Some time ago, I ran into a small problem that grew into a major one. It just happens to be a EVGA GeForce 7900GT card that I got a while back. It was part of their Step-Up program that I partook in to get a model bump and the latest hardware.
After a while, weird things started to happen. At first I thought it was just heat so I did a bit of maintenance on the system and evicted dust bunnies. I fired the system back up and started testing. Eventually the problem didn't go away. Instead, as I play some games and use the card more, the problem got a little worse each time. I then decided to file for a RMA, which I haven't done in a long time. Next to my 21" Viewsonic CRT monitor, I haven't filed for a RMA. So it comes as a surprise that the RMA I'll be filing for is a piece of delicate hardware that I never have trouble handling.
The replacement card came back and I started running some tests on it. One in particular caught my attention, which was Deep Freeze, a scenery test within 3DMarks06 application. The test went by without any trouble. So I thought nothing of it. Days went on by and I continued to use it. That was until recently, perhaps a week or so ago. I saw it started to happen again, that same old problem I had before. A couple of days went on by and I kept a close eye on how the hardware is handling temperatures. Strangely enough, it did not seem like it was heat-related. And I refused to change any speeds within the hardware to determine if it's that. I have paid a good sum to receive this card. And I expected it to work without flaws or malfunction for the life it is being used.
At this time, the card is on its way over to EVGA's RMA reception address, where it'll be put to the test to determine if it's deemed worthy for a replacement. Hopefully the details I have documented in this thread will convince them to send me a replacement card worthy of being put to the test. I still have yet to find the cause. But I did find all of this to be very disturbing. Browsing through other people's thread, I found that I am not alone and some people are worse off than I am, which got me to wondering just what is the common denominator here.
At this time, I am posting this through the laptop, which does not have the greatest in 3D capability nor does it have the memory to do a lot of things. However, it does what it is able to do and it's performing just fine as a temporary system. Unfortunately, it means roughly two weeks of no gaming. For the time being, I guess I can tinker around with the laptop and other operating systems. Now if these other people can send me my free Vista Business license...
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