I think I have had enough of Nvidia !!!

Missileman

as many of you have probably heard (or experienced), Nvidia couldn't be bothered to have any working Vista drivers ready. They didn't really do much during the beta stuff, but they had nothing available for release. Now they did have some on disk drivers that came with Vista, if you didn't want to use your RAID. On top of that the on disk drivers were unstable. I haven't had this many video crash out since VLB and Win3.1.

Today they released WHQL Nforce drivers. THEY DON'T WORK. Half of the people can install them, another high percentage can't boot after installing them. In my case they installed, but I can't do restart. If I do they hang on the RAID bios scanning array screen. I have to power down and back on then they work.

I can't believe that a company that has the market share that they do, with only 5 years preparation, can't have a working driver for ANY of there products. Especially when their stuff costs over $600.

I am sitting here looking for a geniune Intel 975 board, core2duo, and 2GB of DDR2, and an ATI X1950. Never another Nvida anything in my house. Enough is enough.

Pterocarpous

Missileman wrote:

as many of you have probably heard (or experienced), Nvidia couldn't be bothered to have any working Vista drivers ready. They didn't really do much during the beta stuff, but they had nothing available for release. Now they did have some on disk drivers that came with Vista, if you didn't want to use your RAID. On top of that the on disk drivers were unstable. I haven't had this many video crash out since VLB and Win3.1.

Today they released WHQL Nforce drivers. THEY DON'T WORK. Half of the people can install them, another high percentage can't boot after installing them. In my case they installed, but I can't do restart. If I do they hang on the RAID bios scanning array screen. I have to power down and back on then they work.

I can't believe that a company that has the market share that they do, with only 5 years preparation, can't have a working driver for ANY of there products. Especially when their stuff costs over $600.

I am sitting here looking for a geniune Intel 975 board, core2duo, and 2GB of DDR2, and an ATI X1950. Never another Nvida anything in my house. Enough is enough.

Crapola! That means I'm not going to be able to get it installed on my Gigabyte system (nVidia chipset). Gotta install it on the Asus system (VIA chipset) unless they're havin' the same problems. Better check and find out what's available. Thankyou for the heads up Missileman.

Missileman

I've tried both the 97 and the 100 video drivers. Even the out of box drivers do the same thing. I am kinda looking at the video bios as the problem now. These 7900GT's are XFX extreme models (factory overclocked). It seems these have the issues far more than other people so I emailed XFX support.

The last nail though was the version 15 Nforce MB/IDE/Ethernet drivers. They are supposed to be WHQL and I can't do a system restart. The driver is spinning the disks down when I restart like it would during a shutdown. Forces me to shutdown and turn back on to get the array to post.

and never let the machine sleep. It will become comatose since video and drives will never come back.

I'm just frustrated with the whole thing. Everybody else managed to get working drivers. I expected a few quirks or bugs, but I can't keep this system up 10 minutes without having to hit the reset button. and this is a system that is so rock solid under XP Pro that it has never even crashed a program let alone the whole system.

I may lose a little performance by going back to Geniune Intel, but at least it will work. I fight screwed up machines almost evry day. I don't wnat to have to fight my own too

Pterocarpous

Missileman wrote: »

...I fight screwed up machines almost evry day. I don't wnat to have to fight my own too...

Hear! Hear! :smiles:

Missileman

Well I did it !!!! No more Nvidia for me

I got this motherboard :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813121059

This processor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115003

This RAM:(cause they were out of the good stuff and the Egg gave me a $20 off coupon)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820161063

and this video card: (until the DX10 ones release)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814195029

I also ordered the adapters for the LGA775 socket for my waterblock so I think i have it all covered.

Nvidia has gone to my blacklist. I am FREE !!! FREE I tell you.

There may be a big Nvida closeout sale shortly

Sledgehammer70

Its funny everyone is saying Nvidia had 5 years to develop drivers, but with MS changing Vista almost daily Nvidia really had 8 months to prep a full Vista Driver. ATI had the same thing really and there drivers are pretty buggy as well. Either or a ton of companies are having massive issues with Vista drivers and they are on there way to be fixed. Nvidia seems to be the end of the rod for massive issues because they have the most products on the market to cover...

Good luck with your new purchase, let us know how it all runs. let me know what Nvidia items you have, as i might be more than willing to take them off your hands....

Thrax

There are no excuses. ATi had a WHQL Vista driver before RTM. nVidia has nothing but half-functional beta drivers.

edcentric

Welcome to the club.
I see that you went with the BadAx mobo. Very spendy, but very stable.
I like my 1950pro.

The core for Vista hasn't changed in the last few years, just the window dressing. NVidia steped on their dick with this one.

Zuntar

Hence why I wait for second generation stuff.

Sledgehammer70

Thrax wrote: »

There are no excuses. ATi had a WHQL Vista driver before RTM. nVidia has nothing but half-functional beta drivers.

Yeah but the ATI drivers are still crap...

Missileman

I understand what it's like to try and get ready for the release of a new operating system. I used to be one of the guys who signed off on WHQL driver certs for a company that is now Adaptecs RAID group. I know how it works. When Microsoft went gold code in september all changes stop. Period. They due this just for the explicit purpose that developers and OEM's can finalize their stuff. So as a minimum Nvidia had 4 months to get some working drivers. To have a major upgrade to the most in use OS in the world coming out and not even have functional beta drivers is Inexcusable. I worked many all nighters and all weekenders with the FW and SW engineers getting ready for the 95 launch, 2000 launch, and XP launch. This is something you HAVE to do. There is no choice. Cost is not even thought about. If you want to keep your customers you have to do it. Oh, and you can't blame the delay on Microsoft. Most large companies do their own WHQL certification in house. You simply sign off saying you have completed all the requirements for certification. These tests are spelled out in documents from Microsoft. So it is not as some people say, because Microsoft didn't finish them.

Like I said, a few bugs, glitches were expected. I could understand if some of the older products were a few days late, but to have your current shipping products be useless is a joke and an insult to the customer. If they lack the skills to coordinate something this important, or worse, that there designs are this hard to work with, then I no longer have faith in them or there products.

All the other companies (even the big ones) managed to get working drivers that install properly out. Sure they are not all perfect, but at least the basics work. I could do a clean install to my RAID and expect my ethernet and on board sound to work.

Okay, I'm done ranting for now :bigggrin:

Sledgehammer70

All my Nvidia products are working perfect with Vista... Mind you I am not running SLI but my Nvidia chipset in my lappy and GPU in my lappy seem to be running bug free.

I guess I really don't miss my monster SLI setup at this point in time

What Nvidia products are you having issues with?

Missileman

Well I got the BadAxe2 up and running. I'm not happy with the memory. It runs at the afvertised 4-4-4-12 if I set it. The SPD set's 5-5-5-15. That is not what they are claiming for it. System runs flawless and is VERY FAST. My XP Experience number went up to 5.6 from 5.0 WOOT

I have Vista installed on a RAID, sound and LAN work perfect. Even the Nvidia video card works like a champ. Not one bios crash on this board. I do get this strange random lockup when I'm in the bios once in a while. No pattern or particular spot. Kinda why I don't trust this memory.

I haven't really had a lot of test time cause I did something that you never should do ---- Volunteer. I was at one of my Doctor clients and she was running around giving all the staff blood sugar tests. I said go ahead and poke me since I haven't had it checked in a couple of years. Well I failed and got a sugar reading of 291 (normal is 100-120 for those that don't know). So I have spent the last 3 days giving more blood than I thought I could so they can make sure my pancreas is still alive (they say it is) and today I was filled with a whole pharmacy of goodies which have a long list of unpleasant side effects. Kinda hoping I could skate on this, but my whole family has always had late life onset diabetes so I guess it's just my time. Can I put ketchup on that cardboard????