6970 failing and MSI wants to...

[newtekie1]

The guy was unwilling to work with me without a receipt so I am stuck with the 205$ which is better than nothing but one things came out of this; I will never do business with MSI again. They lost a customer today.

When I bought this card I registered it with MSI. I eventually tossed the receipt. So my fault there but whatever. I'll take the $205 and put it towards another card.

Receipt or not they have to prove to you that $205 is market value, they have to find you a HD6970 comparable to the one you sent back to MSI that you can purchase for $205, or a similar performing card for $205. Otherwise, they go for $350 new or ~$275 used, so they have to give you $275 at least.

 

[Widjaja]

Was this an MSI R6970 Lightning?

 

[Frick]

I actually side with MSI here. Cough up invoices or reciepts for a full refund.

 

[Aquinus]

I actually side with MSI here. Cough up invoices or reciepts for a full refund.

I agree. I've bought a lot of products from MSI and in the rare circumstance that something does stop working, MSI has been amazing with helping me out. I flashed the wrong BIOS to my motherboard a while back (x975 Platinum vs x975 Platinum Power-Up,) and they even sent me a new BIOS chip to try out first and when that didn't work, they sent me a new board within days of receiving it. For any hardware you buy hold on to ALL receipts, invoices, and if it's something small the box. MSI has had one of the best support I've used.

Frick is right, if you want a full refund, you can get the paperwork to prove you bought it retail, sorry.

 

[WhiteNoise]

Well I thought about not telling you guys the outcome but in the end I have to sit back and laugh.

Yes MSI offered me a refund of $205. Yes I accepted the refund. And as it turns out my card was not to blame.

Recently I started having the problem again. Now with my single 6970. I was like FUCK me. So I was racking my mind trying to think of what might be wrong as at this point I didn't believe both cards suffered the same failure. Thats when I realized I started having this issue shortly after I bought my new monitor. A 40" Samsung LED LCD. So the next time the issue popped up I pulled the hdmi cable out of the LCD and put it immediately back in. The problem was gone.

So its the cable. A stupid cheap mono price cable was causing my problems and I sold my MSI 6970 to MSI for $205.

It's totally my fault for not checking such a simple thing as the cable. The problem I was experiencing was pretty random and most of the time everything was working fine.

Oh well...thats one expensive lesson. lol

 

[repsol23]

Well that really sucks you lost out! At least you were able to find the root of your issues. I had a similar issue recently with a cheapo hdmi that I had purchased at Walmart. I got the cheapest one and within a few days was having black screens during movie play back. Took it back and bought a decent cord and have not had one single issue.

 

[Aquinus]

...and people say all cables are the same. Bullshit.

 

[WhiteNoise]

Well to be fair a digital cable should be a digital cable. I'm not trying to open that old debate up but my issue is being caused by the cable; poor shielding or something maybe..? Who knows. But my $350 card sold for $205 so someone (MSI) got a good deal. lol

 

[theonedub]

Ask to buy it back?

Yes, I am aware that has a snowballs chance in hell of working

 

[WhiteNoise]

I think I will move on. TBH all of my games are running as good or BETTER now that I'm not running crossfire; if you can believe that shit...lol

I think my next video card solution will be a top of the line single card instead of dual cards.

 

[EarthDog]

TBH all of my games are running as good or BETTER now that I'm not running crossfire; if you can believe that shit...lol

Who wouldnt?

 

[theonedub]

I think I will move on. TBH all of my games are running as good or BETTER now that I'm not running crossfire; if you can believe that shit...lol

I think my next video card solution will be a top of the line single card instead of dual cards.

Single high powered card usually is the most consistent performer, good decision.

 

[Aquinus]

Single high powered card usually is the most consistent performer, good decision.

Honestly, my 6870s in crossfire aren't half bad. The 1gb of vram is slightly annoying but honestly, that just means I can't run Skyrim at max graphics at 8x AA, I have to settle for 4x, but even then any more will bog down the GPUs, so it's a good balance for the performance of the cards. Oh well.

 

[WhiteNoise]

Aquinus

I am in no way saying CF sucks. When it works it works well. But if games don't support it then; well it doesn't work so great. I've had plenty of issues over the years and I've been running crossfire for a long time (4870 release date).

 

[Delta6326]

Just read the whole thread that sucks that it was a cable, but hey your saving money on the power bill now

My rule of thumb only by from company's with an "A" in the name

 

[DannibusX]

Well I thought about not telling you guys the outcome but in the end I have to sit back and laugh.

Yes MSI offered me a refund of $205. Yes I accepted the refund. And as it turns out my card was not to blame.

Recently I started having the problem again. Now with my single 6970. I was like FUCK me. So I was racking my mind trying to think of what might be wrong as at this point I didn't believe both cards suffered the same failure. Thats when I realized I started having this issue shortly after I bought my new monitor. A 40" Samsung LED LCD. So the next time the issue popped up I pulled the hdmi cable out of the LCD and put it immediately back in. The problem was gone.

So its the cable. A stupid cheap mono price cable was causing my problems and I sold my MSI 6970 to MSI for $205.

It's totally my fault for not checking such a simple thing as the cable. The problem I was experiencing was pretty random and most of the time everything was working fine.

Oh well...thats one expensive lesson. lol

Brutal! I'm so sorry to read this right now. This post is nearly as bad as the dude who accidentally flashed his HD5970 with an nVidia BIOS back in the day.

I'm not making fun, I feel really bad for you. That's a huge bummer. This is a teachable moment though. Diagnosing the problem isn't as easy as just checking the hardware itself, but all of the cables as well. Next, MSI doesn't have a written warranty, nor do they have card stock to replace a defective unit with a comparable unit.

 

[D007]

give me $205 to replace it.


back story:

I started having issues with my MSI 6970 recently; blue artifacting and horizontal lines...seems to be a problem with MSI's cards according to their website. Thank god my XFX 6970 works good. MSI approved my RMA pretty damn quick too! So I sent it to them overnight and its been nearly two weeks. I received a reply last night:

We apologize for any inconvenience, but we are currently out of stock of suitable or comparable replacements for your unit(s). In this case we will need to provide you with a refund based on the market value of $205.8 Will you accept this refund?

Fuck me $205 won't come close to buying a replacement 6970. Unless I find someone selling a used one.

I called the guy up and of course he didn't answer his phone. I left him a voice mail requesting that they up the refund value as I can't buy a 6970 replacement for under $345 or to consider giving me a 7 series card even if it is not quite comparable or as powerful as a 6970. I'm willing to work with them on this but I don't know if 205 is really fair.

With tax and shipping I'd have to add another $170 to buy another 6970 which at this point and time might not be worth it. I might be better selling my XFX 6970 and putting all the money towards a 7 series card or nVidia card.

One thing is for sure though; I don't think I'd buy MSI again.

This is BS imo. A warranty is not "fair trade value" it is "FULL MARKET PRICE AT PURCHASE" to give you anything less is criminal.. they eiither give u full price, an equal card or the same card.. Less cash is NOT acceptable and I seriously think they are breeching warranty laws.

There is some precendent for this kind of behavior. You auto insurer is not going to give you the money you paid for your new car if it is stolen. They are going to give you it's current value--the amount you would likely get if you sold it. There is not a lot of consistency to how a waranty does or does not have to work.

Cars vs computers have absolutely nothing in common. A warranty is NOT insurance. They have nothing in common and cannot be compared..
Warranty means. "If your stuff breaks, we will give you the "EXACT" product or the equivalent in exchange.."
Not something used or degraded in value, that is NOT a waranty, that is dam near fraud.. Hell it is fraud..

Insurance does not do that.. Insurance covers a degraded value over time and blah blah blah.. Apples and oranges..
If your coffee maker broke and they sent you a used coffe maker for the warranty replacement, would that make sense? No, of course not..lol..

 

[Aquinus]

This is BS imo. A warranty is not "fair trade value" it is "FULL MARKET PRICE AT PURCHASE" to give you anything less is criminal.. they eiither give u full price, an equal card or the same card.. Less cash is NOT acceptable and I seriously think they are breeching warranty laws.



Cars vs computers have absolutely nothing in common. A warranty is NOT insurance. They have nothing in common and cannot be compared..
Warranty means. "If your stuff breaks, we will give you the "EXACT" product or the equivalent in exchange.."
Not something used or degraded in value, that is NOT a waranty, that is dam near fraud.. Hell it is fraud..

Insurance does not do that.. Insurance covers a degraded value over time and blah blah blah.. Apples and oranges..
If your coffee maker broke and they sent you a used coffe maker for the warranty replacement, would that make sense? No, of course not..lol..

Car insurance and warranty also requires you to provide documentation that you legally obtained the product. Video cards are no different. It's not like it is that hard to cough up an invoice if you bought it yourself, many warranties aren't transferrable between owners. If I sell my car, the new owner doesn't get my insurance.

 

[EarthDog]

But they do get the vehicle's warranty which is part of the reason why I agree with D007's post above.

I see what CJerny is saying but, too many differences to try to compare a warranty with insuranc

 

[Aquinus]

But they do get the vehicle's warranty which is part of the reason why I agree with D007's post above.

You still need to prove that the car is yours.

 

[phanbuey]

lol... worst case scenario, you can take the money, and buy this:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004EHWMP6/?tag=tec06d-20

It's hot and powerhungry, but it sure as hell won't break

also never buy another MSI product ever again.

 

[WhiteNoise]

Let me provide yet another take on this situation.

Normally when you RMA something back to a vendor they receive it and run tests on the unit. If the unit is good they can return it to the customer or they can advance replace the item by sending the customer a replacement before running the tests.

In this case it seems that they didn't test the card at all. Just accepted it back and offered me the money. If they would have tested the card I'm 100% positive now that they would have notified me that my video card was fine and returned it to me.

I know how RMA's should work because at my job one of the departments I run is the Returns Dept. I handle every single RMA that comes back to my company.

In this case I wished they tested the card and returned it to me but in the end I'm okay with it now. I just have to laugh at myself because I have to accept the blame on this.

I used that money to put towards a new seat for my harley anyways. Money well spent because though MSI rimmed my ass good, my new seat gives me a comfy place to put it.

 

[D007]

Car insurance and warranty also requires you to provide documentation that you legally obtained the product. Video cards are no different. It's not like it is that hard to cough up an invoice if you bought it yourself, many warranties aren't transferrable between owners. If I sell my car, the new owner doesn't get my insurance.

I can get that.. Full refund needs a receipt.. But comparing the two is still apples and oranges..