1GB BFG Tech GTX 280 H2OC ETA please

[shaithis]

Makes me glad I held off and didn't get one.....and doubt I will ever buy a BFG product after this tail of woe.

Hope it gets sorted for you.

[GoNz0]

3rd card arrived, this ones brand new and the correct BIOS, along with an apology.

then again BFG support ain't the best in the UK, cheeky beggers springs to mind after they forgot to put me on hold, opened a conference call and called me arsey while i was listening..

yeh i know im arsey, but when you send an email saying your sending another card and arranging a later collection then change your mind im allowed to get arsey



how to make BFG tech support squirm, reply with "I heard that im not on hold" LMFAO

[Ginge]

Well I'll just update you on my tales of woe. I returned my 3 cards to BFG on Monday 18th and recieved my replacements on friday 22nd. Since then I've had enless problems trying to get this system to remain stable. At first I thought I had knackered cards again but after lots of driver un-installs / installs and dx updates things were looking good.
I pulled a Vantage score of 22,000 with my Q6600 running at 3.2 but couldn't play any games for more than about 20mins without either a BSOD or a system freeze which only a reset would cure. As I was planning a CPU upgrade I thought I'd wait till I got that before I started to work out the bugs. At least the cards were working.
Then one morning I powered on the system, monitor powered up, but nothing came on the screen. Feck! After about the 4th try I got a distorted screen come up. I booted into windows re-installed drivers and re-booted and that seems to have fixed it.
I also get an ocassional problem when trying to play Batlefield 2 or COD4 that the sceen will distort. It looks like there is static all over. When this happens in BF2 if you leave the game and go to the game menu it disappears but if you then go back into the game i reappears again. Then when you exit to desktop it's on there too. I tried taking a screenshot of it but it doesn't show too well. (It flashes all over the screen). Reboot and it's gone so I'm hoping this is just a driver issue and not the cards.



I picked up new CPU (Q9550) on Friday from scan and started to try and get this stable but so far I've not managed. Boots into windows no problems but will only run through Vantage occaisonally (26,000 when it does!), I've had the Crysis benchmarking tool do runs at 1920 x 1200, very high, 16xaa and got a steady 38fps but then when I go ingame I'm lucky to get 10 mins before it crashes out, and BF2 is just being stupid. It has low framerates (40-80), occasonal graphics gliches and crashes whenever it's in the mood, but sometimes (3 times acutally) its played for 4-5 hours. Its really driving me mad now. I've tried maually setting voltages and timings in the bios but cant find any combinations that seem to work. Wondering if I might have a bad CPU because when I run prime95 cores 2/3 fail in the first few seconds whereas cores 0/1 seems to run stable.
Any ideas? I'm at a loss with this right now and just want to sort it out so I can enjoy it!

[GoNz0]

that looks like memory corruption m8, try removing one of the cards from the sli bridge and see how you get on ?

i sorry to say BFG quality control from the guys in wales doesnt happen as they sent me someones faulty card, the joys of using a handling centre, did your cards come in brand new box's., if not its time to kick up a stink like i did as within 7 days you should be gettings a new sealed product, not someone elses cast off.

[Fat Tony]

I thought I had it bad, but my experience was just time consuming and frustrating.

For the record, mine has been running without an issue for three weeks now since scan flashed it with the correct BIOS. BFG had asked that I send it to them – I got an RMA – but it was simpler just to get in the car and go to scan to sort it. From GoNzo’s experience, looks like I saved myself some extended hassle.

You know, I'd start dropping phrases like "sale of goods act" and "not fit for purpose" into conversations with BFG.

I work for a UK manufacturer (not IT products) and when we experience obvious manufacturing faults we replace the item immediately - we swap the faulty item with a non-faulty item leaving the consumer with a working product - not with a 4 day wait for it to be returned. This is especially true of our top of the range products - not the case with BFG - which is disappointing.

There is an EVGA water cooled card – but at £540+ it’s an expensive alternative.

All in all, this is my first experience of BFG - and I'm far from impressed. I'll steer clear of their products in the future if there's a similarly priced alternative. I have to say that this is just my experience (and GoNzo and Ginges I dare say), but what else can you go on but bitter experience ?

In fact, I’ve just built a top end system for a friend, and used an MSI GTX280 card rather than a BFG one just on the basis that I couldn’t afford to be running round sorting another issue out while not having been paid.

Booo Hiisss BFG (Broken F’ing Gun I think)

[Ginge]

Another quick update:

I've still not got this machine to run stable in games. Then, when I got home last night and tried booting up it promtly refused. Monitor would power up but no display. This was the second time this had happened to me. A few restarts and I eventually got distorted screen comming back so decided the cards were going back again. As it was 5am I couldn't phone them so I sent an Email to euro support having a good rant and rave at them and went to bed.
I was woken by a phone call at 9am from BFG. They are sending a courier today to pick up these 3 cards so I've just spent the last hour and half draining it all down and removing the cards again. 3 new sealed retail boxed cards are arriving tomorrow am.

3rd time lucky????

[GoNz0]

fingers crossed m8

[Fat Tony]

Good luck Ginge - and let us know what happens

[emul8]

Any updates guys?

I was looking at purchasing one of these cards but they have not been in stock for ages.
Searching for info as to any reason for the lack of stock is what brought me here.
I must say it’s been an interesting read

[GoNz0]

they may never come back into stock as they were limited edition m8, we waited a long time with several ETA changes before getting our hands on them, and at least 4 from this thread got returned faulty as it seems BFG aint as good as we all thought !

i got there in the end, 3rd cards been fine !

[Mad Beef]

Great, I've got one on pre-order but I used finance and now owe the finance company regardless.

If they're never back in stock then God knows what to do.

The card was meant to replace my broken 8800 Ultra. I'm stuck using this crappy old laptop with a broken screen running it through my monitor while my beast of a rig sits there like a waste of space.

Come on BFG, pull your finger out.

[sjbuck]

Have read this thread with interest. I think given the price of a 280GTX is now around £309 and a block is £67, the price comes to the same as the BFG complete with water block but minus the issues above.

I'll either get the bit individually or look at an ati 4850 CF setup I think.

[emul8]

Also minus your lifetime warranty

I took delivery of one of these cards yesturday its a very nice peice o kit but I havent had chance to set it up yet