MSI response on Oil Fan Leakage!

[ndaar]

I noticed from the other thread only Nvidia 770 users raised issues with leaks. I don't remember seeing any 780 users logging an issue.

I take it that this isn't likely to effect the 780 Lightning cooler, and is limited to the coolers used in the Gaming Edition cards?

As far as im aware only one 770 user has so far had an issue on the forum. No issues reported on 780s, or 780tis be it gamer or lightning.

As far as im aware the lightning uses a different fan.

 

[Timber]

As far as im aware only one 770 user has so far had an issue on the forum. No issues reported on 780s, or 780tis be it gamer or lightning.

As far as im aware the lightning uses a different fan.

Your right. I looked back in the original thread and there's that one user with 2 770's both with the same problem. There's a link to a 780 user with the same problem but it's not a member of this forum.

My guess is it doesn't affect the Lightning but as someone who only just noticed this thread I was curious that's all. I bought a 780 Lightning (awesome card) on December 23rd from here so will have to check.

 

[Rofflay]

I would be hopping as it means probably a month long RMA with no working PC. The last time i bought a combination of MSI from OCUK they fudged up the whole bios batch and when i opened it months later it would bsod instantly due to wrong voltage. Offered a 4 week RMA no real compensation for it and imo it stinks to see them here yet again saying oops oops sorry sorry.


Just refuse to do the RMA and demand refunds that would teach them. Or demand compensation for the downtime on the RMA. If anyone actually accept thier RMA or had the oil/gel on the case and gets nothing for it they are the biggest fool. When crap like this happens you forgo profits on whatever it is you sold as you messed up. That means free games bundle or whatever it takes to get people up and running in a week or two.

 

[jh30uk]

@ Rofflay, "systemerror" will not be happy with you above post as he will claim like me you are ruining this forum in the other "oil leak" thread.

P.S Thanks to the few peeps who sent me a trust MSG of support.

 

[Neil79]

 

[4737Joker]

This has been posted elsewhere on these forums, but for those who may not see it...

Spoiler

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.

Good of you to replace them, but poor show trynig it blame mining. Most reports on this i have seen are from GAMERS not people mining and it is not limited to AMD cards either there have been GAMERS posting about their nvidia cards with oil leaks.

Like i said it's good of you to replace them and accept some responsibility but blaming mining is a bit weak.

 

[TOL247]

Hi i have the MSI 280X and my second fan is starting to leak a small amount of oil, i dont mine and mostly play BF4 and the fan normally doesn't go above 33% 64deg.

 

[jh30uk]

** Thanks for coming forward with this, helps others IMO.

 

[Rofflay]

** Thanks for coming forward with this, helps others IMO.

Hey mate goodluck i read the trust. Im not worried one bit about who thinks what its a Forum for opinions and MSI burned me big time on my 580

 

[madpad]

I have my fan running at a higher speed via trixx as my vrm temps were getting higher than I like. The gpu cooling itself was fine but the vrms run around 20C higher.
The last time I blew dust out of my r9 280x I didn't notice any oil leaks but the fans have started to make a bit more noise than before so I'll have to look again as mine is a very early model.

I don't believe they test each gpu and fan and match them either because it would drive prices up and would be cheaper just to buy higher spec fans in the first place.

 

[psychas]

well i clocked my 770 pretty well , but my fan doesn't go above 65 % ~ 70 % when benching when gaming even less, hopefully will not have any leaks as i like the card . fingers crossed

 

[Neil79]

So what happened to the MSI rep? You'd think he would reply to the posts above me

 

[.Griff.]

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.

Please RMA the Graphics Card back to us for a swift replacement.

Has anyone been able to RMA their card(s) back succesfully?

I have two R9 280X Gaming editions with leaking fans and noisy bearings that I'm trying to return without any success.

 

[Qitarah]

Care to elaborate on the "without much success"? did they get sent back to you with no fault found or something similar?

 

[.Griff.]

I just can't seem to even get them sent back.

In the quote from the MSI rep (see previous page) he/she states that we should send them back to MSI directly but that's the part I'm struggling with.

The UK MSI RMA page states components need to go back to the retailer (contradicting what the MSI rep stated) and if I try and register the cards with MSI I get a page with English test but Chinese (or what looks like it) buttons.

 

[SirCanealot]

Does this not raise a dangerous point on what GPUs are designed to do?

Surely they should be designed to run under 24/7 loads?

Or am I expecting too much? There are things other than mining that put as much load on the GPU (Dark Souls 2 at 4k with GeDoSaTo seems to be one of them!)

 

[Sin_Chase]

Does this not raise a dangerous point on what GPUs are designed to do?

Surely they should be designed to run under 24/7 loads?

Or am I expecting too much? There are things other than mining that put as much load on the GPU (Dark Souls 2 at 4k with GeDoSaTo seems to be one of them!)

No, GPUs are NOT designed to run at high load load 24/7. Can they be? Yes. Should they be? No. It's not a dangerous point at all. Anyone who thinks a GPU can be run flat out continuously without any kind of side effect is ABSOLUTELY expecting ridiculous things. If you want to run compute functions non-stop that are designed to do this, buy a suitable product to do it. Not a gaming GPU.

Is your average consumer car designed to run at high load 24/7? No. Can it be? If you want. Expect problems to arise earlier than normal though!

 

[.Griff.]

No, GPUs are NOT designed to run at high load load 24/7. Can they be? Yes. Should they be? No. It's not a dangerous point at all. Anyone who thinks a GPU can be run flat out continuously without any kind of side effect is ABSOLUTELY expecting ridiculous things. If you want to run compute functions non-stop that are designed to do this, buy a suitable product to do it. Not a gaming GPU.

Is your average consumer car designed to run at high load 24/7? No. Can it be? If you want. Expect problems to arise earlier than normal though!

While I respect your opinion you're missing the fact that the majority of people affected haven't used the card(s) for mining at all and MSI's somewhat arrogant approach, "There's a clue in the name", doesn't help maters.

I haven't used either of these cards for mining and they're both affected.

 

[oldestgregg]

Ive had 4 780 Gaming editions now and no sign of oil leaks on any of them. I run them very close together in sli as well so the fans are well ramped up

 

[Sin_Chase]

While I respect your opinion you're missing the fact that the majority of people affected haven't used the card(s) for mining at all and MSI's somewhat arrogant approach, "There's a clue in the name", doesn't help maters.

I haven't used either of these cards for mining and they're both affected.

My response was to someone who was intimating a GPU is designed to be run under load 24/7. They are not.

This does not mean I believe that it should be accepted cards used for their intended use exhibit such faults. It's absolutely not acceptable and MSI should be replacing them. To save face they should have been doing a bit more than they have been. In fact I am rather sure I posted in the original thread about this specific issue, airing that it was absolutely ridiculous to accept this.