Gainward Ti4200 cards make screens go pink?

[Silversinksam]

If you own a Gainward Ti4200 initial reports indicate that you may want to consider beefing up your cooling of the card

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

http://forums.overclockers.co.nz/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1456

http://games.globe.net.nz/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?s=3d6af2da701cffff;act=ST;f=49;t=7

[Maxvla]

well i guess that red pcb in starting to have adverse effects rofl.

[*Negative*]

I have that card and sometimes on the nature test in 3dmark2k1se the screen would turn to a funky green checkered pattern, and when i hit reset the screen has pink checkers, i had to leave the computer off for at least 30 seconds before i could reboot properly. i think the cooling on the card looks horrible and is probably the problem, but when i changed the airflow in my case (got 2 intakes 3 exhaust-- one of them a top blowhole) the problem went away (only had one exhaust b4, really crappy).

[Sepul[P]hreak]

I bought two of these suckers for me and my brother, and we both had problems such as those you guys have been describing, so I ripped off the heatsinks and put on socket7 hsf's. Since then they´ve been running smooth.

[cack01]

The new gainward's have better HSF units. I did a RMA with my early model gainward 4200 3.5ns. When I got a new one back, the HSF must have weighed 1.5X to 2X more then the other model. Although maybe its unrelated, it is possible that gainward knew they had a problem, so they bumped up the cooling.

[Cisco Kid]

you would only expect at the cost of these cards that the sink/fan would be better than what people are saying.

what a joke , you save your cash to buy a card, then you buy it for some who have no intention of overclocking and they get this problem due to heat issues, that is garbage plain and simple

cisco kid

[AZN]

how can this be? after all the talk, ive heard nothing but buy in this order.
Gainward, (asus or abit) then whatever else.
Ive heard gainward was top quality now this??? Im glad i went with asus;)

AZN

[beezee]

I just posted a thread up on gainward gf4 cards.... I was just wondering if it was only me or my card wouldn't overclock good. In fact if I tried jacking it up at all the thing would bog out on me. So I've been running it in "safe mode," for a while now, well at least until I get a cooling solution.
Anyway I'm kinda glad that I'm not the only one with the problem.. looks like I'm going to have to pick up some ramsinks and a better hsf for that baby! :)

[rUfUnKy]

My first Gainward 4200 I RMAed cause of this problem though it seemed to me it had at least one faulty ram chip..I say this because the card was stable if I under clocked it.. I also noticed the ram gets Very hot on these cards so I opted for a tweakmonster solution that seems to have made a good improvement.. Before the ramsinks I could run the ram @ 570 with no artifacts (using ArtifactTester2)now I'm @585 were as before 585 would lock almost immediately.

[Ziggey]

I had a chainteck 4200 (black pcb with gold heatsinks) and it always gave me a hard crash after 30 minutes of gaiming (Non oc'd). I never saw any pink colors, just a total lock-up. Since then I have purchased an ATI 9000 Pro and have had no problems.
Less performance, but at least it is stable.

[Cosmo]

The first Gainward I rec'd usually crashed this way in IE.

The thing was scorching hot (back of the GPU & memory especially).

RMA'd it, asking for a different make, rec'd the exact same one back (Gainward, not the same card obviously).

This one had ramsinks & the heavier GPU cooler fitted, & was worse:mad:

Sent that one back & got a refund, now awaiting the Rad 9700 Pro :)

Here's a pic of a lockup in IE.

http://homepage.eircom.net/~scoobydooby/IE%20screen%20locked..jpg

BTW, anyone recommend an on line retailer who'll ship a Radeon 9700 Pro to Europe? Been checking pricewatch, not many ship outside of the US.

Thanx ;)

[djb23]

SO I take it as of this date Gainwards are still having problems?

[Silversinksam]

UPDATE

Gainward will fix Pink Screen of Death cards quickly

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


PS I'm on the phone with Gainward right now....

It boils down to if you have a problem just contact the vendor and do an RMA, they will not give you a hassle. Another option is to send the card back to Taiwan and they will send you a new one.

Option #2 is ridiculous imho.

I am on the phone as I established they have a heat problem, but I am very curious as to the GPU replacment and BGA problem....

I will get an answer to this trust me..

[djb23]

You can't blame a company for messing up. They are human just like us. It's how they fix the problem that matters.

At least they're not Microsoft. "Yeah its broke. We know its broke. We knew it was broke before we sold it to you. Now buy the fix for it." :) j/k

[djb23]

Thanks a lot for resolving this issue, man. It sounds like Gainward is a pretty good company to do business with. I like the fact that on newegg they state the speeds on their memory and other performance related info. Other card manufacturers you really have to guess.

[radadman]

I've ran this card for (fsb under 150) two months without having this problem. Now that I have unlocked my cpu and can run at up to 162 fsb, I'm now getting the green & pink stripes. After further testing I've found this card can't take anything over an pci bus speed of 38MHz. Newegg says they will do an rma repair, I'm not certain what that means. Or should I just get better cooling myself?

[Silversinksam]

Originally posted by djb23
You can't blame a company for messing up. They are human just like us. It's how they fix the problem that matters.

At least they're not Microsoft. "Yeah its broke. We know its broke. We knew it was broke before we sold it to you. Now buy the fix for it." :) j/k


Uhhhm.....They pretty much denied there was a problem for the first five minutes of our conversation... And they told me Tech support wasnt available to talk to on the phone, as I want to know what the GPU defect and the BGA defect is.

Anyway after 5 minutes they Finally they admitted there is a small problem.....A good company admits thier mistakes and fixes them.

[cack01]

Originally posted by Silversinksam

And they told me Tech support wasnt available to talk to on the phone, as I want to know what the GPU defect and the BGA defect is.


"Tech support line how can I help you?? Oh I'm sorry our tech support line can't talk to you right now."

I don't think there is a GPU defect b/c it was probably the cheesy sink they put on the card in the first place. But the BGA chips get very very hot on mine. Even at stock speeds, which makes me very upset.

[Silversinksam]

Originally posted by cack01


"Tech support line how can I help you?? Oh I'm sorry our tech support line can't talk to you right now."

I don't think there is a GPU defect b/c it was probably the cheesy sink they put on the card in the first place. But the BGA chips get very very hot on mine. Even at stock speeds, which makes me very upset.


"Gainward has just opened a repair centre in Muenchen which has a facility to swap out broken graphics processors or broken BGA (ball grid array) memory. " ;)

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

Initially I suspected thier QC was to blame and they perhaps forgot to add thermal paste, and perhaps thier Soldering on the BGA and GPU wasn't done properly.

Im sure this is just a small problem for a small percentage of the cards made...But its annoying if your in this small percentage :rolleyes:

[djb23]

Hmmmmm... may not want to risk it for now then... unless I can be sure an RMA would be possible for cheap.

[Codeman05]

wow I've had 2 gainward cards and never a problem anything like that.....(knock on wood :D)

[Cosmo]

Originally posted by Codeman05
wow I've had 2 gainward cards and never a problem anything like that

You've been lucky man :rolleyes:

As I said, both I got were bad, very, very bad.

I think using hight FSB's may be a problem, as well as any OC of the crap memory that's fitted.

Cores were OK'ish. Hot, but would hit near 300mHz.

But that 3.5ns BGA mem seriously sucks :mad:

[Cosmo]

Just seen your sig man.

"Gainward GF4 4200 Ultra650 128MB (330/583)"

Nice OC, but you're on a 128 meg card. They're OK.

It is the 64 meg ones with the probs.

OT, but I just got a new Epox 8k5a2+. Wow. Getting 1862mHz from an XP1800+ (unlocked - 9.5x196) @ 2.1v (Samsung PC2700).

Cooooooll:beer:

[Codeman05]

lol thats what i was just about to ask. If it was all the 4200's or just the 64MBers.

[Cisco Kid]

Originally posted by Silversinksam
UPDATE

Gainward will fix Pink Screen of Death cards quickly

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


PS I'm on the phone with Gainward right now....

It boils down to if you have a problem just contact the vendor and do an RMA, they will not give you a hassle. Another option is to send the card back to Taiwan and they will send you a new one.

Option #2 is ridiculous imho.

I am on the phone as I established they have a heat problem, but I am very curious as to the GPU replacment and BGA problem....

I will get an answer to this trust me..


we knowq you will get to the bottoom of this , you always do, and it is appreciated...

cisco kid

[maxima88]

Count me in with this problem and I just got this vid card yesterday from NewEgg. It had the 29.42 driver pre-loaded.
Worked fine at the default 250/513 until I decided to o/c it to 270/550. That's when this hell began. Got the pink/green screen that froze my screen and constant reboots almost everytime I ran 3dmark 2001 and got to the High Detail test. Also tried Det 40.41, same problem.
Was however able to run it once at 271/566 and got 11,949 but no such luck anymore.http://service.madonion.com/compare?2k1=4413069

Should I return it and get a different brand or get the 128mb version?

[Cosmo]

Originally posted by maxima88
Should I return it and get a different brand or get the 128mb version?

Defo return it m8.

The mem on the 128mb version is 444, so isn't the best for OC'ing.

I'd personally go for the MSI 64meg Ti4200.

I haven't heard of one that won't easily reach 300/600 yet, & they're cheap.

That or the 9700 ATI, but @ 3 times the price :D

BTW, was that a Golden Sample you had probs with? I thought they "hand picked" the mem chips in those.

[ptwearnhardtfan]

I don't believe I've seen a Golden Sample with 3.5 or 3.3 ns mem. Just the 4.0 mem.

[maxima88]

Must be a new release, unfortunately, it's no better than the 3.5ns or 4.0ns. The 4.0ns memory now is on the 128mb vid card. Checkout the newegg webpage where its advertised: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=48&manufactory=1387&DEPA=1&sortby=14&order=1

[Cosmo]

The 64mb Golden samples have 3.3 or 3.5ns mem (I can't remember which), which is clocked at 513mHz minimum (that's the case in Europe anyway).

The 128mb versions have 4.0ns mem @444mHz.

[rUfUnKy]

Nice...just started getting these pink checkered screens with this card now... :mad:

[*Negative*]

The card I have is a 64MB ti4200. It has 3.5ns memory with a 513Mhz clock, and its having PSOD problems again. But mine is not a "Golden Sample" its just a regular card. Are only the regular 64mb cards having problems, or are the golden sample cards crashing too?

[radadman]

Fried my gainward Ti4200 today! Had the fsb @ 168 for over a week on a kr7a. It ran everything fine @ pci 42, except for games. Today was very hot, I smelled something then powered off. When I boot now, I get black & white stripes instead of it posting! Can't seem to find any visual problems on the card though. It really sucks now running a 8m pci video card! I should have RMAed last week after talking to newegg, hope they will still take it now!

[Ghuraba]

Originally posted by *Negative*
The card I have is a 64MB ti4200. It has 3.5ns memory with a 513Mhz clock, and its having PSOD problems again. But mine is not a "Golden Sample" its just a regular card. Are only the regular 64mb cards having problems, or are the golden sample cards crashing too?

My GainLESS Golden Sample has give me the pink\green LSD effect 5 times since Last Thursday. Rang up the store and they are gonna refund the cash. See signature for new card.

[Ghuraba]

Originally posted by *Negative*
The card I have is a 64MB ti4200. It has 3.5ns memory with a 513Mhz clock, and its having PSOD problems again. But mine is not a "Golden Sample" its just a regular card. Are only the regular 64mb cards having problems, or are the golden sample cards crashing too?

My GainLESS Golden Sample has give me the pink\green LSD effect 5 times since Last Thursday. Rang up the store and they are gonna refund the cash. See signature for new card.

[djb23]

How do you like the Leadtek. When I get my Ti4200 I am thinking MSI, Abit, or Leadtek. I have a Leadtek GF2 MX200 and its had no problems.

How can you find out what memory those cards have (the 64MB ones)? Gainward was at least forthright what what speed the memory operated at before dying. Its pretty hard to find out with those others. (so far)

[Clarpet]

Just to clear something up for you guys: if you read the Nvidia reference card info, or one of the reviews at Anandtech.com, all of the Ti4200 64MB cards are spec'd to come w/3.5ns Micron DDR and all of the 128MB cards are spec'd to come with 4.0ns Samsung DDR. This is a standard set by the chip maker (nVidia). Neither Gainward nor any other card manufacturer can legally change this on their card if they want to sell the card as a Ti4200....their required to follow the reference card for the chipset, for the most part, the only thing that can really fluctuate are things such as DVI, TV-out, etc, in other words, added features. So, most likely, regardless if you get a Gainward card or otherwise, if heat is an issue w/the memory or GPU or both on the Gainward, its gonna be an issue on ANY card, the only difference is who sells the card with sufficient cooling and who doesn't.

-Clarpet

[djb23]

Clarpet your post is Very insightful. But note this: Gainward's Golden Sample card that is having problems with the heat loads is 3.3ns. That would explain a LOT.

As far as the legality is concerned, Gainward may have an agreement. You never know...

I will definately not be afraid to get the MSI or Leadtek cards now that I know that legelly they need to have 3.5ns RAM. Maybe that's why no one other than Gainward lists their RAM speed.

Thanks a lot for the info.

[rUfUnKy]

Originally posted by djb23

I will definately not be afraid to get the MSI or Leadtek cards now that I know that legelly they need to have 3.5ns RAM. Maybe that's why no one other than Gainward lists their RAM speed.

Thanks a lot for the info. These two seem to think the MSI G4Ti4200 is 3.6 http://secure.newegg.com/app/CustratingReview.asp?item=14-127-048 :eh?:

[Clarpet]

Who knows..maybe their benchmark utility reported that...?if they even have one that does that?....I don't know. All I know is that if I was a card manufacturer (unless of course I did have some special agreement - good point dude) I would need to follow the footsteps nVidiots told me to, same case with any hardware manufacturer. For example, VIA, they make a new Mobo chip set, it has to be set to spec, but that doesn't stop the Mobo manufacturer, such as say, Asus, from creating a bios that would set the chipset on fire, and cause an atomic explosion inside your CPU. As for this bull$hit review at newegg......I think most of that can easily be read out to be another "newegg post"....probably posted by one of their employees to boost sales to Joe Sixpack, as Ed would say.

[*Negative*]

Has anyone with this problem solved it by changing the cooling on thier card? I improved the airflow in my case and it went away for a week, now its having problems again. I don't mind buying better cooling for it when i get my paycheck Friday, but if cooling isn't the real problem I dont want to waste the money. I do think heat is a prob though, I put my finger on the back side of the PCB where the GPU is when the pc was off. Turned it on and by the time It got to windows i couldnt keep my hand there! Just wondering if anyone actually solved it by changing the cooling.

[Clarpet]

Originally posted by *Negative*
Has anyone with this problem solved it by changing the cooling on thier card? I improved the airflow in my case and it went away for a week, now its having problems again. I don't mind buying better cooling for it when i get my paycheck Friday, but if cooling isn't the real problem I dont want to waste the money. I do think heat is a prob though, I put my finger on the back side of the PCB where the GPU is when the pc was off. Turned it on and by the time It got to windows i couldnt keep my hand there! Just wondering if anyone actually solved it by changing the cooling.


Just like a heat stroke on your brain, heat on a a CPU, GPU, memory chip, what ever, will ALWAYS eventually make it unstable. Same concept as when your card gets too hot, it just doesn't work quite as well, and sometimes not at all. If you can keep your finger on it, its too hot. I'd suggest focusing your cooling directly on the memory chips and the GPU itself, the case will help, but direct cooling will help more.

[James-Italy]

I'm on my ***Third*** Gainward GF4 Ultra 750 XP GS (Ti4600)

Granted it's a GS Ti4600, but the problem is very similiar.

First Card bought April- dead in 3 weeks:
Worked three weeks before screen went crazy (both in Win and then even on the bootup screen). Ok, I was OC'ing my system to the max at the time. The local PC store replaced it on the spot.

Second Card end of April-Died in August:
This card I NEVER OC'ed. Not once... I also have the Prometeia sub-zero CPU cooler, and installed 2x80cm fans that blow directly above and below my GF4. Worked great until one day when I started to get corruption. Within 2 hours the card was unusable.
The PC local store has the replacement today for me to pickup.

Third Card September 12th-??:

There was a noticable construction difference between the first and second card. The second was much heavier as someone has already said. Hopefully the third one will be ok. I would buy GAINWARD again because the customer service for the RMA has been so easy, but thank goodness I bought this at a local PC store and not through the internet. I live in Italy and often buy throughout Europe.

[Clarpet]

Just to reiterate my notes above: It doesn't matter if you overclock these or not guys. If the chips (GPU or memory, etc) are too hot to touch....they're just to d@mn hot...this kind of heat is going to kill your card eventually no matter what. Does anyone have an experience where they can actually get the card significantly below boiling level?

Also - JAMES-ITALY- FYI...if your fans on top of and below the card are BOTH blowing ON the card, they are working against each other...you may want to try flipping either the top or bottom ones around to use as an exhaust...something needs to move that hot air away from the card, and exhaust is the fastest way to dissipate the heat.

Has anyone tried the ThermalRight GeForce4 cooler? Results?

[djb23]

Electrical engineer alert :)

Are you a working EE Clarpet?

[Clarpet]

Originally posted by djb23
Electrical engineer alert :)

Are you a working EE Clarpet?


What?

[xCaliber]

Hey,

I have the exact same problem. I get the pink checkered screen! I have, however, the Gainward GeForce 4 Ti4200 128 MB DDR Ultra/650 xp. I've been getting this problem ever since I upgraded to an alton xp1800+ with an epox 8k3a2+. My previous pc was a celeron 500 with an abit mobo. The Ti4200 works for my friends intel pentium 4 1.3ghz. Could the problem be heat? How do I know if my videocard is overheating? Is there something wrong with my motherboard? Any ideas?

Thanks.

[Ghuraba]

Originally posted by xCaliber
Hey,

I have the exact same problem. I get the pink checkered screen! I have, however, the Gainward GeForce 4 Ti4200 128 MB DDR Ultra/650 xp. I've been getting this problem ever since I upgraded to an alton xp1800+ with an epox 8k3a2+. My previous pc was a celeron 500 with an abit mobo. The Ti4200 works for my friends intel pentium 4 1.3ghz. Could the problem be heat? How do I know if my videocard is overheating? Is there something wrong with my motherboard? Any ideas?

Thanks.

My advice. Get a different card if is is definately your Gainless.

I got rid of my 2nd Gainless card and got a Leadtek and have had no pink screens since.

The Gainless 128 card is meant to be ok as far as I know and not suffer from the pink screen problem of the 64 meg version from what I have read on these boards.

[radadman]

Originally posted by radadman
Fried my gainward Ti4200 today! Had the fsb @ 168 for over a week on a kr7a. It ran everything fine @ pci 42, except for games. Today was very hot, I smelled something then powered off. When I boot now, I get black & white stripes instead of it posting! Can't seem to find any visual problems on the card though. It really sucks now running a 8m pci video card! I should have RMAed last week after talking to newegg, hope they will still take it now!

Newegg rules! new card was shipped today, also have some ramsinks & copper gpu coming too, as the 650/ultra had no ramsinks & a cheap cooler. Hope this one can take the abuse it will recieve!

[*Negative*]

I emailed gainward about this problem and this is the response I got:

Dear user
Your card might was defective.
Please you contact your dealer to return it back to us.
We will inspect it for you soon.
Regards.


Too bad I bought it at CompUSA and it didnt show any problems untill after thier return deadlines. I'll try anyway tommorow.
Anyway, I have a crystal orb i was thinking of putting on it, it feels 10x heavier than the POS on the card now. Not sure how to mount it on the card, the holes are different and I don't have any thermal tape or anything.

[radadman]

Got the RMAed new 650 ultra card today. I highly recommend anyone having the old card to return it. The new one has 3.3ns memory instead of the old 3.6ns, and also has some ramsinks. The new one did 300/600 no problem with a thermatake ge4 gpu cu cooler!

[xCaliber]

Hey,

Instead of getting a pink screen of death, I'm getting a yellow and white checkered screen. It still locks up my system. How do I know if my videocard is overheating? I have the 128mb ti4200 instead of the 64mb. I never had any problems with this video card with my pervious intel celeron.

Thanks.

[NO LIFE]

I plan on getting a---GAINWARD/CARDEXPERT GeForce 4 Ti 4200, 4ns, 128MB DDR, Power Pack Golden Sample---from NewEgg..is this one also affected by problems....and is this one good for overclocking, or is another Gainward better.

<<IF ANYONE HAS A STABLE WHEN O/Ced G4 TI4200 WITH GOOD STOCK COOLING PLZ TELL WHAT KIND IT IS...I HEARD THE ABIT WITH OTES EXHAUST ANYGOOD....CUZ IT LOOK DAMN SWEEEET>>

[rUfUnKy]

Originally posted by NO LIFE
I plan on getting a---GAINWARD/CARDEXPERT GeForce 4 Ti 4200, 4ns, 128MB DDR, Power Pack Golden Sample---from NewEgg..is this one also affected by problems....and is this one good for overclocking, or is another Gainward better.

<<IF ANYONE HAS A STABLE WHEN O/Ced G4 TI4200 WITH GOOD STOCK COOLING PLZ TELL WHAT KIND IT IS...I HEARD THE ABIT WITH OTES EXHAUST ANYGOOD....CUZ IT LOOK DAMN SWEEEET>> I just replaced my gainward TI4200 64mb 3.5ns card with the 128mb golden sample and so far i am quite pleased with it. Scroll down (http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=122392)

[MDA]

I've just picked up a Gainwood 650xp 128 Ti4200 Golden Sample which uses the Samsung 4.0ns memory chips, and boy, does this thing fly. Maxed it out @ 310/600 and it still produced the goods in 3dmark2001se::D



http://service.madonion.com/compare?2k1=4544009

[NO LIFE]

MDA what does ur comp score on 3D Mark???

[NO LIFE]

Also MDA when u overclock whats better the turn up most???

CORE or MEMORY?

[MDA]

Not getting as high as id like:(! Woundering if its my out of date athlon holding me back:( , cos my fsb is up at 166 and the cards memory is maxed out @600, Any ideas anyone?

I think clocking the ram higher produces more performance rather than clocking the chip.

[macsout]

I've got a Gainward gf4 4200 and it screwed up for the first time today....and this is after I already beefed up the cooling........I had it cranked up to 290/560 and was racing for a couple of hourstill the screen went crazy.....It would'nt clear up even after a reboot....I had to shut it down for a couple minutes....I think this card is going to be on EBay tonite......that ALBATRON is looking good......

[Codeman05]

no life, your talking about OC with the 128 right? I got 330/620 with stock cooling (pretty low case temps though), I lowered it down a bit though just to keep it on the safe side

[NO LIFE]

Aight thnx man.

Imma an Uber n00b at o/cing

After all this bad talk about the Gainward card i took a look at the Albatron TURBO G4 Ti4200. It seemed to be cooled a lot better than gainward and I have heard of ppl safely overclocking it better than Gainward. I was wondering does the albatron come witha program for easy overclocking like the gainward...if not then how would i go about overlcocking it????

Is the MSI G4 Ti4200 128mb better than Gainward and Albatron??

Thanx for feedback!!!!

[rUfUnKy]

I would go with the Albatron with 128mb of 3.3 BGA memory your sure to overclock higher then most any other TI4200. To oc your card just download Nvmax ,rivertuner or powerstrip...

[NO LIFE]

rufunky which program do you recommebnd and where can i find it.

Thanks a bunch!!!!:D

[Despotes]

Well, I guess I'm next to suffer from the Gainward PSOD. Actually it's a green screen of death. The checkered pattern is mostly green with my cursor showing as a psychodelic block.
I've had a few pink screen episodes when I first got the card, but they seemed to go away. The problem cannot be cooling related, at least for me. The GSOD got worse today with the room temp at it's lowest since I got the card (20.8C) and just a few minutes into SOF2.
How long did it take for you guys to receive the replacement vc from Gainward??

[rUfUnKy]

Despotes, I'm not sure were you got your card from but you might be better off trying to return it through them first. I purchased mine from newegg and they cross shipped a replacement no questions asked.. Good luck

[Despotes]

I just sent an e-mail to Monarch computers. I hope they know if their current stock of Gainward Ti4200 64mb cards are the corrected updated version.
*can't find my invoice*:rolleyes:

[rUfUnKy]

Originally posted by NO LIFE
rufunky which program do you recommebnd and where can i find it.

Thanks a bunch!!!!:D RivaTuner is good ..you can get it here http://www.guru3d.com/rivatuner/

[maxima88]

Even the newer Gainward GF4 TI4200 64mb 3.3ns cards are sometimes defective. I got mine a few weeks ago and it was bad.

Returned it and now my MSI is AWESOME . I can o/c it to 330/640 and has gotten as high as 12,998 in 3DMark2001se.

[rUfUnKy]

Originally posted by maxima88
Even the newer Gainward GF4 TI4200 64mb 3.3ns cards are sometimes defective. I got mine a few weeks ago and it was bad.

Returned it and now my MSI is AWESOME . I can o/c it to 330/640 and has gotten as high as 12,998 in 3DMark2001se. what memory do they use on the 3.3ns model samsung?

[Despotes]

Originally posted by rUfUnKy
Despotes, I'm not sure were you got your card from but you might be better off trying to return it through them first. I purchased mine from newegg and they cross shipped a replacement no questions asked.. Good luck

Monarch Computers simply gave me a toll number to call Gainward:rolleyes:

I received an RMA # yesterday from Gainward. It needs to be shipped to California. Maybe they'll give me a 4400 or better to keep me a happy Gainward customer:beer:

[radadman]

Originally posted by rUfUnKy
what memory do they use on the 3.3ns model samsung?
My gainward ti4200 has etrontech 3.3

[snyper1982]

ok guys, i am fed up with gainward, i have already RMA'ed one of these cards to newegg, now the new one with the better heatsink is messing up too! do you think newegg would let me replace it with an MSI or a Leadtek? or possibly one of those albatron turbos :) and if they will which one do you guys recomend?

[GEK]

Went through three Gainward cards, then got a MSI. No problem since. Newegg took them all back. You just have to pay shipping on your card to get it back to Newegg.

[snyper1982]

yeah that sucks, so what do you guys recomend? MSI, Leadtek, Or should i pay the extra and get the albatron turbo? what do you guys think?

[maxima88]

Save a few bucks and get the MSI. Mine's an awesome overclocker.

[Emericana]

wow i am happy that i spent $15 more and got a 128mb version of the Ti4200!

i got the gainward 128mb and it is a pretty decent core. the only bad thing is the ram is only 4ns and it is not BGA. i have not had a chance to install ramsinks on it, i need to cut them up first, but the highest i have tried was 520mhz ram and it works fine. (even though the theoretical max of 4ns is 500mhz).

the core on this chip is awesome! i am using stock cooling w/ Artic Silver II and i am at 315mhz core it is a A2 stepping.

[Codeman05]

Emericana, was that the gold sample?? You should be able to hit a bit higher, I'm at 330/600 with stock cooling, about to see what it'll hit with ram sinks and a better gpu fan

[Emericana]

ya its a golden sample 128mb

the box says this tell me if it is the same one as what you have:GF 4 Power Pack Golden Sample Ultra/650TV 128mb DDR Tv-Out

you are running 600mhz DDR with NO ram sinks? is that safe?

right now i have it doing 315/520mhz

Aritc Silver II on core
32CFM 80mm Fan Intake Above Card

[Codeman05]

I've never know a card to die out of the blue unless you just crank it insanely high right out of the box first off. Ususally if you start running to fast it'll kill 3dmark or not be stable, I worked up in 1-2 MHz increments and never had a problem, but I did stop at 600 and been running that for around a month or so and I've read a few articles that did the same. Just got in ram sinks and a cooljag cooler in yesterday. Prob put em in tomorrow and see how much more I can get out of it.

[Emericana]

well for the core i just cranked it up to 300mhz and worked my way up from there. i have been hesitant to put my ram high up because there are no ramsinks on them. i have a bunch of chopped up Slot A heatsinks i was gonna cut and put on the card but i havnt gotten around to doing it yet.

[mattTheMan]

Can I get some info on what exactly I need to do please? I have the pink screen of death on my card. I bought it from CompUSA, but I didn't realize that it was defective until after the refund period was over. Who should I call, or where should I mail my card. BTW, I live in America. Thanks for any help.

[HardwareJedi]

I was surprised to find this thread... have been having no problems with a 64mb Ultra/650TV "Golden Sample" I bought about 2 weeks ago. Been pushing it pretty hard. It will run at 324/617 all day long. It has 3.3ns mem. I just lapped the HS and used AS III yesterday, so will see if the core can go higher. The HS/fan is not the best I've ever seen on a card, but seems serviceable.




XP2000+@1837mhz
Shuttle AK35GTR
Corsair 512mb XMS3000
Gainward Ti4200 "GS" 64mb@324/617
2 WD800JB se Raid 0 160G array
SB Live

3DM2K1=12,303

[Sepul[P]hreak]

Here´s a little update on how I´ve been doing with my 2xGainward 4200 cards w/TV (3.5ns version) since last time I posted. One card works still like a champ chewing on anything I throw @ it, never freezing, but the other one started having these PSOD's somewhere in between. It´s been running stable now for two weeks though, something which I think I can attribute to lapping the core (damn that was scary :) ) and putting on ramsinks. Since then it hasn´t frozen, but I can´t overclock worth anything and it heats up like a m0f0 (case is opened, room temp ranging from 20-22°C, plus 80mm fan blowing on the card) :(

P.s. I´d want to try it on a different mobo+psu when i can though (both cards are running on an identical setup -> iwill kk266+ mobo, 1600XP, three 128mb sticks sdram, 300w psu)

P.p.s. Just out of curiosity, what any ideas what kinda memory they had on their first batch of t4400 models?

[Despotes]

I just got back my RMA'd ti4200 today. It seems the only thing Gainward did was replace the hsf. I don't think the problem was heat related because the Green SOD worsened when the room temp was at it's lowest and the card clocked down.
Maybe, I hope, they changed something else on my card. I couldn't detect any reworking with any of the components...
A work order would have been helpful.

[tbirdkiri]

Albatron Albatron ALbatron ALBATRON!!!!!!!!
as you can see in my sig that this thing is a crazy overclocker (even rivals many 4600's) and the gpu clock is my first setting, i still have more overhead to work with im just afraid to go higher then this. i paid 190 for this card on newegg, and i would recomend it over any other card out. Albatron gets two thumbs up. :D

[Emericana]

ya but albatron is also $40 more expensive than gainward. you can buy a game with your graphics card for that much more! (or even a AMD cpu lol)

[cack01]

Originally posted by Despotes
I don't think the problem was heat related because the Green SOD worsened when the room temp was at it's lowest and the card clocked down.


I just started getting PSOD's last week, and I too share this theory. I only get PSOD's when the card is at idle. I have yet to have one freeze underload, or while overclocked.

[wildfrogman]

I wonder if this is anything like the asus slot1 board i knew of, the ram voltage was a bit to high, normal sdram, and would not work at 133mhz but if you overclocked it to 140ish it would be just fine. Maybe the gainward is running a bit more voltage through there cards than normal? It would be interesting, possibly they are pushing the Ti-4200 pcb to hard and getting interference or such?

[Despotes]

The card Gainward sent me is a different one. Also, this new card consistently scores 90-ish points lower in 3DMark2K1SE. Everything is set identically to the older Ti-4200. I'm curious what changes they made with the fixed cards.

[radadman]

There back! Out of nowhere the PSOD's are back with a vengeance. Just like the first ti42 that was good for 4-5 weeks, the second is PSODing now too. It definitely is not heat related, nor is it driver related either. Man I’m ****ed after calling gainward and being treated as a computer illiterate! Listen ahole it is not my PC the dam card crashes 3 different PC’s just like the last one did! Finally I got a rma# number from them and was told to e-mail my address/rma# to support for processing, have not hear a thing since last week. What a crappy way to do business and handle customers. Needless to say that will be my last gainward card ever!

[mattTheMan]

I thought that the PSOD was heat related. My card seems to only freeze when playing intense 3d games, and the freezing seems to lower a whole lot when I turn the graphics down very low. Also when it freezes the card is always very hot. Someone told me that heat was the problem, and after what I had observed, I went out and bought a $20 Heat/Ramsink and fan from Thermaltake. I installed it, and what do you know? I'm still getting the PSOD.
So, I thought, time for plan B. I bought my piece of crap card from compusa. It was good for about 3 weeks, so I had no reason to return it. Then when it did finally start crashing on me, I went to take back my DEFFECTIVE piece of equiptment, but it had been over 14 days, so they wouldn't refund my money or replace the card. So today I decided to go out and buy the exact same card from compusa. The plan was to take the serial number sticker off the new card, stick it on my old card, stick my old card in the new box, and return it to compusa letting them know that it was deffective. I get a working card, and compusa gets to take care of its customers. Unfortunately for me, I opened up the new box, and the new card I bought was different. It has a newer (heavier, larger) Heatsink and fan, and some of the resistors (I'm pretty sure they were resistors. Those big cylinders sticking out of the card) were different colors, with different labeling on the top of them. So, now I'm down $20 for the new fan that does nothing, and another $28 for my compusa restocking fee. I'm pretty mad.

[macsout]

I JUST GOT AN RMA # FROM GAINWARD LAST NITE...I HAD TO CALL THEM ON MY DIME....THE PHONE # IS 510-252-1118....ASK FOR RMA DEPT....I WONDER HOW LONG THIS IS GOING TO TAKE ONCE I SEND MY CARD BACK.......MAC

[radadman]

Originally posted by mattTheMan
So, now I'm down $20 for the new fan that does nothing, and another $28 for my compusa restocking fee. I'm pretty mad.

I know how ya feel dude! I spent $40 for ramsinks & ge4 copper cooler, it overclocked great for about a month. I guess the light that burns twice as bright dies twice as fast but this is rediculis!

Sorry to say but it gets even worse when you have to deal with the gainward geeks, in two weeks now Iv'e called 3 times and e-mailed 5 times and all I got is a rma # with still no idea where to send the old card. I feel sorry for newegg whom keeps sending me a new cards, and I think gainward should deal with there own problems. But since gainward as not reponded to me in a responsable way I sent the card back to newegg again (3rd time) & another should be here any day. God bless newgg & the *ell with gainward!

[Despotes]

In America you need to send to:

Gainward CardExpert USA
47881 Fremont Blvd.
Fremont, CA 94538

[Len]

How long is Gainward's warranty on the RETAIL Ti4200 64MB with 3.5ns Etron memory?

I bought a retail box version from Newegg back in May 2002 and I've always had the checkboard crash problem but thought it was a system configuration issue. Now I realize it's a defect and I want to RMA this thing ASAP.

[Lunch_Box]

Retail warranty is 1 year from your date of purchase.

The problem is not heat related thus bigger heatsinks will not get rid of your problems.

The problem is in the manufacturing of the card and Gainward is replacing many of these cards with the 3.3ns version. The GPUs were not attached properly to the PCB. I had one with the problem, RMAed it to my vendor, got another card, and it too was bad. Sent it back to vendor and got a PixelView Ti4200.

Also had a discussion with Wolfram Tismer from Gainward Germany on another forum and he said you can contact Gainward directly and they will replace the card. Gainward has had manufacturing probs with many of the GF4 series as I have discovered by reading many forums on this problem.

If you get really poor frame rates in gaming, this card is to blame. Get rid of it and at least get a new version of it. This particular model was a very crappy card.

Direct from the horses mouth:

Contact information:
Contact Person : Jason Wu
Tel : 1-510-252-1118
Mobil : 1-925-998-6970
mail : jwu@gainwardusa.com
address: 47881 Fremond Blvd.
Fremond, CA. 94538
USA

[toymaker]

I had this same problem too with my original card. RMA'd it and I now have a card with the better GPU heatsink/fan. So far I've had no problems with it. But, as I remember, the problem didn't show up on the original board until after i'd owned it for about a month. If there's a next time, i'll be requesting a refund.

[mattTheMan]

I just called Gainward, and had no problem getting an RMA number. I just did what macsout said and asked for the RMA dept. I told them the model of my card, and they gave me an RMA #. The guy said to include my name, address, phone number, and a short description of the problem. I have a couple questions though, (the guy i talked to had an accent and I couldn't understand him very well :P). What do I do with the RMA#? Do I just write it on a piece of paper with the rest of my info, and put it in the box with my card and stuff that I'm mailing in? Do I have to pay for shipping? And last, do I send the original box with all the original cd's etc, or do I just send the card?
Thanks for the help,
Matt

[repo man11]

I had this problem with my Gainward Ti 4200. It would give me the occasional pink screen, but it would also refuse to boot up sometimes. I'd have to reset a couple of times, and then my CPU would be back to default. I blamed my PSU and replaced it. NO change, so I reformatted, and reinstalled Windows. No change, so I reinstalled my GF2 Ti. All better. I tried putting my 4200 back in, and it wouldn't even complete 3D Mark without rebooting the computer.
Waiting for my replacement from Newegg now. I hope I get a good one this time.

[radadman]

MAN I"M I PIS*ED OFF! I got my 3rd gainward ti4200 today. This one is crap already, no waiting 4-5 weeks for PSOD's this time, as the card just plain crashes & resets the PC when doing any 3d. 3Dmark can't even provide a score before crashing.

Yea gainward is good at having people who don't speak well dealing with the public, and at misleading people into thinking there PC is at fault.

WARNING WILL ROBINSON: don't buy this card as it has a major design flaw! I have invested over $240 already between the card, a cu ge4 cooler, ramsinks & three shipping charges, and still don't have a running 3d game card! oops I forgot the 400w psu I bought (on gainward advice, thanks guys!) trying to fix the problem, thats another $80 . If I have spent half the time (I used trying to make this card work) working my job I could have purchased several other running ti4200 cards. Matter of fact between all my money & time spent I could have bought a whole system! What a LOSER I AM!!!

Only one question left now: thats is excatly how to dispose of the card?

1 BB gun target
2 ti4200 meets m100
3 saw into 10 or so pieces and mail to gainward
4 ti4200 meets 120vac
5 sell to some unsuspecting dummy (just kidding I haven't the heart)
6 be an even worse loser than I already am and go for a 4th card
7 Yes I want to CRUNCH something! I'll get the gainward's techie on the phone, hop a quick flight to CA and CRUNCH the card in front of his face hehehe

[repo man11]

I really hope I have better luck. I can't buy another card, I'm about to be out of work, not sure how long it'll take to get another job. Ah well, my GF2 Ti is still a nice card. I've got my 3d Mark score up to 5,600 with this setup. Of course it was over 12,000 when I had my 4200 working well.

[a1cnolan]

yeah so when i first got this pos it gave me some issues with a green screen and lots of errors..."process has locked pages"..if you are ocing and you get that error you can trace it back to the video card through the microsoft knowledge base.. it had an article concerning that error and a registry edit you could use to find out what driver was causing it... guess which? nv4disp....yup one of the nvidia drivers. doesn't seem to matter what version.
anyway.. i thought it was my power supply so i upgraded to an enermax. didn't fix it and then i unloaded all my drivers and reinstalled the card. worked fine for about 3 months.the other day i rewired everything and these stupid green screens and errors are back... i updated to xp service pack 1..i realized i installed that right before the problem went away last time..
i don't know if it helped. its such a random problem. like ill play GHOST RECON all day and be fine but ill open internet explorer and it goes all retarded. restart and my 8k5a2+ won't even show the video bios version. just sits there fans spinning and hardrive running...anyway.. requested rma from newegg. does anyone know if they have a limit on time you can wait. or is it the general year manufacturers warranty?

also...i put a hole in the side of my case which the temps are awesome in... haven't touched the card to see if it is hot hold on...nope not hot.. took the panel off side and the heatsinks started to warm slightly..anyway yeah i don't think its a heat issue...just crappy cards. hope newegg replaces this POS..all this time i thought i just had bad ram on my mobo cause i haven't been able to beat 175fsb... others hit 185 easy same rig.. anyway thanks for the ventilation

[a1cnolan]

just a silly question...ive read ll sorts of diferent things that solved the problem for people. better cooling to going down to2x agp.. wel im pretty sure its a memory issue.not really so much heat as just crappy memory which would allow for the fact that some people just can't solve the problem.. plus gainward doesn't use samsung like almost everyone else right?
so the possibilities of random bios settings helping. such as agp aperture size.. if you supply the gpu with more ram thats known good would it then rely less on the gpus memory?lower agp aperature.... come to think of it i just recently went up to 128 thinking it may help.. and now the screens are back? also some people ahve had success with disabling fast writes. im just looking for possible other solutions because i got an rma# from newegg but am unsure as to whether or not they are going to replace it.. i don't have the card in my computer but someone who is... would you mind just changing your aperature size and seeing if that helps any? i took my card out because i can barely play ghost recon but for 5 minutes,. also possible video bios shadowing?whastever that does

[Len]

Has anyone actually received a new/different card directly from Gainward (after RMA to Fremont, CA)? I'm wondering if the memory is the same junk Etrontech 3.5ns. Can anyone tell me what type of memory is on the new updated version of the card?

[Despotes]

My replaced card has the same Etron 3.5ns memory. BUT, this new card clocks a bit higher (memory) than the pooped out one did.

[repo man11]

Ac1nolan, I disabled fastwrites, went to AGP 2X, and I got a little farther in 3D Mark before it rebooted. I did OC my card some, but it never locked up or displayed artifacts. If I thought my overclocking had killed it, I'd have just taken my lumps, as I have with several CPU's that have paid the price for my carelessness. But I know how to OC a card without killing it, my GF2 is still going strong after 11 months.
I'm beginning to wonder about Gainward. For a company that is supposed to have a good reputation, the GF2 I bought for a friend arrived dead, I had to RMA it. And now this. I just want this next one to work.

[a1cnolan]

i dunno.. what really gets me aboutt his is it is supposed to be a "golden sample" but now it seems like the didn't even test the product... i don't care golden sample or not the product is supposed to undergo days and days of testing before they release it to the market. i mean don't they have quality control?
i got newegg to rma the card but now i have to find the money to send it back ...this sucks. oh and repo man.. i can't even run the so called enhanced mode on this card even when it doesn't go pink it starts displaying artifacts and locks up

[radadman]

If you read my last post to this thread, no I did not destroy my 3rd ti4200. Instead I experimented. No way was I going to rma poor old newegg for a 4th time! so the skys the limit. 1st I lapped the gpu down to copper, and I noticed it was no where near even flat, as the edges (painted) made almost all the contact with the hsf. To complete step 1 I also lapped the cu gef4 hsf, and attached to gpu using artic silver 3. I reinstalled the card and ran 3dmark it got to the 3rd test and crashed. Same old crap no luck there!

Ok so lets try every bios setting again! even with the lowest possible setting (c210/m490, 2x, fast write diabled, etc.)it still crashed! lets try every driver again, no luck there either.

Well that only leaves one thing the memory. My third card has 3.5ns with no ramsinks (had 1@3.3ns w/ramsinks & other@3.6ns & no ramsinks). With the past 2 cards I had tried my own ramsinks with thermal tape & the ones gainward supplied with super thick thermal foam tape, and my only results were crash...crash...crash. I noticed the ramsinks never got to warm.

My last ditch effort seems to have paid off. I broke out the artic silver epoxy and carefully attached my home made ramsinks. That was last weekend and so far not one crash or lock-up! After 20+ hours of commache4 & countless 3dmarks/sandra runs! The ramsinks are running warm to hot now, that seems to be telling me the ram heat was the problem, at least with my current card. And to think I was going to create an avi file of ti4200 meets m100! Could the artic silver epoxy be that much more efficent than thermal tape? Its hard to believe my lastest ti4200 has ran for 5 days without crashing, and I am waiting to wake up. I don't know if it is just my card or if this is the real fix everybody is looking for, but it is worth a try folks. IT WORKED FOR ME!

[repo man11]

I just got my RMA replacement, and I don't know if I'll ever overclock this one. It is working so far, repeated runs of 3D, games. A little over 11,000 at default with 40.72 drivers.
I'm afraid to overclock it because I can't afford to replace it now, and my other gave me no warning signs like artifacts or locking up, it just up and died.

[Conan]

well after a research on the net it seems that there are not so few ppl that have the pink psychedelic screen problem.. and actually the problems occur with the 64mb version... i am also an unlucky owner of this card, which i bought after reading all these wonderfull reviews about it and another thing... it doesn't have anything to do with heat, i live in sweden and ambient temperature in the morning is quite low, then i open my pc and while internet browsing (that is after ca 3-4 min of pc operation) i got the pink, it doeasn't happen all the time it is completely random...i have also noticed that it happens with specific web pages(!) i know this sounds crazy/stupid but it's true guys, i did this to find out: i was browsing and came up to a page and after 2-3 secs i got the pink.. then shut down pc , opend again, i started browsing for an hour maybe then i got to the same page where i crashed b4 and got the pink again.. i reboot opened immediately the same page and got the pink.. what can u say about this???
and btw. this happenes only when using IE and not Netscape....

i am wondering how i can return my card since i don't have a spare one to work with, and it is very likely that in the place where i bought it they will not have problems while testing the card

[Despotes]

My replaced Gainward started the Green Screen of Death while viewing web pages too then progressed to games.

[a1cnolan]

conan.. bottom line is you have webpage after webpage of this happenening to your verycard. they cannot therefore say that you are making it up. and they also cannot say that they had no problem because all of these forums basically say hey throw whatever you want at it but it happens when it wants to not when it is convenient for the manufacturer. if the seller goes retarded and doesn't give you a new one go to gainward. i think quite a few people have gone there and had found succuess where the store wouldn't. i also started with webpages... i could play ghost recon all day and then the screen would crap when i start surfing the web.. i could see how it could be the ram but then it wouldn't necessarily explain everyt5hing. like why internet explorer.i think it is just some crazy hardware error. two things soldered backwards or something. all i know is some engineers are getting fired over at gainward over this one...

[repo man11]

Well, I got the Green Screen of Death last night playing Jane's WW-II Fighters. I haven't OC'd the card at all, but I do have my XP1600 OC'd. I think in this case it was voltage related, the +5 was dropping down to 4.84 under load at 1.840, so I dropped it back to 1.763, and I haven't been able to repeat the error.
If this one goes bad, I'm going to try and pay the difference to get another brand, no more Gainward for me.

[Cosmo]

In my experience, the first symptom is in IE.

See my post on the first or second page of this thread.

It's defo a memory problem - dodgey ram chips. I've had 2 Gainward cards - both 64mbs GF4 Ti4200s. Ther second had ram sinks & a heavier GPU cooler fitted - with even worse problems. Overclocking doesn't seem to matter, but certainly exacerbates the problems.

If you've had/have a card "locking up" especially in IE (specially on certain repeatable web pages), RMA it & get a different Gainward card eg a 128mb, or a different brand.

I'll certainly never buy a Gainward again :mad:

Sad thing is the 9700 Pro ALSO has serious issues with out of spec AGP/PCI bus speeds/AGP 8x m/boards.

I've a 100% stable Epox m/b (8K5A2+) at 200 fsb (40mHz PCI) & looks like I'll need an nForce m/b with PCI/AGP fix option to run a 9700 :argue:

[a1cnolan]

most of the people experiencing problems with the gainward card in this forum are people with epox boards.. now ive got a question are all of the people having problems..people that overclock their fsb or is it everyone all together. maybe the card has problems handling anything over like 33mhz...i had a feeling it was a memory issue because it is such a random occurence between cards...hmm i dunno
also what about the agp latency or whatever on the card. i know video cards run way out of spec on that.. i know theres a fix somewhere but would it be worth a shot trying that?

[Cosmo]

Originally posted by a1cnolan
most of the people experiencing problems with the gainward card in this forum are people with epox boards

Well the second card I rec'd I also tried on Asus & Abit m/boards, with similiar depressing results :(

O'Ced/out of spec PCI/AGP bus speeds don't help, but with the Gainward it was definitely a card/mem fault. IE was a genuine/consistant way of showing the faults.

On my Epox, a 166 FSB results in an in spec (66 AGP) bus speed, & this was immediately problematic straight from the box.

It's the mem chips fitted to the 64mb boards that's the cause, or a design flaw with the men voltage etc...

My advice - steer clear of Gainward GF4 Ti4200 64 mb cards until they are problem free. Get an MSI for great performance/o'cing ability.

[elBogg]

just figured i'd add my 2 cents . . . i've got a gainward golden sample ti4200 128mb version . . . works fine . . . no pink, and the cooler is . . . large . . .

[Sepul[P]hreak]

It´s good at least some people seem to be free of those PSOD's. I really don´t know what to think of my Gainward Ti4200 cards. The other is still working fine, while the other can´t run a full set of tests in 3dmark. So, I installed 250g 6cmx6cm hsf on it, and it still crashes. I spent 120 quids on this card, can´t overclock, and won´t run games @ default setting, and who knows when it will finally die. How depressing :rolleyes:

[elBogg]

bummers, dude . . . welcome to the forums, though!!!

[gingo]

I dont get pink screens with my 128mb version but when I run 3DMark sometimes it will crash or restart my computer. Keep in mind, this is without OCing, but it happens more frequentley when I OC. I thought it happened b/c I OC'ed too much, but it happens even when I do not OC.

[a1cnolan]

do you used the enhanced mode on the cd-rom or regular gingo. if you are using the enhanced and you don't have a golden sample you can't rma it if you don't lie but if your not using enhanced or you have a golden sample and are then you can send that back without feeling bad...

[King Zielke]

I have a gainword Golden sample geforce 4 Ti4200 nd i have never had a problem with it but i just got mine in augest so would it be classed as a new card and thx for the heads up ill look into better cooling just in case

-KingZielke

[a1cnolan]

yeah i just checked my rma status and these idiots sent it to the wrong address. i updated my account before i filed the rma and made sure everything was correct and they still sent it to the wrong address.. oh man. i love newegg..i hate to see them screw up on something so simple. i go to them even though a lot of times i can get the stuff cheaper. if i wanted crappy service i would have gone to one of those random places on pricewatch

[Conan]

oh man i don't know what to say anymore, i had this problem in both asus, and in my new abit kx7333 m/b so it's not that, i didn't overclocked b4 since this card is crap for oc'ing, mainly due to bad memory modules, anyway i did try to oc' a bit, that is 280/550 and got the green/pink screen after 20 secs playing a game aswell so it can get only bad if u oc' but it's certainly not because of that... i just wished i payed like 20 more euros and buy a better Ti4200 :eh?: :( :eh?:

TO a1cnolan : man u gave me some courage but i still hasitate, have u checked Gainward website in europe?? (it sux big time) my gramma would build flash sites if she had half of the gainw. website's designers knowledge... and i live in sweden and have no idea where to look for support

[baneonrt]

Just to add another data point my Gainward Ti4200 64MB just started showing these symptoms. I purchased it back in May. The card has never been overclocked. I just ordered an Albatron Ti4200 Turbo from Newegg as a replacement and then I'm going to send the Gainward back to the manufacturer. Newegg was willing to replace it but I don't want any downtime and I figure if I send it to Gainward I stand a better chance of recieving an updated product as a replacement.

Have others had good luck with sending the faulty card back to Gainward directly?

BTW, the card seems to make it almost all the way through 3Dmark. Ends up crashing on the fish in the lake test every time. And Warcraft III crashes after less than 5 minutes of play but Age of Mythology never crashes.

Thanks

Steve

[Despotes]

Originally posted by baneonrt

Have others had good luck with sending the faulty card back to Gainward directly?

So far I've had no problems with my exchanged card from Gainward. They were very expedient.

[Mac42]

I think I fixed mine!

I had been using the 40.71 beta drivers (after that Doom3 mess I'll probably get banned for saying that), but then I noticed that 40.72 WHQL was released November 11 (or close to it), so I tried them as well as a BIOS Update from Gainward.com. Well, since then I've had no GSOD's or lockups... hopefully it will stay that way.

Note: when my video would lock I would get a Green corrupted pattern, where some others said theirs was pink. Maybe the two have different causes, but if you haven't tried this then do so before you send your card off.

[Conan]

man help me plz!! how can i see my bios version?? after selecting my product i see 2 links V16-20 Rev A and V16-21 how do i know which one i select and how do i flash the bios???

[Sepul[P]hreak]

Mac42: can you post what card you have, and what bios version you used? This might be worth trying..:p

[Despotes]

Originally posted by Conan
man help me plz!! how can i see my bios version?? after selecting my product i see 2 links V16-20 Rev A and V16-21 how do i know which one i select and how do i flash the bios???

Your vc bios can be seen at start up. It may show only briefly so be ready to hit your Pause button.
You may also find your bios version by right clicking your desktop, select Properties/Settings/Advanced/Adapter. If you have a Gainward Ti/4200 64mb your bios will start with 4.25####...

EDIT: I checked out Gainwards site and it turns out (as you probably already know) that the V16-20 Rev A and the V16-21 have the exact same bios numbers.:eh?: Even the downloads have the same designation VNKOOO2P64.exe
You're going to have to look on the card itself for either the V16-20 Rev A or the V16-21. My card has the V16-20A in the white inked stamp marking.
I'd like to know the differences between these 2 identical bios'.

[Conan]

Originally posted by Despotes


Your vc bios can be seen at start up. It may show only briefly so be ready to hit your Pause button.
You may also find your bios version by right clicking your desktop, select Properties/Settings/Advanced/Adapter. If you have a Gainward Ti/4200 64mb your bios will start with 4.25####...

EDIT: I checked out Gainwards site and it turns out (as you probably already know) that the V16-20 Rev A and the V16-21 have the exact same bios numbers.:eh?: Even the downloads have the same designation VNKOOO2P64.exe
You're going to have to look on the card itself for either the V16-20 Rev A or the V16-21. My card has the V16-20A in the white inked stamp marking.
I'd like to know the differences between these 2 identical bios'.
ok man will do that now but how do i flash the bios???

[Conan]

actually the bios that is available at gainward.com is the same that i 've got plus i still don't know where to find the V16-20 Rev A or the V16-21...
not to mention that these last 3-4 days the problem ahs got worse, i can't play some games more than 5min...

ARGHHHHH :mad: :mad: :mad: :argue: :argue:

[Mac42]

At first it showed me both of those bios files, but if I put in that big long identification number it only showed one.

I've gotten a couple GSOD's since, but now they're more the exception than the norm. Used to get them after 5 minutes in NOLF2, but now I can play an hour or 2 before seeing one, if at all.

It really does act more like a sofware thing than a manufacturing error. The problem shows up randomly despite cooling or clock speeds (just as often at 230/440 as 333/575) and shows up more often in games that take advantage of the chips more advanced features, like NOLF2 and Doom3 (edit: or so I hear). Perhaps future updates will fix the problem completely, and it might be advisable to stay away from drivers that haven't been Microsoft certified.

[Conan]

i tried to do like u did, so after giving ther card's id number i only got one download and that is the V16-20rev A,... So what?? should i flash my bios with the same version???? and how do i do it?? i don;t see any instructions

:(

[Despotes]

I really don't think flashing your bios is going to fix the problem. You need to send your card back to Gainward. Call them for an RMA number first. They shouldn't give you any problems, considering...
Also, the bios is the same. No need to flash.

[a1cnolan]

Has anyone recieved an rma from newegg?if so how recently and hae you had any problems since. i had my card for three months. it used to give me the gsod when i first got it. then i updated the drivers and it started happening but i didn't realize i had updated them wrong. by not uninstalling the first ones. anyway it went away after i fixed that problem. i was fine for months and then it came back. i couldn't get rid of it. i don't know if it was bad memory. bad driver version. i was using the 30.82's for months. i had no problems but just realized i was trying the new 41's when the problem came back. damn and i just rma'ed it. well anyway it shouldn't have caused that. Im hoping i didn't mess up and rma it on the wrong premise..id feel horrible if later on i found out it was a software issue. anyway thats about it

[a1cnolan]

okay i am comparing a picture of my new 4200 from gainward which i got from newegg due to the last pos. anyway. looks like a whole new card. the ramsinks now cover the ram entirely. not only that the ones on the bottom are huge. the same old fan heasink though. this is one heavy video card. id say about 50 percent heavier.

not only that it appears as though there are a couple more transformers on the card. and there are other things that don't seem to match up. so im hoping these new changes will be the answer to my prayers.

the new ramsinks got rid of the squared up sinks next to the hs/fan and got some huge stair case looking ones. i just touched ones that cover the ram that are on the opposite of the gpu are actually getting warm. the old ones didn't for me.. i haven't tried the enhanced mode but i will and give results. i ran 3dmark it gave me 10498 out the box. thats over a thousand better than the last one. i dunno what that means. probably nothing but hey its nice to break 10000 w/o tweaking and clocking

[radadman]

Originally posted by a1cnolan
okay i am comparing a picture of my new 4200 from gainward which i got from newegg due to the last pos. anyway. looks like a whole new card. the ramsinks now cover the ram entirely. not only that the ones on the bottom are huge. the same old fan heasink though. this is one heavy video card. id say about 50 percent heavier.

not only that it appears as though there are a couple more transformers on the card. and there are other things that don't seem to match up. so im hoping these new changes will be the answer to my prayers.

the new ramsinks got rid of the squared up sinks next to the hs/fan and got some huge stair case looking ones. i just touched ones that cover the ram that are on the opposite of the gpu are actually getting warm. the old ones didn't for me.. i haven't tried the enhanced mode but i will and give results. i ran 3dmark it gave me 10498 out the box. thats over a thousand better than the last one. i dunno what that means. probably nothing but hey its nice to break 10000 w/o tweaking and clocking

Like I said it is the ram causing everyones problems. In three weeks since I epoxied the ramsinks not one crash/psod yet!

[Conan]

ok i just rma'd my card to the shop where i got it from... i just hope they will replace it, since if they try to test it, they might not find anything....

PS: i am using an STB velocity 128 which is EXTREMELY hard to find drivers for XP

[Coxjeet]

Well I was gonna get this "GAINWARD/CARDEXPERT GeForce 4 Ti 4200, 4ns, 128MB DDR, Power Pack Golden"

But after reading this thread, it's making me wondering should I choose a different brand? Also thanks for this thread so people like me know what is going on.

[elBogg]

don't worry about that card, coxjeet, the problems people are having are with the 64mb version of the card . . . i have that card that you're going to get, also, and it's working fine for me . . .

[Conan]

Still waiting for answer, and playing championship manager, the only game that my current card (nvidia riva 128 4megs), which i got from a friend, is capable of.....

[Conan]

i just called the shop asking about my card and said that i will get the new one in a couple of days! yea:D yeah:D !!, which one will i get guys??:D

[rbux]

"don't worry about that card, coxjeet, the problems people are having are with the 64mb version of the card "

Sorry to rain on your parade ElBogg, by my Gainward 128MB Ti4200 purchased in July from Newegg, "went checkerboard" after 4 months. Don't know how long you have had yours, but trust me, the problem is with the 128MB version too.

Athlon XP 1800+ (no o/c)
Abit KR7A-133 RAID (5B bios)
2X 256MB Corsair PC2400
Gainward GeForce 4 Ti4200 128MB
2 40GB IBM Deskstar GXP120 RAID 0
Creative Labs Audigy2
Pioneer16x DVD
Plextor 12x10x32A
300w Sparkle AMD apporved PS
Windows XP Pro SP1

[Len]

I bought a Gainward Ti4200 64MB from Newegg back in May. I just recently RMA'd it directly to Gainward and I'm happy to say that the new card has been rock solid for the past couple weeks. When I first got the new card I put it through over 36 hours of varying non-stop 3D tests and it didn't crash once. It's a strong overclocker too hitting 315 core (max the coolbits slider will go) and 570 mem before artifacts start to appear. Btw, it DOES have the same Etrontech 3.5ns memory that the old card had and neither card had ramsinks. The new card has a new bigger heatsink and possibly a couple of different capacitors. Those are the only differences I can see.

[svenrune]

I have no problems with my 128 GoldenSample
and i hope i don't get any

[mattTheMan]

I just got my new card back after shipping it to Gainward in CA. It is a completely new card, and so far it's working great.

[MDA]

Sorry to rain on your parade ElBogg, by my Gainward 128MB Ti4200 purchased in July from Newegg, "went checkerboard" after 4 months. Don't know how long you have had yours, but trust me, the problem is with the 128MB version too.

That's the first 128mb Gainward card I've heard thats gone wrong......bad luck dude:(

At the moment my Gainward 650xp golden sample 128mb is clocked @ 325/585 (no ramsinks) NO PROBLEMS = 13145 3dmarks:)

MDA.

[heezer7]

well i shipped my card out last week to gainward and it got there. never recievd an email or anything. will i?

[kidnice]

I purchased a gw ti4200 128 from newegg a week ago, should I be worried about this problem on my new card?

[repo man11]

Originally posted by kidnice
I purchased a gw ti4200 128 from newegg a week ago, should I be worried about this problem on my new card?
Probably not, but if you do get a pink screen, back off your OC, and check in to better cooling. I'm beginning to think that with these cards, and 40 series drivers, you may not get a lock up to warn you that your core speed/temp is too high. The only warning you get is the pink screen. Ignore it and the card dies.

[mattTheMan]

Sorry to disagree with repo man11, but don't get new cooling. Cooling isn't the problem. I bought the most exspensive fan/hs for my messed up card and it did absolutely nothing to fix the problem. The problem is with the cards themselves, not heat problems. I've seen newer versions of the gainward g4 ti4200 as well as my broken old one, and the cards are made different. The card that gainward sent me as a replacement is the same as one of the newer cards I bought, and it works great. So as long as you're getting a newer card, you'll be okay.
And one more time, the problem is NOT cooling.

[mattTheMan]

Double post

[repo man11]

I'm basing that off of the way my replacement from Newegg has behaved. Since I received the new card (which looks identical to the original) I've had two green screens. I noticed my +5 was low (these GF4's suck more juice than a GF2), so I backed down the main OC, which brought the voltage up a little. No more green screens. I finally gave in to the temptation, and OC'd it a little. No problem at 270 core for a long time (days), but I finally got a pink screen after playing Jane's WWII for quite a while. That made me nervous, so I lapped the cheapy HS, and used ASIII. I noticed when I pulled the HS off the the white thermal compound was baked on, the way I have seen it get when it has been getting really cooked. And I backed the core down to 262. That was several days ago, and after running Jane's 3 Mark test and demo many times, it hasn't repeated a PSOD.
That got me thinking to my first one. I was looking for a hard lock to tell me when the core speed was too high. I never got one, but I did get the PSOD repeatedly. But I didn't back off the OC or do anything about the cooling, because I thought it was something else. But if that was a symptom of overheating, I just ignored it until it fried itself.
The stock HS on mine needed quite a bit of work to get it flat. I'm considering using a stock socket A HSF with Artic Alumina.

[hydrata]

thank goodness, i have one of these cards and get the checkerboard pattern, mainly only in warcraft 3....but it's nice to know i'm not alone. i e-mailed gainward and they gave me an RMA# back through e-mail. took about a day to reply,not bad. i'll be returning mine as soon as i get back home from school.

[Ash2Dust]

I originally posted this message at AMDMB:
http://www.amdforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=166031&perpage=15&highlight=gainward%204200&pagenumber=20

and figured others here have been pulling their hair out like me over their Gainward 4200.

Hi people adding me 2 cents,

I just picked up my 2nd RMA Gainward 4200 64MB card and it *appears* to work after I "fixed" it.

My first video card lasted 6 weeks before checkerboard death in 3d games. About 2 more weeks before checkerboard death while browsing with IE 6.
My second card lasted 2 days before checkerboard death in 3d and IE 6.

Like many other people, I tried different MB bios revs, clean install of Win ME and Win 2000. Different Via chipset drivers, different Nvidia detonator drivers. Official drivers on Gainward page. Safe, optimal and individual tweaking of bios settings. Pentium 450 machine and AMD 1GHz machine. Antec true 330 psu. The only thing that made the problem less was lowering the memory down to 450. The only thing that made the problem go away was to remove the gainward card. Temperature didnt seem to affect me. Just to mess with my head, the card would sometimes behave for a day.

Getting an RMA # is easy from Gainward, getting a working replacement from them is another story. I recommend to anyone who has the capability to return their card and get their money back to do so now.

When I called to get my second RMA #, I was told that if I had a previous RMA #, they would pretest the replacement card. Of course, I couldnt find my old RMA#. I should have asked if they test their replacement cards.

On this second trip back to Fremont, I was waiting at their front desk for someone to appear and help me when I took note of two stacks of various video cards, desoldering tools, soldering iron, destroyed parts and new parts. I didnt get a good look of all the parts involved but I did note that my video card had a bunch of silver metal canister parts on the top right with black ink. From what I could see, they were removing (at the front desk mind you) two metal canistor resistors(?) and replacing them with green inked ones marked "26 470 3E". There may have been other parts reworked but those were the only ones obvious.

I also noted 3 different heatsinks. What I call the original small donut heatsink, a bigger donut heatsink, and what I call the final spiral heatsink. My experience has only been with the small donut, and the last 2 being the spiral fins.

What really irks me is they didnt have any ESD control at all. I've worked with designing and debugging hardware and have seen first hand what static can do to a part. From intermittant failures that come and go to outright failures. The desk was a standard office desk and there was no signs of ESD wristbands.

When I returned home with my 2nd RMA video card and plugged the card in, the red in RBG wasnt working. To keep it short, I got out my ohmmeter and trace the problem down to a short on a filtering SMT ceramic capacitor. Without a schematic mind you. I resoldered the capacitor and the card now is able to display red. It appears to work fine now.

I am left with these impressions and opinions of Gainward:

1) They dont test their 'fixed' cards.
2) The special silver anti-static bags and yellow 'Caution Do not open or handle except at a static-free workstation' sticker is for cosmetic purposes only.
3) I'm better off not wasting my time (many, many, many hours) troubleshooting Gainward products in the future.

[Akumu X]

Heh those crazy *******s at newegg. I sent my old overheating Gainward 'Pinky' GF4 Ti4200 and they kept the thing and gave me my money back. ^_^ (BTW this was 6 months after I bought the thing) god bless'm

(got my friend a Pine GF4 with that money)

[heezer7]

wait so if i mailed gainward a card over a week ago it will take a very long timeto get back. grr i leave for christmas break in a 1.5 week. this could be a problem! i am going to call them now.

[heezer7]

well called only to find out it was in my dorm's office. looks a nit different. my different cap and ram sinks. chip HS looks the same but maybe not. runs ok so far. we'll see though. might be my first and last gainward purchase.

[*Negative*]

I just called gainward. They gave me an RMA with little trouble, although they wanted me to return it to the vendor... had to explain CompUSA doesn't do that after 2 weeks. I just shipped it UPS ground, so I probably won't see my replacement untill after New Year's, have to make due with my GF2 :(

[hydrata]

i was looking around newegg today and i didn't see the gainward ti4200 64 mb card on ther anymore...the one w/ 3.5 ns ram and with VGA out only. hopefully newegg pulled that product, cause its' the one i have, and i get those screens of death all the time!

[The VTech]

Gainward = junk since day one.

Nuff said.

PNY, MSI, ASUS, XFX and Abit all make a much better version of a GF4 anyway.

[TheCor4D]

I have had my Gainward for about 2months now, but the other day, i noticed way more heat coming from it than normal, it made my system type just 3C. Not really sure why... I have been running my system for 4days 24/7 full load (F@H) and it stayed constant 45C (XP 1900+ 1.6@1.7), then i turned it off, and when i turned it back on about an hour later, i watched the temp start to jump pretty high after about 20mins. Right now it is at 49-50C... Maybe it is something else, but i feel a lot more heat coming off the card. Should i put ram sinks and a new gpu and hs on it? If so, what should i upgrade it to? Thanks

[The VTech]

Originally posted by TheCor4D
Should i put ram sinks and a new gpu and hs on it? If so, what should i upgrade it to? Thanks


Upgrade to something like this. It's a much better card.
GF4 64mb Ti 4200 or higher

http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp?image=14-127-071-03.JPG/14-127-071-04.JPG/14-127-071-05.JPG/14-127-071-02.JPG

[Falcon-K]

i have that card and have never ever had a problem with it...no pink no green no freezing when overclocking. i got lucky it seems :)

[hondaboy]

I am on my 2nd Gainward card from newegg. The 2nd one is worse than the 1st. The 2nd one has the ramsinks and a bigger heatsink over the gpu. My first one didn't even have the ramsinks. The only thing peformance wise that changed is my screens whet from pink with the first card to yellow and green with the second. I'm gonna call newegg and see if I can get something other than Gainward. Never will I buy a Gainward again.


update: they just said I am no longer qualify for a refund or exchange. They issued me another rma number right away though. What do I do? I am almost sure the next card is gonna do the exact same thing.

[prettycoolguy47]

Well let me join this ever growing list of peole with probs with this vid card. Bought a 4200 used off of ebay and "yes" I have the PSOD prob. Got towards the end of running 3dmark2001, then probs rebooting.

[hydrata]

so gainward hasn't fixed the problem yet? if i send them my card back i'm just going to end up with a replacement that does the exact same thing?

[spazzkid]

been stressing this card a few hours now. not a single hiccup :D oh btw, it comes with ram sinks all over and a stair-like mem sink below. i hope this is a new revision of the card.

[Flashfx2]

I have this same problem too, i was just going to post this problem here too. Got mine from newegg about 2 months back. Anyway, does this PSOD eventually lead to a completely nonworking card or is it just really annoying?

[cack01]

really really annoying, and sometimes it becomes more frequent.

[ondaedg]

It is annoying as hell. Mine would also lock up in war3. Thing is, it wouldn't lock up in the game, but in battle.net . Makes little sense to me. I had two, neither were overclocked and they both PSOd constantly. I sent em both back and just got a refund.

[dunhamjr]

So I have read that some people are saying the bad card (giving up psod or gsod, or the older cards) are possibly a different configuration than the new cards.

Does anyone happen to have pics of these cards, old and new... non-working and working version so that we might be able to compare the different in hsf, capacitors, transformers and/or other components?

My biggest reason is that I also just bought this card and would like to know which "version" I have.

Any pics people (preferably showing the whole landscape of the card)???

[spazzkid]

for the first time, i had a green checkerd screen then a hard lock while playing DVDs, but went away though after a reboot. are these one of the symptoms of a bad card? heck, this is just 1 week old! i thought i got away with it :mad:

it just did it the first time, do u think its enough to reason to RMA this card?

[Flashfx2]

yes spazz you have a bad card. I heard that these cards are part of a bad batch. I got e-mails from newegg.com and gainward both telling me they have new, undefected cards that you can get if you RMA your card. I will be returning mine this thursday. Hopefully I will get a working card. Playing battlefield 1942 just isn't the same on my geforce 2 gts.

[spazzkid]

im going to exchange this card for a leadtek. just talked to my friendly pc shop the other day. but i wud miss the red pcb :(

[TheWiz]

This isn't just a "Gainward" issue anymore fellas.

I just recieved a NEW Abit Siluro gf4 ti4200 OTES for Christmas. Installed the card and immediatly ran a default bench of 3dmark2k1. I also played ut2k3 for about 20 minutes. After,While browsing the web I got a PSOD.

I was shocked to say the least. No overclocking and running in a watercooled comp with ambient temps of 26c.

The first PSOD was within the first 2 hours of use..and it has happened randomly for the next few hours. I REALLY hope Newegg will exchange this card for a new one OR refund my relatives money. I was aware of this issue and thats the exact reason I decided to go with a "Abit" vs "Gainward" card.

I hope a this sheds some light as the problem is more widespread than as previously thought. It's no longer a single brand or company.

Sad on xmas
TheWiz

[FrizzleFried]

Welp folks. I read this thread about 3 weeks ago. I said at the time "Lucky me...no problems here."....and about a week later (2 weeks ago) I get the green and pink checkerboard....complete lockup and sound distortion comming through the speaker.

After 2 weeks of hell....I have discovered that the problem only happens during CERTAIN programs. For example. I write music and use both COOL EDIT 2000 and SOUND FORGE sound tools. I can guarantee a lockup with in 5 minutes with COOL EDIT. Guaranteed! Sound Forge ...not an issue at all. I have used it for over 2 hours with no issues. Bottom line...it is apparent to me that certain programs bring the problem out. Some are D3D games...some are non-games at all...so it is obviously not a stress issue. What it sounds like to me is...well...do you all remember the little problems with the bad capacitors that ABIT (and others) were using from Taiwan a few months back? What do you guys think about the possibility that the capacitors used on the gainward card were made from these sub-par capacitors? The story then was that many many were sold and that not all of em went to Abit or other motherboard makers. Perhaps this is related?

[eRacer]

Looks like I'm stuck with a defective refurbished 64MB Gainward Ti4200 from newegg.com. I bought it 11/22/02 for $85. I had no problems the first two weeks, then got my first PSOD and has happened a total of three times so far. Too late to send it back now. :mad:

So far it has happened only when using IE6, and has never happened when gaming.

[busaganashi]

Well I don't know if this is the same thing but my Gainward 4600 Golden sample took a dive after about 8 months. I sent it back to Gainward for an RMA and they sent me another. I put it in and that very same day it started to act up and it died.

Ok...I sent it back and got another. Put it in and it died about one hour later :) I sent that one back and got another.

This one seems to work, but I wonder for how long. I thought it was funny while i was doing the RMA's the tech guy was so eager to send me a new card he didn't even want to listen to what the problem was.

I think this is my last Gainward card for awhile. However, my friend just bought a Gainward 4200 128mb 8x card from Newegg.

I hope it's not a bad one...

[dunhamjr]

got my gainward gf4 ti4200 from newegg just before i found this thread, but its installed now and i havent had any issues yet.

i havent upgraded drivers beyond the shipping drivers.
i havent overclocked it yet.

i ran 3dmark2001 in a loop for about an hour no issues.
hope this card lasts.

[*Negative*]

I just got my replacement from gainward. For the first time, it completed 3dmark. It used to always psod at the nature test or the last one with the fish swimming around. Been running for a few hours with no problems.

[hondaboy]

I hate this card. A minute ago, I clicked on the link to go to this thread and the stupid card went checkerboard. Kind of ironic. It was good for almost a week then it probably locks up 3-4 times a day. I don't even know if it is worth sending back. I'm on my 2nd one and the 3rd will probably do the same thing again. This one even has the ram sinks, my 1st one didn't.

[Avatar28]

My friend gave me his 64 meg ti4200 card tonight. He'd replaced it with a Radeon 9700, so he gave it to me to use for awhile. Plus he wanted to see if I had the same problems he did. Tried overclocking the card at first, almost instant PSOD lockup when I hit something in 3d. Backed it off, got a little further before it locked up. Backed the core off to stock and the memory to slightly o/c. Still freaks out, but got further. Finally returned it to stock settings and it worked for a couple of minutes in SOF2 before crapping. On a hunch, I tried underclocking my RAM. After doing that, I was able to play longer, but it eventually still freaked out on me.

Oh, and I'll note that a few times it was a purple screen of death, not pink. But mostly was pink. After looking at all this, looks like we'll be RMAing it.

[FrizzleFried]

Well there is a HUGE (and when I mean huge, I mean 550+ messages and over 17,000 reads) thread over at AMDMB.COM regarding this issue. Some people have gotten 3 RMAed cards back that were bad. One guy recently (as of this morning) too his entire stock (26 cards) of Gainward cards and tested them and 25 of the 26 were PSOD bad and 1 completely died with a blown capacitor! These are DEFECTIVE CARDS and not just some of them, it is looking like MOST or ALL of them at least have the potential to die. I would HIGHLY recommend you all read the thread (take a drink, it takes hours to read through) at AMDMB.COM ...it is in the VIDEO CARDS forum and you can't miss the 17,000+ readers indicator.

I for one am waiting on my RMA....and if I get a bad card, I will be filing a case with small claims court (its gotten to that point)....I also recommend that everyone email NVIDIA regarding this issue....

FrizzleFried

[repo man11]

My replacement card is on its way out. It just gave me a random GSOD while web surfing. These have been getting more frequent. I can only hope that if I do get a replacement card from Gainward, that they have finally solved the issue.

[Element-Xero]

Hmmm....I'm interested as to when the area of time was that the majority of these cards were purchased. I bought one about 4-5 months ago from newegg (64mb). I think the ram was 3.2ns, but I may be wrong, covered the chips long ago forever with AA. Now, I HAVE definately seen that screen, but only once or twice in the entire length of time that I've owned the card. I only remember that error specifically because of the now-famous psychedelic checkerboard. It's not overclocked, however, due to my lack of balls after my h20 killed my old gfx card. I hope it comes out okay, cuz I'm sure I voided my warrenty with the installation of ramsinks on the front and back. Just thought I'd throw it out there that some of these cards are, in fact, okay. Even still, I don't think I'll ever buy Gainward again. That means alot considering I have bought 6 Gainward cards over the years. They have lost a loyal customer.

[Drufus22]

I had this problem with a ti4200 from gainward. I rma'ed it and got one back with noticibly higher quality ramsinks as well as a GPU sinkfan. Since getting it back I have been cautious for the most part but I have gotted no further PSOD's (been about 3 months now) and i can oc it to 305/610 stable without psods. I only leave it overclocked forr 3d mark though as Im still terrified that I will see another PSOD.

--Drew

[Avatar28]

Okay, well I talked to the guy in the RMA dept. He seemed surprised that people were getting dead cards back. He wanted to know my sources, so I sent him here and to the thread at amdmb.com too.

I overnighted the card to them this evening, so they should have it in the morning sometime. I also included a letter with it describing the issue, telling them that it seems to be common and that they REALLY need to do something about it. To be thorough, I ALSO overnighted a copy of the letter to the office of the CEO. Or at least that's what I put on there. Hopefully it will get to the appropriate parties.

You're probably wondering why I spent the money for overnight. Total bill for two overnight packages: $9.76. :-) I get a GREAT discount because they let us use my employer's acct number for the rates (still have to prepay it though).

[Samoyed]

I got a 4200 in August of 2002. It's the 64 meg version. It had no ram sinks and a light, circular HSF. I was able to OC this cards core to 300 and the memory to 560. Once in a while I would come back to the computer after it was idle for a while and see a screen of "static" but no PSOD.

I never noticed the ram getting hot at all on this card.

I installed the Copper Thermaltake HSF and ramsinks that I got at COMP USA for 13 bucks. Now the core seems stable @ 315 but the ram is still at 560. The ram is 3.4ns, stock speed of 513mhz.

So far no PSOD.

[Ash2Dust]

Static may be what a couple of us at ambmb are calling misting. It get worse and more frequent. It loves to happen when you scroll up or down in IE6.

[Arghuin]

i ran 3dmark2001 in a loop for about an hour no issues.
hope this card lasts.


I have had my Ti4200 (gainward) for 7 months now (probably too late to ask for a refund).....and in the past 1 months I got 2 PSODs in IE6 (not in games tho...yet) :mad:

Being in the UK, I'll either send the card directly in Gainward Germany or to the place I bought it from (whichever turns out to be faster :( )

If all else fails, next card will be ATI :rolleyes:

[Cyclone187]

I had the GF4 Ti4200 64mb VGA only model. I paid $159 for it back in May and just RMA'd it the other day to Newegg for the pink checkboard of death. I noticed that Newegg doesnt carry it anymore and higherend Gainward ti4200's are cheaper. Would Newegg replace it with one of those or what? That'd be nice if I could get a new twin-view videout ti4200. Also, would it be possible to have them give me a card by a different company? I've never RMA'd anything so I don't know how this works really.
I'm hoping that they will RMA my card with something of the same price value that I paid for mine.

[Cyclone187]

Originally posted by Conan

PS: i am using an STB velocity 128 which is EXTREMELY hard to find drivers for XP

I had one of those cards. I remember playing the Quake 3 Beta's with it :)

[Cupe|ix]

I'm running my GF4 TI 4400 on my Asus A7N266 with 1800+ Tbred and 384MB DDR RAM.

Sometimes, in Windows (XP), I will see an off-colored checkered pattern all over the screen. If I restart, it seems to go away (looking in the BIOS screen, there's no color distortions.

I'm almost done downloading the SP1 update for Windows...maybe that will help. I'm also using the latest drivers from Nvidia.


Is this a symptom of overheating? It does it sometimes even when I play games. Yet sometimes even while doing graphic intensive stuff, this doesn't happen.

Due to the combination of case and motherboard design, the HSF is right under the power supply, and so is part of the GF4.

All the sides of the case are cold to the touch, but on the top, close to where the proc is, feels pretty warm. Was thinking about putting a fan there, but I don't want my case noiser than it is now.

If changing drivers and SP1 won't help, I have an older (and hopefully less cramped) case to try out.

[Titan386]

Well, from my experience with this card, it seems the PSODs are completely a hardware issue. I've had them while just browsing the net or chatting on both windows and linux. Its happened in MOH:AA or BF1942 on windows, and in UT2k3 in linux. It does seem, however, that they fail more often during gaming and such, where a load is being placed on the GPU.

[Evnas]

Originally posted by Titan386
Well, from my experience with this card, it seems the PSODs are completely a hardware issue. I've had them while just browsing the net or chatting on both windows and linux. Its happened in MOH:AA or BF1942 on windows, and in UT2k3 in linux. It does seem, however, that they fail more often during gaming and such, where a load is being placed on the GPU.

Ur right, it is a hardware issue. Faulty capacitors if i remember right.

[Carnil]

Does anyone have a photo of the Pink Screen of Death problem? My computer has crashed twice recently where the screen has been filled with garbage in a vaguely checkerboard pattern, and I want to know if this is what I'm seeing.

[Avatar28]

go find the discussion in the AMDMB forums. They've got pics there. For what it's worth, I got the card back and it's worked fine since. Although I DID knock off those two changed capacators by accident trying to unplug my hard drive. They weren't soldered on especially well, so I remedied that too (and still managed to knock one of them back off, Grr).

[stockwiz]

so glad I found this thread... now I might be able to get my money's worth out of this card after all... i had just about forgotten about it when I saw this, now if I get a good one back I can sell it on ebay and make some money back.

thread (http://www.amdforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=166031 )

[TheCor4D]

Well i started getting PSODs so i think i am going to have to RMA my card. I was reading the forum, and i saw something that was exatly my case. I just put a fan pretty much right infront of the card, really close to the caps, and now they are running MUCH cooler, and that is when i started to get the pink screens... Does anyone know if there is a way to have them ship the card, then i ship mine back? RIght now im in college, and i cant be with out my comptuer (homework reasons...)

[Ash2Dust]

Sorry, Gainward only claims excellent customer service. They dont practice it. You'll be without the card 2-4 weeks. And you may or may not get a working card back. Read up on the AMDMB thread.

At least AMDMB forum members have twisted their arm into paying shipping both ways and providing a 1-800 number.

[TheCor4D]

yeah i know, now i have to go out and buy a cheap card from best buy so that i can send mine away. I really do like the card, and i like the red pcb (matches my mobo). The card never used to give me problems, i just put a fan right infront of the card (blowing down the card, not on the side) and they started happening. I will give them the benefit of the doubt, i will give them 2 chances, if i have to ship my card more than twice, i wont go with them anymore, but i really do like the card that they make...

[ryangs]

My Ti4400 (128MB GS TV) went bad last week after nearly a year's worth of use. It started the green/purple static "misting" in Windows. I sent the card in last week and called the RMA department today. They'd recieved my card that day, but the RMA techie said that they didn't have any Ti4400's in stock they could send me. So, they're sending me a Ti4800 (128MB GS TV) instead. :)

[Modmonger]

Dang it

Just purchased my Gainward Ti-4200 650XP 128MB

I know I'll get a bad one. It's just my luck. I'll let everyone know what happens...

Ordered from googlegear.com

[Falcon-K]

mine started to bug out now...i put on a copper vantec cooling fan and see if that helps any :(

[cjl64]

well i see i am not the only one with this problem.... all this time i thought it was my fault. I called 800/539-2273 because this is the number for info on how to return the card. I live in the USA so i think i need to ship the card to the address in California in the contact us portion of the gainward webpage. I wrote them an e-mail but they are really bad about writing back... the guy that i talked to in the number above did not talk with very good english and told me to keep the manual and driver cd but send just the card... the only thing i am not sure of i where exactly to ship the card to... if anyone knows that would be great. I really want to get a replacment because my gaming life is really crappy now.

[dnycompbuilder]

hehe forget the gainward get an albatron 4800 under 200$ and the cooling is fantastic 342/742 no artifacts from stock 297/650

[dnycompbuilder]

hehe forget the gainward get an albatron 4800 under 200$ and the cooling is fantastic 342/742 no artifacts from stock 297/650

[Kronarq]

I have had my ti4200 64mb for about a month now with no problems so far (knock on wood) but i havent done ne serious oc'ing i have access to CNC milling equipment so after i make my new waterblock i will try my hand at designing a h2o setup for this card. Ne one out there that have this card /w a h2o setup? i'd like to see what ur running at

[Hawky]

gainward aren't good cards, leadtek/visiontek simply owns for the cooling.

[Paul -The Mad Hatter]

I seem to be one more person with the problem. I bought the card in early July 2002. It was good and stable until recently and I have pinpointed it to being the card which is giving me the checkered pattern or whatever we're calling it. Descriptions people have given are exactly the same for me. I never oc'ed the card so that may be why mine lasted longer. I remember I actually got this a few times with my 8k7a mobo but not until now with my 8k5a, I had actually forgotten about it, I thought it was the motherboard. Anyways I sent an email to gainward yesterday, waiting a reply (or should I call them?). There's not much point in rmaing to newegg since they don't carry the card anymore (don't blame em) Unless I could exchange it for a different card, after all I’ve made 8-9 orders from them, I’m a loyal customer :D

Fremonts only a few hours away so shipping it to them wouldn't be such a hassal. I'm just in a better mood now that I know this is an acknowledged problem, we'll see how this plays out :)

[svenrune]

Ok now my 650 XP GS 128MB died on me no checker boar or anything like that it just refuse to work normal,
800*600 is the only thing that works:(
I have tryed to reinstall XP i have tryed every detonator driver,
But it wont work at anything but 800*600. :(
It took over 7 mounts but now it's a bad card

[EDIT] =) i got it to work again by disable fastwrites and sideband adressing, funny that it worked with thoes things enabled until now ?

[Paul -The Mad Hatter]

well I got my rma and drove down to pick up my new card, so far no problems. Major diffrence is a larger gpu cooler but no ram sinks, I noticed the diffrent capasitators in upper right corner. I had no problems what so ever, there was no problem exchanging the card he didn't even ask for the rma #. I'll run some stabilty tests on the card and keep you updated.


So far no problems, looks like gainward fixed the problem :)

[*Negative*]

I had bought my Gainward Ti4200 at the end of last summer, and rma'd it around january for this checker problem everone's having. I thought gainward had solved the problem with a few changes, but when I got on my comp this afternoon the desktop started getting blurry and then random horizontal lines and checkered patterns all over the place. Rebooting found the same thing on the BIOS screen. That's two cards I've gotten from them and both went crazy after 6 months. Now I have to live with a GF2 for a while :mad:

[Franchize]

Just got my RMA card back. Didnt install it yet but must say I'm very satisfied with Gainward. I called and got ther rma number and had a new card within 2 weeks. Now I just hope it works.

[DOUG]

Originally posted by a1cnolan
most of the people experiencing problems with the gainward card in this forum are people with epox boards.. now ive got a question are all of the people having problems..people that overclock their fsb or is it everyone all together. maybe the card has problems handling anything over like 33mhz...i had a feeling it was a memory issue because it is such a random occurence between cards...hmm i dunno
also what about the agp latency or whatever on the card. i know video cards run way out of spec on that.. i know theres a fix somewhere but would it be worth a shot trying that?

The motherboard has nothing to do with the cards going bad. the problem is with the memory on the video card is bad. I had a Gainward ti 4200 64mb card that went bad that was a year old,(they have a 3 year warrenty from gainward). I called gainward in California and he gave me an RMA number and told me to send it to him.. I recieved a "NEW" card in about 2 weeks no question asked. They got a bad batch of ram that they use on the cards,which is not really their fault. The new card also came with heatsinks on both sides of the memory. Customer service from Gainward couldn't have been better, i plan on buying a Gainward FX5900 non ultra shortly. DOUG

[Thwack]

would they RMA a card that has had new heatsink and ramsinks on it that I installed or am I SOL on that one?

[DOUG]

Originally posted by Thwack
would they RMA a card that has had new heatsink and ramsinks on it that I installed or am I SOL on that one?

I would call them, that shouldn't make any difference because it's a memory problem. The card i sent back didn't have any heatsinks on the memory but the new one they sent me had heatsinks all over it. DOUG

[*Negative*]

Got my new card from Gainward. It's got a different HS but not Ram sinks. Layout of everything else looks the same. Hopefully this one won't die in 6 months like the others. At least gainward isn't giving any problems at all replacing them.

[Samoyed]

I had a defective 4200 and sent it back. I got a replacement that had a chrome HSF. The new card SUCKS! It freezes in BF 1942 and MOH. I cannot OC at all. The core is obviously a really bad one. I am trying to get them to send yet another card. BTW, I had ram sinks and an after market cooler on my card and I just put back the old one before sending it back.

[aka665]

got refurb 4800se fom Newegg. No problems, even overclocks a bit.

[Thwack]

Originally posted by Samoyed
BTW, I had ram sinks and an after market cooler on my card and I just put back the old one before sending it back.

i lost the pins on the stock HSF. :(

[Samoyed]

Go to any computer shop and they will probaby give u 2 of them for free.

BTW Gainward said they would send me yet another GF4 card to replace the defective replacement.

[Samoyed]

I finally got my second replacement card from Gainward. To make up for the 2 bad cards, they sent me a reconditioned 4600 to replace the 4200. It seems to work fine in 3DMark2001 and BF1942. Gainward finally made it right. It just took a while.

[Despotes]

How about a "Gainward FX 5900 cards are bad" sticky?:rolleyes:
I'm waiting for my 3rd RMA'd Gainward FX5900 non-ultra. Vertical lines during bootup and green checkerboard/freeze up issues.

[brianon]

Hi,

My 8th month old Gainward Ti4200 128mb just started giving me the PSOD :eek:

Its not always there but when I run some games it is and when I run others, its fine. But mostly in Windows its there until I run some Expert Tool color s/w and it returns to normal.

Is the card gone ? Can it be fixed or do I need to return it ? Got it from the net.

Also, what ATI card does anyone recommend, not the 'top of the range' but a ti4200 beater ?

Thanks for your time,
Brian.

[DOUG]

Gainward has a 3 year warrenty,send it back and they will send you a new one no questions asked. DOUG

[brianon]

Thanks, I'll contact Gainward.

BTW - how come I only have Pink Screen some of the time?

When I boot up windows starts fine than after a few seconds ... pink.
If I run Experttool and 'Color' it returns to normal and stays like that until I run a game which runs fine with no pionk tint ! but on returning to windows all is pink again, until I run expertool !?

Any ideas ?

If the card is broke I though I'd have pink screen all the time.

Regards.

[repo man11]

The problem has usually been intermittent.

My replacement card from Gainward has failed. It started "misting". I'd given it to a friend as a wedding present. He never overclocked it. He described the problem, and we swapped his GF2 Ti back in. No more weird artifacts.

I then tried putting it in my backup KT7A. At first It only beeped. I reinserted the card, and the POST screen was hopelessly garbled. In a way that none of the other 3 of these cards I've had has done.

Wish me luck on my third RMA.

[tom10167]

Wow thanks for the thread, my mom just got a new computer with a Gainward TI4200, so naturally I downloaded a few demos. :) NFS:U Was doing fine and then all of the sudden, about three days after gameplay, the screen would just garble up like crazy! Nothing I could do but restart, and this has occasionally happened in Windows. I'll have to convince my mom into RMA'ing the card, even though she'll blame the whole thing on me. :(

[lanman31337]

I got a free video card from a friend, of course it had to be a gainward that had problems. I just emailed them and I hope to get an RMA.

[lanman31337]

I emailed RMA@gainwardusa.com, they had an rma number for me this morning, w00000t!!!!

[theELVISCERATOR]

If you own a Gainward Ti4200 initial reports indicate that you may want to consider beefing up your cooling of the card

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

http://forums.overclockers.co.nz/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1456

http://games.globe.net.nz/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?s=3d6af2da701cffff;act=ST;f=49;t=7


I had a gainward golden sample ti4400 that card ran great and oc'd like hell

it had a vga giant silencer on it basically like the zalman both sides of the card with 2 fans..

310/670 clocks and almost 13k in 2001se on an old 1.6 p4

[theELVISCERATOR]

gainward aren't good cards, leadtek/visiontek simply owns for the cooling.


nice sig

[Quailane]

Man, my gainward ti4200 was bought 7 months ago and it has worked liked a charm.