RMA or repair?

[Insthink]

I have a XFX 9800GT that I bought over a year ago.
When I bought it, I promptly changed the thermalpaste to apply Arctic Silver 5.


Now, the card stopped working.
When I plug in the 6-pin power connector, the PSU won't start. If I unplug the 6-pin, the PSU can start.
Heck I tried with different PSU's.
Even with the gfx card not connected to the motherboard, plugging in the 6-pin connector will cause the PSU to shut down. [PSU started with the pin trick to link the green wire to a black wire]

I'm 99% sure it's a defective diode [not temperature diode, but this sort of diode (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diode). I had the exact same symptom [PSU shutting down] with a hard drive. All I had to do was replace the burnt diode.
Though, for the gfx card, whichever one is broken is not visibly burnt, hence I cant find it.





ANYWAYYYYYYYYyY - I'm not sure if having changed the thermalpaste has voided my warranty. If it has, I'd risk fixing my gfx card. If it hasn't, I'll just RMA it.

[tinymouse2]

I'm pretty sure as soon as you remove something from it then you'll void the warrenty.

If it's still in warrenty then I would go with that (as long as your not with XFX, they took 3 months to replace a 7900gs and it still cost me 20 quid to repalce it... Terrible service.

[freeagent]

^^

I had the opposite exp. with xfx. I sent them my 295 the week before last, and my new 295 is expected to arrive on the 4th :thup: They have been excellent to me, answering my questions and such.

Reccomended :)

As far as your warranty goes.. Hmm. Tough call. Send it in anyways, the worst they will do is send it back to you

[turbohans]

Yea always RMA if you can first,, NDA if your desprate. fixing it under warranty is walking a tight-rope if your's dont work you just voided a warranty if not carefull.