News Galax Denies Selling Refurbished Graphics Cards to Customers

[Admin]

Customers have been returning graphics cards to retailers after spotting signs of wear and / or oxidization of the gold contacts. However, Galax asserts any marks are from its testing labs

Galax Denies Selling Refurbished Graphics Cards to Customers : Read more

 

[InvalidError]

In principle, every GPU should have at least one full in-system functions check before shipping and signs of it having been inserted at least once should be expected, can be more than once if the card failed a test, had to be reworked and re-checked.

 

[escksu]

Although we dont know if the cards are indeed new or refurbished, using the scratch marks on the gold fingers is a very poor way to determine. All cards undergo testing to ensure its working before being shipped.

If the person do watch any of those factory tours he would have seen that the most common way of testing is to plug the card into the Pcie slot of a motherboard and performed several tests.

This type of testing will cause scratch marks on the gold fingers but its harmless...

The person ought to have at least check the production dates, esp component dates to know if its new or refurbished.

Btw, dealers do sometimes remove the anti static bag to paste their own labels (esp. warranty labels).

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

It's entirely plausible that someone at the retailer or even the manufacturing warehouse could have swapped out the new card for a used one, or that someone put an actual refurbished card into a box for new cards mistakenly or deliberately. The incident with GamersNexus and Newegg comes to mind as to how incompetency reigns in warehouses these days, who knows how bad it is in China.

And it's also completely plausible that this story was fabricated by someone hoping for a free card in exchange for silence.

 

[spentshells]

https://tenor.com/FlnY.gif

 

[Shonk.]

I tell you who does sell refurbished cards Nvidia

I ordered a 3090 FE direct from scan the uk retailer for Nvidia in November 2020

It arrived sealed

1 fan had a scratch on it (no biggie)

the backplate had zero marks on it and looked new i cleaned it with some 20% isopropanol to get some fingerprints off (Self made mix with 80% water that i use for cleaning stuff)
and it removed some factory touchup's they had done to it around the magnetic screw cover area that some savage had done with a screwdriver trying to remove them
i 100% didnt do it as when i removed them a couple of months later to repad the rear i used gorilla tape to remove the magnets and made zero marks anywhere

It seems whatever they use to hide marks is soluble in isopropanol

at a guess mine was a review sample that they got back and touched up

 

[atomicWAR]

It's entirely plausible that someone at the retailer or even the manufacturing warehouse could have swapped out the new card for a used one, or that someone put an actual refurbished card into a box for new cards mistakenly or deliberately. The incident with GamersNexus and Newegg comes to mind as to how incompetency reigns in warehouses these days, who knows how bad it is in China.

And it's also completely plausible that this story was fabricated by someone hoping for a free card in exchange for silence.

I tend to agree with Invaliderror that the marks were from testing...but potentially your not wrong either. I have seen all kinds of accidental mixes ups, shady behavior and everything else when it comes to parts (or repairs for that matter). You never know and it is best to ask questions and/or speak up then to silently accept the fact you may or may not have been scammed.

Best case scenario you're wrong and you find out its all normal operating procedure learning something new for your tech knowledge or worst case you figure out you were right all along leaving you the opportunity to try and bring something like the next Newegg debacle to light like Steve did. Hopefully making a dent in bad business practices.

I remember when the early Corsair CX units were going bad before they fixed them. I responded to a handful of posts every day on Tom's troubleshooting their potential failure/failure (and their were a lot) or which version by label color was the safe PSU to buy once the new units came out. I can't stress enough how much sites like Tom's or GN allow us access to additional tech knowledge while giving users a voice the tech company's may be more inclined to listen to.

 

[jp7189]

Perhaps Galax "extensively tests" them in their own crypto mining operation for a few days or weeks. I wouldn't put that past a few of these AIBs.

Wasn't there a news story on here a month ago about XFX selling used mining cards as new?