BFG, Take #3

Well, I think I got a bad card back from BFG. Neverwinter Nights would lock up and red bands would appear across the screen. Usually I could kill X with ctrl-alt-backspace, but this time I had to reset. When I did all I got was a grid of white blocks. So I RMA'd it again. This time they sent me a better card, a 6600 OC with 256M. So far this one works great, although I'm glad I also upgraded my PSU to a better one. Thus far, this card seems to be doing everything well.

Oh yeah, they sent me another T-shirt too. Soon I'm going to have the largest privately-held collection of BFG-ware :)

Slackware 12.1

You'd think I'd know better by now. Slackware 12.1 came out and I decided to upgrade my main box with it. There's just one problem. The 2.6.24.5 kernel that comes with it doesn't like my DVD drive. Unfortunately I didn't watch when the DVD was booting so I didn't notice until I had dusted my root partition. I got to the point where I would install all the packages and it wouldn't find the drive. This isn't Slackware-specific; I've heard of people having similar problems with Ubuntu and other distros with that kernel. It may be something specific with Benq-based drives (which my Sony DRU-810A is).

Long story short, I had to reinstall 12.0 and then do a manual upgrade to 12.1. I got everything working in relatively short order. Unfortunately, there were a couple of other screw-ups that I made along the way which are entirely my own fault. Haste makes waste, they say. Plus for some reason I insist on living on the bleeding edge.

So now I'm running a custom 2.6.25.3 kernel. The main benefit I've seen to 12.1 so far (it's only been a day or two) is that I could install Cedega without having to add a bunch of stuff to Python.

BFG Follow-Up

Well, color me impressed. BFG got a card back to me almost exact 48 hours after I mailed mine out. Note that it is not my original card. I assume that it is a refurbished model or perhaps a new old stock one. Not only that, but they threw in a sweet BFG t-shirt for my troubles. I guess I know which brand video card I'm going to be buying when I build a new system.

BFG Warranty

The fan on my BFG GeForceFX 5700 Ultra has been getting unpredictable. It will run for a while but then stop. The only way I can tell is by monitoring its temperature in the NVIDIA Linux drivers. I couldn't find a suitable replacement heatsink. The comparable cards are either less powerful or require a bigger PSU than I have. I decided to call BFG, since I knew they had a lifetime warranty. I expected flak, but I got none. They issued me an RMA and I UPS'd it to them yesterday. I just got confirmation that it arrived. According to the guy I talked to, there will be a 1-2 day turnaround and then it will be UPS'd back. Pretty cool, especially since it's a four-year-old card. I'm planning on a box upgrade later this year. I guess I know which brand of vid card I'm getting.

Update! I just checked their site and their warranty changed with cards purchased after February 21 of this year. It's still a lifetime warranty, but you need to register the card within 30 days and send a copy of the receipt with any returned cards. That's a little bit more of a hoop to jump through, but not a biggie.

Update #2! Holy crap! I just checked BFG's site and it's already been fixed and is being shipped back to me. I got a UPS tracking number which means that it should be here tomorrow. The card will have been out of my possession for approximately 48 hours. Wow! If it really is fixed that is nothing short of spectacular service.