PowerSpec PC warranty repair delays

Cavefishes

Hey there! I bought a PowerSpec G706 from you guys on July 5th. I brought it in for service (service number upon request) to my local store on Sunday, August 16th around 1pm due to a couple of issues:
1. The PC sometimes wakes from sleep and hibernate on its own. This is intermittent and sometimes it'll sleep/hibernate no problem while other times it wakes back up almost immediately or an hour or two later.
2. The GPU runs too hot while gaming (85c at home playing Doom Eternal, managed to reproduce 82c in the air conditioned store on the bench in just a few minutes). My concern was that the factory thermal paste or cooler application for the card wasn't up to snuff.
3. Intermittent black screen graphics errors where all Windows visual elements and video players reload after 5-10 seconds of no video output at all. Happens at fairly low GPU loads, like when watching videos online or on VLC, or when browsing the web. This shows up as an error in Event Viewer with the text "The description for Event ID 14 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer." Some Googling of the issue shows that it appears to be an issue with NVIDIA cards.

I figured that with issues 2 and 3 that the store would just go ahead and try swapping in a new graphics card and send me on my way in a few days due to the 48 hour repair guarantee for PowerSpec PCs. Honestly if I had purchased the graphics card on my own and was having these issues, I'd be sending it in for an RMA and hoping that the replacement card had a better thermal paste job. It's a $500 graphics card and I feel like at that price it should work properly and not be running crazy high temps while playing a well-optimized game like Doom.

However, when talking to the rep working on my computer in the days after I dropped it off to provide additional information about the issues, we eventually reached the point where he told me that he couldn't do anything until he reproduced the issues in store and that it could be quite a while since the issues are intermittent / random and high temperatures alone wouldn't be a reason to replace the GPU. I asked him if it was possible to just swap out the GPU and see if temps go down and I could see if the black screen issue went away, and he said he had to ask his manager via email if he could do that. This was on Wednesday, he said his manager would get back to him on Thursday, and now it's Friday at store closing time with no news.

I totally understand how tricky all this is with COVID, and I appreciate everyone's hard work with the sheer volume of repairs there are to work on. However, what I thought would be an easy 2-day repair thanks to the PowerSpec guarantee now looks like it might take a week or longer. Is there anything I can do to help resolve this whole situation faster? I don't want to keep pestering this tech if things are out of his hands, but I'd also like to have my computer back and working well (especially considering the price). 

Thanks in advance for any help!

TSPhillipT

Hello @Cavefishes

I apologize for the delays our service desk is having with your service on the PowerSpec.  You should be receiving an email from me regarding to this issue.  

Cavefishes

Thanks, I got your email and sent you back the info you needed!

JABBERWOCK

Wouldn't thermal paste cost like a dollar?  Service techs have a Philips head, I'm sure they could just clean it off with some alcohol and put new thermal paste.  Not understanding why someone would return a whole GPU over thermal paste if that is the problem.  They would spend more in shipping and labor if they shipped it back.

TSKevinG

Good MOrning @JABBERWOCK

For graphics cards we would not service the item in store or disassemble it. If there is an issue with a card like this the only option they may have in store is to replace it. For mor edetails on what would have to be done you would need to come in to our store and speak with service.