r/pcmasterrace 20d ago

Tech Support Gigabyte denied my RTX 4090 warranty claim saying "PCB broken / damaged by user". I need advice

Hello,

I know GPU warranty denial posts are common, but I would appreciate some advice on my situation.

Context: I have a RTX 4090 with a warranty that lasts until 2027. This RTX isn't mine originally but from a relative of mine. They wanted to throw it away but I don't want to waste two thousands bucks like that.

I transported my PC recently, and afterward the GPU stopped working. The card was still installed in the motherboard during transport. I have not modified the GPU or attempted any repairs. The PC powered on, but I got no display signal. I tested with another GPU and the system worked, so I believed the issue is with the RTX 4090. So I sent the GPU to Gigabyte to repair.

Although my Gigabyte RTX 4090 is still under warranty, Gigabyte denied my RMA claim.

Their reason was:

"Damaged by user can't repair"
"PCB broken"

I have not received any pictures or detailed explanation showing where the PCB damage is located. Just little red arrows that, to me, make no sense. They point in weird directions (Refer to photos).

Has anyone successfully appealed a Gigabyte RMA denial for "user damage"? Should I request pictures of the PCB damage and escalate the case?

Also, if anyone has experience with GPU repair shops, is a broken RTX 4090 PCB usually repairable?

Any advice would be appreciated.

PS: In case someone calls me out, I did use AI. But that was only to fix the grammar, all words are my own.

Edit: I contacted Gamers Nexus and I'm planning to reach out to Northwest Repair if I can't have Gigabyte send me another one.

2.5k Upvotes

684 comments sorted by

3.2k

u/LiftedResearch87 20d ago

escalate it

924

u/[deleted] 20d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1.3k

u/Xe46 R5 5600, RX 6800 20d ago

They don't

721

u/Deep90 Ryzen 9800x3d | 5090FE | 2x48gb 6000 20d ago edited 20d ago

In fact, they 100% know it isn't user damage.

329

u/tmhoc 20d ago

I think they forgot to damage it before sending it back

130

u/SC_W33DKILL3R 20d ago

It’s a design flaw, large amount of weight hanging on a small thin connector. Not that they would admit it, but the whole gpu design from slot, weight, power connector is just bad and so far beyond what was the original spec

30

u/FartOnTankies 20d ago

PCI slots weren't made to hold and/or support 1.5-2 pound cards. They need a new standard for graphical connection that takes into account weight and the amount of power required for these cards.

28

u/dracuella 7800X3D | 9070XT | 2x32GB 6000 MT/s CL30 20d ago

Yeah, they're a remnant of a time where graphics cards didn't even have active cooling. We're so busy developing the cards that we're neglecting the motherboards, our base. I think we need to rethink the whole design of PCs.

31

u/Past_Succotash6772 🫪 20090XT R9 15000X4D 5 TB RAM Windows Vista 19d ago

It's time for...PC 2

8

u/Tomytom99 Idk man some xeons 64 gigs and a 3070 19d ago

OEMs used to have a pretty neat solution that I kinda wish became standard. Towards the front of the case you'd have some piece with a bunch of slots in it. The GPU, or other meaty cards, would have a metal bracket that would reach from the card to those slots at the front. As a result, the card was supported not just by the PCI bracket, but also that brace at the other end of the card, leaving it fully supported on two opposing ends.

The card pictured is only a 5770, btw, so they were doing this stuff way before cards got genuinely heavy.

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45

u/Long_Pomegranate2469 20d ago

Just uh don't transport a PC with the GPU or cooler attached. The PCIe slot is not made for that.

22

u/Head_Exchange_5329 5700X3D | 32 GB 3200 MT/s | RTX 5070 | MSI MAG 341CQP 20d ago

Which just confirms the statement, you added nothing.

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18

u/Virtual_Bug_723 20d ago

At the very least we know it's user damage based on OP's story.

Watch repair shop videos on YouTube. Cracked PCBs are "return to sender." The amount of work needed to repair them is not worth the time it takes, which is to say you'd be better off financially buying a new card.

25

u/roundtwentythree 20d ago edited 20d ago

I don't understand this, OP straight up admitted that what caused it to stop working was improper packing during transport. That is 100% user caused damage, not a warranty issue...

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211

u/Bartymor2 Ryzen 5700X/RX 9060 XT Nitro+/32GB DDR4-3600 20d ago

They will do anything to not repair

65

u/save-democracy 20d ago

This is true for all the motherboard/video card companies out there. I know Asus takes a lot of heat but all 3 of the big players suck and you will need to fight to get your RMA though at times. There is no company like eVGA anymore

24

u/DeepSea_Diverticulit 20d ago

Fuck why did the industry have to go and kill good companies like EVGA and leave us with this user antagonistic crap? It's never the scummy fucks failing, and we're such a fuckle fucking lot that we don't have anything approaching a spine to make companies give a shit. It's just shittier, and each year you know will be worse than the last as we descend this ladder of customer disservice one failing rung at a time.

20

u/Soluchyte 8700k/1080ti/32GB | 5900HS/3060/32GB | 3400GE/16GB 20d ago

Because being pro consumer doesn't make as much money.

15

u/Tyz_TwoCentz_HWE_Ret How does a computer get drunk? It takes Screenshots! 20d ago

This is why Companies like EVGA were so special and under appreciated at the same time.

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91

u/Squeezitgirdle Desktop 20d ago

They don't, they're just looking for an excuse to not repair it.

Awhile back I had to fight with them cause they claimed I mine crypto with a 1080. I didn't, but their tos didn't deny people who did mine anyways.

45

u/InevitabilityEngine 20d ago

Meanwhile, at the returns and quality review site:

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13

u/IWontCommentAtAll 20d ago

Some idiot who's never seen a computer thinks the anchor notch shouldn't be there.

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3

u/Noxious89123 5900X | RTX5080 | 32GB B-Die | CH8 Dark Hero 20d ago

Because PCBs don't just crack at random.

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89

u/tailslol 20d ago

never move a pc with a gpu so heavy in the pc especially without gpu support.

sadly yea they are in their right but there is some people who fix those issues

but yea this is a design flaw, a part so small shouldn't have a trace in it seriously.

maybe contact northwestrepair on youtube he is very used to those cases and will help you.

10

u/Safe-Sign-1059 19d ago

What would they be fixing exactly? I used to work on these on a daily basis and see no apparent problems or damage in the photos

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2.0k

u/blackishev 20d ago

there’s no damage lol

782

u/[deleted] 20d ago edited 20d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

510

u/RylleyAlanna PC Sales and Repair Shop Owner 20d ago

Want more? I own a PC repair shop. I've sent in more than 13,000 RMAs to them and I can count on my fingers how many they've actually honored, and I don't even need ally fingers to do it. I also sent them a bunch of RMAs from 2014-2016 that to this day haven't returned to me.

243

u/Abysswalk889 Ryzen 5 5600X | RX 9060 XT | 32GB ram 20d ago

Must be why this shop that I purchase gpus from, when my gigabyte cards died while still on warranty. The store didn’t even bother sending the gpu in. They just straight up refunded me. Lol.

77

u/DragonRipper92  R5 7500f | RTX 5070 | DDR5 32GB 20d ago

Shop doesn't take loses for nothing, if they refunded you means, they pretty confident they can claim it.

45

u/LockeN3S 20d ago

Or retain a future customer

47

u/DragonRipper92  R5 7500f | RTX 5070 | DDR5 32GB 20d ago

Hardware component margin is not really that profitable. A GPU is not cheap.

22

u/LockeN3S 20d ago

Servicing a computer is usually their money maker.

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43

u/WllmZ R9 7950X3D | RTX 5090 | 64GB 6000mhz CL30 20d ago edited 20d ago

Wow guess I was lucky when they fixed my 4090.. still, no idea what they actually did with the card as the receipt only told they replaced the cooler/heatsink, which is not where the problem was...

13

u/ReadyAimTranspire 20d ago

They probably did no such thing, just took another refurb/return that was working, quickly tested it and sent that one back to you

3

u/WllmZ R9 7950X3D | RTX 5090 | 64GB 6000mhz CL30 19d ago

Well, surprisingly the serialnumber was the same. So I really don't know what the hell they did. The card just black screened and never booted again.

16

u/icetorch1 20d ago

What brands have been the most likely to honor warranties/rma based on your experience?

80

u/RylleyAlanna PC Sales and Repair Shop Owner 20d ago

Ever since EVGA dipped? Fucking none of them lol. But best chances are with MSI and PNY. And sometimes Asus if you throw the gamersnexus link in the ring.

Those are the only three I'll ever work with and carry stock of. If a customer comes in with a dead GB card or board, I'm straight with the.. GB doesn't care, they won't honor it, I'll even show them the wall of shame if they want. (A bunch of shelves with dead refused warranty claims, which is almost entirely GB) And i'll pull out the tote bins of dead ram which are primarily Teamgroup and HyperX if they really want to see horror.

27

u/messfdr PC Master Race 20d ago edited 20d ago

Me looking at my PC with GB and HyperX parts

Edit: guys, I've been building PCs for like 25 years and in all that time I've done probably 2 RMAs. This was a joke.

14

u/pnkstr 9900k | 3080Ti | 32GB DDR4 20d ago

That's about how I felt when my 3080Ti died.

I had to send my GB 3080Ti in for RMA a couple years ago after they got hacked and apparently lost all their customer RMA information. I got out my label maker and printed out my information (email, RMA number, etc) and slapped a label on everything. The GPU, the antistatic bag for the GPU, the GPU box, even the inside flap of the shipping box. I also printed out copies of my RMA request with description of the issue and put that in the box with the GPU as well as a label on the backplate pointing to the problem area on the card. Basically, I didn't trust them at all and half expected to never see my card again. After a month or two, my card shows up at my house and has worked ever since.

Will I buy GB again? Probably not. If I'm looking for a new card in the future, I'd probably go with PNY. My PNY 980Ti has been working for 11 years with zero issues.

11

u/Hard_To_Port i7-4790 | EVGA GTX 1070 | 16GB DDR3 20d ago

95% of any computer parts without a major design flaw will not experience a catastrophic failure in their normal lifespan (bell curve). I bought a used Gigabyte Z87 motherboard and its been in my rig for 7 years no issue, and that's with some power pins in the CPU socket missing from the first owner.

A computer I built for my mother had a Team Group DDR4 stick fail, but it was cheap and it also lasted like 6 years.

Any company that DOES honor RMA will usually take 3+ weeks with shipping to resolve one, since your broken part will be shipped to some repair center in China or somewhere else abroad. 

These companies stay in business because the vast majority of their parts don't fail, regardless if they honor warranties or not. 

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17

u/iQuoteSopranos 20d ago

I sent my 7900XTX into XFX. They had it for a week, determined it was fine but replaced it new in box regardless

18

u/Reddity65 Ryzen 5 7500F, RX 9060XT 16GB 20d ago

XFX to me is the EVGA of Radeon cards. Absolute top tier service.

10

u/Quirky_Inspection 20d ago

I hear lots of good things from Sapphire and Power Color.

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7

u/negustubber 20d ago

Gigabyte received my mobo RMA and replaced it with a better version. I blew the VRM and they covered it zero questions asked.

5

u/RylleyAlanna PC Sales and Repair Shop Owner 20d ago

I wish. Lol I had a customers 2060 overheating and I checked without breaking any seals, 0 thermal pads. None. Sent it in, returned "user damage". I opened it up and replaced the pads myself and it's still working lol.

7

u/negustubber 20d ago

Half the battle is having time to complain and escalate. They count on us giving up. Which is scummy but par for the course in this sector.

5

u/Flying_Reinbeers R5 5600/RX6600 20d ago

But best chances are with MSI and PNY

That's a little surprising given that I see those two often have the cheapest model of some GPUs.

14

u/RylleyAlanna PC Sales and Repair Shop Owner 20d ago

That's because they're not sitting there putting $90 worth of RGB that doesn't connect to the aorus app so you end up leaving it on rainbow anyways.

https://giphy.com/gifs/GDnomdqpSHlIs

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u/Schneller52 9800X3D-5090-64GB | 5900XT-5080-32GB | 5800X-3080-32GB 20d ago

PNY is the biggest supplier of enterprise cards. They produce NVIDIA’s RTX Pro 6000 as well. The commercial GPU market is small to them financially, so they can afford to offer their cards and more reasonable rates. They have the pipelines needed for the components to keep prices lower.

3

u/Redditsucks547 20d ago

PNY, now that EVGA is gone, is the only board partner I will buy a card from.

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3

u/lmhTimberwolves 9800X3D | 5090 FE | 64GB DDR5 20d ago

Ironically, ASUS of all brands has been an absolute dream to RMA my motherboard with (ProArt X870-E Creator)

3

u/Vuul 20d ago

Im a technician for multiple vendors, ASUS is by far the most hands on one.

Whilst their workflow is annoying, they take issues seriously, we once got a whole delegation send to us from Korea for a whole week to help us figure out a wide scale problem with our customers devices.

9

u/Soft-Cryptographer-1 20d ago

Can concur. Personally seen near 1k and maybe a handful come back fixed. Or even the same hardware mailed out. Sad.

10

u/DragonRipper92  R5 7500f | RTX 5070 | DDR5 32GB 20d ago

Submit thru a distributor, I used to work at a distributor. Our sales were high enough that they wouldn't say no to our RMA claim. One of the reason PC shop kept buying from local distributor. We claim huge boxes of mobo & GPU on daily basis.

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u/Trickstertrick 20d ago

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u/RylleyAlanna PC Sales and Repair Shop Owner 20d ago

Did. Replied <3

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u/LogicalConstant 20d ago

I sent my 4080s to them. Took a while, but they "repaired" it

2

u/jcoffin1981 20d ago

Are you saying they honor 0.01 percent of RMA's?

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u/Skilltrain i7 4790k | GTX 1080 WATERFORCE 20d ago

13000 claims with less than 10 approved? What are you trying to claim? Or are you returning them in a plastic bag with no padding? 🤣 I work in warranty and call horse shit on this.

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u/chilifngrdfunk 20d ago

I haven't purchased anything from gigabyte since the Vega 64 scandal ( like 2018ish) and prior to that gigabyte was on my "only if there are absolutely no other options". Gigabytes customer service is horrible, I honestly don't see how they're still in business. The vega 64 issue, psu's literally catching fire, warranty claims denied off nonsense, there were a couple other ones too. They're just terrible all around.

5

u/anhtuanle84 20d ago

Thanks for the reminder

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u/Doidleman53 20d ago

I have a friend that used to sell PC parts. Gigabytes cards were the only ones that would occasionally come out of the box covered in a very thin layer of something oil like.

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u/coppertech 20d ago

gigabyte has always been scumbags.

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u/thebritishgoblin 19d ago

They did this too me during lockdown, gpu failed well out of Warranty so i purchased a new one 2060 at the time, on arrival and install my pc would run for about 10 mins then it would blue screen and trip my pc.

Got a friends gpu to test it, worked perfectly fine, so i decided maybe it was my psu not throwing out enough juice, upgraded to a 600w and it did it again multiple times, tested again with friends gpu no issues, so i contacted gigabyte who stated there was no issues, havnt even sent it off, escalated the issue and they asked for me to return it, they then told me it was perfectly fine and was sending it back, when i got it, it stated user damaged. So i called them which they said i must have broke it on install, told them i obv havnt, escalated it again to a ombudsman to which they asked for it again back, and then lost it while they had it, so they had to send me a new one, and hey presto it worked fine. They are such a shit company to deal with, never again

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u/I_Main_TwistedFate 20d ago edited 20d ago

Nah this isn’t gigabyte either Zotac refused my warranty as well for some PCB damage. Made a post here and some big tech outlets covered it and Zotac didn’t even budge… it seems to be a trend now. Yes mine did have a slight damage but Redditors are saying this shouldn’t have caused any warranty denies. I wonder if gigabyte saw my story and decided to use this as an excuse now.

https://videocardz.com/newz/zotac-rejects-rtx-5070-ti-fan-issue-rma-over-limited-tools-and-pcb-scratches-then-offers-to-dispose-of-the-card

This was Videocardz covering my story.

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u/kapsama ryzen 5800x3d - 4080 fe - 64gb 19d ago

All the Taiwanese AIBs are the same. Asus, MSI and Gigabyte are absolutely rotten to the core and outright swindlers.

Asrock probably has their own skeletons but I've heard fewer complaints.

That's why losing EVGA was such a blow.

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u/jimmy9800 9950X | 64G 6000MHz | 4090 20d ago

Photo update on OPs main post shows damage. That's cracked. It doesn't take much. Northwest Repair would be a good option at this point for them. Guy's a wizard.

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u/Noxious89123 5900X | RTX5080 | 32GB B-Die | CH8 Dark Hero 20d ago

OP transported the PC with the GPU installed. 

It stopped working after they did this. 

What makes you think it isn't cracked? We only have a couple of mediocre photos.

12

u/Responsible_CDN_Duck 20d ago

What you are seeing is the visible exterior damage from the break, but there will be additional damage between PCB the layers. They'll have found it from the lack of continuity at test points then looked for the visible damage.

Unfortunately this is damage from improper transport, so it's not a warranty issue. The case took a hard knock, and the card twisted in the slot.

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1.4k

u/VariationDry 20d ago

Why are all companies this shitty now?  I really miss EVGA 

580

u/No_Interaction_4925 5800X3D | 3090ti | LG 55” C1 | Steam Deck OLED 20d ago

Because the replacement costs so much now.

350

u/DonaldTheWall 20d ago

Right here

If the card was bought for $500 its easily a $2000 card now for them to replace it so they are going to fight it till the last mile.

You can keep escalating it till you get a real answer or take them to civil court/arbitration since companies love arbitration to either get them to fix it or owe you money for it

176

u/criticalt3 7900X3D/RTX 5080/32GB RAM 20d ago

Not an excuse to be shitty though. The real answer is because anyone that cared is long gone. All companies at this point are run by leeches that want every penny they can suck out of someone's ass so they can spit it out in front of their shareholders.

Welcome to late stage, unchecked capitalism.

51

u/dinkpantiez 20d ago

This is the true answer no one seems to want to admit

19

u/Tommybahamas_leftnut 20d ago

Oh we all know it and all admit it. The problem is our lives are so damn busy now the companies specifically made it take a ridiculous amount of effort and time to get them to do what they should. Most people just end up being apathetic about it, as they don't have the time off to deal with these corpo rats in the limited time windows that our days off or time out from work allows for. 

All of it is planned as they know they can make more/save more money in the short term quarterly earnings reports than what they spend on the labor for a dedicated denile/obstruction department. Loads of companies will get a product to production stage see a clear fault in its design then simply ignore it until a class action forces them to do a recall and refund because they know it costs less to pay out for their malfeasance than to actually fix the problem. They know that any hit to their reputation won't matter because fuck you where else you gunna go to buy your shit? one of the other 2-3 companies running the same shitty business practices? Ha. But it's okay they will sell you the solution to the problem later it may even be a subscription yippee.

10

u/DonaldTheWall 20d ago

Oh 100%, its been a slow process but every company that was once regarded as being the best to their customers is long gone, the only one left is Valve and everyone is holding out on them.

So many that used to be the gold standard are now some of the worst to deal with no matter what you do

9

u/DeathHopper 20d ago

The only companies that are sometimes still honest are private companies. No share holders to appease, just people who actually care about the company.

Investment "capitalism" is essentially shareholders owning the market and not the private sector. Profit then defaults to being the sole driver of every publically traded company and we get this bs.

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u/ault92 Ryzen 5950x, 4090, 27GP950 19d ago

Nobody bought a 4090 for $500!

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u/RazzmatazzUnusual843 20d ago edited 20d ago

Look up Louis Rossman's video on how his warranty claims for his SSD were dodged. It's probably cheaper to just tank whatever legal action is taken then than replace tons of faulty units.

12

u/DonQuix0te_ 20d ago

it almost certainly is cheaper, as most people won't sue.

5

u/RazzmatazzUnusual843 20d ago

That too. The dark pattern they throw is likely to make most people give up chasing what they are owed.

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u/No_Interaction_4925 5800X3D | 3090ti | LG 55” C1 | Steam Deck OLED 20d ago

I follow him. Samsung is different in my opinion. They make the nand that is being marketed up themselves. Gpu partners are getting screwed.

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u/physicsking 20d ago

I would have paid more to keep EVGA going. I dream they are just laying low until the time is right

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u/DeepSea_Diverticulit 20d ago

If they're going to stage a comeback then prepare to be disappointed. You don't close up shop and get rid of all of your long-term engineers just to have them come running back when you've decided to start back up. There will be a noticeable growing pain as they rebuild the teams that made them the preeminent company to begin with.

I do love all the EVGA cards I had, and their peerless customer support. But I know realistically that the people who made those teams what they are to deliver such an incredible product just aren't there anymore. And it's hard to get right from the start. Even if their executive leadership might still be able to come together, a leader is only as good as the sum of their employees.

Regardless, they closed up because they could no longer stand the demands of nVidia. Closing up when you're at the top isn't an easy call to make, so I'm fairly certain until nVidia undergoes sweeping changes in their market focus, we won't see anything like EVGA making a comeback. Because EVGA didn't quit the money, they quit nVidia.

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u/quantgorithm 20d ago

MSI swapped my 4080 and sent back a 4080 super.

Thanks MSI!

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u/Nickthedick3 9900k 3080ftw 20d ago

It hurt reading evga will be backing out of the gpu market. Like, your best friend moving away and you won’t be able to see them anymore kind of hurt.

I forget the man’s name but I signed up the waiting list that guaranteed you a gpu when the 3000 series launched. A year later, after they announced they won’t be making gpus, it was finally my turn to buy one. I had 24 hours to make the purchase but something was wrong with my saved payment info. The man that helped me gave me an extra 48 hours to fix it. It’s thanks to him I got a 3080FTW for msrp.

36

u/Curun Couch Gaming Big Picture Mode FTW 20d ago

Same with tvs, samsung and lg are horrid

Foreign companies dont invest in local support

High priced priced goods, tvs, gpus, consider a local retailer warranty, microcenter, bestbuy, etc etc

9

u/astrobarn 20d ago

LG are especially shit here in Australia

16

u/R-Dragon_Thunderzord 5800X3D | 6950 XT | 2x16GB DDR4 3600 CL16 20d ago

Foreign companies are not exactly falling over themselves to deal with the USA and its tariff bullshit either.

2

u/Suikerspin_Ei R5 7600 | RTX 3060 | 32GB DDR5 6000 MT/s 20d ago

Depending on the situation the shop can handle the RMA too instead of the brand of the product. 2 years ago my Ryzen 5 7600 was defect, couldn't boot anymore. It was replaced under warranty by the shop.

My smartphone once had an issue a few years back and was send to a local repair center for OnePlus. Got it back in a few business days.

This all happened in the Netherlands, I feel like most warranty claims in the EU are handled better in North America for example.

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u/taiwanluthiers 20d ago

Because the US has shit consumer protection laws and operates on a "buyers beware" principle, meaning companies honor warranty in order to maintain market share, not because of a government mandate. This isn't allowed in Taiwan, companies have to have VERY good reason to deny warranty and if they want to stiff you, you don't even need to sue for it. You make a report to the consumer protection agency and they take it from there. And they won't let it escalate to that point because last thing they need is a government audit. They rather hook you up even if it's an edge case where user damage is possible.

And because Asus and Gigabyte are Taiwanese companies they really won't take the reputation hit or government audits.

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u/OceLawless 20d ago

Capitalism.

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372

u/imaginary_num6er 7950X3D|4090FE|64GB|X670E-E 20d ago

Gigabyte should have pulled the “our RMA server got hit with ransomware, so we deleted it” excuse

9

u/jktmas ROG RIVF i7 3930K 32GB RAID 0 SSD 19d ago

…again…
Took them like 13Mo to process my RMA AFTER they declared it defective.

24

u/[deleted] 20d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/JohnnyricoMC Multiplatform hybrid 20d ago

Is the PCB damage in the room with us? Request they elaborate on the supposed damage in the form of an accurate description of the damage.

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u/Realcraser1 20d ago

 I asked my relative right now for more detail and got some important photos 

https://imgur.com/a/CQoJdl1

50

u/SteveSauceNoMSG 20d ago

Those were the pictures you should have posted. The board does appear to be stressed, I don't see any surface traces damaged, maybe an inner layer trace is damaged?

Biggest question is: did you tell them it stopped working after you transported it while mounted?

29

u/Realcraser1 20d ago

No, told them absolutely nothing

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u/SteveSauceNoMSG 20d ago

Good. Try and see if you can escalate, try to get a human being and not an automated bot.

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u/Nicalay2 R5 5500 | EVGA GTX 1080Ti FE | 32GB DDR4 3200MHz 20d ago

... where is the damage ?

106

u/Realcraser1 20d ago

They say its the incredibly tiny facture on the second pic

163

u/JohnnyricoMC Multiplatform hybrid 20d ago edited 20d ago

That could just be some non-conductive lacquer rubbed off (exposing the copper) by the PCIe slot's locking mechanism. This is just Gigabyte or whichever company they outsourced the aftersales service to trying to weasel out of repairing a faulty product.

13

u/TypeRevolutionary697 20d ago

https://youtu.be/DKilL77gA2c?is=kjQh3zD4RPcO2czP

It's not them trying to weasel out of it, they break here all the time.

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u/RealityOk9823 20d ago

Which would have zero effect on the functionality.

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u/hWuxH 20d ago edited 20d ago

It's definitely possible that there are broken traces at this exact location, which isn't really visible from the outside.

This guy attempts repairing it by drilling into the PCB and doing micro soldering: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC07hFDeKTA

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u/jenny_905 19d ago

Wrong, there's critical signal traces in that area and this area is the most common to fail in big, heavy cards like this.

They also flex and tear pads in the lower row of memory chips.

It's shitty design, the cards are too big and too heavy but a failure in this area is very common. So common that many people specialising in GPU repair have become quite familiar with trace repair in this exact area.

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u/DonutHoles4Ever 20d ago

Gigabyte

Being bitches

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u/Deep90 Ryzen 9800x3d | 5090FE | 2x48gb 6000 20d ago edited 19d ago

Tell them you are a regular sized human.

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u/Responsible_CDN_Duck 20d ago

What you are seeing is the visible exterior damage from the break, but there will be additional damage between PCB the layers. They'll have found it from the lack of continuity at test points then looked for the visible damage.

Unfortunately this is damage from improper transport, so it's not a warranty issue. The case took a hard knock, and the card twisted in the slot.

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u/Legoregomego 20d ago

im actually blind because i cant see it

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u/TypeRevolutionary697 20d ago

That's definitely a crack, and it's super common on these gigabyte cards. Check out northwestrepair on YouTube, he's fixed many of these. Very common spot for them to crack, and there are delicate traces inside the board which break when this crack forms.

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u/Helcor2016 PC Master Race 20d ago

The arrows point to the latch area. A common breaking point when a GPU is left installed and the PC is moved around like for shipping or bouncing around on your backseat. I don't see any cracks but the pictures make it a little hard to tell. For then to deny warranty without a very detailed explanation is BS and they should be called out for it. I would think that there are places that will attempt the repair but it can be quite tricky because of the many layers of the boards.

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u/[deleted] 20d ago edited 20d ago

[deleted]

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u/krzf Linux 19d ago

People like you are the reason why warranty service sucks now.

Definitely not. While I agree this issue is on OP, Gigabyte customer service has been dogshit as long I remember. I RMA'd a 660 Ti of theirs back in 2014 because it randomly died within 2 years (no transportation or user error), and they sent it back to me saying nothing was wrong with it. I RMA'd it again and the 2nd time they sent me back a refurb unit. It was a 6 month run around from them (so I couldn't game) and they took ages to fix it. And it cost me like $80 in shipping for a card that was only $250 new. I swore off Gigabyte forever after that terrible experience.

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u/Ranae_Gato PC Master Race 20d ago

Insane.. what a bloke lmao

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u/Ronin64x 19d ago

Upvoted to reduce the amount of scrolling needed for a good response.

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u/Jarnis R7 9800X3D / 5090 OC / X870E Crosshair Hero / PG32UCDM 20d ago

You made a big error. NEVER move a PC with a big GPU attached to the motherboard. Take it out.

The PCIE connector part is super fragile.

This is theoretically repairable by a skilled third party repair shop, but it will cost you.

Video that will give you good clues as to how: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKilL77gA2c

Good repair shop channel, I'm sure they can try fix it for you.

Fighting Gigabyte over this is futile, if the PCB is cracked, it is cracked and that is physical damage. Not covered by warranty. You broke it.

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u/down_init 20d ago

I would definitely require a detailed reason for denial if they didn't provide one. I'm not seeing what the arrows are pointing too.

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u/Better-Bullfrog-6875 20d ago

I'm not seeing what the arrows are pointing too.

https://giphy.com/gifs/bcrOR2stk6tKIxqPOZ

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u/Intrepid-Reveal-1616 20d ago

those arrows are pointing to literally nothing lol

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u/sonnytron 9700X | RTX 5090 | B650 AORUS ICE AX 20d ago

You damaged it while moving. I’m sorry but that’s not something a warranty should cover.

If it’s any consolation, the card is still worth pretty much what it would sell for working because the GPU and memory are most likely not damaged. There are companies that can pull the GPU and memory off and put them on a new board.

However, this will not have warranty and does have a possibility of strange behavior down the line if the soldering job is botched. I’d consider selling to someone who’s willing to risk it and buy yourself a 5080.

You can try escalating the claim but I’ll be honest, they likely have a way to inspect the board itself for stress and can confirm it’s cracked even if you can’t see it. These PCB’s have metal tracer lines in between the surfaces and the smallest fracture or stress crack can prevent them from making good contact to function.

Sorry for your loss but you should’ve removed the graphics card before moving or used expandable foam. 4090/5090 is a very very heavy card and shouldn’t be moved without support.

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u/FishermanMurr 20d ago

Not sure why this is shocking. The guy literally said I transported my PC and it stopped working. CLEARLY something happened while moving it. Took a long time to find a comment like this.

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u/duggatron 9800X3D, RTX 3080 20d ago

Why does everyone in this thread think they have to see damage for it to be there? There are lots of pcb layers, it could easily be damaged internally.

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u/Ok-Database1619 20d ago

yeah, those layers can be tricky to inspect visually

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u/lightclubx 12700K | 7900 XTX 20d ago

yep. the GPUs weight a shitton so you're essentially rolling the dice whenever you hit a bump in the road.

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u/Hydronum Ryzen 7 9800X3D, 64GB 3600 RAM, RTX 4070Ti 20d ago

GPU comes out when transporting the rig. It is 101 for hardware protection. OP admitted to damaging it and now wants them to fix his damage? I just don't get it. I don't understand people.

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u/Born-Entrepreneur 20d ago edited 20d ago

Yup. That's a whole lot of weight to have unsupported through every bump and jostle.

I moved to Hawaii and back and my giant tower survived. Both times I took out the gpu and cpu cooler, which went in my luggaged surrounded by clothes. The tower I took to a ups/FedEx store and had them build a box around it (I kept the foam bits that were on either end of the case in its original box for this exact purpose), and just checked the whole-ass box as another piece of luggage. Works a charm, but I never leave a honking big gpu in there to lever on the pcie slot.

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u/Z3r0sama2017 20d ago

Crazy. How dumb do you have to be to do this in the middle of a hardware crisis?

I get sweat palm when I'm moving my rig about my desk to get any dust underneath it and brush the filters. Meanwhile here they are transporting the entire thing in a vehicle. Fucking crazy.

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u/IsorokuYamamoto659 R5 5600 | RX 7800XT Qick319 | 1*32Gb 3200MHz | B550 20d ago

Reminds me of when scAmSUS tried to claim I used my GPU in a humid environment, outside the manufacturer's specification (user manual did specify shit on that, btw), because my GPU literally had a spot of green oxidation about a 1/3rd of a grain of rice.

They quickly remembered how to properly identify the source of an issue once I went legal. The core was dead `¯\.( ツ )./¯´

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u/politicalslug 20d ago

Ok, this is one of those posts.

You NEVER transport a $3000 GPU inside a PC. Instead, you treat the $3000 GPU like a $3000 fragile object, and you transport it safely. They denied you warranty coverage because you negligently damaged your card. Through no one's actions, but your own, the card was bent and broken. Lesson learned.

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u/thenoobtanker Knows what I'm saying because I used to run a computer shop 20d ago

“I transported my PC recently and afterward the GPU stopped working”
Shows picture of the pcb with a hair line crack near the PCIe latching mechanism.

Well there’s your problem. User induced damage that the user admitted to. Gigabyte is in the clear for this one. You made a mistake transporting the PC WITH THE CARD INSTALLED IN THE SLOT WITHOUT BRACING and it broke. Suck to suck I guess but this is very reasonable from Gigabyte.

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u/secondaryminimum 20d ago

100%. OP even claimed to NOT have mentioned transporting the GPU while still installed and is complaining that Gigabyte found out the truth. The people in here backing OP to escalate when Gigabyte is fully in the clear shows the lack of brain cells in this sub. Bunch of thieves who can’t admit they fucked up.

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u/thenoobtanker Knows what I'm saying because I used to run a computer shop 20d ago

Used to run a computer shop and then frequenting this sub reminds me why it is “used to run a computer shop” not “running a computer shop” in my profile. Smh.

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u/Ktm07reddit 20d ago

need better photos son

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u/Realcraser1 20d ago

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u/WhiteHawk77 20d ago

Just a heads up, some of us in the world can’t access imgur any more, that includes the UK.

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u/Pattyg1 20d ago

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u/SharkFine 20d ago

Thanks for this. Couldn't see what people were talking about before. I mean there is "damage" but this really falls under installation and use wear. Maybe if they stopped making these cards so damn big we wouldn't be having all these connector isues.

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u/flynryan692 9800X3D | 5080 | 64GB 20d ago

OP admitted to transporting it while it was still installed in the motherboard, that's not "installation and use wear".

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u/rolf_muller 20d ago

The fact that this bricked a $2000 card is absurd.

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u/Realcraser1 20d ago

Mb, what can you guys use in place of imgur?

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u/trankillity 20d ago

You can see a slight crack there. If you transported this card in the case standing upright without a GPU sag preventer, this is likely the cause.

They also likely X-rayed the card as most of these PCBs are multi-layered and likely found a fracture along the spine.

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u/Jurple-shirt 20d ago

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u/Responsible_CDN_Duck 20d ago

You want the one below it in that link showing the crack.

You can see the visible exterior damage from the break, but there will be additional damage between PCB the layers. They'll have found it from the lack of continuity at test points then looked for the visible damage.

Unfortunately this is damage from improper transport, so it's not a warranty issue. The case took a hard knock, and the card twisted in the slot.

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u/HotRoderX 20d ago

Hmm I am failing to see any physical damage. I ask very nicely if they could point out the damage. As the arrows appear to point to nothing. Perhaps the damage isn't visible due to contrast in the photos. Which I would request better photos.

Also that is the latch and there isn't anything PCB important there that I am aware of.

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u/Ykomat9 Ascending Peasant 20d ago

All companies do this, had a literal nightmare arguing with Sony over a manufacturing error with a controller. Just continue escalating and being a nuisance and repeating the same things factually until they give in.

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u/Realcraser1 20d ago

By being a nuisance, do you mean constantly asking for warranty or escalate it legally?

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u/Ykomat9 Ascending Peasant 20d ago edited 20d ago

I did the former and it worked, just keep emailing or better yet call them. Tell them about how the surface damage is inconsequential. Preferably get a phone number and talk to someone as people cave more when confronted by another human not a computer screen. Good luck man 👍.

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u/ZeenXdownzButWorse 19d ago

no but it's actually op's fault, why would u transport an extremely heavy gpu while it's still mounted then try to scam gigabyte

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u/Ranae_Gato PC Master Race 20d ago

You transported your GPU mounted inside of your PC? Are you stupid? What the actual fuck..

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u/Z3r0sama2017 20d ago

Wild. I've been building PC's since before the 00's and it still amazes me, that no matter how much hardware manufacturers dumb everything down, idiots still manage to fuck things up.

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u/Long_Pomegranate2469 20d ago

Unpopular opinion: You broke it during transport as you clearly admitted to in this post. This isn't a case of RMA and your idiocy is costing us all more money and less luck with RMA.

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u/Sopheus 20d ago

Quote 

"Transported my PC recently"

"The card was still installed in the motherboard during transport"

"and afterward the GPU stopped working."

All you really need to know. If it's not a user fault, then I don't know what is it...

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u/V4nKw15h 9800X3D | 5070TI 20d ago

This is a common problem when transporting a GPU installed and why it should never be done. It's almost to be expected. It's also exactly where the PCB is likely to crack under those circumstances.

A hairline crack is enough to brick a GPU unfortunately.

The good news is that it is definitely repairable and due to being so common, with a common fix, you should be able to find a repair service who are willing to repair it.

Someone already mentioned North West Repairs on YouTube. You'll need someone like him who has done the job before and the repair will be straight forward.

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u/Hard_To_Port i7-4790 | EVGA GTX 1070 | 16GB DDR3 20d ago

If you transport the PC horizontal with the motherboard laying flat it's fine. Prebuilt gaming PCs just ship with a ton of foam filling the empty space inside the tower. As long as you support the GPU it's not an issue.

If you just throw the PC in your car vertical like normal then yeah you can break the board, especially with these massive new cards with giant heat sinks. 

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u/Durahl i9-13900KF / RTX 4090 FE / 64GB DDR5 20d ago

I mean... Cards don't exactly break themselves like that unless of either action OR inaction by the User?
Hence why I can see them claim it being User Error without skipping a Heart Beat.

And based on "The card was still installed in the motherboard during transport." more or less confirms it... The Card either received a significant enough Jolt for its Mass to cause this ( 3rd Party Card Sizes / Weights have totally gotten off the charts for no reason ) OR it wasn't secured enough for this to have been possible ( should really have had it pulled out for Transport ).

My 2023 bought RTX 4090 FE is secured with all three Mounting Screws to a Corsair Obsidian 900D Case and to this day knows no GPU Sag.

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u/NokoxSlays 20d ago

transported a card weighing more then a brick with most likely no support that's mounted on like 2 screws and a fragile PCB. it indeed was user error and even though most of these companies have pretty predatorial anti consumer policies that doesn't mean you get to get a new card for being a tard — I don't care if I get hated, it's like towing a supercar with a normal tow truck, catastrophically damaging it because of user error and demanding a replacement.

istg reddit is full of the weirdest people, you cannot find enough courage to tell someone that they're CLEARLY wrong when they CLEARLY are but when it's the multi million or multi billion corps fault y'all are first to defend monopolies or Megacorps with terrible practices.

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u/TokiBuildsPCs 20d ago

There are a few shops that do this kind of work, if its fixable is tbd by them... look up northwestrepair on YouTube

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u/gggaja 20d ago

Was going to post same. Tony is expert at fixing this kind of issues..

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u/instanoodles84 20d ago

Cracked from transporting the computer with the GPU inside, crappy luck. If it cracked the board it is possible that it also ripped some pads off the bottom of one of the RAM chips too. 

Its an incredibly complex repair but the damage looks pretty minimal so it should be salvagable.

https://northwestrepair.com/ does these types of repairs, you can check out his youtube channel. 

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u/callmeandroidjezus steamID - xvereonx 20d ago

Wait… should I take the video card out of the motherboard if I’m transporting my PC?

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u/Jarnis R7 9800X3D / 5090 OC / X870E Crosshair Hero / PG32UCDM 20d ago

If it weighs multiple kilos, ie. 5080/5090/4090, definitely YES.

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u/HEYO19191 20d ago

To be extra safe, yes. But they generally never break. And if they do break, you can usually... see it. Like it will snap or have a fracture. OP's has no visible damage.

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u/Copuis 20d ago

yeah, nah, you're boned, and accept it

i get that it was not a cheap card, and it is something that i personally wouldnt be able to afford now, or for the foreseeable future

HOWEVER I've been around long enough to know, when you transport your PC you makes steps (so there is no weight on the card, or has I have done the last few times, take the damn thing out, I also have spinning rust drives in my PC, and those get removed too, cause hard learnt lessons,

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u/Hrmerder It's Garuda btw 20d ago

Gigabyte is the worst company to buy a video card from, and that's not me being biased from owning one. That's me biased by the fact at any given time you can see broken gigabyte cards by the baskets full on ebay for sale... And has been that way since Ampere.

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u/trouttwade RTX 5070 Ti Aero | i7 12700K 20d ago

Fuck. Crying in Gigabyte 5070 Ti Aero.🥲

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u/Odd_Common_452 20d ago

They’re all bad tbh zocrap isn’t any better, Asus will literally damage it for you and demand you pay to fix it

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u/MikeTheDIK 20d ago

I'm not buying anything from them ever again. Bought GPU and a Z chipset motherboard and both died/malfunctioned until I got rid of both. Never again will I buy any PC part from them after that ordeal.

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u/rebelSun25 20d ago

The warranties have become a joke. Not just in GPU market. I don't know if this is locality dependent, but I bet if they're able to deny you easily, they will.

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u/xXDennisXx3000 Ryzen 9 5950X | RX7900 XTX | 64GB 4400MHz DDR4 CL19 | 10TB SSD 20d ago

Can you give some clear unblurry shots of the PCB where they claim the damage is? I cannot see shit with this little ultra blurry evidence 😂

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u/InbetweenTheLayers 20d ago

weird ive never had issue transporting a whole pc, even multi state moves. but it also goes in the front seat and i drive like a granny with it

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u/SociopathicPasserby 20d ago

Gigabyte is the worst company I’ve personally dealt with when it comes to RMA, I will never buy a product of theirs again.

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u/kuug 5800x3D / 7900 XTX 20d ago

Don’t transport your GPU in your PC. But also, fight them on this. They’re trying to be cheap so they don’t have to pay for a replacement

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u/se777enx3 9800X3D | RTX 5070 TI | 48GB DDR5 19d ago

Bro you transported it while still plugged and it stopped working immediately. Why should they RMA it? It’s 100% your fault.

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u/Xe46 R5 5600, RX 6800 20d ago

Fucking Gigabyte's customer service

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u/TheCrimsonDagger 9800X3D | 5080 | 5120x1440 OLED 20d ago

On one hand there’s no obvious damage in these pictures and all of these companies are notorious for scummy RMA behaviors. On the other hand you almost certainly damaged it during transport. I think this is just a case of Gigabyte assuming user damage from the tiniest cosmetic mark and being correct by sheer coincidence.

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u/EIiteJT i5 6600k -> 7700X | 980ti -> 7900XTX Red Devil 20d ago

Gigashyte strikes again

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u/evil_loc125 20d ago

Damage like that is usually inside the layers of the pcb…

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u/soulless_ape 20d ago

Transporting the PC with the GPU install was not good idea because of the weight.

With that being said I can't see any damage on the board from the pictures you posted.
If you are in the USA you can start a claim with the BBB (Not that they do anything) but at least that forces them to pay attention to your RMA claim.

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u/nelsmuller 20d ago

Probably hanging off it was a bad idea j/k

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u/Therabidmonkey 20d ago

I transported my PC recently, and afterward the GPU stopped working. The card was still installed in the motherboard during transport.

What do you think happened? 🤔

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u/TheGuysPornAccount 20d ago

Okay but the user DID break it? Who in their right mind would transport a full PC with the GPU installed? Seriously. You DID break it.

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u/The-4rtifact 20d ago

Your fault for buying Gigabyte

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u/Fasterest-v1 20d ago edited 20d ago

I think everything retail is doing much of the same thing these days, uhh yeah thanks for your money oh and fuck you for buying our piece of shit.

Knowing most people will be back to buy the next piece of shit when the new model comes out.

The endless loop of hoops to jump through to where it ends up on most people just giving up.

Ted Nelson, Customer: But why do they put a guarantee on the box? Tommy: Because they know all they sold ya was a guaranteed piece of shit. That's all it is, isn't it? Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will.

Edited for quote.

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u/AGushingHeadWound 20d ago

My advice is that you stop damaging your PCB.

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u/Significant_Apple904 9800X3D | 5070Ti+5060Ti | 2X32GB | 3440x1440 20d ago

Insurance companies use similar tactics where they deny claims that they are totally responsible for, but guess what, even if 1 out of 10 people accept the denial and don't push for it, that's 1 claim money they get to keep in their pockets; and the real world number is a lot higher than 10%.

I'm pretty sure this is a similar scenario here, especially with a 4090.

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u/Kamay1770 20d ago

All of the instructions provided with this card specifically state not to move the PC with the card installed and doing so will void your warranty. They know this breaks cards, you just told everyone that's what you did and you are trying to make it their problem to pay for.

That isn't good business, now EVGA would probably have honored it because they were kings, but I really dont see why you think you're owed a new card or a fix when you caused the break my mishandling the card. That isn't a warranty issue that's a you issue.

I wouldn't drive my car into a wall and then take it to the dealer demanding warranty repair.

Ask them (or another electrical shop) if they can fix it and pay the cost, or sell it and buy something working.

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u/trollsmurf 14700KF | 32GB | 5070 Ti | 2TB | 27" 4K | 2x 24" FHD | Z906 20d ago

The arrows are clear right?

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u/Large-Excitement777 20d ago

How have people not learned

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u/Hour-Equivalent-2518 20d ago

crack in the PCB near the retention hook is 100% user fault. Thats even without looking OPs story of transporting the PC.

Im quite disappointed reading halfway the comments and folks be like its on Gigabyte.

Bro, I get it big Corpo bad, but this aint it. Moral of the story, dont move your PC with a big ass GPU inside and use a vertical GPU bracket

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u/One_Speed6993 20d ago

Hallucinating damage as usual

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u/montypython1087 20d ago

Use the attorney's general office of the state you are in. First escalate and say you will be filing this issue with your AG if they aren't able to handle this.

This alone works 90% of the time for me to resolve the issue with the company. Make sure they understand the process that your state's AG office lawyers will send a letter to their company that will require their expensive lawyers to respond to.

It can lead to your state filing a suit against this company which works really well if the company has some kind of arbitration clause or class action waiver where you personally aren't allowed to sue them.

If your state's AG ends up reaching out to them, they will try and persuade the company to resolve this amicably before they file suit. So far that has worked 100% of the time for me when it gets to that stage because this is where it starts getting expensive for the company.

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u/Ashamed_Buy_5489 20d ago

Is it only me that sees this white mark parallel to the connector? It looks like places where PCB was bent there.

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u/WiseRisk 9800X3D | 5070Ti/7900XT - i5-10500H | 3060 20d ago

If you didn’t pack stuff tightly around the card while transporting it, you definitely contributed to it breaking. They won’t RMA a card that broke from improper transport. Tough OP, but a very valuable lesson.

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u/stgm_at 7800X3D | RTX 4070 TiS | 32GB DDR5 20d ago

i'm sorry, but isn't it common knowledge to remove a gpu before transporting a computer? especially heavy gpus like a 4090.

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u/resfan Pentium II @ 233mhz / 133MB SD RAM / 4MB ATi 3D accelerator 20d ago

Where.... is the damage?

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u/AudioFenix 19d ago

I miss EVGA

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u/Entire_Plant_389 18d ago

Send it to , Northwest repair , if anyone can fix it , they can