Talk about a hardware failure.....

[WoodenPlank]

Wow. I had been having issues with GRAW and BF2 (again. Oddly they only started after installing GRAW). After talking to Ubisoft Tech Support, I decided on a whim to check and make sure my video card cooling fan was working correctly.

My thoughts during the process went a little something like this....


Well, theres the heatsink.
Ok, theres the rest of the heatsink.
Wheres the fan? Gotta be here somewhere....


Well, theres a dent in the heatsink....isnt that where the fan should be?
Whats this cable doing under the video car....

Oh, crap.


Yes, the fan was gone. Not only gone, but broken off at the base (where it was attached to the heatsink) and HANGING by its power cable (that was the dangling cable I felt). The small piece of PCB that ringed the base of the fan (probably what the fan sensor is mounted to) appeared cracked, had seperated from the fan assembly itself, and the entire fan assembly was dangling. I guess the only thing that saved me from a massive overheat was the extra exhaust fan I had installed immediately under the video card.
I called MSI tech support this morning, stayed on hold for five minutes, and was prompted to leave a voice message. I did so, and will be caling again in a little while to see if I can get a live human on the phone. Needless to say, my desktop is down (thank god for my laptop), and I dont want to start it unless I really have to. At least I know if I really need it I can run it for a while safely thanks to the slot fan under the video card. That should help keep it decently cool.

Anyone have any suggestions of how to get MSI to give me a VERY expedited RMA on the card? Im moving next weekend, and would like to have the card back before I move.

[Ash2Dust]

My 2 experiences with MSI RMA have been very poor and slow. I gave up on phoning and eventually got results by emailing them repeatedly.

[WoodenPlank]

Theyre RMAing it, but cant do an advance exchange because their tech office doesnt have the card for immediate shipment. The tech told me he would put a note on the RMA to have the RMA guys not test my old card and just immediately ship a new one straight to me. He said that should cut a few days off the RMA time. Its still probably going to be 2 weeks or so before I get a new card. This will be the last time I buy anything from MSI. Im going to go with eVGA from now on, I think.

[Redman]

That totally sucks man! Good luck on your RMA!