Flaws found in 15,000+ Diamond video cards

There was a time -- back in the mid-'90s -- when Diamond Multimedia was tops in the burgeoning graphics acceleration game. Those days are apparently long gone (and look to stay that way) thanks to recent quality assurance issues affecting many of the company's 512MB Radeon HD 3800 series cards. Those manufactured between January and July of this year are said to suffer problems ranging from a complete lack of power management to plain 'ol "poor soldering." Alienware saw a 10-percent failure rate and shipped back its entire stock, canceling any further dealings with the company. For the record, Diamond doesn't actually manufacture these, acting as a reseller for GeCube, but perhaps was lax in its testing and now is perhaps being lax in its disclosure. The company has indicated that not only is there no problem with its products, its gone so far as to state that "Diamond manufactures the most reliable graphics cards in the industry and our customers' satisfaction is our first priority." Alienware would beg to differ.

[IanH @ Sep 25th 2008 12:18PM]

Good thing I stick to nVidia :3

[Waveblade @ Sep 25th 2008 12:21PM]

Unless you have the mobile version which probably are defective. ;)

One manufacturer vs. Complete defect with all cards!

I'm glad I stuck with Visiontech on my HD3850 :)

[waiownsyou @ Sep 25th 2008 12:25PM]

Wow, I'm not affected! I'm glad I stuck with [video card company] [video card model]! You suck ATI!

/retard thread

[Dirkus @ Sep 25th 2008 1:13PM]

Good think I stick with Intel GMA onboard video!

[thatrotierkid @ Sep 25th 2008 4:01PM]

@ Dirkus

http://xkcd.com/

enough said. and i have to say, i love ati and my hd4850, but goddamn the mothaf*cka is hot! still, once the fan cranks in its fine. also, diamond isnt exactly one of the top brands, at least in my opinion. asus, sapphire, visiontek over them any day

[Mikeo @ Sep 25th 2008 6:25PM]

Because 15000 defective chips is better than millions, right?

[thethirdmoose @ Sep 25th 2008 6:41PM]

Good thing I stuck with S3!

[waiownsyou @ Sep 25th 2008 12:24PM]

Leave it to ATI to try to out-do NVidia ia EVERY category.

[MoFoQ @ Sep 25th 2008 5:56PM]

Cold solder FTW!

o wait...it's FTL!

[Christian Martin @ Sep 25th 2008 12:28PM]

Kudos to Alienware for saying "Get bent" after the high failure rate.

[Forrest @ Sep 25th 2008 12:32PM]

Diamond's press release on the issue included some other choice statements:

"HD-DVD has finally toppled Blu-Ray in the HD format war."
"Coby brand MP3 players are poised to claim a majority of the North American PMP market for FY09"
"Steve Jobs is actually an animated corpse powered solely by Windows CE 5.0"
"Alienware is teh sux, mkay?"
"Pie is in fact >> cake"

I for one believe their statements about the quality of their products. Marketing never lies, right?

[CraigJ @ Sep 25th 2008 1:12PM]

Well, pie IS > cake, so maybe they are legit?

[Forrest @ Sep 25th 2008 2:38PM]

Sigh...freaking pie fanbois cluttering up the comments. Pie is just another 'me too' - a poor imitation of the glory that is cake.

Try putting some serious cream cheese icing on a pie and get back with me.

[lawyer bird @ Sep 25th 2008 4:14PM]

nope, pie >>cake

[ZeitgeistXIII @ Sep 25th 2008 12:37PM]

Alienware got put on hold for 45 minutes and had to re-install all their OS twice. Before Diamond decided to issue an RMA. All the while the tech help was insistent that thier are no problems with any of their products and thenthey told Alienware it would be 6 to 8 weeks before a credit would be issued in the meantime Alien just has to do without any comoputers they need for their business.

Oh wait that was me trying to get my Alienware fixed. Nevermind.

[Jon Doe. @ Sep 25th 2008 12:45PM]

ZeitgeistXIII is the winner of the thread. :-D

[Inane_Asylum @ Nov 17th 2008 3:29PM]

Ugh...you too? -.-

I ended up being the proud owner of a $3,200, 16 lb. brick with a shiny alien on top...but of course there's nothing *wrong* with it.

= spare parts now

[ZeitgeistXIII @ Sep 25th 2008 3:21PM]

Thanks Mr. Doe,

Insane i eventually got it fixed at by sending it to Eurocom in Canada. great people and great service I actually spoke to the guy who was workingon my computer when he called me.! Good luck

[Serial 8-Ball Mouse @ Sep 25th 2008 12:49PM]

The 3DFX Diamond Monster 3D II was the most significant video card ever made, in my opinion. What a huge turning point for PC gaming graphics, and just gaming in general. Awesome. And you could SLI those bad boys, too! I did that with a friend's card (we were kids, another $300 was out of the question). Quake II, Unreal, Carmageddon II, even Need For Speed III. Good times. =)

[Andir3.0 @ Sep 25th 2008 1:22PM]

Indeed. Those cards were amazing at the time, though it shows you how a company can fall so far.

[Christian Martin @ Sep 25th 2008 1:37PM]

I actually have a Windows 98 box at home (off-network!!) with that very card; its sole purpose is to play Carmageddon II.

[jmd @ Sep 26th 2008 12:07AM]

Oh? I would think the Pure3d cards were the premium ones of the 3dfx 1 and 2 line, they not only didn't use the reference design like everyone else but added more memory to the card.

[Serial 8-Ball Mouse @ Sep 26th 2008 9:51AM]

@jmd

Nope.

[Jackrabbix @ Sep 25th 2008 12:51PM]

I had a similar problem with Diamond a couple years back with me 1950XTX - I think they were bought out by some company that operates out of a warehouse and hires the handicapped.

I LITERALLY had to get the BBB involved, and THEN call and explain how to troubleshoot the problem with the tech on the phone before they would replace my defective card. . .

(And IanH... you're an idiot) ^_=

[dziban303 @ Sep 25th 2008 3:33PM]

People who say "literally" annoy the fucking hell out of me. Literally.

[Beastage @ Sep 25th 2008 12:51PM]

:( , Diamond just came back from the dead...

[kastonie @ Sep 25th 2008 1:11PM]

fuck i just bought one 2 days ago....
I lose....

[Brian @ Sep 25th 2008 1:48PM]

Tell me about it, I just got a 3870HD to replace my x1600 with a bad fan :-/

[thewunderbar @ Sep 25th 2008 1:24PM]

God I hope not. I have a Diamont HD 4870. No problems with it thus far.

[Ian @ Sep 25th 2008 1:30PM]

I even thought about giving them a chance last week. Glad I ponied up for a gigabyte 4850 card instead.

[Blue @ Sep 25th 2008 1:45PM]

It's funny how people are saying that ATi/AMD suck and it is their fault when it is not. GeCube is a board partner meaning it is their fault, their design fault. The problem is not within the ATi/AMD chip but the board that GeCube is putting out.

[IanH @ Sep 25th 2008 2:15PM]

Aye, but sticking to nvidia isn't saying ati sucks... the xbox 360 and Wii use ATI... I just prefer Intel/nVidia because it ends up as the leading edge and is more widely supported than AMD/ATI.

[kjb434 @ Sep 25th 2008 1:52PM]

For any ATI bashers, this is not an ATI issues. They just supplied chips. GeCube (through Diamond) actually made the cards.

[Brian @ Sep 25th 2008 1:57PM]

I wonder if they can give us a "serial numbers between xxxxxxxx and xxxxxxxxxxxxxx were affected" type statement.

[JL @ Sep 25th 2008 2:16PM]

Huh. That might explain the constant graphics driver crashes on my 3850.

[gearHD @ Sep 25th 2008 3:34PM]

Everyone loves to believe exaggerations and negativity.
Diamond Multimedia President Shows Radeon HD 3870 Resistor Fix
Following a conversation with Diamond Multimedia president Bruce Zaman, I was sent a detailed picture that shows where a Zero Ohm value resistor needs to be added to the board to resolve the problem the Alienware systems are seeing. Bruce assured Legit Reviews that only Alienware systems are impacted by this as they had a sku that was different from the retail graphics cards. Diamond Multimedia has been very open about the issue that was leaked out recently and I really like how they have handled the entire situation. Diamond knows what is causing the issues and has fixed it. If you have an Alienware system that has a Diamond Radeon HD 3870-512MB DDR4 you might want to check it and make sure it has a resistor where the arrow below it pointing. If it doesn't you should contact Alienware and get it RMA'd.
http://www.legitreviews.com/news/5206

[rick @ Sep 25th 2008 6:18PM]

You'd kind of hope - or even expect - that with the volume of business that Alienware does - at the price they (Dell) get - they'd proactively contact their affected customers.

Besides the funky cases and tuning - there should be some very high-touch customer service when you buy Alienware.

[gravy @ Sep 25th 2008 5:31PM]

I'm not surprised. DIMD was essentially torn apart years ago and someone came in and bought the brand. It's not even the same company really.