Any way to tell if the bios on a video card has been modded?

[ksn240]

With the prices of AMD cards skyrocketing due to mining, I decided to sell my XFX 580 on eBay about a week after I bought from Best Buy so I could buy something better. Sold it, shipped it, now a full month later the buyer is saying it is defective and requesting a refund. I used it for a about 4 days in my computer and never had a single problem. Since eBay favors with the buyer no matter what, I have no choice but to accept it. I will have it back in hand tomorrow.

Obviously nobody is paying $480 for a RX 580 unless they are mining with it. That often involves modifying the vBios to alter memory timings, etc for better performance. I'm suspecting that when my buyer did this, he screwed up and bricked it. Is there anyway to tell if the bios has been modded? Surely the manufacturer would know if I sent it in. Is there anything I can do to prove to eBay that the buyer did this? He supposedly contacted XFX and they said they would only honor warranty to the original buyer from Best Buy. Would they still honor warranty when I get it back?

I know there is supposed to be a way to jump 2 pins and reflash the bios if i take the backplate off. I just don't want to have to have be out $500 for a bricked card for no fault of my own.

 

[FauxisFox]

A pretty simple way to check is by first inspecting the fan shroud. If there are scratches or damaged screws, you'll know someone definitely opened it. If you can't tell, you should open it. Most of the time, the vBios chip will have some obvious signs of removal, like cold solder joints (the solder will appear tarnished instead of iridescent), scratches, burn marks, or chunks of the epoxy coat missing (usually happens when using an IC remover tool). Also check for visible fingerprints. You can also tell if you attempt to boot with the device in an unused PCI-E slot and it is not recognized by the OS or bios. However, proving that the buyer damaged it in some way beyond a reasonable doubt might be much more difficult. You might have to take it as a loss knowing that the customer cheated you.

Also, if the warranty seal is broken, XFX may not honor their warranty.

 

[The Paladin]

make sure the serial matched what you sent in the first place this is a common scam on ebay they burn a card up buy a new one and send them back a bad card to seller. (should of make your sale to "no returns" and one month is a long time ebay/paypal would not lean to the buyer in those cases god knows what he did with it.

 

[ksn240]

make sure the serial matched what you sent in the first place this is a common scam on ebay they burn a card up buy a new one and send them back a bad card to seller. (should of make your sale to "no returns" and one month is a long time ebay/paypal would not lean to the buyer in those cases god knows what he did with it.

It is listed as no returns, but eBay gives the buyer 45 days to claim something as defective, and if they do then you have to accept it.. It's bullshit really. 45 days is a long time to run something into the ground.

I will make sure the numbers match. I am also going to record myself opening the box to make sure the right product is actually in it, and properly packaged.

 

[ksn240]

A pretty simple way to check is by first inspecting the fan shroud. If there are scratches or damaged screws, you'll know someone definitely opened it. If you can't tell, you should open it. Most of the time, the vBios chip will have some obvious signs of removal, like cold solder joints (the solder will appear tarnished instead of iridescent), scratches, burn marks, or chunks of the epoxy coat missing (usually happens when using an IC remover tool). Also check for visible fingerprints. You can also tell if you attempt to boot with the device in an unused PCI-E slot and it is not recognized by the OS or bios. However, proving that the buyer damaged it in some way beyond a reasonable doubt might be much more difficult. You might have to take it as a loss knowing that the customer cheated you.

Also, if the warranty seal is broken, XFX may not honor their warranty.

I will inspect it. And I wasn't implying the buyer opened it, though thats certainly a possibility, but more so that they tried to flash it with a modded bios and failed.

 

[FauxisFox]

A pretty simple way to check is by first inspecting the fan shroud. If there are scratches or damaged screws, you'll know someone definitely opened it. If you can't tell, you should open it. Most of the time, the vBios chip will have some obvious signs of removal, like cold solder joints (the solder will appear tarnished instead of iridescent), scratches, burn marks, or chunks of the epoxy coat missing (usually happens when using an IC remover tool). Also check for visible fingerprints. You can also tell if you attempt to boot with the device in an unused PCI-E slot and it is not recognized by the OS or bios. However, proving that the buyer damaged it in some way beyond a reasonable doubt might be much more difficult. You might have to take it as a loss knowing that the customer cheated you.

Also, if the warranty seal is broken, XFX may not honor their warranty.

I will inspect it. And I wasn't implying the buyer opened it, though thats certainly a possibility, but more so that they tried to flash it with a modded bios and failed.

The only way I know of to reflash the vBios is by either physically removing the chip and exchanging it, removing the chip and rewriting it with an EEPROM burner, or using an Arduino and hotwiring it while the vBios is till on the board. In all cases, they had to open it.

 

[ksn240]

So I just got home from the post office with the card. The buyer sent me back a different card. Serial numbers don't match. Made a claim with eBay. We'll see what happens.

 

[FauxisFox]

So I just got home from the post office with the card. The buyer sent me back a different card. Serial numbers don't match. Made a claim with eBay. We'll see what happens.

Alright! I hope you stop that cheating low-life in his tracks. Data miners have terrible reputations, and stories like this aren't helping.

 

[ksn240]

So I just got home from the post office with the card. The buyer sent me back a different card. Serial numbers don't match. Made a claim with eBay. We'll see what happens.

Alright! I hope you stop that cheating low-life in his tracks. Data miners have terrible reputations, and stories like this aren't helping.

I hope so. I knew something was up with it, just figured it would have been that the buyer bricked it. He must have bricked another one and tried to return it with me since he probably paid less for the other one, or had it too long already.

 

[ksn240]

Update! Got everything worked out with eBay and I am not responsible for refunding the buyer. Had to sign an affidavit and send pictures showing the serial number did not match. eBay closed the case and released the hold on my money. Said I can even do whatever I want with the card he did send me.

They also said they are going to refund the buyer themselves. I guess it's not worth the hassle for them to involve the authorities and make a big deal about it when $500 is a relatively small amount for eBay to bother with. I did tell them I would get the authorities involved if I needed to as this is outright fraud. I guess they'd rather avoid the headache.

Either way I'm happy as I'm not responsible for anything.

 

[The Paladin]

lesson learned.

 

[habibkhan012]

contact with the seller. and if you wanna check review here you go : Hotwire reviews