This is still not realistic. High refresh rates could damage old monitors, but new ones have failsafes on them.
Lets test it.
Load the default monitor driver in Windows, and change your refresh rate to 200hz on a resolution that it cant handle that rate at, go on, I dare you. What happens? A Message or the Monitor will go into standby, it WONT get damaged, it just doesn't happen anymore and hasn't for years unless you are using really cheap and old (very old) hardware.
Yes, it's obvious that the drivers are damaging monitors, but come on, stop kidding yourselves, out of spec refresh rates don't damage monitors and haven't for years.
No one here ever quoted as saying the monitors "instantly" blew up. It took time, and in my case a whole day for the monitor to burn out and die. How can you play the devils advocate and take these peoples words for self delusional user error? I'm know for a fact that the drivers were overclocking the refresh rates being sent to my monitors. Not only do I monitor the new driver installs on my machine, but it remains the ONLY logical conclusion to this epidemic of problems. I have all brand new equipment, and since the problems started with 3.4 this summer I have seen nothing but erronious releases and mistakes come from ATI's Catalyst drivers. It remains the only logical conclusion bar none in my eyes, and no rediculous sitting-on-the-fence-waiting-for-the exact-true-nature-of-the-problem-to-reveal-itself just because you haven't witnessed it personally will help this forum or these people.
Everyone else:
I love ATI too, it's the reason I dropped $500 on their vid card rather than NVidia's. But if your hardware was working fine before the install and now it's junk or malfunctioning even slightly, they OWE you new hardware. Think of it as helping them take their jobs more seriously......
Before anyone points out the whole "me seeing the refresh increase and doing nothing about it" thing. I'd just like to add that I trust the professionals who are working towards making my equipment work more efficiantly. Benefit of the doubt, until I have reason to see differently, which, now I do. I mean, come on you wouldn't stop trusting the government to keep your country safe would you?
Yes why I am, I cannot fathom but I am still following this:banghead:
Alas yours may well be just that though user error..
You validate my point exactly on why there should be users guides and how to's on driver updates and refresh rate damage control.
Just because I point out that this is most likely a user based problem I can see your issue on trusting the drivers hopefully this will all be a myth in a few days,,,,And i am a bit of a sceptic when it comes to X-Files type problems that I have yet to bear witness to.
I agree that ATI may have a high driver refresh rate setting as I have stated before but you yourself admit to not even looking at your refresh rates.
I never meant to offend just get people to think and reevaluate the situation.;)
wheek had this to say Urm folks, the problem in my case now is that I can uninstall Cat 3.8 but I can't install earlier version like 3.4 or 3.6. When I try to install a version before 3.8, my PC will reboot as its booting up. I then get some msg.
The only way I can avoid this msg is by installing 3.8, which gives me tons of white lines all over. Some of my friends were able to uninstall 3.8 & revert to earlier versions. I can uninstall but not install earlier versions. I even used CabCleaner & DriverCleaner to remove all traces of 3.8. But my PC just refuses to work with 3.4 or 3.6.
Do u think my Windows and/or registry is screwed?
Have you tried installing the Catalyst 3.7 drivers? Those were the ones I reverted to, and it went back without a hitch
No but I couldn't revert to 3.6 which makes me think Windows is screwed. The thing is, I really don't wanna format my HDD 'cos firstly I dunno how to partition into 3 partitions & 2ndly I have tons of videos, pics, documents, etc that are too precious to lose & would take a long time to back up.
And I can't just reinstall Win 'cos then the registry will not have the software's registry keys. Backing them up individually is murder. How about this.
I uninstall ALL my software & games, leaving just the drivers (don't dare uninstall in case something else occurs) & my videos & docs in my HDD. Just in case Windows replaces My Documents during installation & I lose my videos & stuff, perhaps I'll just rename the folder WHEEK for e.g. After that I pop in my Win XP CD & get it to do a clean installation into C:\windows so it overwrites my existing Windows & the registry along with it.
After reinstalling Windows, I reinstall all my drivers again (even though I didn't uninstall them earlier). Perhaps I reboot just to ensure everything's fine. After that I install back my software & games. Then I rename WHEEK to My Documents.
Does this method sound ok? I know its wierd but I don't have a choice. I just wanna see if anyone thinks I may run into problems with this method, or whether ppl feel it should be ok. Thanks!
wheek had this to say Urm folks, the problem in my case now is that I can uninstall Cat 3.8 but I can't install earlier version like 3.4 or 3.6. When I try to install a version before 3.8, my PC will reboot as its booting up. I then get some msg.
The only way I can avoid this msg is by installing 3.8, which gives me tons of white lines all over. Some of my friends were able to uninstall 3.8 & revert to earlier versions. I can uninstall but not install earlier versions. I even used CabCleaner & DriverCleaner to remove all traces of 3.8. But my PC just refuses to work with 3.4 or 3.6.
Do u think my Windows and/or registry is screwed?
Have you tried installing the Catalyst 3.7 drivers? Those were the ones I reverted to, and it went back without a hitch
No but I couldn't revert to 3.6 which makes me think Windows is screwed. The thing is, I really don't wanna format my HDD 'cos firstly I dunno how to partition into 3 partitions & 2ndly I have tons of videos, pics, documents, etc that are too precious to lose & would take a long time to back up.
And I can't just reinstall Win 'cos then the registry will not have the software's registry keys. Backing them up individually is murder. How about this.
I uninstall ALL my software & games, leaving just the drivers (don't dare uninstall in case something else occurs) & my videos & docs in my HDD. Just in case Windows replaces My Documents during installation & I lose my videos & stuff, perhaps I'll just rename the folder WHEEK for e.g. After that I pop in my Win XP CD & get it to do a clean installation into C:\windows so it overwrites my existing Windows & the registry along with it.
After reinstalling Windows, I reinstall all my drivers again (even though I didn't uninstall them earlier). Perhaps I reboot just to ensure everything's fine. After that I install back my software & games. Then I rename WHEEK to My Documents.
Does this method sound ok? I know its wierd but I don't have a choice. I just wanna see if anyone thinks I may run into problems with this method, or whether ppl feel it should be ok. Thanks!
Best thing to do is export the entire "HKLM:\Software" tree, then go back and delete everything under classes and Microsoft. Works for me.
Just try a repair install first, that is an automated process or what it sounds like you want to do anyway, it reinstalls Windows, but you dont lose anything.
shaze had this to say It remains the only logical conclusion bar none in my eyes, and no rediculous sitting-on-the-fence-waiting-for-the exact-true-nature-of-the-problem-to-reveal-itself just because you haven't witnessed it personally will help this forum or these people.
Just try a repair install first, that is an automated process or what it sounds like you want to do anyway, it reinstalls Windows, but you dont lose anything.
NS
I'm not familiar with Win XP Home. How do I do a repair install? Thanks!
0
LeonardoWake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, AlaskaIcrontian
edited October 2003
Urm folks, the problem in my case now is that I can uninstall Cat 3.8 but I can't install earlier version like 3.4 or 3.6. When I try to install a version before 3.8, my PC will reboot as its booting up. I then get some msg.
I am sure your problem is that you haven't really uninstalled previous drivers sets - yes, probably plural. There may be more than one drivers series that are still in the computer. Display adapter drivers can be very insidious, with unreliable uninstallation commands. Even if your software/OS tells you that 'Uninstall is complete', don't believe it in the case of video drivers.
Download RegCleaner, run it, and zap everything that relates to ATI/Omega/Catalyst. Then reinstall the drivers you want. (Do what you can though first with the drivers uninstall command.)
Did anyone check what was happeing with non ATI cards? I own a GeFore4 Ti4600. About a week and half ago, my montior died too. It did a lot of things I've heard you guys says. It did seem like the refresh was too high for too long. It got blurry and out of focus and then turns off and the oragne power light blinks. This happens every time I turn it on. I run the 45.23 drivers. Just an idea.
shaze had this to say Doc: (If you're still following this)
Everyone else:
I love ATI too, it's the reason I dropped $500 on their vid card rather than NVidia's. But if your hardware was working fine before the install and now it's junk or malfunctioning even slightly, they OWE you new hardware. Think of it as helping them take their jobs more seriously......
:: END COMMUNICATION ::
That really depends if you run your hardware with specified specs (O/C, BIOS Flash, soft mod, volt mod, heatsinks/fan, etc.) This in theory also cover the use of non sanctioned drivers.
Doc Overclock had this to say Yes why I am, I cannot fathom but I am still following this:banghead:
Alas yours may well be just that though user error..
You validate my point exactly on why there should be users guides and how to's on driver updates and refresh rate damage control.
Just because I point out that this is most likely a user based problem I can see your issue on trusting the drivers hopefully this will all be a myth in a few days,,,,And i am a bit of a sceptic when it comes to X-Files type problems that I have yet to bear witness to.
I agree that ATI may have a high driver refresh rate setting as I have stated before but you yourself admit to not even looking at your refresh rates.
I never meant to offend just get people to think and reevaluate the situation.;)
A refresh rate check is the second thing I do after any driver install. First is the resolution.
And yes, the possibility of the problem being between the chair and the keyboard is real.
I never check my refresh rate after I install new drivers. Actually I usually I install whatever comes on the CD that came with my R8500 LE meaning its like 3.4 or something. When I do install them its after a new install or repair install of XP. I assume the refresh rate is in spec and not to high to begin with. Unless it was a mistake made by ATI, it shouldnt be more than 60Hz. I would think everyone would have to check the refresh rates because I dont think anyone here wants to run at 60Hz with a CRT monitor. So they change it meaning that have to look at it.
And most of us have it set to,"not sure unsupported refresh rates' anway (at least I do) so the only way I can see it doing something out of that range is for the drivers to mess up somehow.
Certainly for me the problem does NOT occur in 2d mode, only in 3d. This is not controlled by your desktop refresh rate settings but by your grahics card driver forcing a higher rfresh rate than the 60hz XP directX default.
Im sure others who have the problems will agree, desktop settings are not the issue, everyone talking about this is barking up the wrong tree.
"We've done extensive testing and cannot replicate these alleged issues.
Over last few days I have seen many posts talking about this issue, it seems it is a common theory, picked up from one place and keep being circulated.
"Instead of reading the refresh rates from the PRIMARY display INF files, it is reading the SECONDARY display INF refresh rates. "
In XP and 2K, we don't have access to monitor INF information in our driver component that manages display capability. We have never used monitor information. We rely on EDID data or user override information to determine monitor capability. Even though OS may use the monitor information to expose high refresh rate based on monitor INF content, driver always restricts the actual refresh rate going to the monitor based on EDID or the user override. i.e. user may be able to select from OS controlled monitor page (in advanced property pages) a high refresh rate but internally driver will restrict the refresh rate going to the monitor based on EDID information or user override information. If user set the override information incorrectly then incompatible signals would sent to the monitor.
In 9x, we can access monitor INF information but due to issues with how OS maps the INF to a monitor, we had disabled reading the monitor INF via registry. Unless someone changes the registry setting for this in 9x, they would not run into any monitor INF related issues."
ANY person who may think that they have experienced these issues should send a highly DETAILED email to ATI Technical Support
ANY person who may think they have experienced this situation may PM me and I will get ATI to call you personally.
This PM should include detailed information on all components in your system and what symptoms you experienced. Include OS, where you got the driver from, makes and model #s of the hardware, etc. The more detailed you are...the better.
Please include your full real name, phone numbers where you can be reached, where you live (for time zone...we don't want to wake you up in the middle of the night) and an email address.
I have been in contact with ATI on this matter and I will personally follow up with them in order to see that you are attended to.
All PM's will be confidential and not be used in publication on this site or shared with any other source with the exception of ATI in order for them to assist you in investigating this alleged issue.
I am urging everyone who has witnessed damage to equipment no matter how small to either write ATI like so many of us have already done, or PM myself or Mediaman your info and contact numbers and we will pass that info onto ATI and have them contact you. If your unsure if any damage has occured, try running games or applications that use OpenGL or Direct3d at "High Quality" settings and decent resolution proportional to you monitor(s) with refresh rates at resolution presets. If your unsure how to do any of this, please feel free to post questions or PM/email myself for information. Thanks and I hope to be hearing that ATI is recognizing this issue soon.
Terry Makedon here from ATI. Sr Product Manager of CATALYST.
I have finally tracked the source of all these rumours to here and would like to have a chat with you. Can you email me at tmakedon@ati.com.
By the way I really would like a list of the 183 people you claim have "officially" contacted you about the problem. I really would like to ask them why not one of them have gotten on the phone to call us about this alleged problem.
Also I notice you are in Toronto, so is ATI! That should help us get your information to us quickly.
By the way one final question. Since you are warning people to not use CATALYST 3.8 and all that, just wondering how come you didnt let us at ATI know about your findings? Didnt you think that perhaps the best way to address this alleged "problem" would be to let us know about it, instead of putting up a thread with statements such as:
"GPU's overheat by as much as 15*C over normal "
"will severely damage your video card and monitor systems to the point of RMA"
Wow! We appreciate you coming and talking to us, Simguy and all of us folk here at Short-Media only want what's best for the end-user, as I'm sure you, yourself does aswell.
I know this whole issue is bad press for the new Catalysts, but please take our word for it, it is not our intention to spread false rumours or stir unfounded trouble, we only want to keep people informed as to our own personal discoveries and experiences with these new Catalyst drivers.
I hope you don't feel we are doing anything else but that. Once again, it is re-assuring to have you come to Short-Media and talk to us about this whole situation, and I, as I'm sure everyone else here, and of course Simguy, just wants to get to the bottom of whatever is exactly going on.
Spinner had this to say Wow! We appreciate you coming and talking to us, Simguy and all of us folk here at Short-Media only want what's best for the end-user, as I'm sure you, yourself does aswell.
I know this whole issue is bad press for the new Catalysts, but please take our word for it, it is not our intention to spread false rumours or stir unfounded trouble, we only want to keep people informed as to our own personal discoveries and experiences with these new Catalyst drivers.
I hope you don't feel we are doing anything else but that. Once again, it is re-assuring to have you come to Short-Media and talk to us about this whole situation, and I, as I'm sure everyone else here, and of course Simguy, just wants to get to the bottom of whatever is exactly going on.
With that being said... over to Simguy.
Cheers
Spinner ; Driver forum mod and fellow ATI user.
Just wondering why you guys didnt contact me with all that useful information. I had to spend quite some time to track the source of all these rumours.
Anyways lets resolve this one way or another. I am ready for the info and the names of these 183 people.
i for one am totally pissed if in fact this was nvidia BS all along. i did a reinstall of 2 of my 4 machines with an ATI 9500 and the other an ATI 9800 PRO with windows since installing the 3.8 catalyst drivers. i wasn't sure what was happening so i reinstalled windows just to be sure with the previous 3.7 catalyst drivers.
all i can say is that i had not one problem with the 3.8 drivers (xp with an NEC 19" LCD monitor and windows 2003 server with a 21" Princeton CRT monitor) - but after reading things like "it was working perfectly and then poof, my monitor died or my card fried" i wanted to make sure.
and, some posts went further - "i reinstalled the 3.7 drivers and my monitor still died" - so i did it just to be sure.
all i can say is that as someone who owns TWO FRIGGIN EXPENSIVE NVIDIA NFORCE video cards on my other machines, i will toss them or never buy another NVIDIA card as long as i live if all this was some BS stunt by NVIDIA.
in addition, i would contact ATI to encourage them SUE THE HECK outta everyone who falsely posted or pretended to defame ATI in this mess.
no doubt, this bad publicity hurt ATI financially in some manner with its customers and potential market - so all of us who may be getting blindsided by a potential FRAUD - deserve some payback.
the evidence is on the posts of several forums - and i think a good attorney can make a solid case for fraud and defamation if in fact, there is little evidence to prove ATI was a fault.
given that many ppl, including me, make buying decisions on hardware in these forums this is very reasonable and plausible. i would welcome ATI to contact me or use me in any fashion to help their case if this was fraud.
By the way I really would like a list of the 183 people you claim have "officially" contacted you about the problem. I really would like to ask them why not one of them have gotten on the phone to call us about this alleged problem.
No offense to you Terry Makedon from ATi, but, many of us HAVE contacted you via the ATi Feedback form. I did not contact by phone because I have been keeping up on all of this and was waiting till there was some confirmation where this problem was coming from before taking any further action, as I said, myself along with many others sent in Feedback forms to ATi describing in detail the problem.
And as spinner said, we are not trying to make bad press for ATi and the Catalyst Driver program (I absoloutely love my Radeon 9700 Pro, best video card I've ever owned!) but, we do need to gather information to find out why, it seems, after installing the Catalyst 3.8 Drivers so many of our monitors are being damaged, this can't just be coincedence.
honestplayer had this to say
in addition, i would contact ATI to encourage them SUE THE HECK outta everyone who falsely posted or pretended to defame ATI in this mess.
no doubt, this bad publicity hurt ATI financially in some manner with its customers and potential market - so all of us who may be getting blindsided by a potential FRAUD - deserve some payback.
the evidence is on the posts of several forums - and i think a good attorney can make a solid case for fraud and defamation if in fact, there is little evidence to prove ATI was a fault.
given that many ppl, including me, make buying decisions on hardware in these forums this is very reasonable and plausible. i would welcome ATI to contact me or use me in any fashion to help their case if this was fraud.
Yikes dude!! Are you suggesting that Short-Media or the members of the S-M forums are somehow involved in a media scandal in an attempt to hurt the reputation of ATi?!?!
Be sure that the community here at Short-Media would never under any circumstance involved itself in such an act.
This problem, be it drivers or not, is real, I can send you pictures of my dead monitor, the idea that this is some press stunt by competing manufacturers is just insane.
The people who have experience monitor failures, do y'all uninstall whatever driver you are using (through the regular uninstall or the thorough method) before upgrading to Catalyst 3.8?
I don't seem to be having any problems; i always do the uninstall of everything and check to see if my Refresh is set right.
What about vsync? i've been reading that some cases have involved games. If vsync was off then aren't some games running at insanely high frames (more than the refresh rate) and maybe this could be causing the problems. Again i keep my sync on (60Hz).
Please correct me if I am wrong, I am just throwing ideas onto the table.
Later
Victor
_______________
SN45G w/ 2400+ at 12.5x166
Built by radoen 9800np @ pro 380/317 (infineon)
Cornea MP704
Nforce2 2.45 Drivers
Cat 3.8s
latest windows updates
norton antivirus and updated
what else?
0
Geeky1University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
edited October 2003
Mr. Makedon, no offense, but I’ll bet that a lot of people haven’t contacted ATi directly is because quite frankly, ATi's tech support is, in a word, crappy. The only time I've ever gotten a timely response is when I needed to RMA a card. I e-mailed you guys last week about a Radeon 9700 Pro I bought refurbished from newegg, and which came with a nicked corner. I wanted to find out if the warranty was still valid, since I wasn't responsible for the damage. I still haven't received a response.
Also, as I recall, your tech support numbers are all either long distance (for those of us outside of Toronto) or are 900 numbers, which is frankly absurd. I've always used ATi cards (R128, R7500M, R8500, R9700), and I like the cards a great deal, however, your support needs to be improved.
Not in this thread please Geeky. Lets keep this debate on track and get to the bottom of the Catalyst 3.8 issues.
If you wish, create a new thread regarding the support structure of ATI and please discuss it there.
0
Geeky1University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
edited October 2003
Okey doke. Will do, if necessary. I just figured I'd take the opportunity to point out that I'd really like an answer to that question about the warranty before newegg's 15 day warranty expires somewhere that I KNOW someone from ATi will be reading it.
Comments
Lets test it.
Load the default monitor driver in Windows, and change your refresh rate to 200hz on a resolution that it cant handle that rate at, go on, I dare you. What happens? A Message or the Monitor will go into standby, it WONT get damaged, it just doesn't happen anymore and hasn't for years unless you are using really cheap and old (very old) hardware.
Yes, it's obvious that the drivers are damaging monitors, but come on, stop kidding yourselves, out of spec refresh rates don't damage monitors and haven't for years.
NS
No one here ever quoted as saying the monitors "instantly" blew up. It took time, and in my case a whole day for the monitor to burn out and die. How can you play the devils advocate and take these peoples words for self delusional user error? I'm know for a fact that the drivers were overclocking the refresh rates being sent to my monitors. Not only do I monitor the new driver installs on my machine, but it remains the ONLY logical conclusion to this epidemic of problems. I have all brand new equipment, and since the problems started with 3.4 this summer I have seen nothing but erronious releases and mistakes come from ATI's Catalyst drivers. It remains the only logical conclusion bar none in my eyes, and no rediculous sitting-on-the-fence-waiting-for-the exact-true-nature-of-the-problem-to-reveal-itself just because you haven't witnessed it personally will help this forum or these people.
Everyone else:
I love ATI too, it's the reason I dropped $500 on their vid card rather than NVidia's. But if your hardware was working fine before the install and now it's junk or malfunctioning even slightly, they OWE you new hardware. Think of it as helping them take their jobs more seriously......
:: END COMMUNICATION ::
Alas yours may well be just that though user error..
You validate my point exactly on why there should be users guides and how to's on driver updates and refresh rate damage control.
Just because I point out that this is most likely a user based problem I can see your issue on trusting the drivers hopefully this will all be a myth in a few days,,,,And i am a bit of a sceptic when it comes to X-Files type problems that I have yet to bear witness to.
I agree that ATI may have a high driver refresh rate setting as I have stated before but you yourself admit to not even looking at your refresh rates.
I never meant to offend just get people to think and reevaluate the situation.;)
And I can't just reinstall Win 'cos then the registry will not have the software's registry keys. Backing them up individually is murder. How about this.
I uninstall ALL my software & games, leaving just the drivers (don't dare uninstall in case something else occurs) & my videos & docs in my HDD. Just in case Windows replaces My Documents during installation & I lose my videos & stuff, perhaps I'll just rename the folder WHEEK for e.g. After that I pop in my Win XP CD & get it to do a clean installation into C:\windows so it overwrites my existing Windows & the registry along with it.
After reinstalling Windows, I reinstall all my drivers again (even though I didn't uninstall them earlier). Perhaps I reboot just to ensure everything's fine. After that I install back my software & games. Then I rename WHEEK to My Documents.
Does this method sound ok? I know its wierd but I don't have a choice. I just wanna see if anyone thinks I may run into problems with this method, or whether ppl feel it should be ok. Thanks!
Best thing to do is export the entire "HKLM:\Software" tree, then go back and delete everything under classes and Microsoft. Works for me.
Just try a repair install first, that is an automated process or what it sounds like you want to do anyway, it reinstalls Windows, but you dont lose anything.
NS
I am sure your problem is that you haven't really uninstalled previous drivers sets - yes, probably plural. There may be more than one drivers series that are still in the computer. Display adapter drivers can be very insidious, with unreliable uninstallation commands. Even if your software/OS tells you that 'Uninstall is complete', don't believe it in the case of video drivers.
Download RegCleaner, run it, and zap everything that relates to ATI/Omega/Catalyst. Then reinstall the drivers you want. (Do what you can though first with the drivers uninstall command.)
That really depends if you run your hardware with specified specs (O/C, BIOS Flash, soft mod, volt mod, heatsinks/fan, etc.) This in theory also cover the use of non sanctioned drivers.
A refresh rate check is the second thing I do after any driver install. First is the resolution.
And yes, the possibility of the problem being between the chair and the keyboard is real.
Try the instructions here http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winxphome/installxpcdrepair/index.htm
And most of us have it set to,"not sure unsupported refresh rates' anway (at least I do) so the only way I can see it doing something out of that range is for the drivers to mess up somehow.
Im sure others who have the problems will agree, desktop settings are not the issue, everyone talking about this is barking up the wrong tree.
NS
"We've done extensive testing and cannot replicate these alleged issues.
Over last few days I have seen many posts talking about this issue, it seems it is a common theory, picked up from one place and keep being circulated.
"Instead of reading the refresh rates from the PRIMARY display INF files, it is reading the SECONDARY display INF refresh rates. "
In XP and 2K, we don't have access to monitor INF information in our driver component that manages display capability. We have never used monitor information. We rely on EDID data or user override information to determine monitor capability. Even though OS may use the monitor information to expose high refresh rate based on monitor INF content, driver always restricts the actual refresh rate going to the monitor based on EDID or the user override. i.e. user may be able to select from OS controlled monitor page (in advanced property pages) a high refresh rate but internally driver will restrict the refresh rate going to the monitor based on EDID information or user override information. If user set the override information incorrectly then incompatible signals would sent to the monitor.
In 9x, we can access monitor INF information but due to issues with how OS maps the INF to a monitor, we had disabled reading the monitor INF via registry. Unless someone changes the registry setting for this in 9x, they would not run into any monitor INF related issues."
ANY person who may think that they have experienced these issues should send a highly DETAILED email to ATI Technical Support
ANY person who may think they have experienced this situation may PM me and I will get ATI to call you personally.
This PM should include detailed information on all components in your system and what symptoms you experienced. Include OS, where you got the driver from, makes and model #s of the hardware, etc. The more detailed you are...the better.
Please include your full real name, phone numbers where you can be reached, where you live (for time zone...we don't want to wake you up in the middle of the night) and an email address.
I have been in contact with ATI on this matter and I will personally follow up with them in order to see that you are attended to.
All PM's will be confidential and not be used in publication on this site or shared with any other source with the exception of ATI in order for them to assist you in investigating this alleged issue.
Terry Makedon here from ATI. Sr Product Manager of CATALYST.
I have finally tracked the source of all these rumours to here and would like to have a chat with you. Can you email me at tmakedon@ati.com.
By the way I really would like a list of the 183 people you claim have "officially" contacted you about the problem. I really would like to ask them why not one of them have gotten on the phone to call us about this alleged problem.
Also I notice you are in Toronto, so is ATI! That should help us get your information to us quickly.
By the way one final question. Since you are warning people to not use CATALYST 3.8 and all that, just wondering how come you didnt let us at ATI know about your findings? Didnt you think that perhaps the best way to address this alleged "problem" would be to let us know about it, instead of putting up a thread with statements such as:
"GPU's overheat by as much as 15*C over normal "
"will severely damage your video card and monitor systems to the point of RMA"
thanks in advance.
Terry
I know this whole issue is bad press for the new Catalysts, but please take our word for it, it is not our intention to spread false rumours or stir unfounded trouble, we only want to keep people informed as to our own personal discoveries and experiences with these new Catalyst drivers.
I hope you don't feel we are doing anything else but that. Once again, it is re-assuring to have you come to Short-Media and talk to us about this whole situation, and I, as I'm sure everyone else here, and of course Simguy, just wants to get to the bottom of whatever is exactly going on.
With that being said... over to Simguy.
Cheers
Spinner ; Driver forum mod and fellow ATI user.
Just wondering why you guys didnt contact me with all that useful information. I had to spend quite some time to track the source of all these rumours.
Anyways lets resolve this one way or another. I am ready for the info and the names of these 183 people.
all i can say is that i had not one problem with the 3.8 drivers (xp with an NEC 19" LCD monitor and windows 2003 server with a 21" Princeton CRT monitor) - but after reading things like "it was working perfectly and then poof, my monitor died or my card fried" i wanted to make sure.
and, some posts went further - "i reinstalled the 3.7 drivers and my monitor still died" - so i did it just to be sure.
all i can say is that as someone who owns TWO FRIGGIN EXPENSIVE NVIDIA NFORCE video cards on my other machines, i will toss them or never buy another NVIDIA card as long as i live if all this was some BS stunt by NVIDIA.
in addition, i would contact ATI to encourage them SUE THE HECK outta everyone who falsely posted or pretended to defame ATI in this mess.
no doubt, this bad publicity hurt ATI financially in some manner with its customers and potential market - so all of us who may be getting blindsided by a potential FRAUD - deserve some payback.
the evidence is on the posts of several forums - and i think a good attorney can make a solid case for fraud and defamation if in fact, there is little evidence to prove ATI was a fault.
given that many ppl, including me, make buying decisions on hardware in these forums this is very reasonable and plausible. i would welcome ATI to contact me or use me in any fashion to help their case if this was fraud.
No offense to you Terry Makedon from ATi, but, many of us HAVE contacted you via the ATi Feedback form. I did not contact by phone because I have been keeping up on all of this and was waiting till there was some confirmation where this problem was coming from before taking any further action, as I said, myself along with many others sent in Feedback forms to ATi describing in detail the problem.
And as spinner said, we are not trying to make bad press for ATi and the Catalyst Driver program (I absoloutely love my Radeon 9700 Pro, best video card I've ever owned!) but, we do need to gather information to find out why, it seems, after installing the Catalyst 3.8 Drivers so many of our monitors are being damaged, this can't just be coincedence.
-Cameron O.
Yikes dude!! Are you suggesting that Short-Media or the members of the S-M forums are somehow involved in a media scandal in an attempt to hurt the reputation of ATi?!?!
Be sure that the community here at Short-Media would never under any circumstance involved itself in such an act.
This problem, be it drivers or not, is real, I can send you pictures of my dead monitor, the idea that this is some press stunt by competing manufacturers is just insane.
The people who have experience monitor failures, do y'all uninstall whatever driver you are using (through the regular uninstall or the thorough method) before upgrading to Catalyst 3.8?
I don't seem to be having any problems; i always do the uninstall of everything and check to see if my Refresh is set right.
What about vsync? i've been reading that some cases have involved games. If vsync was off then aren't some games running at insanely high frames (more than the refresh rate) and maybe this could be causing the problems. Again i keep my sync on (60Hz).
Please correct me if I am wrong, I am just throwing ideas onto the table.
Later
Victor
_______________
SN45G w/ 2400+ at 12.5x166
Built by radoen 9800np @ pro 380/317 (infineon)
Cornea MP704
Nforce2 2.45 Drivers
Cat 3.8s
latest windows updates
norton antivirus and updated
what else?
Also, as I recall, your tech support numbers are all either long distance (for those of us outside of Toronto) or are 900 numbers, which is frankly absurd. I've always used ATi cards (R128, R7500M, R8500, R9700), and I like the cards a great deal, however, your support needs to be improved.
If you will, please check your Personal Messages.
Thanks.
If you wish, create a new thread regarding the support structure of ATI and please discuss it there.