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MSI Lightning 780 gtx Faulty - Need Help

GabenPlis

GabenPlis

GabenPlis

Associate
Joined
4 Sep 2013
Posts
53
Long story short my Gtx 780 lightning (bought for £650 3 years ago) has gone faulty and made my screen freeze and produce white squares and line and my pc graphics lock up till it receives no signal.

Now the warranty by OC is stated as 2 years so they are refusing to RMA it, claiming its not possible. Which ok is bad but fair enough, 3 years old, 2 year warranty. But what i cant believe is that i spent so much on this card for it to brick after just 3 years of average use. Trouble is i think it said on the MSI forums that in UK/EU you cant RMA directly to them single products and that you have to send it to the reseller for RMA (which they wont do).

So have i essentially got a brick for £650? Ive had xbox's that are 6 years old and way out of warranty repaired and returned no problem, as they understand the issues were manufacturing faults, nothing caused by the user. Im just wondering if you guys know of any other way i can solve this issue as i have no reason not to try anything if im stuck in the lurch, clearly this was a manufacturing fault if it broke so fast?

Thanks for any help :)
 
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Hello again

The order was placed from us on 04/09/2013 and the product description at the time of sale was as follows:

Specification:-
- GPU: GeForce GTX 780
- Core Base Clock: 980 MHz
- Core Boost Clock: 1033 MHz
- Memory Clock: 6008 MHz
- Memory Size: 3072MB GDDR5
- Bus Type: PCI Express 3.0
- Memory Bus: 384-bit
- CUDA Cores: 2304
- Memory type: 64Mx32
- DirectX 11.1: Yes
- DVI Port: DVI-I /DVI-D
- DisplayPort: Yes
- HDCP: Yes
- HDMI: Yes
- Power: 2x 8-Pin
- Warranty: 2yr
Click to expand...

So as we have already stated the card is out of warranty as it expired on 04/09/2015, even if you went back to the manufacturer directly from your serial number even with the manufacturer it would be out of warranty when they checked.

They may be able to do an out of warranty repair but due to this being end of life it would more than likely cost more than the current market value of the card itself so it would be deemed beyond economical repair.

We have discussed this in the Technical Support Forum, the orders forum and now here.

Bailey
 
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Stop following me and commenting on all my stuff bailey, I am asking for technical help as you clearly can't help as it's above your expertise, I'm asking if anyone else has been in this situation and any possible fixes. You don't just go past the warranty and throw stuff away when it can often be fixed in some way. Most cards last 5 years or more, not 3 then bang broke.
 
Yeah true on the warranty thing guys, I've been shafted as I only got a 2 year warranty on a £650 card, apparently they are often 5 year warranty now which sucks
 
That's why I rate Zotac & EVGA (can buy extra) so highly. Warranty is KING, because even if you don't use the card anymore but pass it on, they can still benefit from it if it breaks down. People try to save £30 and go for 2 year warranties (like Palit et al) hoping it will all work out - short term thinking always bites you in the arse. Luckily for GabenPlis he has learned a very valuable lesson with his own skin in the game now, and hopefully he won't repeat his mistake; at the very least serves as a cautionary tale for others.

You might be able to revive your card, I hear baking it in the oven helps sometimes. Otherwise, someone would have to inspect it but I wouldn't hold any hope, and generally repairs are too costly compared to its current worth (closer to £100).
 
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But you can now buy something else for around £100 that will be better than a GTX 780, it isn't good but at least you can upgrade.
 
Well it's not like I cheap skated out and bought a lesser version with less warranty, I bought this one because it was slightly stock overclocked as the special MSI Lightning edition, the best card at the time bar the titan which was obviously even more over priced. As the issue arose after running perfectly fine for ages I'm wondering on what the actual problem is, temps seem fine and I've done all my own diagnostics to no avail, but disabling the card on Device manager and using onboard gpu stops the issue so it's definitely the card. Can't see any visible damage, pins are fine, temps are fine from speedfan. Drivers are new, have tried reverting and using old. I'm far from a tech novice too so this is a right pain, as I imagine you have all experienced at some point in your lives, sitting there with a dead unit with no idea as to why! Sucks
 
You can spend time flicking through consumer laws for online products and see if there's anything, but typically if the warranty says 2 years and it dies after 3 most places won't entertain a replacement request.

Have you tried reseating the cooler?
 
I've fixed an old 8800GTS by removing the plastic parts and baking it in an oven before now, worked perfectly thereafter.

As already said, you bought it with a 2yr warranty and it's died outside that period, harsh but what do you expect?

Warranty is king - I'm going Zotac for my next purchase - put it on eBay for spares / repair and replace it with a 1050/1060, you'll get near if not better performance from the new card for a third or less of the cost of your old one.

Zotac, 5 yr warranty (after registration) this should be your next purchase.

TBH I can't see you getting anywhere trying to return your old one and don't really see why your erked, some items have a long life, others don't, you've been unlucky but I don't see how it's the retailers fault and nor do I see why the manufacturer would help given its way outside its warranty.
 
Nah I understand warranty is warranty, but customer service used to be more helpful friendly that's all. It was smashing through battlefield 1 with ease still everything running good, never ran into any of the problems my friends etc experienced and then out of the blue this thing started happening, which is funny because I wasn't even playing damanding games at the time. I'll try exhaust my list of fixes and what you guys suggest meanwhile as I refuse to give up without trying everything :).
 
There is not a lot you can do really, you can try the oven trick or send it away but the costs of repair will be substantial and the card although only 3 years old, in GFX terms its a long time.

If and when you buy a new card, always look for the longest warranty.


try the oven trick, nothing to lose and all to gain if it fix's it
 
Yeah well luckily I bought some fairly decent base components so that I can upgrade when necessary but I do not want to just go meh and bin it as it's such a waste, so these responses are more helpful
 
you bought it knowing it had a 2 year warranty.
hardware gone faulty after the 2 years.
no longer in warranty.

i dont see what the issue is.
 
What's the general consensus on the 1060s then? I doubt I'll pay for something over the top again in case similar things happen plus they get outdated within a year or so of course
 
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