Just an FYI, I bought an XFX graphics card based on their lifetime warranty claim. They will make up any excuse to deny your claim.

I bought an old model to replace a similar unit in an aging PC.

The card failed with memory parity errors not 30 days after delivery. I open a support case. The CSR replies that the card shipped with a 90 day warranty and therefore will not replace the card. They claim the warranty clock started when they shipped the product in 2008. Nice, right?

Steer clear of XFX.

So you bought a 3 year old card with a 90 day warranty. Where did you see them say this card had a lifetime warranty? Was the card you bought used? If not you should be able to return it to the place you bought it as defective and let them deal with the return to the maker.

I can actually vouch for XFX being a shifty company. I've bought their stuff before and had RMAs denied for the same reason of 90 days after shipping to retail or manufacturing, whatever was more convenient of a lie. I've actually had to contact the BBB and have them arbitrate the cases for me.

Lesson learned. After XFX I started buying products from PNY, ECS, and other better reputation companies. Best companies I've dealt with have been Chaintech and BFGTech but they aren't around anymore sadly.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in <General> and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

It's clearly written in my first post why I bought an old card. I suggest you re-read the original post and then consider the reasons why it might be a good idea to use old hardware in an older PC. If the card was used, then they did a good job re-wrapping it in the original box.

I relied on the claim XFX makes about a lifetime warranty and haven't bothered the reseller.

As for the warranty, they boldly claim a lifetime warranty that can be transferred to another user! http://xfxforce.com/en-us/features/d...ewarranty.aspx This is mentioned frequently when they get product reviews. It's a scam.

I wasn't questioning your reason for buying the old card. I was questioning whether it predated the lifetime warranty claim you speak of or if it possibly was bought used and thereby invalidated any such warranty. I don't know anything about the cards in question and was responding exactly to what you wrote. The fact you felt you had good reasons to buy an antique is no reason to suppose that should override policies of the manufacturer in effect at the time the antique was made.

I wasn't even saying that you are wrong. A later poster implies you are right based on his experience. I was merely asking questions and suggesting a possible avenue of approach which you seem to reject for no good reason I can see.

Not "bothering the reseller" boggles my mind. Is the reseller some friend of yours that shouldn't be required to provide merchantable goods? If I bought something from a reseller they'd be the first people I'd go to for replacement or refund. Many companies sell products with specific agreements with the manufacturer that the products are supported by the reseller rather than the manufacturer. Recently I had issues with Qlogic cards and on providing the serial numbers to Qlogic support was advised they were resold by Dell so Dell should support them. I then called Dell and worked the issue with them. (The cards had been installed by someone else so until I made the call to Qlogic I didn't know they'd come from Dell.)

Card complies with the warranty link I posted above. It was a Radeon 8600 GT.

I don't know about California law, but here in South Africa we have an ombudsman for dealing with these type of warranty issues. Many companies do initially refuse to honour warranties and get away with it simply because consumers often can't be bothered with taking the matter further! .
Of course, I usually ignore warranties anyway as it's usually more hassle to claim on a warranty than the item is worth! but there are exceptions!

Just because a system came with video card 'X' does notmean you have to replace it with another video card 'X'.

There is only one reason I can think of to replace a 8600GT with another 8600GT- TV-out (composite video, s-video or component video), and that would only matter if it was being hooked up to a TV without a HDMI port.

If TV-out isnt needed, it would have been better to replace the 8500GT with a GT430 (better performance, vitrually the same TDP, probably lower 'real world' power consumption) or G210 (slightly slower in some palces, lower TDP and power consumption).

Could be 'remanufacturered' or 'factory refurbished'.

Then go to the reseller and ask for a refund, or at least RMA the card.

Read the fine print-

http://xfxforce.com/en-us/Help/Suppo...ispreview=true

You have to 'register' the card within 30 days of purchase to get the 'lifetime warranty', and to transfer it the new owner has to register as well.

XFX can be dodgy, and I know of at least one person who got caught with XFXs 'lifetime warranty' (at that time XFX would only offer that warranty on goods sold in the US/Canada).

Either its an nVidia 8600GT or an ATI/AMD Radeon.

The phrase "If it's not broken then don't fix it" applies here.

The card was registered within 30 days and therefore meets the criteria for warranty coverage. Except XFX won't cover it. Unfortunately, the reseller is going to eat this one. That's not right.

I think it's clear by now XFX's warranty is a scam.

I'd assume that it was broken, or else you wouldnt have been fixing it? LOL

I tend to not replace parts with the same part unless there is a very good reason to do so, and with video cards like the 8600GT, there isnt IMO.

If XFX wont replace the card, deal with the retailer. Thats the way it goes, unless you want to just forget about it (I'm sure XFX and the retailer both like that option).

As for the retialer having to 'eat it'- well, if you deal with dodgy companies that is what happens. Either the retailer will get a repalcement card, or they will stop dealing with XFX, or they will make some judgement that even if XFX dont play nicely, they will still deal with them (for whatever reason). Thats not your problem.

I wouldnt say that the warranty XFX offers is a 'scam' exactly, but I've got my own ideas about what XFX is thinking.....

I suspect the OP bought a used card that was NOT registered by original owner within 30 days and rather than dealing with life at it is would prefer to tell the rest of us we're wrong. His obstinacy against returning to the reseller is rather odd in my view.

The fact he now claims he was replacing something that wasn't broken is also odd. For that matter if the original system had the original card why wasn't it registered within 30 days so the original card would still have the "lifetime warranty"? I guess its a lot easier to think the world is against you than to admit you made a mistake.

Talk about missing the point...

-For the last time, the card was new.

-"If it's not broke, then don't fix it" means the system is old and the ASUS 8600GT Nvidia "just worked" when I installed it years ago. Fan stops working in the old card so I replaced the broken card with the XFX branded version of the card. Did I violate some unspoken law about replacing hardware?

-The card is going back to the reseller. The reseller is getting screwed on this one.

-This is not fair dealing on XFX's part.

It's not clear to me what Mensawater's efforts to cast doubt on the simple facts of the matter serve. But it happened. And I'm not the only one it's happened to.

No, but I still dont know why you would repalce a 8600GT with another 8600GT...even more so seeing how the 8600GT wasnt even original equipment.

I also dont see why you are so concerned about the retailer. Dont assume that they will be left with a useless card that XFX wont fix, some manufacturers (and distributors) have a very different procedure when dealing with retailers.