First time Nvidia user, sorely dissapointed

[nodeel]

I just purchased a new Visiontek Nvidia Geforce2 GTS card, and I must say, although my games are much improved, I'm sorely dissapointed with the card.

It appears as though the quality of the experience provided by this card is marred by several "nags" as I call them.

The included DVD player continually crashes and causes "Windows Protection Errors" whereas my ancient ATI All In Wonder Pro (yes, the 8 mb agp version) never caused any such challenge. On top of this, theres been a pair of system hangs for no reason whatsoever, and I am using the latest NVIDIA reference drivers. This is Windows ME, btw, not Win2k, so driver issues like this should be non existent. I find it hard to justify paying a premium for Nvidia chipset based cards in light of the substandard experience I've had with them in the last couple days. At the next upgrade point, I'll be looking elsewhere, and though my framerates will never be as high as the gamer w/the Nvidia card, at least my experience will not include aberrations such as hangs, crashes, and "protection errors." Despite ATi's substandard support (both technical and driver,) I found their products developed and thouroghly stable day in and day out. In almost 3 years with my All In Wonder, the amount of system hangs could be counted on the fingers of one hand, yet many "ard" gamers refuse to touch anything that isnt Nvidia based. Frankly, i find it distressing that a simple fact such as frame rate can de-emphasize basic functionality, and especially disturbing is the fact that stability out of a year old chipset is not standard!

Alas, I digress....time to work another week of overtime to afford my next Ati purchase, which hopefully will serve me as well as my All In Wonder did for 3 wonderful years.

 

[rbV5]

Pretty whiny for only a couple days don't you think nodeel.

 

[MulLa]

Well I would think that the crashes from the DVD player is not the fault of Nvidia at all. It's not their software and they can't be held responsible for software bugs at all. Have you tried other DVD players?

I would think otherwise that WinMe drivers are "better" than W2K ones. Performance under W2K (Nvidia drivers only) are on par if not better than W9X, besides W2K is much more stable and reiable than Me anyway.

When are you getting crashes only with the DVD player? Are they repeatable? Perhapse associated with a particluar piece of software??

 

[Mem]

Try a Clean install of OS,btw IMHO both Win98 & 2000 are much more stable then ME,I`m still using Win98 OS1 & have had zero problems with all my Nvidia cards(TNT & now GF2MX) both in gaming & general use,their drivers are excellent ,but yours sounds like a software problem of some kind thats why I recommend a clean install of OS.

 

[RobsTV]

On the other hand, my Visiontek GTS works perfectly with ME. Never a hint of problems. DVD playback is perfect. Perhaps your problem lies in a simple motherboard Bios setting? I have heard some problems like that, but they are easily corrected by adjusting the AGP driving force. EA works great here with Abit KT7 and KT7A boards. Check GeForce FAQ for more info, or Abit FAQ if you have an Abit board.

You problems are not the norm, so are probaly easily corrected.
Perhaps you should ask for help in correcting them, before you diss a card?

 

[bpt8056]

I agree with mem that you should do a clean install of OS. I do that everytime I install a new video card and it ensures that I will avoid software problems. If your problems persists, then I would try RobTv's suggestion with the BIOS settings. If that still doesn't help, then returning the card wouldn't be a bad idea. Good luck.

 

[twocents]

Backup your current system, and format(low level) your HD. Then reinstall the OS on your HD. This will definately clean up your registry for useless keys and will resolve any previous hardware conflicts if you install your drivers one at a time.

 

[pidge]

Yep. Do a fresh format of your hard drive. When I went from a Geforce 2 GTS to ATI Radeon and then back Geforce 2 GTS, I experienced many system crashes with my GTS. I thought the uninstall would remove all of the ATI references from Windows but then I found lots of traces of the Radeon drivers in my registry. I did a fresh format and the problems were gone. I don't watch DVD movies so I can't comment to much on software DVD players. Whenever I do watch DVD movies, its always been with PowerDVD and I have never had problems with that software. What motherboard model are you using?

 

[Pepsin]

I think the problems are caused by something else. Try some of the things the others suggested. I'm sure that will solve your problem.

What I would like to point out, though, is that not all gamers choose nVidia based cards. You make it sound like every serious gamer has a Geforce2 or 3, but that's not the case. Look at HardOCP for example...that place has turned into an ATI fansite...it seems like everyone there has a Radeon these days. They are even starting to annoy me because they won't admit the Radeon has flaws (anisotropic filtering, fog etc.).

 

[lsd]

Have you even tried to troubleshoot the problem? You mention nothing of it...
In my expreience of using ATI rage pros to v2 M3D to my current gf2 I've never had a video card related issue or a need to contact "technical support" . Maybe you should take your computer to a local shop to get it looked after..