My leadtek (winfast a400 GT TDH) geforce 6800gt is doing crazy things

[Sabertooth]

Hi everyone,

Am new to this forum and actually got here while doing some further research on Leadtek's 6800 series issues. I got a new 6800LE back in September 2005 and as of this minute (Jan 2006), I'm still going through RMA with Leadtek just like others described. It is quite sad that after 3 months, 50+ (including a couple to the BBB) emails and one defective replacement unit, I'm still without a card. They said I should be getting one in a few days, I wouldn't be surprised if replacement turns out to be defective as well.

What good is a warranty on a product that you cannot use, I wish someone had a contact phone or fax # for their CEO. I'd like to send a letter to him or someone that'll really look into this issue from a preventative stand point, I could care less at this point if they resolved the issue with my card as I'd already made up my mind not to buy any Leadtek merchandise again. It just feels awful after what I've gone through to see someone unknowingly end up in the same situation.

Do your self a favor and stay with another brand.

 

[Squiddie]

Yesterday my A400 came in the mail. Less than an hour after opening the box, I found this thread, and only wish I found it much sooner.

Garbled characters at post, and no amount of bios tweaking through the other card, nor trick offered in this thread induced the card to do anything beyond the garbage-filled screen. Once I let it boot through to windows, where I could make out my desktop through a haze of green lines. When I decided to install the latest drivers (what the hell, it was worth a shot), the screen went black and stayed that way until I hit reset.

I exceed minimum requirements for everything.

Now, I knew this card was big and heavy, but after feeling it in my hands I honestly have to say I wouldn't be comfortable with it running in my system even if it functioned. It seems like it would rip the AGP slot off the motherboard.

And it's such a shame, because my Ti4600 is a Leadtek, and it's been extremely reliable across two owners and thousands of miles of travel in and out of an AGP slot, plus THOUSANDS of hours of heavy gaming. I wouldn't replace 4600 if not the absolute minimum requirements for some games being higher than this card.

Anybody who read through this entire thread probably gets the hint by now that they should avoid this video card. I wanted to add my own warning though. If I saw this thread before purchase, I would have gone with something else.

 

[atomicplayer]

have you tried to hold it and lift it a bit once installed just to be sure that the contacts between the card and the agp slot are correct ? Some of us here put something under the card to keep it correctly in place and they resolved the problem.

try to hold it without the screw that joins the card to the case. When I installed the card, the screw moved it a bit... at the moment I didn't think it could make a problem since I hadn't read this thread.

 

[Squiddie]

I tried like a dozen variations of "hold the card up", screwed in, not screwed in, double, triple checked for any collision with wires inside, any other potential pressure, also airflow.

I tried the fast write settings, AGP voltage settings, multiple dedicated power supply connectors... an exausting venture considering with every combination of bios settings I had to swap the whole thing out with the poor 4600 just so I could see the bios.

When my Ti4400 died, it did the same thing: garbled post.

 

[Scramjet]

Then theres no solution??

Im suspect that someday one of us will come with the total solution, i hope that is not to trow the card to the garbage.!!! :evil:

 

[Templ]

After 1.5 year of faithful service, my Leadtek 6800 GT died aswell a couple of days ago, and there is absolutley nothing i can do with it right now. Windows desktop turns into a colorful net, a few seconds after boot.

So much for Leadtek and their 1 year warranty. I guess the card's not totaly useless yet. I asked the card if it would like to meet with my hammer and the system crashed, so i will take that as a yes. :stickout:

 

[atomicplayer]

I dont think that someone will find a solution if squiddie has tried everything he told us. The card is probably just faulty and there is nothing to do with it but hope for a functionning card. Ill receive my 3rd leadtek a400 gt next wednesday (january 11th). Be sure I'll tell you what's up with it. All these previous replies make me think that my chances to get a working card are weak.

 

[Moogie]

Hi all, i believe to have a similar problem to the above, although slightly different, my card (a Leadtek A400GT) has worked fine for the best part of a year now, but just recently it randomly crashed and i had to power off to reboot.

When rebooting, all is fine, and windows loads up, but the moment windows has loaded it will be fine for a few seconds max, then the whole screen will become overlayed with a garbled mess (i can still move the cursor briefly in this state, sort of behind the mess) the system then crash's and reboots.

I can load perfectly into safe mode however, which led me to believe that this must be a driver issue (even though i hadnt recently changed anything in my setup) so, as i was planning to format soon anyway, i formatted all drives and reinstalled windows, all is fine i can boot into windows now, i set up my network to get online and installed all my drivers. This worked fine, but as soon as i installed my nvidia drivers (I tried the winfast ones, 66.93's and the latest 80.xx ones, so far) and rebooted, i get the same mess when attempting to boot into windows normally...i meet all the minimum specs for the card, and as i said its been fine for a year. Im just very puzzled as to why it works fine, no corruption etc (i can even play video files) until i load some nvidia drivers into the system, and im looking for someone kind enough to shed some light on the matter

Any help is much appreciated,
Moogie

 

[CrashDome]

My kingdom for a working A400

My first post here and I am sorry to say it is a sad one.

I am/was an avid Leadtek supporter. I'm growing on in age here and when I find a good company I tend to stick with em. I've got three machines and various others at my company all with Leadtek products (some reaching 5 years old now). However, I purchased an A400 (AGP) in the beginning of December and I experienced the weird chars and lines upon boot-up.

I've done everything I could to try and rectify it and searching Google brought me here (back then). Since I had already RMA'd it to Leadtek there was nothing I could do. I've just received my third card about 1 hour ago and am sad to say it's a bad one. The second was by far the worst, but I will not "live" with this kind of odd behavior from a $180 part. I've been following this thread religiously and just want to throw my experience on the pile (it's some sort of therapy for me I guess ). I originally thought "ah.. maybe it's just finicky". Every card I received, I tested on three completely different machines. All had the exact same result - despite power supply, AGPx4/x8, bus speed, etc... That can only mean one thing: a bad product.

I loved Leadtek products and they 'were' always stable and effective. I am not one to listen to the younger crowd and play the "your brand sucks" game. However, I am a business man and when someone drops the ball.... and HARD. It's time to move on.

Goodbye Leadtek. I appreciate the good memories but these bridges deserve to be burned. :hotbounce

 

[atomicplayer]

Ok I've just installed the card and it seems to work well. I've tried bf2 with everything at high and it hasn't crashed yet . I'm happy but still, it could crash tomorrow, next week or next wonth without advertising... You should understand that I don't trust this card yet .

 

[XoX1de]

Hi I just recieved my A400 normal And got the same problem, I bought it on eBay and there's no possibility to return the card. I found out the problem, is the gold finger on the card is pretty short compare to the 9600XT that I have. I need to push pretty hard the card on Up to have a good contact between the AGP slot. Im using Abit NF7 V2 board, My a400 is holding by a stick. I have no idea how to modify it to get it works, maybe i shoulda buy conduct paints paint every Gfinger. So People who rma twice the card, the card is working great, they tested the card u had RMA and send it back cuz their motherboard dont get any problem.

 

[we3b]

Might as well add my tales of woe

I've had my 6800GT(AGP) since september and I've had many happy bf2 hours with it but the other day...right in the midst of one of the best all time battles...bam, the screen went black and the only way to get out was a hard reboot. :blackeye:

Ever since then I get about 5-10 minutes of game play before the same thing happens.

After a reboot it is fine, no artifacts, nothing. I've got the pc on most of the time and it will quite happily sit in windows...it is only when I fire up a game that it will go tits up!

I've tried all the drivers in the world for this card so I'm certain it is not a driver issue. I'll try reseating it tonight but I don't hold out much hope...wish me luck!!!

 

[Matt_3D]

I've had my 6800GT(AGP) since september and I've had many happy bf2 hours with it but the other day...right in the midst of one of the best all time battles...bam, the screen went black and the only way to get out was a hard reboot. :blackeye:

Ever since then I get about 5-10 minutes of game play before the same thing happens.

After a reboot it is fine, no artifacts, nothing. I've got the pc on most of the time and it will quite happily sit in windows...it is only when I fire up a game that it will go tits up!

I've tried all the drivers in the world for this card so I'm certain it is not a driver issue. I'll try reseating it tonight but I don't hold out much hope...wish me luck!!!

Try checking the temperature, maybe the fan isn't working. I may be wrong but BF2 puts a bit of strain on the card.

 

[Sabertooth]

Hi everyone,

Am new to this forum and actually got here while doing some further research on Leadtek's 6800 series issues. I got a new 6800LE back in September 2005 and as of this minute (Jan 2006), I'm still going through RMA with Leadtek just like others described. It is quite sad that after 3 months, 50+ (including a couple to the BBB) emails and one defective replacement unit, I'm still without a card. They said I should be getting one in a few days, I wouldn't be surprised if replacement turns out to be defective as well.

What good is a warranty on a product that you cannot use, I wish someone had a contact phone or fax # for their CEO. I'd like to send a letter to him or someone that'll really look into this issue from a preventative stand point, I could care less at this point if they resolved the issue with my card as I'd already made up my mind not to buy any Leadtek merchandise again. It just feels awful after what I've gone through to see someone unknowingly end up in the same situation.

Do your self a favor and stay with another brand.

Hi again everyone,

My second replacement (third card) arrived today without much fanfare, I guess getting two prior defective cards has now made me ambivalent. Without wasting anytime, I opened the box and looking at the card even a blind man can tell it's NOT new. So with my fingers crossed, I installed the 6800 hoping to eat my words since I said I won't be surprised if the replacement is once again defective.

Well I am sad to let you all know that this card is again DEFECTIVE :-(, I hurried down to my neighbour and the same artifacts and lines shown on my monitor was evident on his. I normally leave no stone unturned and tried the computer shop near me (they call me the LEADTEK guy now after two prior tests ) , and they got the same anomalies on their monitor too. They felt real sorry for me but I'm sure they are probably saying good for him since they sell video cards too.

I am short of words at this time and don't know if I should just accept the loss and get another brand of card or contact Leadtek again. This is ridiculous that after 50+ emails and three cards am still where I was back in October of last year. I don't know why Leadtek can't issue a recall on these darn cards because there is a problem and it is across boards.

Once again guys, do yourself a big favor and stay away from Leadtek.

 

[Shukie]

I'm also new to this forum and joined to reply to this topic. I bought my a400gt tdh back in last christmas. The first one my computer restarted all the sudden and never boots up again after a month or 2. The second one did the same thing except it has the squares, patterns that everybody mentioned. And now, the third one had just rebooted...as well like the previous 2 20 minutes ago and again, it didnt boot up. I am kind of afraid if I can still RMA this last one cause it has been more than a year since I bought the original one.

 

[choppa]

Anyone who wants to sell their dead card, I NEED TO BUY YOUR HEATSINKS so I can get mine RMA'd.

Please help me!

 

[Jason Novak]

Here are my experiences with this card and possible solution:

I bought it in September, I saw this glitch once or twice but rebooting or reseating the card seemed to fix it. About two months ago it go really bad so I just pulled card, and I've been sitting on it after reading these and similar stories, since RMA doesn't look too promising.

I just plugged the card back in today and it seems to be working fine right now (fingers crossed).

One thought: Could it be the heat sink that's causing some of these problems, at least in the newer cards? I noticed before I stopped using the card before that if I held the card in just the right away and turned it on it would work fine, if I didn't it would go screw again. This is obviously a very heavy card, and it uses the cooler from the ultra card, a 2-slot cooler, but only 1 faceplate. Their normal ultras get dual faceplates, too, which may help stabilize it a bit; it may be making poor contact.

leadtek 6800 ultra pic

I wonder if changing to something like a more lightweight nv5 aftermarket cooler will help? Has anyone tried this? Does anyone have this card in a desktop case (vertical vs horizonal in a tower case)?

 

[Moogie]

Has anyone had a similar problem to the one i mentioned earlier? Im thinking its the same as your all having, but im not to sure as it is a little different, if anyone could help me confirm it is indeed the card that would be great, i currently have no other system to test in, and am worried about RMA'ing a card that may not be faulty. (My first post is on page 8)

 

[Squiddie]

I wound up returning the A400, and grabbed one of the sparkly new AGP 6800GS cards from eVga. So far, no issues. I suppose this means my machine wasn't the problem.

What I saw when I turned the machine on with the A400 in the slot was very similar to what I saw when my cheapy old Ti4400 died. At least my Leadtek Ti4600 retired alive and well.

 

[atomicplayer]

ok im having new issues with the card that I received last wednesday. No problems on boot up but when playing bf2, sometimes large (½ inche to 2 inches) black lines flash. It doesnt happen often but its still something wrong. most of the time its just temporary and im good for the rest of the game. but last game the computer completely crashed. With my radeon 9200, the game already crashed but only the game, now with the leadtek 6800 gt, the pc crash completely and i must reboot. its just happened once but it means there is still something wrong with the card. It's like if the card was too hot..Though I've checked the temperature and it seems ok : 60-64 C .

i dont think ill rma it because i dont judge the issue like a big one and i cant live with it. (anyway i wont rma it again even if it is completely useless).

*sry again for my english*

 

[dethalis]

Bad Bad Bad!! Screw Leadtek

Ok this is the same thing that i got when i did the rma i got a bad one in return. I think after closely inspecting the card and comparing to online pics on their website. That a couple of things are wrong

A That heat sink that sets off by itself touches the card and could be shorting out. (tried to fix that on luck)
B The memory time on these cards could be the cause if the ram is bad or has problems running at 500 mhz... ( haven't tried to fix this one)
C There is a short from the two heatsinks screws that go through the card...
D Its to heavy for a single back card needs to be double slot cover held.
E ITS A LEADTEK AND THEY SUXOR.
I WILL NEVER BUY A LEADTEK AGAIN!!!
If anyone tries any of these suggestions and one works please email me at dethalis@aim.com and let me know. Thanks guys.

 

[dethalis]

Warrenty

After 1.5 year of faithful service, my Leadtek 6800 GT died aswell a couple of days ago, and there is absolutley nothing i can do with it right now. Windows desktop turns into a colorful net, a few seconds after boot.

So much for Leadtek and their 1 year warranty. I guess the card's not totaly useless yet. I asked the card if it would like to meet with my hammer and the system crashed, so i will take that as a yes. :stickout:

After looking on the website leadtek says that this card the A400gt TDH carries a 3 year factory warrenty. So i think lots of people have the wrong idea on the warrenty.

 

[Templ]

After looking on the website leadtek says that this card the A400gt TDH carries a 3 year factory warrenty. So i think lots of people have the wrong idea on the warrenty.

It says 1 year in the manul. Even if it is 3 years, i bet they would just send me back the same card. It is of no concern now, because i already bought a Gigabyte 7800GTX for 300€ (they gave me a very big discount) in the same shop as i bought the GT.

I find the logo "We make dreams a reality" on Leadteks' website a little ironic. They should change it to "We make nightmare a reality". :haha:

 

[dethalis]

cooling

when i get my next one im gonna get my friends bfg 6800gt oc heatsink and fan and swap the leadtek heavy one for it except the plate on the back so that i can get the card lighter and he said i can have it free. so i will have it hopefully working excelent soon as i get it. I think this should solve a problem with the card and if it is a short from heatsink then that will get fixed as well. But thats if the card is good when i get it :-/

 

[maltewannerskog]

Some weeks ago I sent my brothers card back to leadtek since it didnt work. He had the card for over a year (1 year and 15 days or so) . Today he recieved a "new" card. I do not know if it is a brand new card or a repaired one. Anyhow, he reports it is working fine.

Very cool.
Gj Leadtek :grinthumb