Mail-In Graphics Card Repair Australia

You do not need a repair shop down the road to get a graphics card fixed properly. Post it to our workshop from anywhere in Australia and it gets repaired at component level — the individual part that failed is found and replaced, rather than the whole card being written off.

Everything works the same as walking in. A $150 bench diagnostic, waived in full if you go ahead. A fixed quote before any work starts. Twelve months of warranty on parts and labour. The only difference is postage, which you pay both ways and choose yourself. Express or standard, how much insurance, which courier — that is up to you, because only you know what the card is worth to you.

• Diagnostic — $150, waived in full if you go ahead with the repair
• Repairs — from $330, with a fixed quote before any work starts
• Warranty — 12 months on parts and labour
• Postage — paid by you, both ways, using the service and cover you choose
• Getting it back — a prepaid return label in the box, or postage added to your invoice at cost

Start a mail-in repair

How Mail-In Repair Works

1. Tell us about the card. Fill in the mail-in form at the bottom of this page or ring 0400 454 859. We reply with the likely cause, a starting price, the workshop address and a job number to put in the box. Please do not post anything until you have the job number.
2. Pack it and post it. Card only, packed the way described below, with whatever service and cover you like. Send us the tracking number so we know it is on the way.
3. We let you know it has arrived. The card is checked in against your job number and the condition it arrived in.
4. Diagnostic on the bench, $150. Current draw on a limited supply first, then rail by rail testing, thermal imaging under load and inspection under magnification. You get the fault, the fix, a fixed price and a straight answer on whether the card is worth it.
5. You approve, we repair. Nothing starts until you say yes. If you go ahead, the $150 comes off the invoice.
6. Testing, then home. Sustained load testing and thermal checks before it leaves. Once the invoice is paid, the card goes back to you with tracking.

Packing a Graphics Card for the Post

A graphics card is heavy for its size, and the connectors, fan blades and small components near the edges break easily. Loose in a satchel is how cards get damaged in transit. Ten minutes of packing is worth it.

1. Photograph it first. Front, back and the serial number sticker. It gives both of us a record of the condition it left in.
2. Anti-static bag. The one it came in is ideal. If you do not have one, wrap the card in paper before the bubble wrap, because ordinary bubble wrap can hold a static charge.
3. A box, not a satchel. A sturdy box with at least 5 cm of padding on every side. The card should not move at all when you shake the box.
4. Card only. Keep the power cables, adapters, support brackets and original retail box at home. Leave the cooler on. If someone has already had it apart, tell us, and put any loose screws in a sealed bag.
5. Water-cooled cards. Drain the block completely and let it dry out for a day before packing.
6. A note in the box. Your name, job number, phone number, email, what the card is doing, and how you want it sent back.

Postage and Insurance

You pay postage both ways and you choose the service — Australia Post or a courier, express or standard, whatever suits you. Please use something with tracking.

Insurance is your call. A standard Australia Post parcel only includes compensation of up to $100 for loss or damage. Extra Cover takes that up to $5,000 if you add it when you send. On most cards worth repairing it is worth having, but you are the best judge of what the card is worth to you.

There are two ways to get the card back:

• Prepaid label in the box. Buy a return label with the service and cover you want and put it in the box with the card. We pack the card back up in the packaging it arrived in and use your label.
• Added to your invoice. Tell us the service and the level of cover you want, and we add the postage to your invoice at cost.

If the card cannot be repaired, you pay the $150 diagnostic and the return postage, and nothing else.

What It Costs

The same prices as walking in. Every figure below is a starting point, because a single failed MOSFET and a full memory chip replacement are not the same amount of work. Your figure is confirmed once we know what is actually wrong.

• Thermal service, paste and pads — from $330
• Firmware and BIOS recovery — from $330
• Connector, port and trace repair — from $370
• Power stage repair — from $430
• Memory chip replacement — from $530
• Reflow or reball — from $630, quoted per card
• Diagnostic — $150, waived in full if you go ahead with the repair
• Postage — paid by you, both ways

How Long It Takes

Bench time is the same as for local customers. Thermal and firmware jobs are usually done in one to two business days. Power stage and memory work runs three to seven. Reball and physical damage repairs take five to ten. Intermittent faults take longer because they have to be reproduced before they can be traced, and anything needing a part ordered in depends on supply.

Add the time the post takes each way, which depends on the service you choose and where you are. We keep you posted when the card arrives, when the quote is ready and when it goes back in the post.

Faults We Fix by Post

• Artefacting — coloured blocks, lines or wrong textures, usually a memory fault
• Fans spin up to full, then the card goes dead
• No display output at all
• The PC will not start with the card fitted
• Fine on the desktop, crashes or black screens in games
• Overheating, throttling, dried out paste and pads
• Knocked off components, torn pads, lifted traces, liquid damage
• Dead after a BIOS update

Our graphics card repair page explains what each of these usually means, and the GPU artifacting guide covers the checks worth doing before you post anything. Plenty of problems that look like a dying card turn out to be a driver, a cable or a monitor.

Which Cards We Repair

Desktop NVIDIA GeForce and AMD Radeon cards, whichever company made the board — ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, Zotac, Palit, Gainward, PNY, Inno3D, Sapphire, PowerColor, XFX, EVGA and the rest. The RTX 30, 40 and 50 series and Radeon RX 6000 to 9000 series are the cards most often worth repairing, but older cards are fine if they are worth the diagnostic.

If the card is still under the manufacturer's warranty, use that first — it will be cheaper. Mail-in repair is for cards out of warranty, bought second hand, already opened, or where the RMA was knocked back.

Is It Worth Posting?

It depends almost entirely on what the card is worth. Cooling work pays for itself on nearly any card. Power and memory faults make sense on mid range cards and above. A card worth a couple of hundred dollars second hand is usually not worth the diagnostic plus postage both ways, and we will tell you that on the phone before you send it. Rough advice costs nothing.

Where the Workshop Is

The workshop is near Castle Hill in Sydney's Hills District, where we have been doing board level work since 2006. If you have an Australian postcode, you can post a card to us — capital city, regional town, farm, station or mine site.

In Sydney? Skip the post and bring it to the workshop instead.

Mail-In GPU Repair From Every State and Territory

The process and the prices are the same wherever you are. What changes is how long the post takes. The east coast capitals and the big regional centres near them are usually the quickest to and from Sydney. Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Tasmania and remote areas take longer, even with express post, so allow a few extra days each way.

New South Wales

Sydney locals can drop cards at the workshop. Everywhere else in the state can post: Newcastle, Maitland, the Central Coast, Wollongong and the Illawarra, Nowra and the South Coast down to Batemans Bay and Bega, and up the North Coast through Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour, Grafton, Lismore, Ballina and Tweed Heads. Inland, you can post from Tamworth, Armidale, Moree, Dubbo, Orange, Bathurst, Lithgow, Mudgee, Goulburn, Wagga Wagga, Albury, Griffith and Leeton, and from the far west — Bourke, Cobar, Walgett and Broken Hill.

Victoria

Melbourne and its suburbs, Geelong and the Surf Coast, Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton, Wangaratta, Wodonga, Echuca, Swan Hill, Mildura and Horsham, down to Warrnambool and Portland in the south west, and across Gippsland through Traralgon, Morwell, Sale and Bairnsdale.

Queensland

Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba, Gympie, Bundaberg, Hervey Bay, Gladstone, Rockhampton, Emerald, Mackay, Townsville and Cairns, and out west to Roma, Charleville, Longreach and Mount Isa. Heat is hard on graphics cards, and dried out paste and pads show up sooner in hot climates. A thermal service is also one of the cheaper repairs we do, from $330.

Western Australia

Perth and its suburbs, Joondalup, Rockingham, Mandurah, Bunbury, Busselton, Margaret River and Albany in the south, Esperance on the south coast, Kalgoorlie-Boulder in the Goldfields, and up the coast through Geraldton, Carnarvon, Karratha, Port Hedland and Broome to Kununurra. Parcels to and from WA take longer than the east coast, so express is worth considering. If you work FIFO, you can post the card from wherever suits and have it sent back to your home address.

South Australia

Adelaide and the Adelaide Hills, Gawler, Mount Barker, Murray Bridge, Victor Harbor, the Barossa, the Riverland towns of Renmark, Berri and Loxton, Mount Gambier in the south east, Port Pirie, Port Augusta and Whyalla on the Spencer Gulf, Port Lincoln on Eyre Peninsula, and up north to Roxby Downs and Coober Pedy.

Tasmania

Hobart, Kingston, the Huon Valley, Launceston, George Town, Devonport, Ulverstone, Burnie, Smithton, St Helens and Queenstown on the west coast. Parcels cross Bass Strait both ways, so allow an extra day or two.

Australian Capital Territory

Anywhere in Canberra — Belconnen, Gungahlin, the inner north and south, Woden, Weston Creek, Molonglo and Tuggeranong — plus Queanbeyan and Yass just over the border. Canberra is about three hours from the workshop by road, so dropping the card off in person is an option if you are in Sydney anyway.

Northern Territory

Darwin, Palmerston, Katherine, Tennant Creek, Alice Springs, Nhulunbuy and Jabiru, and remote communities with a post office or PO Box. Allow extra days each way, particularly in the wet season when some roads close.

Rural, Remote and Outback Addresses

If Australia Post delivers to your postcode, we can repair your card. Stations, farms, mine sites and remote communities can post from the nearest post office or community postal agency, and we can send the card back to a street address or a PO Box — whatever is easiest for you. Put it in the "anything else" box on the form, or tell us when we reply with your job number.

Questions

Can I post my graphics card to you for repair?

Yes, from anywhere in Australia. Fill in the form on this page or ring 0400 454 859, and we send you the likely cause, a starting price, the workshop address and a job number. Post the card once you have the job number.

Who pays for postage?

You do, both ways. You choose the service and the level of cover, because you know what the card is worth to you.

Should I insure my graphics card in the post?

It is your call. A standard Australia Post parcel includes compensation of up to $100 for loss or damage, and Extra Cover takes that up to $5,000. On most cards worth repairing, the extra cover is worth adding.

How do I get my card back?

Either put a prepaid return label in the box with the card, or tell us the service and cover you want and we add the postage to your invoice at cost. The card goes back once the invoice is paid.

How long does a mail-in GPU repair take?

Bench time is one to two business days for thermal and firmware work, three to seven for power stage and memory repairs, and five to ten for reball and physical damage. Add the postage time each way.

What happens if the card cannot be fixed?

You pay the $150 diagnostic and the return postage, and nothing else. You also get an explanation of what failed, so you know what you are dealing with.

Is the $150 diagnostic still waived for posted cards?

Yes. If you go ahead with the repair, the $150 comes off the invoice, exactly as it would if you had dropped the card off.

Do you need the cables or the original box?

No. Send the card only, with the cooler still fitted. Keep the cables, adapters, support brackets and retail box at home.

Is the warranty the same for mail-in repairs?

Yes. Every graphics card repair carries 12 months of warranty on parts and labour, whether the card was posted or dropped off.

Do you accept cards from regional and remote areas?

Yes. If Australia Post delivers to your postcode, you can post the card to us, and we can send it back to a street address or a PO Box. Allow extra days each way for regional and remote areas.

Which states do you accept graphics cards from?

All of them — New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory. The process, prices and 12 month warranty are the same everywhere. Only the postage time changes.

Start a Mail-In Repair

Tell us the card and what it is doing. We come back with the likely cause, a starting price, the workshop address and your job number.

Related Pages

• Graphics Card Repair Sydney — drop the card at the workshop
• GPU Artifacting Guide — checks to do before you post anything
• Board Level Repair — laptop mainboards and other devices