XFX R9 280X Black Edition Flickering

[Patrice Forest]

RMA # XNAR20111

I have done a test chart with OCCT and there was still a black sreen after 2-3 hours

 

[Patrice Forest]

Hello, I tested the graphics card on multiple computers, including a brand new, with an ASUS SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0 AMD AM3 + 990FX + SB950 8 x SATA 6Gb / s USB 3.0 ATX AMD and always the same problems noted so that when you start the computer, before you even get into windows, the display is corrupted or flash and abnormal way.

 

[gruenerbert]

Same here. I got the R9-280X-TDFD with a couple of months of warranty left.
The flickering is very strong when browsing or watching videos, but games run smooth. So I guess it's the same issue with low memory clocks mentioned before, because when I manually set them to 450/600 in AMD Overdrive, flickering in 2D disappears. But then, they are fixed at this value. I couldn't find a way to increase only the lower clock speed limit. The latest BIOS didn't help either; even worse, it makes my computer freeze after a couple of minutes! So I had to revert to the orignal BIOS, luckily I had a backup.
I appreciate your service forum, @XFXSupport, but if I am to submit so much personal information on the internet, at least use HTTPS!!!

 

[XFXSupport]

What is ther serial #? shoot me a PM and ill grab the proper bios file for you

 

[gruenerbert]

Great, I flashed the file like you said and now flickering is gone!
But unfortunately, a new problem appeared: After ~3 minutes of gameplay, the card stops working completely! (tested in Company of Heroes 2 and Unigine Valley benchmark, even with Frame Target Control set to 75 fps in the latter) That is, fan sound fades away and I get a black screen (monitor says "No signal"), although the chassis fans keep spinning. Any idea on how to solve this?

 

[XFXSupport]

You have a hynix ram card, i have 1 more bios that might fix it. pm me your email address and ill send it over

 

[gruenerbert]

Unfortunately, didn't help either. I flashed your new BIOS using atiwinflash.exe and restarted. When I opened Unigine Valley, I noticed one slight flickering in the options window. Then I started the benchmark (preset Extreme HD); it ran fine with good FPS, but after like 2 minutes, card died again. It seems to me this hardware is faulty. Any other suggestion?

 

[XFXSupport]

Is it still in warranty? it sounds like its faulty but not actually because of a bios issue. what is your ticket # from xfxsupport.com?

 

[gruenerbert]

Finally, I got a reply from XFX Service department; they just told me to contact the reseller... A bit strange. But I will visit the store next time I'm around and see if they can help me. Probably will report back as soon as there are any news.

 

[XFXSupport]

Oh, Europe Warrantys are a bit difference, that makes sense.

 

[gruenerbert]

Ok. Today, I brought the card to the reseller where it was purchased. Hopefully, everything is taken care of soon.
Temperatures are rising this week, so not much of a gaming weather anyway...

 

[gruenerbert]

I'd like to edit my previous post, but since I don't know how, I'm writing a new one.

Today I got a message from my local reseller. They just forwarded the card to their supplier, which after almost three weeks (!!! Really, what took them so long?) noticed that they could not repair the card. But the real cheekiness lies in them offering me a refund of less than 50 % of the original price (called "Zeitwertersatz" or "current value indemnification")! As if I had just rented the card from them, and now that it's damaged, I need to return it and just get a small amount of money back. This is completely unacceptable to me.
But, since I suppose the card never reached XFX, I contacted a technician via the service forum, asking XFX to handle this issue directly. Come on XFX, you can do better than that reseller, right?

 

[XFXSupport]

It depends on the warranty. If you're still covered under warranty, then it should be covered.

Unfortunately, as i mentioned, warranties are very different in Europe region compares to N. America.

Update your support ticket and seek advice from our regional reps via xfxsupport.com.

to Clarify, if hes offering you a refund based on current costs, thats a warranty im not familiar with, however, i suspect they wouldn't be doing anything illegal intentionally.

 

[gruenerbert]

After further inquiries through XFX support forum, I only got this frustrating reply:

We can't force the distirbutor to send the card to us.
Even they send, we still credit to them so you may only receive the same amount as compensation.
But the problem is the card is out of warranty in our record so we can't offer direct RMA to you.
I can only suggest you to accept their offer as it is the only way for you to get settled.

Why should the card be "out of warranty" if there are still two months left?
And according to the reseller, they sent it to their distributor and then to the manufacturer (=XFX), which decided this "refund based on current costs" fraud! So either one is lying! Very disappointed!

 

[XFXSupport]

Your serial # is a P3, meaning March 2014. meaning its warranty expired in our system about 5 months ago. Distribution can be slow, so we usually add another 60 days to cover anyone with a predicament like yours. In your case, its still far out of warranty (in our system). Technically, we offer 24 months from the date of purchase. Did you provide them your receipt?

 

[gruenerbert]

Well, as the buyer, I have no influence on distribution chains or anything. I now that other manufacturers (e.g. Gigabyte) explicitly offer a three-year warranty starting from the date of production. However, XFX states that

The limited hardware warranty on all XFX-branded products begins on the date of the packing slip, invoice, or receipt.

And yes, of course I had to show the original receipt to the local shop; otherwise, they wouldn't have accepted the card. (I can PM it to you if you want.)

 

[gruenerbert]

Any news? I requested the card to returned by the reseller, but after two days they told me that "unfortunately, our distributor tells us that this is not possible anymore." So do you even know where the card is right now? Maybe it fell of the truck!?
As of now, I would need to accept a "refund" which only covers less than 60% of the price of an equal replacement card. I still find this unacceptable because this is just not what the word "warranty" means.

a written statement that promises the good condition of a product and states that the maker is responsible for repairing or replacing the product usually for a certain period of time after its purchase

Needless to say that if there's no better outcome, I won't consider buying any XFX products again.

 

[eidairaman1]

Any news? I requested the card to returned by the reseller, but after two days they told me that "unfortunately, our distributor tells us that this is not possible anymore." So do you even know where the card is right now? Maybe it fell of the truck!?
As of now, I would need to accept a "refund" which only covers less than 60% of the price of an equal replacement card. I still find this unacceptable because this is just not what the word "warranty" means.

Needless to say that if there's no better outcome, I won't consider buying any XFX products again.

they should just give you a 300 series card then.

Your shop you bought the card from pretty much is giving you the run around, I wouldn't buy from that shop after this

@XFXSupport

 

[gruenerbert]

Your shop you bought the card from pretty much is giving you the run around

I'm not entirely sure here. First, it was XFX who explicitly had me bringing the card to the shop, not sending it to them directly. Later, when I complained to them about the way too low "refund", they told me to accept it (see quote above). They neither confirmed nor denied having received the card.
When I complained to the reseller, they told me this is what they were getting from XFX, they're just forwarding it to me. This gives me the impression that the shop is too lazy to take any efforts in this issue, since they just forward the money or the card, no matter which card or how much money. They don't collect any revenue, so they don't care. But right now I‘m uncertain whether XFX is actually willing to handle this case correctly. So they just keep blaming each other, while the joke is on me.
Of course, I cannot prove it, but this is the impression I'm getting here.

 

[XFXSupport]

Hey Gruenerbert, Im sorry you are still having trouble. I want to remind you, this isn't XFX's fault.

You returned a card to your local store, without an RMA # or any type of warranty replacement confirmation from XFX. You gave it to the store, the store gave it to their distributor, and offered you a partial refund. This is not XFX's Fault. If you send it to XFX, we will send you back a complete replacement.

It sounds like the distributor or store is holding your card. If you want us to replace it, get it back from the people you gave it to, and send it to us. We've already verified your receipt is within 24 months, albeit surprising, given the date we sold it to the distributor.

We can still get this replaced under warranty, but we need your card to do it.

 

[eidairaman1]

Hey Gruenerbert, Im sorry you are still having trouble. I want to remind you, this isn't XFX's fault.

You returned a card to your local store, without an RMA # or any type of warranty replacement confirmation from XFX. You gave it to the store, the store gave it to their distributor, and offered you a partial refund. This is not XFX's Fault. If you send it to XFX, we will send you back a complete replacement.

It sounds like the distributor or store is holding your card. If you want us to replace it, get it back from the people you gave it to, and send it to us. We've already verified your receipt is within 24 months, albeit surprising, given the date we sold it to the distributor.

We can still get this replaced under warranty, but we need your card to do it.

Hence why I said the store is giving him the run around lol. I wouldn't buy from that shop again and give them a poor rating of crookedness.

I've had 3 cards total in my life needing a replacement, well I would go directly to the manufacturers site and go through them. Most shops are only good up to 1-4 weeks on returns.

To me it sounds like his hands are tied and might just need to swallow his pride and go buy a card from a different shop or go online for it.

 

[gruenerbert]

Hey Gruenerbert, Im sorry you are still having trouble. I want to remind you, this isn't XFX's fault.
You returned a card to your local store, without an RMA # or any type of warranty replacement confirmation from XFX. You gave it to the store, the store gave it to their distributor, and offered you a partial refund. This is not XFX's Fault. If you send it to XFX, we will send you back a complete replacement.

This is only partially true! Actually, the first thing I did when I realized the card was unstable was registering it at your service forum (August 12, 2016). This is where I got the following advice:

If you buy it within 2 years, the warranty will be beared by your seller.
Please contact them to get replacement or apply RMA for you.

Obviously, XFXs advice was to get the seller to handle the RMA; you did not tell me that I could have sent it to XFX directly! So, dear @XFXSupport, as much as I appreciate your efforts in this affair, please don't pretend that XFX has no fault in this!

It sounds like the distributor or store is holding your card. If you want us to replace it, get it back from the people you gave it to, and send it to us. We've already verified your receipt is within 24 months, albeit surprising, given the date we sold it to the distributor.
We can still get this replaced under warranty, but we need your card to do it.

Sounds nice, but as you already found out, the distributor sent the card to an unknown location, so they refuse to give it back!!! And even if I could get it: What XFX offers me doesn't sound ideal either:

I have got the invoice and here is our offer.
Please consider that you need to pay the forward shippment cost from your country to our warehouse in Netherlands.
Moreover, if there is any customs or taxes charged by your local country, you will need to afford. (may be up to 50 to 100 euros)
[...] Please note I have to advise this CAN take up to eight weeks.
I understand it is not familiar but it is the only offer I can give.

So I would refuse the """refund""", send the faulty card to XFX for ~16 €, wait 4-8 weeks and receive a R9 380X at the most, which currently retails for ~190 €, and pay another 100 € for the customs on top! If I sell the card, I'd get 170 € at the most! That means I keep (170 - 100 - 16) = 54 €. That's half of what I get from the store!!! And this money can be reclaimed anytime I want, without even one day of delay! (Even if the customs&taxes was just 50 €, it'd still be slightly less than the seller's """offer""".)
What bugs me most here is that this is "the only offer [you] can give". We're not talking about goodwill here, like the card broke two days after warranty was over; we're talking about a regular European RMA!

Thus, it is as @eidairaman1 said:

To me it sounds like his hands are tied and might just need to swallow his pride and go buy a card from a different shop or go online for it.

My hands are tied; I can choose between accepting the """refund""" being conned out of ~80 €, or getting 0!!!
And yes, I will definitely buy from other shops and manufacturers in the future!

 

[XFXSupport]

The first step in EUR warranties is to handle it at a local level. Also, in our system, your card was out of warranty for nearly 6 months. It would have been surprising to RMA it in the first place.

We, nor any other manufacturer, has a branch in every country in the world. The local return policy is there to help our community.

The retailer on the other hand should have made their intentions clear before accepting your card, and your expectations should have been solidified before ever handing it over.

Did you sign any forms or contracts? What were your expectations (not in your imagination, what they actually said they would do)?

edit- Minor text fixes

 

[eidairaman1]

This is only partially true! Actually, the first thing I did when I realized the card was unstable was registering it at your service forum (August 12, 2016). This is where I got the following advice:

Obviously, XFXs advice was to get the seller to handle the RMA; you did not tell me that I could have sent it to XFX directly! So, dear @XFXSupport, as much as I appreciate your efforts in this affair, please don't pretend that XFX has no fault in this!

Sounds nice, but as you already found out, the distributor sent the card to an unknown location, so they refuse to give it back!!! And even if I could get it: What XFX offers me doesn't sound ideal either:

So I would refuse the """refund""", send the faulty card to XFX for ~16 €, wait 4-8 weeks and receive a R9 380X at the most, which currently retails for ~190 €, and pay another 100 € for the customs on top! If I sell the card, I'd get 170 € at the most! That means I keep (170 - 100 - 16) = 54 €. That's half of what I get from the store!!! And this money can be reclaimed anytime I want, without even one day of delay! (Even if the customs&taxes was just 50 €, it'd still be slightly less than the seller's """offer""".)
What bugs me most here is that this is "the only offer [you] can give". We're not talking about goodwill here, like the card broke two days after warranty was over; we're talking about a regular European RMA!

Thus, it is as @eidairaman1 said:

My hands are tied; I can choose between accepting the """refund""" being conned out of ~80 €, or getting 0!!!
And yes, I will definitely buy from other shops and manufacturers in the future!

It's not the manufacturer, it's that shop you got the card from. I'd take the refund so you at least get something out of this, I'd report the shop you bought the card from for foul business practices.