Graphics Card problem

solidMGSsnake

Ok guys, some of ye might remember me. I got help building my PC here. Here's a link to that: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056984192

Well since I've started college, I haven't had much time using my PC. It's only a few months old but it had a few problems to begin with, like it won't shutdown properly and my monitor broke, so basically i've been very unlucky with my first PC.

Anyhow I turned it on today and it was fine for the first say 40 minutes, I was only surfing the net, nothing too demanding when suddenly I heard a big rattle and smoke started coming out the back of the PC. Obviously I plugged it out immediately. When I opened it up I wasn't sure what the problem was but the whole thing smelled like hot metal and burning plastic. At first I thought my CPU must of fried as I noticed that the fan attached to the heatsink was slightly falling off, but before that I thought it would be best if I checked my Graphics Card. When I removed it at first I thought it was in perfect condition so I relaxed but than I noticed that the very top of the circuit is slightly melted and chard black. It only looks like minor damage, I don't think any components actually got damaged. I'm really worried though as just before I turned it off, the screen went black as if the GPU failed or something. The Graphics Card is a Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 7950 that I got on Amazon.co.uk for about £270. Would Amazon take it back? I don't know if it has a warrenty or not but I'm sure it does. It's only a few months old. I haven't checked my other parts like the CPU yet but I'd say the problem was the Graphics Card. Could my PSU or motherboard be responsible for this? For the list of all my parts see here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056984192&page=9

Thank you and please reply as soon as possible.

BloodBath

Sounds dodgy. It could be any number of things to be honest. You could try without the graphics card using the onboard graphics to see if there is anything wrong with the rest of the pc.

It sounds like the graphics card is fried. If you can narrow down exactly what the issue is you could just get that part replaced. Amazon are great for returns. They will replace or refund the card no problem.

If there's anything wrong with the rest of the system you may have to ship everything back to hwvs.

Sadly electronic parts fail from time to time but hopefully it's only 1 faulty component that hasn't taken anything else down with it.

solidMGSsnake

Hey there Bloodbath thanks for sticking with me. How can I tell if say the motherboard or the PSU is faulty though? I'm sure if I turn them on they will work but there is no telling if after awhile they will die on me or kill my replaced Graphics Card. It's odd though, I haven't even used the card properly that much as I've been busy with college. So I'm quite surprised it broke when I was only on youtube for 40 minutes.

Also because I was in the process of moving to college when my monitor broke and after that I was only home on week ends, I never got the chance to return my monitor to HWVS. Do you think they would still replace it? It's been broke for the last 2 months and I even complained it to them I so I think they have actually been waiting on the package since then.

I just don't understand why everything on this PC is going wrong, how unlucky am I? I built it fine as far as I know so why all this trouble?

EDIT: Ok so I booted it with the graphics card removed and with monitor, I only wanted to check it it could run. It seemed to boot up fine for about 20 seconds but than turned itself off like it used to. But straight away it tried to boot itself up again and it seemed perfectly ok, I did a hard shutdown after say 50 seconds to make sure it was running ok. The whole machine still smells like burnt plastic and hot metal but when I turned it on the circulation of air kinda made it die down it bit.

EDIT2: BTW literally just yesterday my Dad made me throw out all the amazon and HWVS boxes that weren't important. I still have my mobo and GPU box and stuff but all the filling of the GPU box like the anti-static bag were thrown out. Will that affect my return?

EDIT3: I've put the PC back together excluding the GPU. I won't use it tonight though, just my laptop. I noticed the inside of the side panel of the case that was facing the Graphics Card is burned too. The panel is layered with rubber for noise canceling but a black circle is located just above where the GPU is. The rubber in that area is gone hard and thin.

solidMGSsnake

BTW do you think the PCI-e slot might be damaged? It looks ok and the card connector on the Graphics Card looks ok as well, I mean the damage was to the top of the card. But I'm just concerned as I don't have another card to test with it. If I get my new card the damaged PCI-e slot damages it, than I doubt Amazon will give me another one.

BloodBath

Sounds like it was just a faulty card to be honest. I'd get it replaced with amazon and see what happens after that.

All of your parts are still under warranty so you can return the monitor whenever you want as long as it's inside its warranty period.

They will still replace the card no doubt without the bag.

I doubt the slot is damaged. It was probably just some faulty vrm's on the card. The only way you can be sure is to test it with another card.

ScumLord

The graphics card seems like the likely culprit but do whatever you can to test everything connected to that motherboard (including the motherboard). Nows the time to look for replacements as your still under warranty.

The only time I've seen a PC go on fire was down to a faulty PSU. So make sure that's not at fault too.

PC hardware fails, on my current PC I've had a motherboard fail, a hard drive fail and my projector failed. Luckily it's all happened within warranty which is when these faults usually show up. In some ways it can be beneficial because you get the new version of the hardware under warranty.

solidMGSsnake

But I've never heard of this sort of thing when you buy a retail PC, why is it so common to occur with built rigs when the builders did everything right? BTW how would I go about checking everything? In what way? None of it appears to be physically damaged besides the case side panel which got a little burnt.

BloodBath

It does happen though. And I wouldn't call it common considering the amount of builds that are done here weekly. 100 electrical components are ok for every faulty one. At least with quality products.

You have just been unlucky.

solidMGSsnake

Hey guys I haven't sent it off yet because I was sick then busy and then it was the bank holiday so I'm only doing it now. So what do I do? I assume there is a complain option or whatever on Amazon.co.uk but the way they are wording it sounds more like that they will only refund you, not replace it. Would it be better to actually ring them and explain it in person? My sister used to work at Amazon Customer Service and she thought it would be best to ring, which should I do?

Also which courier service should I get to pick up my package? UPS? An Post? I need to send my monitor back to HWVS as well, can I give both packages to the same courier or will I have to arrange two different couriers to arrive? Also do I give them the money at the door or what?

Sorry for all the questions but I've never done this before.

BloodBath

If you just email them they should organise a pickup of the faulty product. It will have to be separate for the card and monitor I'd imagine.

If Amazon only do refunds then you can replace the card with the newer R9 280x. If they give you an option ask for a refund and buy the R9 280x

The one good thing about a faulty part inside warranty is a free upgrade. The 280x is basically a pre overclocked 7970.

solidMGSsnake

Would that card not be more expensive than my old one? Also keep in mind my PSU is only 500W, will that be enough?

Could you link me to the exact product you have in mind, I don't want to get the wrong one

Is there any downside to the new card over the other?

BloodBath

There's a Sapphire dual-x r9 280x for only €260 from Amazon but estimated delivery is 1-2 months :S

No downsides. It's simply a better card. 500w is plenty.

ScumLord

solidMGSsnake wrote: »

But I've never heard of this sort of thing when you buy a retail PC,

Retail PCs use underpowered, generic and use well established parts, so they are more reliable as they're not under the same kind of strain and they're not first revisions like my motherboard was. They probably have ways of testing parts during production to eliminate most of the faulty parts too.

Of course there's always going to be parts that make it into the market with a fault, it's unavoidable. That's why it's always important to choose companies that have good customer service.

solidMGSsnake

BloodBath wrote: »

If you just email them they should organise a pickup of the faulty product. It will have to be separate for the card and monitor I'd imagine.

If Amazon only do refunds then you can replace the card with the newer R9 280x. If they give you an option ask for a refund and buy the R9 280x

The one good thing about a faulty part inside warranty is a free upgrade. The 280x is basically a pre overclocked 7970.

Well I don't see the point waiting 2 months just for a slightly better card when I could just manually overclock my current one.

Are you saying I should just email them altogether and ignore the report complaint option? Or should I report it first and then email them?

solidMGSsnake

ScumLord wrote: »

Retail PCs use underpowered, generic and use well established parts, so they are more reliable as they're not under the same kind of strain and they're not first revisions like my motherboard was. They probably have ways of testing parts during production to eliminate most of the faulty parts too.

Of course there's always going to be parts that make it into the market with a fault, it's unavoidable. That's why it's always important to choose companies that have good customer service.

Well Amazon should have good customer service, I don't know about HWVS though.