VisionTek Sold Defective nVidia VideoCards (!?)

[apoppin]

From HardOCP

What is of interest are allegations of VisionTek activity that might directly affect VisionTek NVIDIA based video card owners. The following is an excerpt from paragraphs 70 and 71 of the lawsuit.


Prior to the Offering, Nvidia shipped to VisionTek $6-8 million worth of defective Component Parts. Once VisionTek discovered the Component Parts were defective, it negotiated a resolution with NVIDIA. VisionTek and Nvidia agreed that VisionTek would receive a credit equal to the value of the defective Component Parts and that VisionTek would destroy the defective Component Parts.

At the time it made the agreement with Nvidia, VisionTek was starved for cash and under intense pressure to get its products quickly into the marketplace. VisionTek therefore decided to renege on its agreement with Nvidia. Rather than destroying the parts as promised, VisionTek, upon information and belief, built its graphic cards using the defective Component Parts and then fraudulently sold those cards to its customers.

The lawsuit goes into no further detail about the allegations made. It does not specify chip type, or what the defect supposedly was composed of.

I do think it is safe to say that this could possibly be concerning over 100,000 video cards.

I personally know of no wide spread problems with past VisionTek video cards. Of course we have trumpeted their video cards? qualifications from the pages of our website as many of you already know. Remember that these are allegations and not facts. Remember that some folks that got burned for millions of dollars are the ones making those allegations as well.

I don?t know fact from fiction here, but it will surely be interesting to see what becomes of this story. If it comes out that this reference to selling defecting parts to consumers is true, it would be my opinion that NVIDIA would certainly have had to know what was going on. I spoke with NVIDIA this afternoon and they were not aware of the lawsuit but were certainly going to have their legal department check into it.

:Q

Read the whole article . . . it's a lawsuit filed that includes one of the key defendants in the suit is Mark Polinsky, former VisionTek CEO.
These are their allegations.

Anybody have a "bad" nVidia VisionTek Card?

 

[Wolfsraider]

damn thats scary if true

would nvidia honor rma's of visiontech's cards if they do find this is true

i hope not

mike

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Wolfsraider
damn thats scary if true

would nvidia honor rma's of visiontech's cards if they do find this is true

i hope not

mike

Me too . . . up for the morning shift.

 

[oldfart]

I've had (2) VT GF2, GF3 (original), GF3 Ti200, Ti4600. All of them were top quality. Never heard any complaints on the VT cards around here either.

 

[RanDum72]

VisionTek Sold Defective nVidia VideoCards

The title should be changed to 'Visiontek ALLEGEDLY sold defective nvidia video cards'.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: RanDum72

VisionTek Sold Defective nVidia VideoCards

The title should be changed to 'Visiontek ALLEGEDLY sold defective nvidia video cards'.

If enough people agree, I will be glad to change it . . .

I am practicing my "attention grabbing" headlines.

edit: I "compromised" with a slight edit "(!?)" . . .

satisfied?

 

[Smilin]

Yep, I know of two bad visiontek cards. There was a known issue for a long time on the GF3's with fans that would fail...A LOT of them. Their tech support is crap too. It's too bad because I've not heard of any other problems besides this one and they make a pretty inexpensive card.

 

[oldfart]

The VT GF3 (original) used the nV ref HS/Fan which was WAY too loud for me. I replaced it with a CORB with a 7 volt mod to quiet things down. That was my only beef.

 

[PrinceXizor]

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: RanDum72

VisionTek Sold Defective nVidia VideoCards

The title should be changed to 'Visiontek ALLEGEDLY sold defective nvidia video cards'.

If enough people agree, I will be glad to change it . . .

I am practicing my "attention grabbing" headlines.

edit: I "compromised" with a slight edit "(!?)" . . .

satisfied?

No...but why be interested in the truth...its all about "attention grabbing" :disgust:

P-X

 

[Megatomic]

I guess I got a good card/chip. I've been ABUSING my VisionTek GF4 Ti 4200 since June last year and I love it more today than I did yesterday (and the day before, etc...). This card just loves to run overclocked.

 

[Syran]

I had issues with arifacts and such on all screens with my geforce 4 ti4600. VT tech support said it was an issue with the memory, and replaced the card in about 3weeks.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Used the VT GTS-V for 6 or so builds when it was the clear price/performance choice a while back and all of them were jewels....

 

[rbV5]

Anybody have a "bad" nVidia VisionTek Card?

Isn't it Visiontek cards that are unable to play DVD's (copy protected DVD's) using the newer NVidia drivers due to Visiontek using the TV chip without the macrovision protection circuit? Something to do with GF3's VGA/TV-output implementation IIRC. Maybe I'm thinking of something else.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: rbV5

Anybody have a "bad" nVidia VisionTek Card?

Isn't it Visiontek cards that are unable to play DVD's (copy protected DVD's) using the newer NVidia drivers due to Visiontek using the TV chip without the macrovision protection circuit? Something to do with GF3's VGA/TV-output implementation IIRC. Maybe I'm thinking of something else.

Yah I remember reading about that...but I don't think the tv-out decoder/encoder or fans are what's at issue here. nVidia sells GPU cores to their AIB partners, that's it (except the 5800s of course). It'd be helpful if they gave a timeframe of when this occurred.

I've still got my VT GF3 Ti200...no problems since I bought it @ Black Friday 2001. Great performing card that's been OC'd since I bought it.

FYI, VisionTek still warranties their nVidia cards, as Hartford agreed to honor existing warranties offered on legacy products. Getting your VT rebate seems to be less likely however. Maybe if I hold out long enough I'll be able to RMA my Ti200 for a 9800pro.

Chiz

 

[EdipisReks]

i got my Ti200 on black friday 2001. the card overclocked great, though the fan did fail after 6 months.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: PrinceXizor

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: RanDum72

VisionTek Sold Defective nVidia VideoCards

The title should be changed to 'Visiontek ALLEGEDLY sold defective nvidia video cards'.

If enough people agree, I will be glad to change it . . .

I am practicing my "attention grabbing" headlines.

edit: I "compromised" with a slight edit "(!?)" . . .

satisfied?

No...but why be interested in the truth...its all about "attention grabbing" :disgust:

P-X

You should know.
edit (I have read some of the nonsense you post)

And I DO want people to see this. Didn't you bother with the link to see WHO is making these "allegations"?

(Most of GH doesn't need to have the "obvious" pointed out to them and they are pretty good at figuring out the "truth" for themselves.)

 

[rickn]

I've had my VT GF4 4600 for over a year now, no problems

 

[oldfart]

I wonder if they mean the GF2 GTS-V cards? They were slightly downclocked standard GF2 cards. You could easily overclock them to nomal GF2 speeds and above. A lot of people bought them for the bargain price at the time.

 

[rbV5]

I wonder if they mean the GF2 GTS-V cards?

You maybe right. If the cores were free, its no wonder they were so cheap. They must have sold a bunch of those things too.

 

[Codewiz]

I have had a problem with my Visiontek Geforce2 ultra since day one. There is a slight wave effect that goes from one corner to the other. It isn't EMI because I have tested the computer in an area that did not have any EMI.

I go the card from CDRexpress when they had it for $105 and everyone jumped on the deal. I was one of the 65 people that go one of the video cards. I didn't want to RMA because CDRExpress stated they had no more in stock and did not plan to get anymore in. Once I moved to an LCD it is harder to notice but I can still see the waving effect on a dark background

 

[apoppin]

So it could be as "simple" as a defective fan? :Q

This is really disturbing if it's true. And the "allegations" should be taken "seriously" considering WHO made them.

 

[Vadatajs]

Originally posted by: Smilin
Yep, I know of two bad visiontek cards. There was a known issue for a long time on the GF3's with fans that would fail...A LOT of them. Their tech support is crap too. It's too bad because I've not heard of any other problems besides this one and they make a pretty inexpensive card.

My fan failed on my GF2, but it's running fine in my linux box right now. Never had any problems, with or without the fan.

 

[Vegito]

nvidia doesnt make fans.. if fans are the only problem, blame the cheap labour that makes it

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: forcesho
nvidia doesnt make fans.. if fans are the only problem, blame the cheap labour that makes it

Did you miss the 1st post?

Prior to the Offering, Nvidia shipped to VisionTek $6-8 million worth of defective Component Parts

It doesn't say which "component parts" were defective . . . . just that VT used them after being paid not to.

 

[PrinceXizor]

nonsense? hmm...oh well, I suppose you will view my posts the way you want. I'm not interested in starting a flamewar, so I won't.

P-X