On Wed, 15 Oct 2003 15:40:03 -0700
"Tim Reed" wrote:

I have used an AIW Radeon w/Media Center for a couple of years and it
has ALWAYS been trouble; thru 3 different OSs - Win98, Win2000 & Win
XP Pro - and I have NEVER been free from crashes & malfunctions
despite frequent updates. But tonight I really blew a gasket. I was
using MC 8.5 to record a crucial ball game - and when I got home the
f**ker had CRASHED during the record!!! No temp file to salvage,
either (and no, the storage drive was*not* full; 65gb available). This
is on a machine that got a recent clean install starting w/XP Pro and
the latest drivers from ati.com!!! GODDAMN THIS PRODUCT SUCKS, THIS IS
A FREQUENT OCCURANCE AND I AM *SICK* OF IT!!!!!!!!

Am I the only user who has had these problems? Does this product work
reliably for anyone???? Windows error reporting has identified the
source of many other crashes as being the ATI graphics drivers; I've
also been experiencing spontaneous reboots, which I can't say for sure
are caused by ATI but I have a pretty strong suspicion ...

Can anyone recommend a competitive TV tuner/capture card that actually
WORKS??? I've had enough of ATI, and am advising all of my friends &
relatives to RUN, DON'T WALK from ATI products. (Yeah, I know I've got
an older card - but it has *NEVER* worked properly; why should I pay
$$$ for another ATI product & trust that it will work better?)

My machine:
V-Card: AIW Radeon
ASUS A7M266 w/AMD 1.333 GHz Athlon
RAM: 512 MB
Scratch drive: Has 65Gb free
System: Recent *clean* install WinXP Pro
Drivers: Latest from ATI (6.14.10.6387)

Some scenarios:
1. Set up PVR record. Come home later to either (a) MC is frozen,
Windows crash notification, or (b) freshly-rebooted system, no
recording. Happens MORE THAN HALF of the time!
2. Sometimes MC crashes while just watching TV. Frequent.
3. Sometimes while watching TV, picture spontaneously "zooms" (upper
1/4 of picture fills screen, no way to restore). Not common, but not
rare either; may be more common while watching TV-on-demand.
4. Use the jog feature more than once or twice & the picture freezes.
5. Just got MC to crash by resetting screen res & turning off TV
display, them moving the TV window (I can still hear the audio, but
the player app is gone).

There are *plenty* more, these are just the most recent/frequent.

pant, pant ... Sorry to bitch but this POS has been a thorn in my side
for years. I've been lurking here occasionally and haven't seen
anything likely to help ...

Quit dinking around and get a Tivo.

--
--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)