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Well looks like Nvidia for me

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Hobbit

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Dec 31, 2007
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My brother just called me he had purchased a Radeon 9800Pro All in Wonder 128MB version and just spend two days of hell trying to get it working. Hours of long distance with ATI tech support which he of course has to pay for because ATI doesnt have a 1-800 number and he had to wait an average of 45 minutes before getting through to a person each time he called. Replaced the card twice at local store on suggestion of ATI tech support. WACKO problems to many to go into any detail since I wasnt the one going through the nightmare but I can tell you I sympathized. Nvidia gets my money again since I know their drivers work based on my own experience with them and ATI has failed me too many times. I wont be going through that hell a third time. You can blab all day how good ATI is but if the card doesnt work on my system then it sucks to me and is worthless. Oops forgot to mention he gave up on the card and is going to spend that money on an nvidia card instead. When he gets one I will update this post or mention it in the graphics section here whether or not he had just as many problems with nvidia.

Balls, said the Queen if I had them I would be king!<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by hobbit on 01/07/04 05:14 AM.</EM></FONT></P>
 
I cannot stress this enough:

REDO YOUR WINDOWS PARTITION AND INSTALL A SET OF FRESH DRIVERS WHEN YOU BUY A NEW VIDEOCARD.

_________________________________________
<font color=red><b>ElectroDwarf loves Americans!</b></font color=red>
 
These last couple weeks have been terrible with people coming here and blaming everyone but themselves for their problems.

If you buy a new videocard try to remove the drivers using something like Detonator destroyer. If it still doesn't work then REDO YOUR WINDOWS PARTITION AND INSTALL A FRESH SET OF DRIVERS.

It's not that hard.

_________________________________________
<font color=red><b>ElectroDwarf loves Americans!</b></font color=red>
 
This is the same guy who went off about HL2 and "D2" with ATI cards. Obviously the concept of removing all traces of existing drivers is as foreign as D]|[. :wink:

You know I'm worried my card won't be able to handle the new Leisure Suit Larry, them babes better bounce like Jello or I'm getting a Volari! :evil:


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK :evil:
 
Relax man... Smtimes people don't know about detonaor destroyer and the need to format their windows partition...

Well hobbit, it seems that ur accusation your Ati card being sucky and all i cant blame u. I had problems with my Ati card when i just got it too... One thing's for sure, when u want to install a NEW graphics card, (either moving form a nVidia one or a completely new install),

1) delete ALL remenants of pervious drivers of ur old graphics card

2)install the new drivers. If that doesn't work, format ur harddisk/partition whr ur Operating system is, and do a fresh install of windows.

Thats wad i did and its working perfectly right now...

Cheers.

Athlon XP 1800+ (1.52ghz) O/Ced.
Gigabyte GA-7VKML
Powercolour R9600pro Bravo @ 480/340
128+256 PC2100 DDR
IBM 20gb 5400rpm 2mb+WD 40gb 5400rpm 2mb
Creative SB Live! 5.1 Digital<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by BirdRobin on 01/06/04 11:27 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 
haha u mean he has ditched ati b4?

Athlon XP 1800+ (1.52ghz) O/Ced.
Gigabyte GA-7VKML
Powercolour R9600pro Bravo @ 480/340
128+256 PC2100 DDR
IBM 20gb 5400rpm 2mb+WD 40gb 5400rpm 2mb
Creative SB Live! 5.1 Digital
 
Hear hear.

I can't STAND people who RMA hardware as being "defective" when they're just too stupid and lazy to get it working right themselves.

Some day I'll be rich and famous for inventing a device that allows you to stab people in the face over the internet.
 
<A HREF="http://www.dell.com" target="_new">http://www.dell.com</A>

There you go that should solve yours and your bros problems - obviously too stupid to be upgrading things. :wink:
 
Hobbit! Welcome back! I remember last time it was your AIW 8500 that attacked you! Wow! You know what's funny is that my friend has the 8500DV, I have the AIW 9600 Pro, and neither of us has had problems.

hobit-piece of crap doesn't work!
crashman-try plugging in that extra power cord.
hobit-don't tell me what to do!

LOL!

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>
 
You guys need to just buy Nvidia and forget about all your problems.

Less post to read that way.

I went back to Nvidia and everythings smoother across the whole system again.
Its almost a game for me to install every piece of software I have on my shelf to see if I can somehow fubar the rock-solid drivers.
I have no problem sacrificing some speed for that at all.

You and your brother need to rethink your priorities and quit bandwagoning on the hot thing.
/smack!

----
I just tell it like it is and some can't handle it. If your experience is different, well congratu-fukulation.
<b>I’M NOT A ATI FANBOY, I’M NOT A NV FANBOY, I’M A STABILITY FANBOY</b>
 
Insisting that its the persons fault it isnt working isn't as legit as some may think. The fact that Nvidia is more often to work without the user knowing much tech wise is a big plus in Nvidia's favor. If I have the choice between a slightly better performing ATI card that requires me to do things I'm not familiar with or even aware that I need to do, or, get a slightly less performing Nvidia card that will work regardless what I know or don't know then the Nvidia card has my vote.
 
Fine. The rest of us who ARE aware of the process of properly installing a video card will choose the best card instead of the most familiar one.
 
LOL, let me tell you why that's funny: The average complaints are:
1.) Won't work (because the power cable is unplugged, nVidia uses these too)
2.) Won't work (because the card isn't pushed in all the way, nVidia cards have to be pushed in two)
3.) Driver errors after replacing nVidia cards (because nVidia drivers are made to crash ATI drivers).
4.) Locks/powers down/corruption (because the power supply is too small).

These are the most common ATI problems. All except #3 are also nVidia problems. Actually, their assembly problems. And if you blame ATI for #3 that's like blaming a man for getting shot walking down the street.

So why do you see so many complaints on ATI's cards, when they are usually power problems? Because so many more users have the 9800 than the 5900 would be my guess. FX5200's have lousy performance but don't require a good power supply nor an extra cable, perhaps you should consider one of them?

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>
 
The reason NVidia cards "work more often" when upgrading is because most people are upgrading from an NVidia card so there are no driver conflict issues.
 
Yes, ditto what you said. But, I have been around a long time so my mistakes with ATI and other company's are not daily occurances. I was thinking about Radeon 9800XT for myself the last month or so based on posts here and reviews but was already changing my mind after reading posts here and then my own brothers nightmare made up my mind for me.

Balls, said the Queen if I had them I would be king!
 
Yeah i agree i upgraded form a GF4 mx440 SE... =D

Athlon XP 1800+ (1.52ghz) O/Ced.
Gigabyte GA-7VKML
Powercolour R9600pro Bravo @ 480/340
128+256 PC2100 DDR
IBM 20gb 5400rpm 2mb+WD 40gb 5400rpm 2mb
Creative SB Live! 5.1 Digital
 
Hello, again 🙂. I love you still.

I cant answer specifics it wasnt my rig. He builds and upgrades his own systems so he isnt going to make terribly simple mistakes after 2 days of trying. Senior tech support couldnt figure it out either. Like me he is not willing to reformat and start over. Anyhow who wants to start from scratch formating their HD and reinstalling all the updates and patches and tweaking settings for all the software and peripherals (dont forget rebooting over and over) can have at it. The young have fun wasting their time doing it but I personally dont want to do it unless I am upgrading my motherboard and the rest that entails. It wouldnt be a problem if that REALLY only took 30 minutes but many here always dismiss all the work it really takes installing EVERYTHING not just an OS. Sorry, but after all the reboots it would take me at least two 8 hour days to get things back to what I have now.

Balls, said the Queen if I had them I would be king!<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by hobbit on 01/07/04 05:36 AM.</EM></FONT></P>
 
I love you! That is exactly my point for the last 4 years between these two competing cards.

Balls, said the Queen if I had them I would be king!
 
Crashman you just said something that rings a bell. My brother has a compusa 500W power supply and his system would boot sometimes after a minute or two then the monitor would go dead with the system still on. In the end it wouldnt boot at all with the Radeon installed but would boot with a pci video card he still has. He doesnt have an extra AGP card at the moment. I said it was the power supply too but he then said he had a 500W compusa power supply and I couldnt find any bad information online about them and he was upset about it all so that was that. So, you say before he gives up I should encourage him to buy a new powersupply? Probably an enermax or something. I think it is too late for him since he is too mad about all the time he already spent on it. Yep, awfully funny that tech support wouldnt say its your powersupply. Don't know I wasnt their. I am sure it was discussed. Maybe compusa misrepresented what the powersupply wattage actually is. Also, I just remembered that another problem was his mouse cursor dissapeared on him but was working. Meaning an invisible mouse cursor that if you position it over whatever and click it works.

Update: Talked to my brother this morning and he tested his PS with a voltmeter and the voltage doesnt drop when he plugs in the ATI card so the problem isnt a lack of power. Who knows at this point. Maybe a motherboard / chipset incompatability. He also used a separate PS from another PC just for the video card and that doesnt work either.

Balls, said the Queen if I had them I would be king!<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by hobbit on 01/07/04 07:12 AM.</EM></FONT></P>
 
1. It is always good to clean up window install once in a while to keep system clean and fast. So i wouldn't say the time is wasted.

2. I feel sorry for anyone that need to spend 8 hours per day for 2 days to reinstall their system. You must be a robot that has hundreds of applications running on your computer to achieve that goal. :tongue:
 
And we should give a $hit about the video card brand you choose... because?

________________
<b>Radeon <font color=red>9500 PRO</b></font color=red> <i>(hardmodded 9500, o/c 322/322)</i>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>2600+</b></font color=red> <i>(o/c 2400+ w/143Mhz fsb)</i>
<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>4,055</b></font color=red>
 
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