All wonder why they lie
Written: Feb 13 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: NONE
Cons: Tech support, OS compatibility, constant crashes
The Bottom Line: ATI provides false advertising in the OS compatibility of the All-in-Wonder cards. Unless you plan on running just Windows 98, avoid this like the plague.
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| meathook's Full Review: ATI ALL-IN-WONDER RADEON, (32 MB) PCI Video Card |
It brings me great pleasure to write this review since I feel the need to forewarn the fellow consumers out there about this terrible graphics card. My experiences so far with this card has been nothing but bad. Unfortunately, I also know many other owners experiencing the same problem. Therefore, please take this review seriously and save yourself the money. The multimedia features of this card does not work in any environment besides Windows98. Go purchase a Nvidia graphics card instead.
**Note: this applies only to their All-in-Wonder and other video capture cards, not the standard graphics cards.
I originally owned the All-in-Wonder Pro, which worked great in Windows98. The tuner and capture performed marvelously. Then I upgraded my system to a dual processing motherboard, which meant I need to upgrade to Windows 2000 since Windows98 does not support dual processing. This is where the problem began. Even with the latest drivers from ATI's website, my computer consistently experienced the "blue screen of death" when trying to activate the tv tuner or video capture. ATI also has a major downfall in their support for older products. As their new Radeons roll out of the factory, they stop supporting their old cards. Not only were they delayed in producing compatible drivers for Windows 2000, but their support for the All-in-Wonder Pro was obviously a thing of the past. So I upgraded to the All-in-Wonder Radeon, figuring the new card will stop the constant crashes. I was wrong. After scouring their tech support section clean, I resorted to contacting ATI by filling out those problem reports...many, many problem reports. After not hearing any responses, I emailed them directly. They responded with a Case ID and a link to their back to their tech support site, which I've already memorized by now. So I sent another email, with my case ID so they could look into my problem further. This time, they replied that I did not provide enough information, requesting that I include my OS, system info, etc, which I provided in the previous email. This shows to me that the Case ID is utterly useless and they are not following up anyway. Thirty emails and three responses later, my problem remains unresolved. Lastly, they suggest that I call them for quicker response. How convenient that ATI's tech support is based in Canada, which means I would have to call them long distance, out of the country to tell them how bad their product is, not to mention probably being put on hold by the phone menus for two hours. So save yourself the money and do not purchase any All-in-Wonder products. You purchase it for the the versitility of the multimedia capabilities and you will soon learn they do not work. I have decided instead to spread the word to avoid ATI and promote the products of their competitors instead.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 180
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Epinions.com ID:
meathook
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Reviews written: 9
Trusted by: 0 members
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