XFX: never again

[GreyWolf]

/begin rant

I used to think that this was a good brand. I used to have confidence in them. Not any more.

Last year in March we baught 7 new machines for the designers in our studio. As the resident techie I was asked to put togther the hardware specs, and I chose to porvide graphics through GeForce 9500GTs. Our supplier gave us a couple of Inno3D card and a couple of XFX ones due to stock levels.

To date ALL the XFX cards have failed, 2 failed today while I was upgrading our OS to Win 7 Pro 64.

One of the designer baught an XFX MoBo last year, and it too has failed before 1 year was up.

That kind of failure ret cannot be coincidence.

To XFX: your packaging sure is cool, too bad what really matters is absolute donkey feaces.

/end rant.

[Frozenfireside]

Have you tried the cards with the old OS to make sure they have failed? Seems odd I must admit. I am using my XFX 250GTS with win7 64bit and haven't had 1 problem.

[wizardofid]

Still have a 6800XT running at least 6 hours a day for the last well 4 years with no problems.I do not think as such it is the brand it self but perhaps the generation of the brand.

I mean have a look at the 7 8 and 9 series of cards across all brands have been hit by failures and a lot more than in the past.

[hamin_aus]

I've heard similar stories about XFX, but I have had only pleasant experiences personally.

I have a 280GTX running on Windows 7 and working it's bottom off at the moment with no problems.

[Frozenfireside]

Notice how the models of card we have listed are middle to upper range (I have had a 6600GT XFX that STILL works as well) so maybe its the lower range of cards where you get what you pay for.

[DAE_JA_VOO]

To date ALL the XFX cards have failed, 2 failed today while I was upgrading our OS to Win 7 Pro 64.

No offence GW, but the issue there is the installation, and not the cards. Installing 7 isn't going to kill your video cards. You have some sort of driver issue or something going on there. If the cards did, in fact, fail while installing 7, you've encountered a RIDICULOUS coincidence.

Anyway, I've got to agree with the general consensus here (of everyone who replied, not you GW ), I've had nothing but win from XFX. My first XFX cards were the two 7800GTs I bought in 2006, after which I had an 8800GTS for about 18 months, and now I have a GTX295. I've never had any issues with any of my cards. Heck, I even accidentally overheated the one 7800 to the point where it melted the plastic on the heatsink once, and even THAT didn't kill the card.

[GreyWolf]

No offense taken. I failed to mention that the two cards that failed yesterday were not the only 2 that failed upon upgrade of OS. Same thing happened week before last as well.

But it was definitely installation of Win 7 that killed them, because I swapped in a Inno3D from the same order and the installation went off without a hitch.

To make sure, I put the XFX back into a machine with Win XP and it boots into log-in screen and then *black*. The monitor stay on but nothing shows on screen.

[wizardofid]

Um er refresh rate...hello ?

[garp]

I have a XFX 7600GT that runs 24/7 365 days a year... Still going strong.

[ADV4NCED]

If its a refresh rate problem, booting in safe mode will help. If the display actually works until the login screen, then I doubt the cards are dead, maybe a driver conflict or similar type issue

[GreyWolf]

If it was the refresh rate then why does the inno3d card work just fine? The log in screen comes on at a really low resolution and then just goes black.

[DAE_JA_VOO]

So it works fine up until that point? Try something, for me, if you're willing

Pop a live CD in there, any linux live cd if you have one. Pop it in there, boot into the live desktop environment and see if the card handles it. Please

[GreyWolf]

So it works fine up until that point? Try something, for me, if you're willing

Pop a live CD in there, any linux live cd if you have one. Pop it in there, boot into the live desktop environment and see if the card handles it. Please

ok it boots to ubuntu 9.10. Now I am confused and even more frustrated. Because before it meant that the card was gone. Now it means that there is some sort of conflict between Win 7 drivers and this particular card. and there is NOTHING that I can do about it because it wont even go into safe mode. CRAP...

EDIT:

Scratch that, changed resolution and.... BLACK SCREEN!. yay... back to my original hypothesis...

[SykomantiS]

Email Microsoft or XFX?

[Monty]

do the mobo's have built in graphics? If they do, pull the card out and install 7 again, then plug the cards back in.

Do the card's have more than one out put? Try using the other out put and see what happens.

And maybe flash the bios of the cards?

Edit: have you tried re seating the cards or swapping them between machines?

[GreyWolf]

do the mobo's have built in graphics? If they do, pull the card out and install 7 again, then plug the cards back in.

This might be worth a try, but after the Linix experience I am quite certain the cards are boned.

Do the card's have more than one out put? Try using the other out put and see what happens.

the cards do indeed have mutliple outputs and none of them work.

And maybe flash the bios of the cards?

This sounds very extreme, not sure if I feel safe doing it.

Edit: have you tried re seating the cards or swapping them between machines?

yes, and like I said, the Inno3d card baught at the same time with the same chips work just fine.

[Monty]

if the cards are indeed boned, you have nothing to lose by flashing them to the newest bios

[DAE_JA_VOO]

So it works fine up until that point? Try something, for me, if you're willing

Pop a live CD in there, any linux live cd if you have one. Pop it in there, boot into the live desktop environment and see if the card handles it. Please

ok it boots to ubuntu 9.10. Now I am confused and even more frustrated. Because before it meant that the card was gone. Now it means that there is some sort of conflict between Win 7 drivers and this particular card. and there is NOTHING that I can do about it because it wont even go into safe mode. CRAP...

EDIT:

Scratch that, changed resolution and.... BLACK SCREEN!. yay... back to my original hypothesis...

No no. If it works fine at XxY screen resolution, but doesn't at another, that's FAR more likely a driver issue than a hardware issue IMO. I suggest you use a different graphics card, download the newest nVidia driver, install it, and then put the "busted" card back in. That should sort your problem out See, Win 7 installs it's own certified nvdia driver, but nVidia's probably released a few drivers since, so it's worth a shot. My newly installed Win7 Pro configuration is still running the Windows certified driver too... I should probably do something about that...

Come on GW, one last try before you give up on the cards

[Monty]

dae is right. Ms installs its own, cut down version of the nvidia drivers. So use one of the working cards to install the newest nvidia drivers, and swap one of the other cards in to the machine

[GreyWolf]

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...XFX

cards are definately at fault.

[Stuart]

So send them back.

[GreyWolf]

So send them back.

Called supplier on Friday, new GT220 repalcements coming in tomorrow/wednesday, and I made damn sure they not XFXs....

[DAE_JA_VOO]

Hhahaahhaah!!! Alright, as long as you're getting new stuff, all is good

[Stuart]

So send them back.

Called supplier on Friday, new GT220 repalcements coming in tomorrow/wednesday, and I made damn sure they not XFXs....

Erm ... so what brand are you getting now?

[GreyWolf]

Update in case anyone else has the problem:

did some googling and it seems that there is a problem with those cards (and maybe other 9500GTs) and Win 7 / Vista.

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/For ... fcc0586eb2

XFX released a bios update.

@Stuart: Club3D