First Confirmed M18 order (9800 mobility) - Page 7

Hmm. . .

Not that I like being pessemistic, but, if any of you might remember one of my first posts on this forum, I spoke with three Dell techs, all of whom (and one even called me back after spending the entire afternoon looking) said that our old 9100's will not work with the new M18.

Just putting 2, 2 and 2 together here ("no" from the Dell techs, cancelled orders, and now problematic installation) it is making me wonder. Having had my own order cancelled now (after a simple note of a delay) I think I will just play it safe and buy a new I9100. People will pay good money for lightly used I9100's with 128MB M11's on eBay right now.

I'm now somewhat stuck in this situation since I already have a card in my hands. If what you say is true, since they offer the 9800 on new laptops, there has to be *some* 9800 that will work on it. Eventually I'll end up with one of those 9800s even if it takes support forever to work around getting me one of those since it was them that told me it *was* supported and they sold me one. Otherwise I'll be looking into some kind of fair exchange from my 9100 to a new or used XPS due to the situation.

BTW.. it's not like I plugged it in and it didn't work at all. Most things I can get working with lots of configuring. The X800 Double Cross demo with Ruby in it runs great at 640x480 resolution, just nothing above that without artifacts. At worst, I would think it's just the need for a BIOS update to get these glitches out. They just need to tweak the motherboard settings I think (if this card I have now is indeed good).

Lon

The BIOS is not the problem here, I don't think. If the 9800 is recognised by the system at all, the BIOS has done it's job. I don't think that its an incompatibility either. It wouldn't "half" work. It would either work, or not. My guess is that the frame buffer memory is bad. It works at low res, but at high res there are artifacts. At low res, less frame buffer is used.

This speaks volumes on ATIs Quality Control.

I was actually thinking the framebuffer too actually. What's weird is that some games work at 1920x1200 (Unreal 2K4), while Ghost Recon works at 1920x1200x16 and 1600x1200x32 but not 1920x1200x32. I don't know the inner workings of reading and writing the frame buffer, but I supposed each program could do it differently or through different routine calls, allowing some programs to "miss" the bad spot. This is the one thing keeping me hopeful that the next card I get will be fine. On a negative note, there had been word being passed around that the reason for the delays and shortage of cards was due to a poor yield of useable GPUs. This may be emphasizing just that. At this point we'll just have to wait and see, which hopefully won't be into September according to my order status. =/

Lon

BINGO. Finally found a way to really test it. DEFINITELY a bad frame buffer. Using 3DMark01 SE, I was messing with the settings and set the resolution to 1920x1200x32 the Texture Format to DXT1 and the Frame Buffer to Triple. Behold, snow artifacts. Cancelled demo, simply changed the Frame Buffer back to the default Double, ran again. No artifacts at all. Now I need to read up on frame buffers and whether there's anything I can do about it, or whether it's now definitely simply a bad card. Is the frame buffer internal to the GPU or does it use VRAM? Starting to look optimistic for another card fixing the problems, but looking bad for ATI letting one of the first ones Dell sends out be faulty.

Lon

Sure enough, just tried Ghost Recon. It now runs flawlessly at 1920x1200x32 with the Z-Buffer reduced from 24-bit to 16-bit. Now to read up on whether this is definitely hardware related or possibly a driver issue specific to this card that has yet to be resolved.

Lon

Ordered my M18 9800 Radeon Mobility last night,for my XPS from eBay...

I receive it next week... I will keep you posted, as it should arrive next Thursday, but I will not be home from business trip until Friday, so will not get to throw this baby in, until late Friday or even Saturday.

he ordered his from Ebay so he may recieve nothing but a box of styrafoam.

Now now, don't be a hater...

Heh, maybe, but I doubt it, there have been 2 others from this site that have ordered from this same guy, and have their's already...

I am protected via PayPal...

I will post pics of my styrofoam box next week...

i remember someone posted links of an ebay seller who sold an m9700 and m9800 WAY OVERPRICED, the 9800 was sold for $575 USD and the 9700 was sold for something like $275. he had 100% feedback rating, cant remember his user id.

Yea, that is originally where I got his email from, however, that is a lot more than I am paying.

And yes the guys feedback is great...100%

Now that's an A-class gouging job. We're all having trouble getting our cards, yet someone has been able to get boatloads of them and do a nice gouging job on Ebay. No wonder we can't get our cards delivered...they're disappearing from Dell's shelves! (I'm not saying they weren't paid for by whoever is selling them, but you have to admit it would be pretty tempting for someone working at Dell (or ATI) to come up with a scam after reading how many people are willing to sell their souls to get one on this forum).

Seems to me the more people buy the cards on Ebay, the more emails we'll get saying the cards are magically out of stock.

Well I'm almost done Doom 3 now (I think), so I guess there's no hurry for me...

So Xelbaaz, did you buy from laptop_broker last night? Thats the only person to have ever sold a 9800 on ebay. If this is true, he has been jerking me around for two weeks. Let me know.

You too! I purcased a 9800 from him on the 12th and was told he would ship it in a week because of a funeral. Well it's been two weeks now and I'am still out of almost $500. We have been exchanging bitter emails back and forth after three attempts to collect either the Radeon or money. If you guys have any questions about this guy please feel free to email me. All I can say is STAY FAR AWAY. I have kept all our correspondence and emails archived if anyone wants to review them. I demanded a refund which amazingly is in the process. If you paid via paypal, don't let this game get past 30 days otherwise you'll be SOL on recovering your money. That's so ironic that other people have been waiting the exact same amount of time as I. Hopefully my refund will be posted very soon afterwards I will make a website that shows the emails, the hassles, and the excuses that have taken place. Luckily I only live about 60 miles from him so worse case I would of taken him to small claims. Get your money while you can!

I have not given him any money. Now I am glad. I hope that you get your money back. Sad thing is that he has good feedback on ebay. Did you buy off ebay or did you just paypal him the money?

Well well well...looks like laptop_broker is lurking in these forums....I just recieved an email from him. I'll let you guys come to your own conclusions...

My reply is at the underneath

"Yup…sure did post it. I find it highly ironic that other people have the same “problem”. Unfortunately you are incorrect that it’s libel or slanderous as I stated that I would create a website that lists all of our correspondence that I have. If you want to rip other people off, go ahead but hopefully they will learn from my, and others misfortune. What’s funny is I would going to email you the link when you sent this email. I think two totally different people, in different states that have been lied to by you in regards to the same item only solidifies my case. In the meantime, I will post your email to that topic and let people judge it themselves. Have a nice day!



Blake




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: laptop_broker@XXXXX.com [mailto:laptop_broker@XXXXt.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2004 2:56 PM
To: Blake L. Bowden
Subject: Re: Item #6700955736 - Notification of an Instant Payment Received from bowdensantiques (XXXX@mac.com)



This look familiar?





Post 1



So, did you buy from laptop_broker last night? Thats the only person to have ever sold a 9800 on ebay. If this is true, he has been jerking me around for two weeks. Let me know.



Post 2 (different person)



You too! I purcased a 9800 from him on the 12th and was told he would ship it in a week because of a funeral. Well it's been two weeks now and I'am still out of almost $500. We have been exchanging bitter emails back and forth after three attempts to collect either the Radeon or money. If you guys have any questions about this guy please feel free to email me. All I can say is STAY FAR AWAY. I have kept all our correspondence and emails archived if anyone wants to review them. I demanded a refund which amazingly is in the process. If you paid via paypal, don't let this game get past 30 days otherwise you'll be SOL on recovering your money. That's so ironic that other people have been waiting the exact same amount of time as I. Hopefully my refund will be posted very soon afterwards I will make a website that shows the emails, the hassles, and the excuses that have taken place. Luckily I only live about 60 miles from him so worse case I would of taken him to small claims. Get your money while you can





Go ahead, make a website slamming me, keep posting this kind of stuff. Liable/Slander is very, very easy to prove. Making a website would just further my case. I don't know why you keep forcing the issue, but just keep it up.
"