Question How can I prove to ASUS that my GPU needs replacing?

[MVP Teku]

PC Specs:
MSI Z170A Krait Gaming 3X Motherboard
i7 7700K
ASUS ROG Strix RTX 2080 A8G Gaming
Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 3200MHz
EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2
Samsung EVO 970 500GB SATA SSD
Windows 10

I feel like I've been at war with these technicians for 3 months now. I RMA'd my GPU after I was getting extreme artefacting, games were crashing within 30 seconds of launching, my Heaven benchmarks rarely completed and when they did, the score was super low and eventually, just booting up the PC would cause extreme pixilation and freeze on the lock screen. If I got past that, it would sometimes BSoD just idling on the desktop.

Anyway, got the card back after they "repaired" it and it seemed fine. I used it for about a week and then all the same issues started creeping back in until I had to take the card out again cause I could barely use the system with it installed.

I tried completely reformatting my SSD and reinstalling Windows and all the GPU drivers, tried using older drivers, NVIDIAs latest hotfixed drivers, none of them helped. I'm not an expert, but I'd say that kinda rules out software issues, right?

Anyway, sent it back in and now they're telling me it's fine and they can't recreate the issue and they're trying to just palm it back to me. Getting really frustrated, cause obviously something is really wrong and I feel like I've done everything I can to isolate it to being a GPU hardware issue. I mean, my system works just fine without it installed. I don't understand what else it could be? And I have no idea why it wouldn't be acting up for them other than maybe it kinda gets better for a bit after not being used and takes a week or some of use to degrade again, like what happened when I first got it back.

I just don't know what to do, I know I need a replacement and I have no confidence in their ability to repair the thing, I've given them ample photo and video evidence of the issues, so I don't know why they're refusing to issue the retailer a credit notice.

Am I correct in that it's a GPU issue, or could it be something else somehow? And have I done everything I could to rule out software issues? I just wanna know that I'm in the right here and that they should be replacing the card, I don't wanna be unreasonable, I just want a working GPU as it's been 3 months since I was able to play games or anything. Has anyone been through something like this? Did it get replaced, and if so, how'd you get them to finally do it?

 

[Koekieezz]

Anyway, sent it back in and now they're telling me it's fine and they can't recreate the issue and they're trying to just palm it back to me. Getting really frustrated, cause obviously something is really wrong and I feel like I've done everything I can to isolate it to being a GPU hardware issue. I mean, my system works just fine without it installed. I don't understand what else it could be? And I have no idea why it wouldn't be acting up for them other than maybe it kinda gets better for a bit after not being used and takes a week or some of use to degrade again, like what happened when I first got it back.

I just don't know what to do, I know I need a replacement and I have no confidence in their ability to repair the thing, I've given them ample photo and video evidence of the issues, so I don't know why they're refusing to issue the retailer a credit notice.

Am I correct in that it's a GPU issue, or could it be something else somehow? And have I done everything I could to rule out software issues? I just wanna know that I'm in the right here and that they should be replacing the card, I don't wanna be unreasonable, I just want a working GPU as it's been 3 months since I was able to play games or anything. Has anyone been through something like this? Did it get replaced, and if so, how'd you get them to finally do it?

If you tested it on another motherboard and it works flawlessly, then it could be the system you're using right now having problem with the gpu.

 

[Zerk2012]

Got to love Asus I have seen motherboards that they said were repaired come back and nothing was done LOL.

 

[Bob.B]

PC Specs:
MSI Z170A Krait Gaming 3X Motherboard
i7 7700K
ASUS ROG Strix RTX 2080 A8G Gaming
Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 3200MHz
EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2
Samsung EVO 970 500GB SATA SSD
Windows 10

I feel like I've been at war with these technicians for 3 months now. I RMA'd my GPU after I was getting extreme artefacting, games were crashing within 30 seconds of launching, my Heaven benchmarks rarely completed and when they did, the score was super low and eventually, just booting up the PC would cause extreme pixilation and freeze on the lock screen. If I got past that, it would sometimes BSoD just idling on the desktop.

Anyway, got the card back after they "repaired" it and it seemed fine. I used it for about a week and then all the same issues started creeping back in until I had to take the card out again cause I could barely use the system with it installed.

I tried completely reformatting my SSD and reinstalling Windows and all the GPU drivers, tried using older drivers, NVIDIAs latest hotfixed drivers, none of them helped. I'm not an expert, but I'd say that kinda rules out software issues, right?

Anyway, sent it back in and now they're telling me it's fine and they can't recreate the issue and they're trying to just palm it back to me. Getting really frustrated, cause obviously something is really wrong and I feel like I've done everything I can to isolate it to being a GPU hardware issue. I mean, my system works just fine without it installed. I don't understand what else it could be? And I have no idea why it wouldn't be acting up for them other than maybe it kinda gets better for a bit after not being used and takes a week or some of use to degrade again, like what happened when I first got it back.

I just don't know what to do, I know I need a replacement and I have no confidence in their ability to repair the thing, I've given them ample photo and video evidence of the issues, so I don't know why they're refusing to issue the retailer a credit notice.

Am I correct in that it's a GPU issue, or could it be something else somehow? And have I done everything I could to rule out software issues? I just wanna know that I'm in the right here and that they should be replacing the card, I don't wanna be unreasonable, I just want a working GPU as it's been 3 months since I was able to play games or anything. Has anyone been through something like this? Did it get replaced, and if so, how'd you get them to finally do it?

Take the gpu to your local pc repair shop.
Explain what you see happening and let them test it for a week or more.

 

[MVP Teku]

If you tested it on another motherboard and it works flawlessly, then it could be the system you're using right now having problem with the gpu.

I didn't test it on another motherboard, don't have access to any other systems to try that. Allegedly that's what Asus is doing and they're saying there's no issues but I'm also pretty sure they said they did recreate the issue during the first repair. Not 100% sure if that's what the guy was saying though cause the email was full of broken English and bad grammer so it's possible he didn't mean exactly what he type or something? But he did say "Actually we did duplicated BSOD/ Artifacts issue by last time repair. " which sounds to me like they found an issue, so it's very hard for me to believe they're not able to recreate it now.

 

[MVP Teku]

Got to love Asus I have seen motherboards that they said were repaired come back and nothing was done LOL.

Yeah, I highly suspect that nothing was done to the GPU during the first "repair".

 

[MVP Teku]

Take the gpu to your local pc repair shop.
Explain what you see happening and let them test it for a week or more.

Well I don't currently have the card, it's still with Asus. They tried to send it back to the retailer to ship back to me, but both me and the retailer are arguing with them to issue a credit notice so the retailer can send me out a replacement. Takes about a month just for the care to make it through shipping, so I've told them to hang onto it until we sort out a solution to this issue, but it just feels like I'm not making any headway here and I really don't know what to do about it.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Could there be something with the motherboard perhaps. If you have issues after the card comes back again I’d try to see if you can try it with another pc. Would be interesting to know temps on the card also.

Do they have an 800 number? Maybe call and ask for management if possible.

 

[MVP Teku]

Could there be something with the motherboard perhaps. If you have issues after the card comes back again I’d try to see if you can try it with another pc. Would be interesting to know temps on the card also.

Do they have an 800 number? Maybe call and ask for management if possible.

Unfortunately, I don't have access to another PC to test it in. I did get a read on the temps though, 65 degrees under load on average. Also got it to make it through Heaven Benchmark eventually and the numbers were about half what I'd expect to see with an RTX 2080, only about 72 FPS average. So I think it's pretty clear that the card is underperforming for some reason. The only things that seems to indicate to me is that either the GPU hardware is failing, or somehow it's not being delivered the correct voltage or something. If the the power delivery, then I guess it could be an issue with the PSU or the motherboard, but that just leaves me confused as to why I haven't run into any other problems at all since taking the GPU out? Obviously I haven't been running games without it, cause it can't (although, I did open up Skyrim and leave it running overnight without the GPU to test it, it was obviously an unplayable FPS, but zero crashes or BSoDs after running all night), and so maybe because it's not sitting under much load now, the problems aren't showing themselves, but with the GPU installed it would also just BSoD when idle on the desktop, so I really don't know. Never diagnosed an issue like this so I'm kinda just guessing here.

Also no, they don't have any other way to get in touch with them about it, every single number/email/live chat just directs you to this one email address saying "GPUs aren't our department, we can't help you". It's super frustrating. Although, I guess I've never asked for management, but if they're managing the department I'm calling, wouldn't they still just tell me they can't do anything?

 

[DSzymborski]

It would help to have video of the issues.

 

[MVP Teku]

It would help to have video of the issues.

Put one up here:

View: https://youtu.be/l_YF0XPRVow

At first, that happened when I launched a game and within thirty seconds, both monitors looked like that and after maybe 2-3 seconds of that the PC would BSoD about half the time, the other half of the time, it would either stay like that requiring a restart or correct itself after a few seconds. Later, that would just happen watching YouTube or sitting on the desktop. Eventually, it got to the point where it would do it on the lock screen whenever you booted the system, which is the point I had to remove it from the system and I've been using my integrated GPU ever since. Haven't seen the issue again.

 

[DSzymborski]

I mean for ASUS, not necessarily for us. Keep plugging away at them and move up the chain if you can.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

https://www.asus.com/us/support/Article/787

This might be worth a shot. Looks like you can try to contact the CEO’s office with your case/rma number. It also appears there’s an option to attach a file, so attach the video and tell them this is what my card does and that you feel like you’ve tried ask other avenues. A 2080 these days is an expensive card.

https://gethuman.com/phone-number/Asus

There’s a number you could try calling as well. I just searched asus customer service telephone number and that’s how I got both those links. So it might be worth searching that, see what links or numbers you find and make a complete pest out of yourself. There’s an old saying that the squeaky wheel gets the oil. You start bugging the ceo or their people long enough they’re liable to give you a new card just to shut you up and make you go away. You shouldn’t really have to do that, but ultimately you paid for a working product. Make sure you have the receipt handy whenever they ask you for it. Maybe scan it just in case.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

each time i've dealt with ASUS support i've had to actually request an escalation with the case and each time it was moved up through the ranks until i got to someone who natively understood English and would actively try to help.

their first couple tiers of support representatives always seemed to be illiterate fools that had no clue how to deal with problems.
i was almost always initially told to travel ~600 miles to their nearest support center for help.
guessing they outsource their first layer of support to 3rd party call centers.

i agree that your best option is to prove the card is actually at fault by testing another card in your system
and by testing your card in another system.
i would find it hard to believe that you don't know anyone with a functioning system including a working dedicated GPU.

if you get it back with the same issue(s);
either do this troubleshooting yourself or pay someone else to do it.

 

[MVP Teku]

I mean for ASUS, not necessarily for us. Keep plugging away at them and move up the chain if you can.

Oh yeah, no they have tons of photos and videos at this point. Given them plenty of evidence, they just don't seem to care.

 

[MVP Teku]

https://www.asus.com/us/support/Article/787

This might be worth a shot. Looks like you can try to contact the CEO’s office with your case/rma number. It also appears there’s an option to attach a file, so attach the video and tell them this is what my card does and that you feel like you’ve tried ask other avenues. A 2080 these days is an expensive card.

https://gethuman.com/phone-number/Asus

There’s a number you could try calling as well. I just searched asus customer service telephone number and that’s how I got both those links. So it might be worth searching that, see what links or numbers you find and make a complete pest out of yourself. There’s an old saying that the squeaky wheel gets the oil. You start bugging the ceo or their people long enough they’re liable to give you a new card just to shut you up and make you go away. You shouldn’t really have to do that, but ultimately you paid for a working product. Make sure you have the receipt handy whenever they ask you for it. Maybe scan it just in case.

Sorry, should have mentioned that I'm in Australia, not the US. The contact the CEO thing is only available to US customers. Same with all the phone numbers and stuff that put you in contact with someone useful. Guess their Australia customer support arm is super barebones and disjointed by comparison.

 

[MVP Teku]

each time i've dealt with ASUS support i've had to actually request an escalation with the case and each time it was moved up through the ranks until i got to someone who natively understood English and would actively try to help.

their first couple tiers of support representatives always seemed to be illiterate fools that had no clue how to deal with problems.
i was almost always initially told to travel ~600 miles to their nearest support center for help.
guessing they outsource their first layer of support to 3rd party call centers.

i agree that your best option is to prove the card is actually at fault by testing another card in your system
and by testing your card in another system.
i would find it hard to believe that you don't know anyone with a functioning system including a working dedicated GPU.

if you get it back with the same issue(s);
either do this troubleshooting yourself or pay someone else to do it.

How did you manage to do escalate it? I can't get anyone else to even talk to me about it. Literally every single department throws their hands up an acts like I've called a different company entirely, just saying it's not their department, they can't do anything, referring me to the one email address and trying to hang up. I am dealing with their Australian office though, not the US so I'm not sure how much similarity there is in the process, but I'm willing to try any suggestions at all at this point.

Also yeah, without going into too much, I'm pretty mentally ill so I don't interact with people at all really. Also in a lockdown right now here in NSW, which magnifies the issue. So yeah, hard as it may be to believe, I have literally no friends, family or even acquaintances that could potentially help me with testing. Otherwise I would've already tested it.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

How did you manage to do escalate it?

i would just tell them, "please escalate this to the next tier of support or directly to your supervisor. you do not seem capable of offering assistance and seem to not understand the situation".

always initiated contact through their online support options.
but eventually would get into email with them.

contact sources i've been supplied:

Service Hotline: 1-812-282-2787 Monday - Friday, 6AM - 9PM PST Saturday - Sunday, 6AM - 5PM PST
Self Service Link: https://www.asus.com/us/support/
CHAT: https://icr-am.asus.com/webchat/icr...4.1316972388.1574098323-1880059519.1557783674

 

[DSzymborski]

Be firm, but polite, that you require additional support above them. I understand that you have issues interacting with others, but the reality is that it'll be necessary to get this done. If you have nobody who can help you with testing, maybe you have someone that could help interact with customer support? I wish I had better advice; I do radio and TV regularly, but outside the normal initial anxieties I had to learn about 15 years ago or so, I didn't have a fundamental obstacle holding me back. Maybe search in forums that have support groups for this kind of thing?

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Also one thing that may help, I’m a tech, one of my bosses was former army, if you know the military alphabet, you can sometimes intimidate them with that, for example if your serial number is abc123, read it back to them as alpha bravo charlie 123.

Sometimes that gives them the impression that you really know what you are talking about.

As the guy above said, be polite but firm. Tell them you want their supervisor, tell them you want the company ceo if you have to. Insist that you have tested it and isolated it to that card being at fault based on the fact that other cards work fine and that you have other high quality parts you have tested with.

If they don’t want to help, insist that you paid 100s of dollars for their product, and you will call the Better Business Bureau(that’s for the USA, not sure in Australia what your equivalent is), or that you are on some tech forums and will tell your story to anyone who will listen, tell the news stations etc. Be polite, but firm and become such a squeaky wheel that they give you a new card just to shut you up.

 

[MVP Teku]

Be firm, but polite, that you require additional support above them. I understand that you have issues interacting with others, but the reality is that it'll be necessary to get this done. If you have nobody who can help you with testing, maybe you have someone that could help interact with customer support? I wish I had better advice; I do radio and TV regularly, but outside the normal initial anxieties I had to learn about 15 years ago or so, I didn't have a fundamental obstacle holding me back. Maybe search in forums that have support groups for this kind of thing?

Thanks. I don't really suffer in that department though, I can talk to people and deal with social interaction just fine. It's not like an anxiety thing. Guess you could just say I'm more of a hermit. I can talk to people, but I prefer not to for certain reasons. Just means cause of how I tend to live, I don't know anyone at all outside my house. I have very minimal contact with the outside world, that's why I don't know anyone with a GPU or a PC to help with testing.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

While I like my space as well, it's fun to get out sometimes when you are able. I like gaming on my PC as much as the next person, we are from the USA, but we've been planning a trip to disney world. My wife and I got to go in 2019 before the lockdowns and that was a very fun trip. So we were planning to try and take a trip last year, but all the shutdowns happened. So definitely ready to go back in the future.

How you live is your business, I'm just saying that PC gaming is fun and I can play games for hours at times if there are good stories, but there is life outside the 4 walls of the house as well.

 

[InvalidError]

At first, that happened when I launched a game and within thirty seconds, both monitors looked like that and after maybe 2-3 seconds of that the PC would BSoD about half the time, the other half of the time, it would either stay like that requiring a restart or correct itself after a few seconds.

Looks like the famous "space invaders" issue that affected many 2000-series cards, mostly at the higher-end.
https://www.techspot.com/news/77445-nvidia-addresses-failing-geforce-rtx-2080-ti-cards.html

 

[MVP Teku]

While I like my space as well, it's fun to get out sometimes when you are able. I like gaming on my PC as much as the next person, we are from the USA, but we've been planning a trip to disney world. My wife and I got to go in 2019 before the lockdowns and that was a very fun trip. So we were planning to try and take a trip last year, but all the shutdowns happened. So definitely ready to go back in the future.

How you live is your business, I'm just saying that PC gaming is fun and I can play games for hours at times if there are good stories, but there is life outside the 4 walls of the house as well.

I don't just play games all day. Don't play that much these days at all really, spend the majority of my time building furniture, working out, doing random DIY stuff. Just don't leave the house much cause there's nothing I care care about outside of it. Guess I'm just a hermit or something, don't get much outta being in society and I don't like people so I prefer to just stick by myself. Hell, this whole thing with Asus right now just proves to me why I detest dealing with all that external stuff so much, just don't think it's ever been worth the trouble for me.

 

[MVP Teku]

Looks like the famous "space invaders" issue that affected many 2000-series cards, mostly at the higher-end.
https://www.techspot.com/news/77445-nvidia-addresses-failing-geforce-rtx-2080-ti-cards.html

Yeah, I even linked them articles about the exact issue and tried to explain to them it's a very well documented issue with this series of cards in the hopes they' cut me some slack or realise I knew what I was talking about or something, but they completely ignored it, just like every other piece of evidence I've brought to them.