XFX 7900 GT Blinking Screen w/FEAR

[The Codfather]

I had a PC re-build the other week, one of the main components changed was the GPU, the upgrade being to an XFX 7900 GT (470/1370) and it's ran absoultely fine since last Friday.
I changed the hairdryer like stock cooler for a Zalman VF900-Cu and after enjoying the silence for a while decided to see what more the card had to offer.

It clocked to 528/1612, giving a massive boost in performance. I then proceded to run, Half Life 2/Lost Coast with no problem and hours of Battlefield 2 over the weekend also completely problem free.

When I went to play FEAR though it was a different story.. I loaded up the game to try some Multi-player, noticed artefacting, immeditately quit and when I returned to the desktop I got corrupt menus and a blinking desktop (blank, image, blank, image) I restarted, reduced the clocks to the stock XFX clocks and tried FEAR again. Problem gone.
I then returned the card back to my clocks and the problem was also gone. Lovely and smooth and artefact free. I must've played for 3 hours or so, some multiplayer then single player, great throughout no problems, until I went to quit and returned to the desktop to be met with the blinking screen once again.

I'm just wondering what to do now. Obviously I could clock back a bit but the OC seems to have no effect on my other games.. I can't really RMA as I've changed the stock cooler and I believe this breeches the warranty :/

Any ideas?

[Clunk]

my gtx is doing it as well, only got it on friday, do a google and youll see that there are hundreds of people with the same problem. something to do with substandard voltage regulators i think.

try running 3dmark06 and see if it sees its arse on the deep freeze scene.

good luck.

[sawyen]

classic 7900gt issue IMO..

I think its one of those 'bad batch' issues where the voltage regulators cant take the beating and eventually crack..

[The Codfather]

I'll have a go with 06.

I've ran a bunch of 03 and 05 tests in the last couple of days though and it's had no problem with those, I will see how it fares with 06 though.

What about the RMA issue though? should i just explain what happened to Scan and hope they'll be forgiving? I still have the stock cooler and it'd be pretty easy to put back on.. I'll just have to hope I don't have to go through any of that.

[Clunk]

i posted in the scan forum about an rma, i didnt fancy waiting the 2 weeks to get a replacement/refund. give them a shout, im sure they are well aware of the issue.

[The Codfather]

Seems there's not much Scan can do directly judging thier response. Let us know how your RMA goes through and I'll act soon after.

As for my card, I'll grab 3D Mark 06 tonight and hope for the best.

[Clunk]

im just going to go for a refund, there is no way on earth that im ringing xfx on an 0906 number to be put on hold and then speak to the imbecile that i spoke to last time.