XFX GTX280 Died

[JamesD]

I ordered my pc from Scan in the summer and everything has been great until now. Today I started getting artifacts whilst playing WoW of all games. Went back to the desktop and that was covered with artifacts to the point it was unusable. I switched off the comp and waited for a while - back on it went and was fine for a short while before artifacts appeared. I reseated the card and power to give it another go and rolled back my drivers. I then gave Crysis Warhead a go and it was fine for a good 5-10 minutes until it decided to artifact to the point where I had to reboot, and now it's artifacting all the time.

I'm planning on giving Scan a ring and making a 2 hour drive to attempt to get this sorted same day or at least in as little time possible, will this be possible? What do I need to take with me?

[TAKTAK]

IIRC, as the card is an XFX, it has to be sent to XFX for them to test wehther that be via scan or otherwise it doesn't matter...

If i'm wrong a scan chap will no doubt put me straight

[Nelsaidi]

It seems you graphics card is overheating tbh, thats not a fault, could be dust, blow of dust from the card's cooler. Also, make sure cooling is good in your case, thats balanced intake and outtake fans, and try a side fan if possible, it helps alot.

Actually, did you say artifacts ALL THE TIME? Ie whie ithas the loading windows icon, or while posting or in bios, ar there artifacts there?

[TAKTAK]

It seems you graphics card is overheating tbh, thats not a fault, could be dust, blow of dust from the card's cooler. Also, make sure cooling is good in your case, thats balanced intake and outtake fans, and try a side fan if possible, it helps alot.

Actually, did you say artifacts ALL THE TIME? Ie whie ithas the loading windows icon, or while posting or in bios, ar there artifacts there?

I would guess that it is a problem with the vRAM on the GFX board

[JamesD]

Yeah in the end it was artificting all the time from the windows loading screen including the logon screen.

[Nelsaidi]

If its all the time then it most likely is, same thing happend with my 7600gt, suddenly went mad, and artifacts everywhere, anytime.

[JamesD]

Ok got in touch with Scan this morning and got my RMA number. Do I need to package everything that came in the box originally or will just the card be sufficient?

[GoNz0]

everything im afraid

[JamesD]

I thought I'd give people an update that this is now resolved, and I didn't have to wait for it to get sent to XFX, I just got it swapped there and then after waiting for about an hour for it to artifact I dropped on lucky too as they couldn't find any bog standard 280's, so I had to settle for a 280 XT. I received excellent customer service as per usual so thanks Scan

[TAKTAK]

Aah, goodo, i'm glad i was wrong