Help me diagnose my PC crashing!

[enderfall]

If you bought the card back in November, XFX will probably have plenty of stock to send you the same thing. If it had been a lifetime warranty time deal on a 5 year old card, then you might get lucky and get something newer.

I thought they stopped production of the 4870 back in October 2009. Could be wrong though and they may have stock. Here's to hoping anyway!

[Hobie-wan]

If you bought the card back in November, XFX will probably have plenty of stock to send you the same thing. If it had been a lifetime warranty time deal on a 5 year old card, then you might get lucky and get something newer.

I thought they stopped production of the 4870 back in October 2009. Could be wrong though and they may have stock. Here's to hoping anyway!

Electronics companies keep new stock for warranty swaps. They also refurbish the broken ones they get from people like you if they can and they go on the pile for warranty swaps too. Unless they had a batch of 4870s with a high failure rate, they'll probably have some ready to go.

This is how someone 'finds' a lot of 100 old brand new sealed game consoles (or whatever) that are 10 years old in a warehouse somewhere.

[Niode]

If you bought the graphics card from a store then it's up to the store to replace it within 12 months. If it was purchased OEM, then you need to go to the customer support for the site you bought it from and file an RMA.

That must be a UK thing. Generally here in the US there's a 15-30 day limit with stores which is on the back of receipts, especially from electronics stores. Wasn't the '1 year defect' thing the reason that one guy got a refund from Amazon for Sony yanking the Linux from the PS3? Let's not turn this into a Sony/PS3 bash, just the first example that came to mind since I'm not in the UK.

Yeah, I forget that you guys are basically fucked after you buy something. Got to rely on warranties etc. Thankfully we have the magic phrase 'not fit for purpose' which gets us whatever the hell we want. Especially when we combine it with 'Trading Standards' and 'Small claims court'. I've done it a bunch of times with inkjet printers, companies can't get away with 'planned obsolescence' in this country, because all we do is complain to the retailer and they have to give us a replacement. Doesn't matter if it's 13 months old or 2 years old. If it's clear that the product should have lasted for a lot longer, they must give us a refund/replacement. Plus that kind of product lifespan is generally frowned upon in the EU with the whole environmentally friendly kick they're on right now. Can't just go throwing electronics away, we have to go to a special tip that accepts them. The dustbin men won't take them, at all.

[enderfall]

Just a quick update for those interested: xfx tested my card and found it to be "faulty". They sent me back a likely refurbished 4870, and since installing it last Friday I have been playing ME and Borderlands crash free! Thanks everyone for your help in determining what was causing me so much headache. Only wish I would have realized this earlier when I could have returned it to Amazon for free and received a new card in return...

[Hobie-wan]

Ah well. At least you're sorted.