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Fried Palit GTX 570 and poor warranty response - any advice?

Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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(apologies in advance to the TLDR crew - the questions are at the bottom!)

1 week ago, I bought a Palit GTX570 Sonic Edition from a local vendor here in Dubai.

Last night I was playing DA2 when the PC shut down, I heard a snap, crackle, pop and could smell electrical burning.

Some troubleshooting revealed it was the GPU. I swapped back my old GTX285 and my system is back up and running again.

Today, I took the card (with box, invoice and all components) back to the store to exercise my warranty and get a replacement.

I was very surprised and rather peeved to find that:

1) The vendor would not swap a clearly faulty card on the spot.
2) They advised that as there was "physical damage" that they would have to return it to the manufacturer and even then there was no guarantee that I would get a replacement
3) The implication was that I had somehow damaged the card through negligence or misuse.

The "physical damage" they referred to was actually a melted/burned out chip or resistor on the back of the board - clearly visible and clearly the result of the cards failure. I accept this was present, but this is obviously a symptom of the faulty card/component.

The card was in otherwise perfect condition and had not been modded, messed with or damaged.

I was running it at stock, in a stable, well ventilated system with quality, branded components throughout - including a high quality ThermalTake ToughPower 650W PSU...

...and so here we are. The store have my money and at best, I will be without my purchased good for 3 weeks and at worst, I will never see a replacement for this card.

So:

1) Does anyone have any experiences with this kind of warranty claim - am I likely to get replacement from Palit?
2) Are there known issues with this card? Should I be fighting for a refund rather than a replacement?


I guess to add - I am in Dubai, so the limited consumer rights laws here will likely be different from you guys in the US or the UK. I guess I have just been lucky and in the 15 years or so I have been building my own machines, I have never had a component fry on me like this!

Cheers guys.

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Graphics card Master

I'm not sure what the store policy would be on this. As a USA person I would think the rules would be rather different between our two countries. Because they won't change it on the spot means the only option you have is to wait for them to return it to Palit. It certainly sounds like you should have a new card, especially seeing as its been such a short time.

As for bad cards, I honestly haven't looked into it. I've heard from a knowledgeable forum regular that stock GTX570s have been dying due to improper cooling on the VRMs. I have no idea if this is true or not. You said there was a burned part on the back of the card, which would seem to be a different problem. Good luck, I hope you get a different card.

This is what warranty's are for so go ahead and contact Palit and get a RMA. It should not be a problem.
Make sure you have a surge protector and a good PSU. Palit likely won't be to happy if you fry the replacement but these things happen.
Hopefully you've learned your lesson with that store and do not do business with them again.
In the states you'd have got a replacement on the spot.
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Thanks for the replies folks.

The card is with the store now - they will be managing the return, but I have mailed Palit as well, with the details and the serial so it is logged with them.

I will contact the store over the next day or so and make sure I get the RMA Palit assigns them.

Yeah - will avoid the store from now on!

Problem is, their behaviour is fairly common in this neck of the woods...

Best solution

Graphics card Master

I learned a few things about that brand during the GTX 460 days ware there were very obvious problems that one can spot with their own eyes. Lack of cooling on the power vrm and vry low end cooler for the core as well no vram cooling at all. I haven't paid to much attention to their GTX 570 while their 560 still has crappy cooling and air flow issues from threads posted here. Their warranty is crap and will never buy that brand unless dirt cheap well cheaper than dirt. Try to see what you can do to at the very least get your money back or a replacement and never buy from them again even if it was at a local shop. As for vrm issues with he gtx 570 I didn't know that there was any but have seen gtx 465 and 470s have failures that resulted in small fires. There is one review on newegg was one had damage to his/her house while away at school due to one card catching fire.

nforce4max said:
http://15.imagebam.com/download.php?ID=117361259&salt=9aff55&sec=65cb07&filesize=1974820&filename=IMG_0135.JPG



Yeah - that is the level of damage to my card, but on a small chip on the back of the board.

:( 


Thanks for the feedback - I do indeed doubt I will buy Palit again - once bitten, twice shy eh!

Stupid thing was, I debated for ages in the store whether to go with the EVGA or take a gamble on the Palit which had a decent looking custom cooler and a small factory OC.

Indeed, the cooler worked very well whilst it lasted - ran around 65 under max gaming load and furmark and was very quiet...idled around 35 degrees!

Shoulda chosen the EVGA!

^^^^^^


Interesting to see others with the same problem as me!

Well, I got a response from Palit - basically they are not interested and told me to take it up with the store, despite my misgivings about the way they are handling the warranty.

*sigh*

I am not sure I see this one ending well - I am certainly not getting my money back. The best I can hope for is a replacement card, but of course it will be a Palit GTX 570 again.

If I don't get anywhere with the store, I might just claim for the thing on my home contents insurance and buy something else instead - maybe now is the time to think about heading back to ATI!

Cheers
Graphics card Master

If you can get the new card do so. You can always sell it to recoup most of your $$$ and buy a better card. I don't see why Palit wouldn't take the card back.

Hello MrBenevolent


I heard your story And quite frankly was amused ... I Also live In dubai And I also own A palit gtx 570 platinum ...

I agree that Vendors here in dubai are idiots ...
Were Also very much Unlucky for The warranty , here Ain't the same as the us or europe ...

Many things could have cause it to burn , I did have A friend last week who burned his 5970 4gb because of too much heat and not enough vents ... But the thing is we have to keep in mind is the heat and humidity of dubai it can kill about anything , And if your not Keepin ur case cool , bad things are bound to happen ...

I think By now you already got A nice gpu , but As far as the Palit runs , I can say it performs very well , its been About 5 months now , I pushed the card too its limits . I overclocked the card to its near limits ... It plays Like A 580 ... But I do have A Haf x case and lots of fans , n good psu too back it up ...

Lots of 570 cards fry ... Read some more posts about it , some people fried it because of overclockin too much , or Defects or too much heat ect ... the list is long ...

I heard that Lots of peolpe in Dubai doo fry there card ...
I Haven't seen Any Major probs with this card , it worked well for me keepin it at regular Oc ... ( 830 to 900 ) but I was very Surprise At its Limits but hay Things Happen ...

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