Uncle_Gravy said:

I've yet to check this, very worrying.

Out of interest, I bought my 770 back last June ( so not even a year old yet) before the price drop at £346.79 inc VAT and Delivery, if I had the oil problem and was to RMA, due to the price I paid for it, could I possibly be able to swap it for an R9 290 which are currently the same money I paid for the 770?

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Firstly you obviously need to check if there are any issues with the card. So far I think I have only seen one NVidia card on these forums that had the oil leak, it seems far more common in ati cards.
If your card does have a fault then you RMA, if you RMA just because you don't like the price drop then youll probably be charged a fee and the card return. Unfortunately technology moves on quickly, like you I have the 770, I think I paid £299 for it.
I think if say your card was faulty usually you are given the option of a direct replacement ie an other 770, or been under a year I think they offer you the value at which you bought it but don't quote me on that. You could then select an other card or add some more money to get a more expensive option.
Bottom line is if the card is fine be happy and enjoy. No matter what piece of computer hardware you buy there is always a better one just round the corner and an inevitable price drop.

ndaar said:

Firstly you obviously need to check if there are any issues with the card. So far I think I have only seen one NVidia card on these forums that had the oil leak, it seems far more common in ati cards.
If your card does have a fault then you RMA, if you RMA just because you don't like the price drop then youll probably be charged a fee and the card return. Unfortunately technology moves on quickly, like you I have the 770, I think I paid £299 for it.
I think if say your card was faulty usually you are given the option of a direct replacement ie an other 770, or been under a year I think they offer you the value at which you bought it but don't quote me on that. You could then select an other card or add some more money to get a more expensive option.
Bottom line is if the card is fine be happy and enjoy. No matter what piece of computer hardware you buy there is always a better one just round the corner and an inevitable price drop.

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This is strictly for the oil problem, I wouldn't even think about RMAing based on price drop, I love the card, and of me (who uses 3 monitors in surround) It handles everything i throw at it.

My post was purely based on if I had the oil or a problem that affected the useability of the card, I could see that as an opportunity to see if I can get it replaced with a card at the same price I paid mine 8-9months ago.

MSI Statement RE: Fan Oil Issue

Hi Guys,

Thanks to OCUK Staff members for bringing this forum topic to our attention.

We are aware that some customers have been experiencing issues with our latest AMD GAMING Graphics Cards, notably the R9 Series.

MSI takes this issue seriously.

What is the issue?
Some cards manufactured pre-January are experiencing oil leakage from the fans.

How is this caused?
Oil leaks from the fans hub when the fans are spinning at 100% over a long period of time under high heat conditions.

Why is this happening?
We have seen a huge spike in sales numbers since late November when the BitCoin-Cryptocurrency mining craze started to kick off. Thus, customers have been using our R9 Series of GAMING Graphics Cards since mid-December to mine coins over a 24-HR, 7 days a week period which these cards are not designed for.

The details...
Basically our cards are designed mainly for one thing.. gaming (the clue's in the name). They are not intended for use under "industrial" load conditions where they would be needed to run flat-out continuously day after day, week after week with potential high heat levels.

MSI HQ have been working on the fix since late December to make some changes to our Twin Frozr coolers to stop this from happening. At the centre of the fan there is a 3mm gap inside where a specially made gel is inserted to keep our fans running smoothly and quietly to give you the award-winning silent conditions during idle and gaming modes you have seen and/or heard about. MSI has since reduced this to 2mm. This doesn't sound much but has in fact solved one of the issues whereby there was extra space for air to squeeze inside the area alongside the gel to cause tiny air bubbles that (while at 100% fan load for a long period of time) forces the gel to leak out onto the fan shroud and surrounding area.

The final issue that was fixed was simply not to put as much gel inside the fans core. We intentionally put more gel into this area during production to ensure your cards would continue to run smoothly and that durability would never decrease. Sadly our good intentions came back to hurt us since many customers are using R9 Graphics Cards (and R7) to mine for coins jumping quickly onto the Cryptocurrency bandwagon. Our cards we're not designed for this. Under normal gaming conditions this would not happen (rare cases it may). MSI HQ wanted (yet again) to improve our award-winning Twin Frozr coolers further by solving any and all reliability questions of the running of our fans... hence more gel.

Unlike our competitors, our bearing is made from a special ring made from a mixture of pressed cooper shavings and oil – This unique design avoids the need of ball bearings so the fan can run quieter.

Those customers with Graphics Cards pre-January that are worrying about oil leaking in the future causing harm to the fans.. don't worry. The oil leaking is from the fans hub and not from the bearing, thus will not impact the lifetime running of the fans.

Is it safe?
Yes. The gel which has since turned into an oil like substance during high heat conditions will not harm you, nor your surrounding components in your PC. This gel is harmless, it is non-conductive and will not harm components on the motherboard – The gel is designed to work up to 140C so it will not burn out.

What do I do now?
As mentioned, HQ knows about the problems you have been experiencing and recommends you RMA your Graphics Card to our RMA centre for a replacement card with the new fixes.

Can you not just send some replacement fans or coolers?
No. While there are 0 issues with the PCB's, we cannot send you replacement fans and/or Twin Frozr coolers to do it yourself. One reason is we want to ensure you do not damage the PCB or cooler during installation (and thus voiding your warranty), but another reason is due to how we design the Twin Frozr coolers. You may not know this, but unlike many of our competitors who simply use the same cooler for every batch of cards, we engineer our coolers differently per each graphics card to ensure each cooler we place onto each GPU can handle the thermals produced from that very GPU since every GPU is different (silicone lottery).

We are very sorry if you have been affected by this issue. We hold our hands up, however we did have good intentions. Please RMA the Graphics Card back to us for a swift replacement.

Thank you for this Tom.

Is there a way you can check if your card is pre-January or not?

I ordered mine in the beginning of Feb, so I assume its pre-jan, but then again, when i ordered, they were out of stock, so they might have sent in a new batch.

I should be ok though, as I don't mine and only game (and those games include CS:GO at 64 fps and Football Manager. Fan will be running at some 40% lol). Would be furious if mine started leaking though

MSIRawZ said:

You may not know this, but unlike many of our competitors who simply use the same cooler for every batch of cards, we engineer our coolers differently per each graphics card to ensure each cooler we place onto each GPU can handle the thermals produced from that very GPU since every GPU is different (silicone lottery).

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Confirmation then that there is a large variation in GPU quality on 290X.

@ MSIRawZ, I do not believe for one that all failed cards are running in a hot environment and 100% fan doing mining (like claims from MSI pasted in 3 threads now)

To even say that is not very honest without knowing and its a good cover story to half admit a problem.

I have always enjoyed reading various threads on this forum but in all honesty if we end up with anymore people like jh30uk this forum will become a horrid place to visit.

Thanks 5ub and MSIRawZ for keeping us in the loop

There is nothing wrong with jh30uk, at least he is giving another side to the coin!

NVM him he is a fool and can be told anything and believe it.

It went like this:

1) There is no issue.

2) There is an issue and they are looking into it.

3) Issue only for peeps in hot environments/GPU Fan100% and mining.

And I am the bad one?

P.S systemerror, use the ignore function if you do not like the truth but its alright for you to slate EVGA for waiting 7 weeks on Step Up.

I do not like to see peeps spending £100's of hard earned cash to be told nonsense to cover up for a flaw in a bearing.

I'm not sure about the claim that this issue only occurs when you're running at 100% fan speed.

Mine leaked and it wasn't running at 100%, wasn't mining 24/7 either, it ran at 40-50% most of time, 60-70% when necessary, usually 40-50c when gaming, peaked 70c, though that rarely happens.

How are people find this now??

Checked mine today and its pretty much the same amount again since cleaning.

Ajaxx said:

How are people find this now??

Checked mine today and its pretty much the same amount again since cleaning.

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Just checked my GTX 770 and there is oil on the blades and up the top of my case(Bitfenix Prodigy) the fans on the card its self are not rattling and there is no significant performance drop under load. Will keep an eye on it. Or should i RMA?

:Edit: I do also get a bit of Coil Whine from it too

Well my Gaming Editions about the same, perhaps tad more oil has been flicked at the motherboard.

Brothers 770 Gaming Edition is even worse; lot more oil on blades and one fan rattling plenty. He is monitoring card temps and waiting for rattling fan to begin seizing up before raising RMA request.

Fan stopped working the day before yesterday, slight tap and it started up. Made a little bit of clicking noises today and went away within 20mins or so. I can't see any oil, but can't say I'm too happy with MSI's response. I don't mine, It hasn't been roasted and never over 80% fan speed. They've also completely ignored my reports via Facebook and done a runner with tail between legs on this forum.

Shoddy customer service and I was a strong believer in MSI, my last card was an MSI too