Be very careful with Zotac and their RMA

[PiCoTTo]

Hello everyone. I wanted to share my case to help with your future product purchases, and possibly to help more than one person stop racking their brains over the cause of a problem that could be similar to mine.

Specifically, it's about my Zotac GTX 295 dual PCB graphics card. This Nvidia model has always had a reputation for being one of the hottest on the market, if not the hottest. From the very beginning, 3 years ago, I could see this, having to use fan control tools to prevent it from easily reaching over 95ºC with some video games (it's worth noting that the card supports a maximum temperature of 105ºC). People in the forums agreed that it wasn't uncommon to reach those temperatures with the GTX 295 and, for some unknown reason, even less so with Zotac.

Well, that unknown reason seems to have emerged in my case thanks to the evolution of drivers by Nvidia for a theoretical better use of graphic capabilities. These driver updates, progressively and depending on the game, have gradually caused an unsustainable rise in temperatures on my Zotac GTX 295. After a thousand and one tests, the conclusion was that from version 260.99 more video games were being added to the problem. With the current drivers, the temperature reaches 105ºC with all the games tested.

I requested assistance from Nvidia to help me, and after a process of tests and checks, they told me to process the RMA with the manufacturer. At the time of purchase, I was cautious and registered the product on the Zotac website to benefit from their predicted 5-year warranty extension. Now I have requested the RMA and they have accepted it as appropriate. So far, so good.

The problem arises when, upon receiving the card in the UK (there is no Zotac service in Spain), they respond with the following photograph showing the physical damage the card has, which obviously invalidates the warranty and which, according to them, is probably the cause of the overheating problem.

As you can see, it's not a minor issue. SMD resistors and capacitors are lifted, displaced, and even torn off and lost. But curiously, without any mark on the PCB of having been produced by friction or mistreatment. For my part, I can assure that, knowing hardware for many years and even more so with something as expensive as this card, I have always handled it with extreme care. The card, once returned, works as it always has, that is, with quite old drivers without too much problem and with the new ones suffering the aforementioned overheating.

Moreover, another problem I had from the first day of buying my entire PC was that on cold starts, after a random time, Windows would freeze and show a blue screen (BSOD). This didn't happen if, after pressing the power button, I immediately pressed the Reset button. After many tests over a few months and without having another card to test, I thought it might be a problem with the Asus motherboard. I processed the warranty, and without any hassle, Coolmod sent me a new motherboard. But in a very short time, the BSODs continued to happen. With no other options, tired of searching and needing the PC, I opted for a solution to start the PC using Power and Reset.

But lo and behold, I was lucky to have a replacement card during the time I was without the GTX 295 and the aforementioned BSOD problems without cold starts didn't happen. This demonstrates to me that the problem wasn't with the motherboard but with the card.

As a conclusion, with 99% certainty. The Zotac GTX 295 came damaged from the factory. I didn't check the PCB so meticulously (the size of the resistors is barely half a millimeter) when I opened the box because one assumes that it's 'impossible' that such damage could come from the factory in a sealed card. Moreover, the card apparently worked well.

As advice, always check for possible physical damage on any hardware you unbox, even if it works. Don't assume. In fact, from now on, I will always record a video about the unboxing and thorough check of the product. Even with that, I wouldn't consider Zotac among the purchase options (what if the damage is where you can't see it?), as not only is it likely to have faults, but then the RMA service disengages, probably knowingly of the problem (this must have happened to someone else if it's a manufacturing defect or subsequent operator manipulations).

Perhaps it's an isolated case and I was unlucky. But just in case, I'm sharing it so that no one else has to go through it. If anyone identifies with this and checks their card and sees similar damage, I would appreciate it if they could let me know.

Regards.