Hey All,
 
I recently just sent in 2 980ti's for RMA, one being completely dead when trying to boot and the other showing random artifacting when using a specific display port on it. I have had these cards for quite a few years now but luckily both of them had been registered on the site and where within the warranty period.
 
One of the cards has a tiny bit of damage to the very edge of the PCB now this part of the PCB is completely and utterly blank as in the small damage that was there does nothing what so ever to the running of the card and now that RMA has been refused despite it being in pristine condition otherwise and all warranty stickers intack.
 
Am I just **** out of luck now? Spend over £1000 on graphics card and now stuck with a faulty one? 
 
If the dead graphics card gets replaced and I get a different model compared to the one with the "damage" what happens then as my SLI will obviously not work. I could understand this completely if that damage stopped the card working or was the cause of the problem but its a completely blank piece of plastic....
 
Also I sawa on the Nvidia reddit that one of the EVGA staff members posted that if you have an SLI configuration and a card is replaced under RMA then would accept the 2nd card in and change that for the same model as long as it is under warranty which they both are so is this something that can be done??
 
Post is: 
 
Any help with this problem would be great. Was hoping this would be a simple RMA process but it has taken awhile and now this :(
 
I have attached the picture as you can see this part missing is that same part as on the left hand side of the PCI pins and it is and was completely blank, I know it is "Damage" but it does nothing in terms of the issue I was having.
 
Thanks in advance.

EVGATech_ErinW
We would replace the card under warranty for SLI setups. However, this card would not be under warranty due to the physical damage to the PCB. 
 
Regardless of where the damage is on the PCB, it will be rejected. 

I love eVGA, I really do....but scraped PCB's can happen....and I find it absolutely egregiously bad that cosmetic damage is used to deny RMA's.
 
Not gonna keep me from buying eVGA, but that absolutely isn't touching a trace.

transdogmifier

EVGATech_ErinW
We would replace the card under warranty for SLI setups. However, this card would not be under warranty due to the physical damage to the PCB. 
 
Regardless of where the damage is on the PCB, it will be rejected. 

I love eVGA, I really do....but scraped PCB's can happen....and I find it absolutely egregiously bad that cosmetic damage is used to deny RMA's.
 
Not gonna keep me from buying eVGA, but that absolutely isn't touching a trace.

That isn’t a scrape on the PCB by any means...

There is an entire Tab missing:



The pcb is not so fragile that those accidentally pop off.

 
This is a picture of my 2nd system that I had previously used the 980ti in, obviously back in the day I spent £550 on the card and it would simply not fit in the above system due to the large black capacitor, and wasn't going to replace the entire system because of a tiny bit off plastic. I done my checks and as mentioned above its a cosmetic part that bit, it has zero printed parts or circuits on it and does not contribute to helping stablise the card where it sits as the cards are screwed and clipped in.
 
If I knew this was going to bite me in the ass so badly now I wouldn't have obviously done it. The RMA/Tech team know this part is and has nothing what so ever with the issue I actually have with the card (artifacting). As I said I could see if the main part of the PCB was damaged or the card had even been taken apart but none of that is true.
 
Just feels abit bad that spent alot of money of these and have been great cards and the slightest change to one or order for it to actually fit to an old system and now made the card completely and utterly worthless.
 
Worst of all the only reason I even put this 980ti into my old system was because it was the only system I could use for testing both the cards, I had to test both the cards on a different system to see what was wrong which ended up being the other 980ti which was completely dead.
 
I am sorry for the rant but feels really gutting.....

It was an old alienware system I had and the card had worked in this PC/motherboard for well over a year.

I am assuming you ran those cards in SLI on another board so theres no way in Hades that you could on the pictured board you used to modify that one video card by removing the PCB tab.    So......    why is the video card artifacting?   is it due to the use of the certain DVI port or any port?   if that's the case, then mabay crack it open and replace the TIM.   Is it an issue of the the GPU running hot or is it a driver issue or just a bad DVI connection.   I'd look at the DVI port and see if there's a soldered area broken and maybe be repaired.   It's no longer under warranty, so why not. 

the_Scarlet_one
It is still considered physical damage and no company would be able to repair that so that they could use it for future RMA’s or replacements.

I understand this part fully and spoke to someone on customer support on the phone about this and I mentioned that nearly every post in the last 6 months to a year who have RMA'ed 980ti's have been getting back 1070's or even some lucky people 1080's, I asked why this was and he said that the 980's are now at end of life and no longer get sent out as replacements hence people are getting upgrades, I guess I was just hoping something could be done considering this fact and how the EVGA support had been rated and that this was the entire reason I went with EVGA.
 
Not really sure what I was expected to do with the card in order to fit it to my old alienware system if there was a giant capacitor in the way :(

Well just to keep people updated, I sent a lengthy email explaining the problem to the US and EU Customer Service Managers just to see if there is anything at all that can be done.
 
I got this reply.
 
"Normally any physical modification of the card would void the warranty terms. That said, there may be an option or two we can explore to help you out. Let me see get in contact with my counterpart in the EU and see what I we can do to work with you. Due to the EU team's hours, I may not hear back before the weekend, if that happens I'll let you know on Monday if there's anything we can do for you."
 
So I am just waiting for a reply from either of them directly about my email and go from there, I am really hoping something can be done as a one off or it is literally £550 down the drain. Fingers crossed and do appreciate the email back from Jaeson Wilda :)

You shouldn't have to man and you can mongoloid their all you want their tuff and hard to break ...They are excellent with their warranty. Other mobo had some bios issue or the chip...They sent a new board..hell I was just gonna try the chip.

Vulgar language removed by the_Scarlet_one

thanks for sharing