwise W.C will fix it 100% unless it's some weirdo problem with the cards themselves

[Mati87]

I've read about a user using a w.b. and he had the same problem, that's where I read that the IHS is the problem. I have the card folding and I can play wic, but I've read that to some people it just dies after 7 days, mine are up on friday, when my GTX 260 replacement comes jeje.