ATI ALL-IN-WONDER 8500DV

[simplygrateful]

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Don't pay $399.00 for the ATI ALL-IN-WONDER 8500DV

1. this card is not worth the money...

2. ati has already dropped the price by $100 ( you can get it for $299 )

* i'm not sure if i'd pay that price either... maybe at $199 it would be
worth considering... but definitely not over $200...

* i'm going to be returning my card in a few more days as i'm very
disappointed

3. i've always loved and prefered the ATI ALL-IN-WONDER cards over
all the others because i like the multimedia stuff... ability to watch
TV ,etc...

4. i have two all-in-wonder cards and this would have made my third

a. all-in-wonder pro with 8MB AGP purchased in 1998
b. all-in-wonder 128 with 16MB PCI purchased in 1999
c. all-in-wonder 8600DV with 32MB AGP purchased 20 days ago


5. after waiting and saving my money up so i could afford this card, it was
a real disappointment once i got it...

* TV output looks better on the cards above that cost a fraction of the cost
AT $400, now $300, i would expect that card to be superior, but it's not
much better than the cards listed in " a " & " b " above ( imagine that !!! )

* recording video from VCR or cable TV is worst than the AIW 128 card...


6. if you have an IWILL KK266 Plus, the card will not work as advertised...

a. i sent the info below to ATI and never received an answer from them...

b. you have to attach power to the card from one of your spare hard drive
connectors ( need an adapter to convert to four pin connector on card )

c. if you do not connect power, the cards is flacky and unstable as !?@%


7. i heard they are coming out with an R3 chip that should be really good in july or august

a. that card will allow you to capture video into mpeg 4 format....

b. it's supposed to come with 256MB of ram on the card also...

c. if you're a video buff ( i'm just getting into the game ) www.vidomi.com,
www.divx.com, www.digital-digest.com. www.dvd-digest.com

* i like ripping DVD's to hard disk and also one or two CD's

* i was hoping i could use this card 8500DV to record all my VHS stuff
to disk then convert them to mpeg4...

* the card 8500DV did such a poor job at copying VHS to disk that i gave up

* and to make matters worst, after the files were captured ( even though the
video playback quality wasn't any good ), i couldn't play the files with windows
media player and i wasn't able to convert the files using vidomi ( www.vidomi.com )


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Product: ATI 8500DV All-in-Wonder

Problem: Card is highly unstable

Displays Garbage Characters on screen
or screen goes black

a. before booting can't see BIOS Display
b. can't get into CMOS
c. during booting, before XP window comes up
d. during and before selection of Safe Mode
e. during installation
f. after drives have been installed


Solution: Apply Power to the four pin connect on the
at the rear of the card

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History:

1. i have been waiting approximately three to four
weeks for an ATI 8500DV All-In-Wonder card to
show up in the bay area ( silicon valley )

2. no body had a card except for COMP USA and i don't
like purchasing from COMP USA, because if something
is wrong with the merchandize and you have to return
it, you, the customer will have to pay a 15% restocking
fee... and in my case below, i would have been out of
$60.00 dollars and the problem wasn't mine...

a. none of the Fry's stores had the card

* not palo alto
* not sunnyvale
* not san jose
* not campbell
* not fremont

b. none of the Best Buy's had the card

* milpitas
* union city

3. when the card finally showed up, i was very excited
to get it installed, up and running and start using
it to record vhs videos to disks...

4. all my systems ( and i have six pc's at home ) have
ati cards, so i've very familiar with the installation
of ati cards...

a. ATI All-in-wonder 128
b. ATI All-in-wonder PRO
c. ATI Rage Fury 32MB
d. ATI Radeon 32MB

5. using the hardware platform below, i tried following
and in all cases, the results were the same:

Results:

a. garbage on the crt / screen
b. black crt / screen
c. during bootup
d. when trying to select safe mode
e. after windows XP had come up

Installation attempts:

a. tried installing card with everything listed in
hardware setup below

b. tried removing every single PCI card except the
ATI 8500DV and the problems still persisted

c. purchased two additional cards ( had total of three )
in my possession and two of them exhibited the same
problem ( didn't open up the third box because i
figured out the problem by then )


Bottom Line...

a. the IWILL KK266Plus card worked fine before
introducing the ATI 8500DV card...

b. i originally had a Rage Fury 32MB in the AGP
slot before swapping it out with the 8500DV
card and everything worked fine...

I could even work from two monitors that had
shared display ( could move items / pointer
between the monitors )

Could watch DVD's, MPEGS, AVI's

c. granted there could be some interaction between
the IWILL KK266PLUS and the 8500DV card... but
ATI should investigate this

d. applying power to the card 8500DV fixed and resolved
all the issues except one...

e. i could never install the Guide Plus software complete
i'll open another case for that issue...



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6. HARDWARE PLATFORM:

CASE: Wavesonic FS-710BB 350W
MBoard: IWILL KK266Plus
MEMORY: 1GB ( 256 + 256 + 512 )
H DRIVE #1: 27GB
H DRIVE #2: 27GB
H DRIVE #3: 160GB
CDRW: 24x,10x,40x
DVD: 12X

Slot Description
GRAPHIC: AGP ATI 8500DV All-IN-WONDER
GRAPHIC: PCI-1 Radeon 32MB
SOUND: PCI-3 Sound Blaster Live
NETWORK: PCI-4 3COM 10/100MB
NETWORK: PCI-5 3COM 10/100MB
EIDE: PCI-6 PROMISE ATA/ultra-133

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7. To SAVE ATI MONEY and it's CUSTOMERS valuable time...

Please update your web site, readme files, and alerts
in the box that power should be applied to the card
to prevent an unstable video card...


8. To Save ATI MONEY on product being opened and:

a. returned to the store with everything intact

b. returned to the store with missing items

c. returned to ATI with everything intact

d. returned to ATI with missing items

e. later screened at ATI for functionality
and not being able to see any problems
because it works on your system but not
the customers...

9. Please put the following information on:

a. your web site

b. include a special " RED ME " pamphlet in
each box of 8500DV that goes out

c. in the readme.txt file on the CD...


10. Again... the roblem i was having was resolved by
applying power to the 4 pin power connector on the
8500DV card...

a. based on all the literature and documenation i have
read, this connector is supposedly for firewire only

http://support.ati.com/connectors/aiw_radeon_8500dv/connectors_aiw_radeon_8500dv_firewire_power.html

b. however, in my case, if power WAS NOT APPLIED to the
four pin connector, the 8500DV card, WOULD NOT:

* work ( from boot up : sometimes no graphics )
( couldn't even see CMOS or BIOS info )

* stay up before devices drivers were installed

* stay up after device drivers were installed


c. however, after applying power to the four pin connector
the card has behaved normally ( as expected ) ever since

d. i believe this is a serious design flaw that needs to be
addressed immediately so future cards can get the fix in
place...

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[Prototype]

Thanks for the warning.

 

[Wolfsraider]

sorry to hear about your troubles

but you didn't mention if you removed the video card and installed standard adapter drivers before installation ?

also you said

<< c. all-in-wonder 8600DV with 32MB AGP purchased 20 days ago >>



dude you got ripped if you paid $400.00 for a 32 meg 8500dv as they don't make the 8500dv except in a 64mb version

and last i'd almost bet that the trouble you're having is cross driver related as everything that you've stated here:



<< TV output looks better on the cards above that cost a fraction of the cost >>





<< recording video from VCR or cable TV is worst than the AIW 128 card >>





<< and to make matters worst, after the files were captured ( even though the >>





<< Displays Garbage Characters on screen >>



so i'm asking did you try completely deleting the old drivers or even better a completly fresh reformat and install?

also on a different note what operating system are you using?

i to have all of ati's all in ones (except the 8500 that's next) and i know that if you load one over the other look out because trouble WILL come knocking on your door

and lastly why are you the one of the few thats having trouble (although yours sounds worse than any i've heard of) and so many bragging about their's?

seriously try reinstalling after a clean install it might just turn around your experiences

hope this helps

 

[rimshaker]

Damn, i would've thought the new smaller silicon based TV-tuner would do wonders with quality and capturing.

Can you provide further information about whether it's a mass problem.... or are you just the exception?

 

[datalink7]

I don't think he was posting personal problems. Instead, these are various comments posted by several different people he got from somewhere.

 

[Wolfsraider]

thanks thought so

 

[Valhalla1]

wow, what a complaint list.. very thorough. I am running an ATI AIW Radeon (original not 8500). I was considering getting an 8500DV AIW when the prices came down, because my card is getting old and the frame rates in my games aren't stellar..

is there an nvidia based card with tv tuner on it and similar capabilities of an AIW ?

 

[*kjm]

Guys I would take this post with a grain of salt... I have 3 systems with this card in them and they all work great. I have one Intell, one VIA and the last system has the ALI chipset. Just FYI.