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Althon Micro 100172-64bitL Sapphire Radeon X1550 256MB 64-Bit DVI-I / TVO / VGA PCI-Express Video Card Lite - Retail | List Price: $49.00
Discount Price: $33.24
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Brand: Sapphire
Binding: Electronics
Features: - 64-bit memory interface
- Microsoft® Windows Vista¿ Ready
- Microsoft¿ DirectX¿ 9 support
- OpenGL 2.0 support
Waste of money and time [Posted on 2008-03-25]
I got this thing last week to replace a Radeon 9600. The only reason the old card was replaced was because the cooling fan on it got noisy. ATI makes its cards so that even something as small as a fan problem means replace the whole card.
I got the x1550 and loaded the drivers. Everything looked normal until I tried to play mpeg2 videos. The video froze on the first frame, but the sound kept playing normally. I spent a week updating drivers, codecs settings, etc. and it still wouldn't play mpeg2s.
I got frustrated enough to open a ticket with ATI on their web site. The only response I got from them was an automated email that suggested all the same repair procedures I had spent a week doing. I never heard from an actual human tech support rep.
I gave up and dropped some WD40 into the fan of the old one and put it back in. The new one goes back to the store, and ATI products are now persona non grata on my machine. I don't know if oiling the fan will be a permanent fix, but somehow I doubt it.
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