Defective Gainward GeForce4 Ti 4200 64MB cards

[HotCarl]

I have asked MikeC why he has not posted this article that is on TheInquirer that lays out a huge problem with the Gainward Ti4200 64MB 3.6ns video cards. I have just sent my card back to the reseller to get a replacement but people are saying that many of the replacements are defective as well.

My card had the problem bad, while my buddy's identical card is fine. Couldn't play Warcraft 3 or Battlefield 1942. I tried to solve the problem with all sorts of configs but nothing helped. I posted what did not fix the problem on the Mad Onion thread, pg. 11. Hope this helps others with this problem.

The Inquirer article:

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=5144

Mad Onion forum:

http://discuss.madonion.com/forum/showflat.pl?Board=techdisplayadapters&Number=973234

[adrianhall]

They had a problem with the Ti4400 not too long ago too. I got one, the boot-up screens were corrupted but readable, but Windows looked like a kaleidoscope, totally unusable :eek:

My MX420 is o.k. - for now :rolleyes:

[SnakeEyes]

Originally posted by adrianhall
They had a problem with the Ti4400 not too long ago too. I got one, the boot-up screens were corrupted but readable, but Windows looked like a kaleidoscope, totally unusable :eek:

My MX420 is o.k. - for now :rolleyes:
My first Gainward 4600 had similar issues, except that Windows usually wouldn't load up (locked up as it attempted to). That issue was a defective PCB (Gainward had a bad batch). I sent it one back to Gainward and the replacement's working fine.

[adrianhall]

Mine transformed into a Leadtek :D

[volt]

I've looked over some sites to see how many people actually have the same problem (pink screen), and actually a lot do. I decided to sticky the thread until we see some answers. So if you have a similar problem with your Gainward Ti4200 card post it! ;)

[Pakman]

They have new 4200 cards with 64MB of 3.3ns RAM which are said to be bug free now.

[HotCarl]

My replacement card comes mid-next week and I can only hope that it is one of the 3.3ns versions with the A3 core. That will be good for 325/610Mhz out of the box and I like the sound o'dat. Unfortunately, resellers may just send you an old card they have in stock and you end up sending it back too. Please, please, please send me a 3.3ns card with the ramsinks as well. I've been good this month, I swear!:p

[HotCarl]

The replacement card I received is a new card with a slightly bigger heatsink on the GPU. The RAM is still the same 3.5ns EtronTech EM658160TS chips. So how did this all play out?

I plugged the card into a friends Pentium 4 system and I get multicolored, vertical stripes as soon as the monitor clicks on. Not good. I figure the board needs a CMOS reset so out comes the power cord and battery. 10 minutes later, same results. Grrrrr. Mind you, BattleFiled 1942 comes out in 4 days and I want to play it bad.

So I move the card to my Athlon XP system, power up the system and huh? The system won't even boot. No beeps, no BIOS, no video at all. Well, the usual slew of explitives comes out cuz I can't believe what I am seeing(or not seeing). So the reliable TNT2 Ultra comes off the dusty shelf and what do you know? Both systems power-up fine.

My replacement card is a POS. I'm looking at a sticker that says "QC-14 OK." Yeah, I think this card skipped right past Quality Control and into a carton. I'm sorry folks, but I am not at all happy with Gainward right now. I talked to my vendor and asked for another brand of Ti4200 and it looks like I will have to spend more dough on a 128MB version since he only stocks one type of 64MB cards.

FYI, the GPU is an A3 revision.

No more Gainward products for me.

[HotCarl]

I talked to my vendor and he said he would take back the card and refund any difference in price from what I paid and what a new card is worth now. Truely a nice guy. NS Technology has Prolink's Pixelview Ti4200 64MB TV-out card for $13 less than what I paid a month or so ago for the Gainward. Better still, this card has seen overclocking in the 300/600Mhz range so I might even end up with a little more horsepower.

So, the only thing I have gleened from this experience is this vendor is top notch. Cheers to Walter at NS Tech.

Later folks

[Wolfram Tismer]

If you have any problems with any of our Gainward graphics cards, please contact our support hotline or send an e-mail. We would be more then happy to help you.

wt

[saturnotaku]

Care to post your phone/e-mail information for public viewing here in the forums?

[Dotanuki]

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=5288

[Dotanuki]

check out www.gainward.de for contact details.........

email support@gainward.de

[HotCarl]

Mr. Tismer-

I can appreciate you taking the time to find this forum and posting here. The following is not at your expense but rather I hope you relay *this* customer's experience to your Quality Control department.

I have been building computers since the mid 90s and have come across a few DOA components. I steer clear of poor quality parts by reading reviews & user feedback. IBM harddrives are one such example. I am not in the business of building computers but I am in a position of relative expertise amongst my personal friends when it comes to building and repairing Macs and PCs.

The problem I was having was I spent from June 20th till my last post-date here figuring out the Gainward Ti4200 was causing me problems. It hadn't dawned on me that this type of problem could be generated by a graphics card. To tell you the truth, TheInquirer.com brought to my attention the MadOnion forum and the other unfortunate buyers of Gainward Ti4200s. Not only did I spend time and money getting this card fixed, but I am going to look like pretty silly as I recommended this brand of card to 3 other friends. And!!!!!! one of those cards is starting to show the problem. I am definitely not going to go thru the charade of spending more time and money sending his card back hoping the next card is satisfactory. Hmm, 3 in 5 cards failed = 60% not good odds(don't forget the DOA replacement card). If you sent me a dozen new cards in hope of finding one replacement for my friend's ailing card, I would drop them in the trash as it is not worth my time and effort to do the job of your firm's Quality Control.

Maybe I am a little perturbed right now, but I expect a simple standard of Quality in which it works when I plug it in. I can clearly get this from other manufacturers as I have already done so. Your company had a second chance when I asked for a replacement Gainward Ti4200 but Gainward failed. Therefore, I bought a Prolink Pixelview Ti4200 64MB with TV-out and it even overclocks out of the box to 300Mhz GPU and 600Mhz Mem. I saved $13(of course all the return shipping exceeds that), I now have TV-out, and this card is a top notch overclocker.

Mr. Tismer, too little - too late.

Here's my email address sir:

_lunchbox@yahoo.com