Another Colorgraphic Xentera GT-4 AGP update:
I sent my card under RMA to Colorgraphic. They tested it for several days, but were unable to reproduce the problem with "pubple sparklies" on monitors 3 and 4.
However, all they did was a pragmatic test of hooking up the card to monitors with the short cables that I supplied, and observing no sparklies. They did do heat and cold tests.
They never tried the long cables. While they don't claim that the card will work with long cables, it would have made sense to try them, since this will easily demonstrate the difference between outputs 1 and 2 (which work fine on the long cables) and 3 and 4 (which have trouble even with the short cables - I have to hand-select a short cable.)
Nor did they look at the waveforms. (I talked to the engineering manager, who said that you can't use an oscilloscope to look at the waveforms. But there is a specialized piece of test equipment that will let them look at them. They have one - they didn't use it.)
They initially balked at replacing the card, since I bought it from a third party. This is a pretty annoying trend I am noticing lately - manufacturers refusing to replace a card unless you bought it directly from them. If you bought through normal distribution - as most consumers do - you are a second-class citizen.
They complained about what an "accounting nightmare" this is. I countered as to what a nightmare it is to pay big bucks for a graphic card that you can't use.
However, they did eventually agree that they will replace the card, after some further tests. They have another customer who has the Samsung 213T on order (they don't have any in-house) and are going to see if this customer has the same problem.
If they have the same problem, then they will try to diagnose the problem they have talking to that particular panel.
Otherwise, they said they will replace my card.
I am experimenting with using an analog cable on channels 3 and 4. I started by putting an analog cable on 3. When I rebooted (you have to reboot to switch to analog) it switched the order of 3 and 4 (no real biggie - easily fixed by changing the order in the control panel) and now fails to identify 3 and 4 as Samsung monitors, instead saying "plug and play monitor".
I called their tech support to let them know about the reversal problem, and noted the other problem while I was on the phone.
From their response, the technician clearly didn't understand Windows color management. I couldn't get him to understand that it DOES matter what driver is used for the monitor. (So that the monitor's color profile is applied by Windows.) He suggested that I adjust the colors using the monitor control. It was a lost cause trying to explain that (at least on Samsung monitors) there ARE no color controls when using DVI.
It is becoming increasing frustrating dealing with them. |
