one way to fix Sapphire AGP video cards

[screwballl]

My dad was recently having major issues with his brand new video card, it is a Sapphire HD2600Pro AGP video card. The drivers from the CD partially worked and one set of drivers from the sapphire page barely worked... but only if he stayed on the desktop... as soon as any program used D3D or put any strain on the video card, it would either crash or give jumbled graphics.
So we tried all sorts of things, tried Sapphire drivers (the AGP hotfix ones), tried ATI drivers, tried checking BIOS settings, nothing was working. The main problem with MOST drivers was that during the driver installation, it kept throwing up the error "could not find a card compatible with these drivers". The main reason being it was looking for a PCIe card, not an AGP card...
So after the past month of troubleshooting, I had a wild thought to try AGP drivers from another company. If that doesn't work then he has a bad video card. So we installed drivers 8.3n from the visiontek website (LINK)... and what do you know... it worked. Not only did it install but it allowed full hardware acceleration and all his games including CS:S worked flawlessly and at better framerates than his old nvidia 6200. No crashes, no jumbled screens, no problems.

Now the bad part: I tried to post this fix on the sapphire forums letting people know that this is one possible fix that worked well for me. What happens? I get temporarily banned for "spamming" the forums... I posted it in 5 different places under relevant topics.
Based on the moderator actions and private messages, it is ok for people to suggest modifying the AGP voltage and card BIOS which can not only fry the video card but void the warranty but it is not ok to post a link to some drivers that actually fix the crap that they themselves refuse to fix???

From this point on I refuse to purchase Sapphire products. They want your money but do not want to support it.

This is my personal experience and my personal opinion, it is your choice how you use this information.

[simple_inhibition]

that greengecko guy over at the sapphire forums is a real prick. his attitude is costing sapphire customers.

[gvblake22]

I've only owned one Sapphire card and I sold it a few months later. It worked ok, but wasn't anything special. Frankly, the only ATI card I'll buy from is Vistiontek since they are the only ones confident enough to stand behind their video cards with a lifetime warranty.

[screwballl]

I have one sapphire card myself, my X1950GT PCIe. I always used ATI's drivers so never had to deal with Sapphire's crap until now.

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by screwballl

I have one sapphire card myself, my X1950GT PCIe. I always used ATI's drivers so never had to deal with Sapphire's crap until now.

Why not use ATI drivers for this one then?

Edit: Ah missed the part about you trying them.
I've had certain issues myself with ATI drivers, mostly the WDM ones. Over a certain version number I couldn't change input resolution anymore, giving me a quite terrible picture quality (320x240 when it could do 720x480...).
Gotta hate fiddling with graphics drivers. :/

[drew and not u]

Do you mean you posted that in 5 different places on the sapphire forums? If so then that kinda sounds like spamming to me.

And in my experience that's par for the course for ATI drivers.

[Zambini]

I'm sorry, you're now banned from our forums for spamming.



lol.

I have a sapphire x1950 that I have yet to sell since my 8800 purchase... And that will be the last one I had

[screwballl]

shhhhh I have 56 in 2 days here (including this post)

[stinger608]

Originally Posted by screwballl

shhhhh I have 56 in 2 days here (including this post)

I meant to talk to you about that!!! This is waaaaaaaaay to many posts here Screwy:l augh:

[Quakindude]

I had some pretty crappy experiences with ATi drivers all through the 90's. The last time I had a set of drivers directly from ATI that fried my card. I dropped ATI at that point and haven't bought their products for my desktops since then. My laptop has an ATI part in it, but that was due to lack of options than personal choice.