Radeon 9700, Battlefield1942, and Ati in general

[SanTropez1971]

<b>Problem:</b> The Ati Radeon 9700 Pro is having an issue with Electronic Art's Battlefield 1942 MP Demo. When the game is ran using the drivers that come on the 9700 installation disk, v6.13.10.6143 you get no text in any of the menus. If you try and trick the game by using GameSpy Arcade or 3D to get into a game the system hard locks right as you are supposed to spawn. When using the beta drivers, v6.13.10.6159 the text now shows up in the menus but the game still hard locks at spawn.


<b>Solution:</b> I think this is a driver issue. I have been on the phone with Ati this morning. Ati said this was a problem that had not been reported yet. See the status below...


<b>My Concerns on Ati:</b> This setup is in my home system and I am trying to get it working for a LAN party that is coming up this Saturday. I have been a fan of Nvidia cards for a long time. One of the reasons for this was apparent today.

After experiencing this problem I went to ati.com to find a way to contact support for help on this issue. I sent an email last night to Ati support and received some automated "Games FAQ" this morning that was worthless.

I called Ati and was told that I could get no support on the "toll" line without registering my product. Ati has another $1.25 per minute support line that I was not about to call after spending $400 on a card. I said I just purchased it yesterday and I wanted to speak to a manager on this issue since I thought this policy was bad. I was then told "the manager will say the same thing" then I was HUNG UP ON by someone lady in tech support. <b>Now excuse the hell out of me, I just spent $400 on a video card, had to pay toll charges to call support, now I get hung up on. </b>

I called another toll line to Ati Customer Care at 905-882-3274. This time I told the lady who answers what my problem was and how pissed I was at they way I was treated after dropping $400+ dollars on a product of theirs. I was that transfered to a supervisor that finally told me I needed to reply to the "Gamers FAQ" e-mail with some text stating "this did not fix the issue" then he would put one of his technicians on it today to help me resolve it.

I am still waiting on a reply from this tech.


<b>What I have learned so far about Ati is...</b>

You only get 30 days of free technical support via phone which is not really free since you have to pay long distance charges to call them. If you want to pay $1.25 per minute then you can get support all day long via 900 number.

It is like pulling teeth to get anyone to help you with anything technical unless you register your product online. You cannot do this with the card in your system because some numbers you need are ONLY located on the card not on the product box.

Technical support via e-mail has a 24 hour turn around and by default sends you some crappy FAQ before any human actually reads your concern. The problem is only looked at by a human once you reply to the FAQ email with something saying the tips did not work.

The costs for owning an Ati product do not stop at the price of the card.

<b>Conclusion</b>

This is just my experience and I am not one to hold back. Policies and procedures can only be changed with the help of everyone and if everyone voices their concerns. If you agree with this call up Ati and tell them. They will never change anything unless you let them know how you feel.

<b>Call Ati Customer Care at 905-882-3274 and voice your concerns!</b>

umm.. did my computer just reboot?<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by SanTropez1971 on 09/05/02 10:55 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[AndrewT]

this post belong to Bad Support / Hotlines

anyway, I'm starting to look at the gef4 cards more and more as I read the problems people have with the new ati cards and support. I didn't want my next card to be a nvidia, but looks like it's a better choice since I don't have any problems with them so far (except I'm not a big fan of the detonator drivers because by using them I loose an option I use a lot. monitor to tv ctrl+alt+t switch).

<font color=red>Got a silent setup, now I can hear myself thinking.... great silence</font color=red>

 

[SanTropez1971]

I did not even see that there was a forum for this. I guess my post could have been split into two parts. One for those of us trying to get the game to run and the other for my experience.

THX

umm.. did my computer just reboot?

 

[nexus_alpha]

Generally speaking if you have problems with any pc hardware the forums can be a very useful resource. For ATI cards rage3d.com and for nvidia cards nvnews.net and if that fails well there is here.

 

[justgotwicked]

I purchased the ATI 9700 through ATI the first day it was available. I am sorry that you had such a bad experience with ATI. So far I have nothing but good things to say about the 9700, and the service through ATI. Its hard for me to complain about it when I am playing my Medal of Honor: Allied Assault MAXED OUT, and my framerates are silky smooth. The video quality is amazing with the 9700. I am told that there is going to be a new driver released anyday that corrects errors in bf1942 (which btw has errors on any system and card people are using.) It is going to be interesting when the NV30 comes out. If it is superior to the ATI card, I will be the first in line to buy it. I have loyalty to quality, not companies.

 

[Makaveli]

I guess you didn't see that BF1942 is a demo.
if the games still has issues when the final is out then bitch and complain. As for ati's techincal support that is another issue.