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ATI Technologies Inc. All-in-Wonder 128 AGP 16MB

ATI Technologies Inc. All-in-Wonder 128 AGP 16MB

List Price: $229.00
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Decent Tuner? Horrible Software, Support, and Price
Review: I have had good luck getting the AIW 128 AGP to run on a PII, 300mhz, with Win 95B - but the installation and setup was a bear. You MUST plan on downloading the most recent drivers, as the ones supplied are full of bugs. Rearranging the hardware interconnections on an existing system is also a bit tricky because it is poorly documented. And, unfortunately, it seems like the tech support people at ATI will go to any length to avoid answering questions directly. You will be referred to their website repeatedly, instead of being assisted. This might be ok, but the troubleshooting info on the website is very superficial and full of disclaimers (there are some other good sources of help, such as CNET, since the product is so popular). It would be a good idea to see if you can find a few other people who have this board up and running, so that you can get advice if you need it.

Back to the board... The TV tuner works great, allowing me to use the computer monitor for Playstation. Also, the graphics acceleration may not be state of the art, but my 3D games run smoothly and the board cleared up several 2D problems I was experiencing.

Regarding comments on the OS. My guess is that this is a WIN 95/98 product, pure and simple. ATI has gone on to other things and probably will have questionable support for NT, 2000, etc.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great Board, but not a simple install
Review: I have had good luck getting the AIW 128 AGP to run on a PII, 300mhz, with Win 95B - but the installation and setup was a bear. You MUST plan on downloading the most recent drivers, as the ones supplied are full of bugs. Rearranging the hardware interconnections on an existing system is also a bit tricky because it is poorly documented. And, unfortunately, it seems like the tech support people at ATI will go to any length to avoid answering questions directly. You will be referred to their website repeatedly, instead of being assisted. This might be ok, but the troubleshooting info on the website is very superficial and full of disclaimers (there are some other good sources of help, such as CNET, since the product is so popular). It would be a good idea to see if you can find a few other people who have this board up and running, so that you can get advice if you need it.

Back to the board... The TV tuner works great, allowing me to use the computer monitor for Playstation. Also, the graphics acceleration may not be state of the art, but my 3D games run smoothly and the board cleared up several 2D problems I was experiencing.

Regarding comments on the OS. My guess is that this is a WIN 95/98 product, pure and simple. ATI has gone on to other things and probably will have questionable support for NT, 2000, etc.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Windows 2000 beta drivers weak
Review: I have the 32MB version of this card in my (Dual boot Win98/2000 (linux when I get 'round to it) SCSI based Athlon) system. The DVD players are not reliable. I can't watch a movie in Win '98 without having at least a couple problems. Trying to watch one in Win2000, I'd have to reboot several times to get thru a movie. Win2000 beta support (versions 40wb10 and 70wb19) is weak; I sent in detailed problem reports ages ago. No response (admittedly they're in beta), but I'd expect at LEAST a new beta to have been released in the past few months. Winamp visualizations seem to cause W2k hangs too. The TV image is great, but the tv viewer also hangs quite often. (The system is reliable with basic stuff like MS Office & web dev tools.) The digital VCR only records at 25-30 frames a second. So I can't do 60fps to use like a TiVo, and can't do 2-10 frames a second for streaming over the web.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Windows 2000 beta drivers weak
Review: I have the 32MB version of this card in my (Dual boot Win98/2000 (linux when I get 'round to it) SCSI based Athlon) system. The DVD players are not reliable. I can't watch a movie in Win '98 without having at least a couple problems. Trying to watch one in Win2000, I'd have to reboot several times to get thru a movie. Win2000 beta support (versions 40wb10 and 70wb19) is weak; I sent in detailed problem reports ages ago. No response (admittedly they're in beta), but I'd expect at LEAST a new beta to have been released in the past few months. Winamp visualizations seem to cause W2k hangs too. The TV image is great, but the tv viewer also hangs quite often. (The system is reliable with basic stuff like MS Office & web dev tools.) The digital VCR only records at 25-30 frames a second. So I can't do 60fps to use like a TiVo, and can't do 2-10 frames a second for streaming over the web.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Decent TunerĂ‚Â¿ Horrible Software, Support, and Price
Review: I purchased the ATI All In Wonder mid 1999. I've never been impressed by the value of ATI products, but I hoped it would be different... I was wrong. I used the software briefly on a Windows 98 computer, but when I gave it a video speed test for 2D and 3D, it rated only a fraction of the speed of the average Creative Lab's card (18 points compared to 95). I moved it to the only other computer that I could, which was a Windows NT 4.0 system. Unfortunately, they don't tell you in their brochure that the software for this card is highly crippled when using it on NT... the capture drivers don't work within other programs, most TV features don't work, etc. When I upgraded to Windows 2000 in February of 2000, ATI's web site promised to have driver's for Windows 2000 ready for March. In March I checked in and they promised them by April... April, they promised them in May, etc., etc. As of December 2000, they STILL didn't have the drivers ready. Finally, out of desperation, I tried using their 'special purpose drivers', which are test versions, and it brought down my whole system. These 'special' driver's cannot be uninstalled once they're installed. I've written to them several times, but they've never responded. I've even written to them using my company's name, hoping to get a response that way, but nothing!

I highly recommend NOT buying this, nor any other ATI product... not entirely because of the quality of the card, but for the extreme lack of quality within the company's support policies. My only regret was not being able to give this card a '0' star rating.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Tech support problems
Review: I purchased this product 4 weeks ago and have had nothing but problems. The tech support is vertually non-existant and I still am waiting for help to get it working.

It is a long distance call for phone support, and always busy.

The website has some FAQ and hints, but the e-mail support now takes over 14 days to get a reply.

Before you buy, visit the web site and send in a request for tech support. You will get an automated reply stating how long the wait is. It currently is 13-14 days.

Once you do get a reply, if the entire problem is not resolved, you must wait another 14 days for a follow-on response.

I recommend finding another brand.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: no driver updates ,unless you pay for them
Review: I thought this product was ok at first but to great at any one thing. But while upgrading os's some of the drivers where not up to date and would not work properly(some drivers for win98, all for win2k, most for win me).So i tried the web site for updates, but could only find them for the 2d/3d and not for the other features build into the card. But they do have a new install cd you can purchase with updated drivers for the video capture and other features other than 2d/3d.

I feel that if you buy the product the support should go with it, not at an extra charge.If ATI build the product they should provide the drivers required to use it .

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: these cards are crap
Review: If you buy any card from ATI, this is what you can expect. 1) the card might, or might not work on the operating system of choice, particularly NT4, or NT2000 or might be severely limited. 2) almost non-existent customer service 3) you get to test their software and drivers since they don't seem to do that before releasing. 4) you get to hang out with lots of other angry users in the newsgroups. 5) tv-out is no better than most other scan converters 6) dvd playback is consistently better and less troublesome with other cards, like hollywood magic 6) you can get a better performing graphics card for much less than this card.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: these cards are crap
Review: If you buy any card from ATI, this is what you can expect. 1) the card might, or might not work on the operating system of choice, particularly NT4, or NT2000 or might be severely limited. 2) almost non-existent customer service 3) you get to test their software and drivers since they don't seem to do that before releasing. 4) you get to hang out with lots of other angry users in the newsgroups. 5) tv-out is no better than most other scan converters 6) dvd playback is consistently better and less troublesome with other cards, like hollywood magic 6) you can get a better performing graphics card for much less than this card.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Its Just Too Old Now...
Review: This card was incredible when it was released (now almost 3years ago)! However, this video card is really starting to show its age...

Since this card was released, ATI has release 3 new All-In-Wonders (All-in-Wonder 128 32 Meg, All-in-Wonder 128 Pro 32 Meg, and All-in-Wonder 128 Pro 16 Meg)! A fourth, newer revision will be released later this month (The new All-In-Wonder Radeon).

...While this older card still does a solid job with video captures, contemporary games struggle to cope with the card based on the original Rage 128 chipset (most games are too choppy to play now) as well as other tasks.

Steer clear of this card until a newer version is offered...


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