Will this void my warranty ?

[PapaJohns]

So I have a Sapphire R7 250 2GB DDR3 video card and I needed more performance in Fallout 4 so I started overclocking with AMD Radeon Settings which comes after you install the video card drivers. I'm an idiot and I didn't know what I was doing so I cranked up GPU clock 100 MHz up and memory clock from 900MHz to 1200MHz and my Power Control to 20% which crashed the drivers and crashed Fallout 4. So i went in again and I changed from 1200MHz to 1000MHz and it didn't crash. I was playing like 30 minutes with a 10 fps increase until the game started stuttering hard. So I put everything back to normal but it was still stuttering i reinstalled the drivers but it didn't do anything and now all my games have strange stuttering when i walk around or drive cars. Though everthing else is ok like people moving beside me are not stuttering but when i start to move it starts to stutter. So my question is did i void my warranty because im an idiot?

 

[Rogue Leader]

You may well have fried something cranking it up that high and then overheat crashing it. You should try to warranty it, but they can usually tell if you overclocked it and cooked it, if they do see that they will void the warranty. Its worth asking for, as you're screwed anyway, worst that happens is they say no and you buy a new card, best case they give you a new one.

 

[Proofy]

Yes you did. If you used profiles that were provided with the radeon software you wouldn't void your warranty. Since you played with the speeds yourself you voided it. Unless it's a bad repair service company (which I doubt) they will see graphic cards logs and will see that it's clock base speeds were changed so... be really careful next time you want to overclock gpu/cpu. Read many manuals and ask someone for an advice

 

[Gallarian]

This is one of the biggest 'grey areas' in PC hardware, as it really depends on the specific manufacturer. For the most part, it comes down to what they consider to be within specifications - i.e. if you only overclocked it a small amount, you may be within the manufacturers specifications and therefore your warranty is fine.

That said, there doesn't seem to be enough evidence from your OP that you need to RMA your card just yet, as those stuttering issues may be down to something else.

One thing that jumps out at me is the uninstalling and reinstalling of your drivers (which you don't need to do when overclocking). You may have some old files left over that could be causing issues.

What I suggest you do is:

1) Reset everything you did on the card back to factory settings.

2) Do a system restore back to before you started overclocking

3) Test some games to see if its still a problem.

As for overclocking itself; you should never just go all out and bump things up 100mhz+ straight away, and only do core or memory separately - never together.

Go up in small 25-50mhz increments for each, and test along the way.

 

[ShadyHamster]

Yes you did. If you used profiles that were provided with the radeon software you wouldn't void your warranty. Since you played with the speeds yourself you voided it. Unless it's a bad repair service company (which I doubt) they will see graphic cards logs and will see that it's clock base speeds were changed so... be really careful next time you want to overclock gpu/cpu. Read many manuals and ask someone for an advice

The only way they would be able to tell if you were overclocking is if you told them or flashed a new bios with different default clock speeds.
If all you did is increased clock speeds via software there is virtually no way for them to know that you overclocked.

Where exactly would these 'logs' be stored?

 

[PapaJohns]

This is one of the biggest 'grey areas' in PC hardware, as it really depends on the specific manufacturer. For the most part, it comes down to what they consider to be within specifications - i.e. if you only overclocked it a small amount, you may be within the manufacturers specifications and therefore your warranty is fine.

That said, there doesn't seem to be enough evidence from your OP that you need to RMA your card just yet, as those stuttering issues may be down to something else.

One thing that jumps out at me is the uninstalling and reinstalling of your drivers (which you don't need to do when overclocking). You may have some old files left over that could be causing issues.

What I suggest you do is:

1) Reset everything you did on the card back to factory settings.

2) Do a system restore back to before you started overclocking

3) Test some games to see if its still a problem.

As for overclocking itself; you should never just go all out and bump things up 100mhz+ straight away, and only do core or memory separately - never together.

Go up in small 25-50mhz increments for each, and test along the way.

Well there is no physical damage to the card can they still see if i overclocked it ?

 

[Rogue Leader]

LOL logs.... there's no logs.

Generally they can't tell unless there is physical damage, which is why I said try it, they may well just take it. That said I have heard of people (here) getting warranty denied due to overclocking. Don't know how they know, unless its possible the person told the manufacturer they were doing it. But its happened.

 

[Proofy]

Yes you did. If you used profiles that were provided with the radeon software you wouldn't void your warranty. Since you played with the speeds yourself you voided it. Unless it's a bad repair service company (which I doubt) they will see graphic cards logs and will see that it's clock base speeds were changed so... be really careful next time you want to overclock gpu/cpu. Read many manuals and ask someone for an advice

The only way they would be able to tell if you were overclocking is if you told them or flashed a new bios with different default clock speeds.
If all you did is increased clock speeds via software there is virtually no way for them to know that you overclocked.

Where exactly would these 'logs' be stored?

It would be easy to add a chip in the gpu that would check for overclocking and keep track of the cards speed. If they couldn't check for this stuff then everyone would just fry their gpu few weeks before warranty expires imo.

 

[PapaJohns]

Yes you did. If you used profiles that were provided with the radeon software you wouldn't void your warranty. Since you played with the speeds yourself you voided it. Unless it's a bad repair service company (which I doubt) they will see graphic cards logs and will see that it's clock base speeds were changed so... be really careful next time you want to overclock gpu/cpu. Read many manuals and ask someone for an advice

The only way they would be able to tell if you were overclocking is if you told them or flashed a new bios with different default clock speeds.
If all you did is increased clock speeds via software there is virtually no way for them to know that you overclocked.

Where exactly would these 'logs' be stored?

Yes you did. If you used profiles that were provided with the radeon software you wouldn't void your warranty. Since you played with the speeds yourself you voided it. Unless it's a bad repair service company (which I doubt) they will see graphic cards logs and will see that it's clock base speeds were changed so... be really careful next time you want to overclock gpu/cpu. Read many manuals and ask someone for an advice

The only way they would be able to tell if you were overclocking is if you told them or flashed a new bios with different default clock speeds.
If all you did is increased clock speeds via software there is virtually no way for them to know that you overclocked.

Where exactly would these 'logs' be stored?

It would be easy to add a chip in the gpu that would check for overclocking and keep track of the cards speed. If they couldn't check for this stuff then everyone would just fry their gpu few weeks before warranty expires imo.

Well everything is restarted new drivers were installed and all the clocks and speeds are return to default can they still see if i touched it ?

 

[Rogue Leader]

Well everything is restarted new drivers were installed and all the clocks and speeds are return to default can they still see if i touched it ?

You're working under the assumption he is correct, he is not.

Your best bet is to re-set everything to stock, maybe try deleting the drivers and using DDU to make sure all drivers are clear. Load the drivers again and give it 1 more shot. If it still is acting funny, RMA the card. Without physical damage, and without you telling them you did it, its highly unlikely they will know you overclocked the card.

 

[PapaJohns]

Well everything is restarted new drivers were installed and all the clocks and speeds are return to default can they still see if i touched it ?

You're working under the assumption he is correct, he is not.

Your best bet is to re-set everything to stock, maybe try deleting the drivers and using DDU to make sure all drivers are clear. Load the drivers again and give it 1 more shot. If it still is acting funny, RMA the card. Without physical damage, and without you telling them you did it, its highly unlikely they will know you overclocked the card.

Well i will try with DDU and if it still doesn't work i will use my warranty and if they don't accept it i will just kill myself because video cards in my country are VERY VERY expensive. To buy a video card like the one i have i need to give 1/4 of my wage 🙁

 

[Proofy]

Well everything is restarted new drivers were installed and all the clocks and speeds are return to default can they still see if i touched it ?

You're working under the assumption he is correct, he is not.

Your best bet is to re-set everything to stock, maybe try deleting the drivers and using DDU to make sure all drivers are clear. Load the drivers again and give it 1 more shot. If it still is acting funny, RMA the card. Without physical damage, and without you telling them you did it, its highly unlikely they will know you overclocked the card.

Well i will try with DDU and if it still doesn't work i will use my warranty and if they don't accept it i will just kill myself because video cards in my country are VERY VERY expensive. To buy a video card like the one i have i need to give 1/4 of my wage 🙁

Best of luck and I hope that Rogue Leader is correct

 

[Rogue Leader]

Well everything is restarted new drivers were installed and all the clocks and speeds are return to default can they still see if i touched it ?

You're working under the assumption he is correct, he is not.

Your best bet is to re-set everything to stock, maybe try deleting the drivers and using DDU to make sure all drivers are clear. Load the drivers again and give it 1 more shot. If it still is acting funny, RMA the card. Without physical damage, and without you telling them you did it, its highly unlikely they will know you overclocked the card.

Well i will try with DDU and if it still doesn't work i will use my warranty and if they don't accept it i will just kill myself because video cards in my country are VERY VERY expensive. To buy a video card like the one i have i need to give 1/4 of my wage 🙁

I'm pretty sure you should be fine, lets hope the drivers work, if not I doubt you did physical damage, so you should be ok.

If you end up totally screwed I have an old XFX Radeon HD 5450 you are welcome to for free, I will mail it to you, its not great but better than nothing.

 

[PapaJohns]

Well everything is restarted new drivers were installed and all the clocks and speeds are return to default can they still see if i touched it ?

You're working under the assumption he is correct, he is not.

Your best bet is to re-set everything to stock, maybe try deleting the drivers and using DDU to make sure all drivers are clear. Load the drivers again and give it 1 more shot. If it still is acting funny, RMA the card. Without physical damage, and without you telling them you did it, its highly unlikely they will know you overclocked the card.

Well i will try with DDU and if it still doesn't work i will use my warranty and if they don't accept it i will just kill myself because video cards in my country are VERY VERY expensive. To buy a video card like the one i have i need to give 1/4 of my wage 🙁

I'm pretty sure you should be fine, lets hope the drivers work, if not I doubt you did physical damage, so you should be ok.

If you end up totally screwed I have an old XFX Radeon HD 5450 you are welcome to for free, I will mail it to you, its not great but better than nothing.

I have never seen someone so kind like you people you are even willing to help me more than my friends, if they had an old video card they would probably sell it to me even after they know i'm so poor and you are just a stranger and you are willing to give me a graphics card i love you man. I will try to uninstall everything and i will come back!

 

[Gallarian]

"Well there is no physical damage to the card can they still see if i overclocked it ?"

Usually not. The reason most people who damage their hardware due to overclocking get denied a replacement, is because the damage caused is pretty specific to overclocking, and so is easy to detect by their teams.

However, just because you can't see any physical damage, doesn't mean they won't once they've taken it apart.

At this point, I still think physical damage is the worst case scenario. Try what I said previously, and if the problem persists, we'll take it from there.

 

[PapaJohns]

"Well there is no physical damage to the card can they still see if i overclocked it ?"

Usually not. The reason most people who damage their hardware due to overclocking get denied a replacement, is because the damage caused is pretty specific to overclocking, and so is easy to detect by their teams.

However, just because you can't see any physical damage, doesn't mean they won't once they've taken it apart.

At this point, I still think physical damage is the worst case scenario. Try what I said previously, and if the problem persists, we'll take it from there.

Well I did everything you told me, used DDU in safe mode installed the newest AMD drivers and everything is like new but still i have stutter in games like Grand Theft Auto 5, but the interesting thing is that my fps doesn't drop when i get the stutter i don't know what's causing it but it's annoying...

 

[Gallarian]

Ok, micro stutter is a common problem but very rarely down to any hardware issues.

There are a couple of things you can try to reduce/remove it. Go in to your graphics card's control panel and try:

1) Forcing V-Sync to on.

2) Turning on 'Triple Buffering'

3) Setting 'Pre-rendered frames' to '1'

4) Turn your mouse DPI up high, and your in-game sensitivity down low.

5) Experiment with difference in-game graphics settings - Depending on the game, some settings can cause it. For example, 'Borderless Window' mode is a common culprit.

6) Try using frame rate caps with third part software like RivaTuner.

 

[PapaJohns]

Ok, micro stutter is a common problem but very rarely down to any hardware issues.

There are a couple of things you can try to reduce/remove it. Go in to your graphics card's control panel and try:

1) Forcing V-Sync to on.

2) Turning on 'Triple Buffering'

3) Setting 'Pre-rendered frames' to '1'

4) Turn your mouse DPI up high, and your in-game sensitivity down low.

5) Experiment with difference in-game graphics settings - Depending on the game, some settings can cause it. For example, 'Borderless Window' mode is a common culprit.

6) Try using frame rate caps with third part software like RivaTuner.

While it didn't fix all the stuttering it's hardly noticeable now thank you man thank's allot !

 

[Gallarian]

No problem