Poof!!! went the gpu...

[Gellidius]

yep, right! yesterday, all of a sudden, the moni. image becomes all scrambled and i have to reboot.
When i restart Folding@home, same thing happens.

Hoping it's not a dead gpu again, as happened to me a few months back, i reinstall the gpu drivers; card's not any better.
I reinstall Win XP, and it's still a no go.

Now i have to take the card back to the dealer again, hoping it won't take 2 months, like the last time.

Card is BFG GTX 280 OC.

This will be the last time repair for this card, if it happens again, i'll buy something else hopefully better.
In the meantime, i feel

No Folding@ home for the team for a while too.

[Safearus]

This is the same type of issue I had with my first and only BFG card... ever since I've been staying away from them. Maybe it's just a bad luck thing, but I now stick with EVGA for the most part when it comes to nVidia cards now.

[3.0charlie]

And it happened to me twice with BFG cards, twice with evgas, and once with an XFX. Shite happens. It's not because it's a BFG. Folding puts a lot of strain on the GPUs - any GPU.

Hopefully your RMA will be handled faster this time around, and that they have stock at their MTL warehouse. Maybe have an upgrade to a 285?

[Safearus]

I understand that Charlie, however this was before my folding days... I dunno, just a personal thing I guess. Not to mention the RMA period took forever for myself aswell.

I'll admit I've heard great things about BFG as well. They're just not for me anymore IMO

[martin_metal_88]

Sorry about that my friend. Don't blame BFG for the dead GPU, folding is a pretty hard operation for a card doing 24/7 it's normal that they died sometime faster then other card. But, 2 months for RMA? bg is one of the faster manufacturer out there. especially if you are in quebec it's in Donacona I Think. Wich place is your vendor I really want to know what the hell taking 2 months shipping 30 KM away? PM me if don't want to tell it here.

Ask for more.

[Gellidius]

The store from whom i bought this gpu seemed to doubt that those cards are made for folding 24/7, so a few weeks ago i wrote BFG and asked them if folding was covered by their warranty; here's a copy of the email exchange:
Me:

> > > Description of Problem: I would like to know if this
> > card is made to do
> > Folding@home 24/7 without problems, if my pc is well
> > ventilated, i.e. a
> > flow-through of about 60-80cfm.
> > >
> > > PC Brand:
> > > Motherboard Brand: Asus Rampage Formula
> > > Motherboard Chipset:
> > > Processor Type: Q6600 G0
> > > System Memory: 4GB
> > > System BIOS: 0701
> > > Nvidia Driver: 186.?? (the latest one)

BFG's answer:

Re: [Ticket#2078xxxx] BFG Support - Web Request
Thursday, August 6, 2009 5:52 PM
From:
"BFG Support" <support@bfgfixx.com>
Add sender to Contacts
To:
<gellidiusatyahoo.com>

The card should be able to handle what you are looking to do.

Thank you,
Tim S
BFG Support

[3.0charlie]

Of course they are made for folding - the cards are designed to run at 100%, 24/7. I won't discuss what the store clerk told you - that's him (her) to think this, and you to believe (or not) that fact.

Again, folding puts a lot of strain on the card, and good airflow / fan speed bump is mandatory in order to fold. My 275s are folding 24/7, with a fan speed of 75%. Temps are ~ 85C on a 472.

For your RMA, deal directly with BFG. Their warehouse is in Kahnawake (southshore of MTL) - if the turn-around time is slow, it's because they don't have any in stock, which happened to you and me last time.