Nvidia's 8800GT experiences teething problems
INTERNET FORUMS ARE caught in a row about the first batch of Geforce 8800GT cards. It seems that several users reported problems with stability, and their negative postings caused quite a stir.
Our own hack Dean Pullen reports that his review card, a BFG 8800GT is producing BSODs on boot, and the situation did not change even after changing couple of motherboards. The cards that are in our Croatian Lab right now (Gainward, XFX and Zotac) are functioning just perfectly, however.
An Australian outlet has also been in touch to say that of the 22 cards they were allocated, three don't work (two Inno3d 8800GT 512Mb cards one Gainward 8800GT 512Mb card). All three were dead on arrival. "Fans spin, no signal," reports our source. He notes: "Thirteen-and-a-half per cent DOA is not good enough..."
We visited couple of forums where users rae complaining about first batch of boards from BFG, PNY and EVGA. But in truth, we're facing the reality of mass production and these companies probably have highest allocation - so problems were bound to strike them first. ยต
L'INQ
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TechPowerUp!
Forum (same person as in PCPer Forum)
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Good thing I'm waiting until mid December to get one.
We had 40 cards and 3 were DOA, so 7.5% for us (for some more figures)

Lad from Blighty
Theo, 

the problem might not be the cards. A friend of mine got a BFG 8800GT last week & couldn't get it to POST in his Abit AM2 motherboard (only bought it a few weeks back). Tried it in my Asus Maximus Formula & booted fine (just as my Inno3D 8800GT works fine).

So it might just be mobo incompatibility...

Just a thought
Can you really calculate DOA rate with any kind of accuracy on such a small number as 22 cards.. if they would have been allocated 2 cards and got 1 DOA then it would have been 50%..

If they could somehow get statistics from say 1000 cards..then perhaps it could be fairly accurate.. with 22 cards its hard to tell if they where just unlucky,
here's the site where i 1st saw it being discussed
http://ashentech.com/index.php
The post by Kyle Bennett just show how much money they must throw at these sites. If I had bought a card that was DOA I would be one pissed off puppy. If a company like BFG sends out dead cards just shows how poor their product controle really is and it should be told. HardOCP is just another site that is on the payrole and not really a independent review site.
Kinda glad my Inno3D GT is working fine down here in Oz.
I understand you guys are worried about this 8800GT series being dead and all but THREE of those forum links are the same guy. And if you read his hardforum post you would see that he said that a BFG employee told him to wait it out a few weeks and "not buy any cards
" until then. If you think about that statement its not very subjective and sounds a bit like he is trying to attack BFG which isnt allowed in any forum in that manner. Anyways, hes in PCPer and Hardforum and that other forum you mention.... so in reality this could all be one source.
Dont play softball (change your own game). The same fate ati had will be given to nvidia now - no matter how you soft talk this - 

Go grow up boy - ati is near completion and you'll develop a tumor when you feel their benchmarks
BFG, evga , PYN , who cares ?
All the frist week 8800gt are made by foxcoon and sent to Nvidia partners to customization. So its clear possible to see DOA boards on all partners. 
I recomend buying one in december when Flextronics will be shipping the cards too. But since you cant know who are the maker. Buy a pre-tested board.
I've got an 8800GT, and have been closely following all the common fora on the card.

Suddenly, today, a lot of identical angry postings seem to be made about massess of cards being DOA. Yesterday, this wasn't the case.

Certainly there are issues with some drivers - we know this. Some multi rail PSU's also don't work. But I don't quite believe the mass of DOA reports. If true the fora would be full of people wanting advice about PSU compatibilities and mobo compatibilities - not just assuming straight DOA's.